Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 06, 2014 8:43 pm Hello future neighbours. I thought I would start this off with anyone who is interested in putting down any information they have, thoughts or questions (Im sure there will be heaps) on building at Helena Valley Views. I am in stage 1 and have just gone through settlement (yay ) I signed up in April last year with the builder Ideal homes and have been advised my house has gone up around 10K. I am still waiting for them to come back with a price on the site works they did a PS of 40k when I signed up with them but have been told verbally it should only be about 25k, not sure if that makes me feel any better. LOL When we start building we can all exchange information, pictures, ideas etc. If anyone else out there has any information or questions please jump on board the more the merrier. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 2Sep 25, 2014 12:42 pm Hi Copper, I have only just seen this post. I am building in stage 2, we still haven't got titles but hopefully next month it should all be settled. how far along are you, is yours one of the ones with brickwork already? I've been keeping an eye on the progress, as I only live up the road anyway. Are you able to let me know how much your site costs were in the end? Our builder has put in $25k PS so when I read yours put $40 I nearly choked! Hopefully it wasn't that much! Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 3Sep 27, 2014 9:01 pm Hi Bennycat, sorry for the delay in replying, been on holidays. No just sand at moment, just signed off on final plan on Tuesday so waiting on shire now. I got an estimate from the builder on site works but could not peg him down to anything on paper, but they have said about 25k, which does not include the supply and connection from the down pipes to the storm water pit, that will cost 2100.00. which I do have in writing. I decided to go with the builder on this as I am having brick paving around the house done by them and to get another plumber in and trying to arrange with the builder before the paving is done was just not worth the hassle. I should think your titles are not to far away. Yay. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 4Sep 28, 2014 5:52 pm Yes hopefully titles should come through in the next few weeks. We got an email from our builder saying they'd received a contour survey so now had all the paperwork they needed to progress our file through to the drafters and estimators, so it's all starting to progress finally. What builder have you gone with? Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 5Sep 29, 2014 12:51 am Thats great news with the titles. I am with Ideal homes I will try and post a pic of the floor plan shortly. Who are you building with? Went to the block today quite a few houses going up around me, but I do have a water meter now yippee progress. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 7Oct 03, 2014 1:59 pm Hi Bennycat, Just realised I posted on your house, re ensuite door and power point to island bench. Like the house. As for colour schemes and pre start colours I found the west Australian and sunday times new homes section were a great help, see it, like it,cut it out and stick it on a board. You can also troll new homes take photos etc just tell the reps you are at colour selection stage and they leave you alone. I changed my stone bench top colour three times lol. Just checked on line I am at "local authority building approval". waiting, waiting, waiting....... gonna be a lot of that I think. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 8Oct 03, 2014 3:47 pm Yeah I've been saving colour ideas to a Pinterest board and looking on houzz a lot for inspiration haha. We've decided on most things, I just need to go see the tiles/cupboards/bench top places and make those decisions. We've still got a while til we can do prestart though, have to at least have the titles before then. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 9Oct 03, 2014 4:11 pm I know its hard, I thought I was prepared and ended up going back to the tile place twice, bench tops 3 times and the doors (omg) its all well and good in your head or on your "mood board" but if you don't have those choices at the suppliers your back to square 1. they also allocate about 2-3 hours for pre start but half the stuff you have to pick there and then including your electrical of where you want it all, my suggestion start now especially your electrical think about where your furniture is going plus any extra outside lights they gave me 3, 1 outside the laundry and 1 at the front and 1 to the alfresco and they give you fans in toilets and ensuite but not the main bathroom. I spent an extra 2700.00 on lights, power points and a fan. but apart from all that it was fun, but so glad that's all done now, I hope.... LOL. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 10Oct 07, 2014 11:49 am Well I went to the tile place on the weekend, I think I've decided on European ceramics, I had a pretty good idea of the colours I wanted for everything and thankfully they had stuff in the range that suited what I was after. I also deliberately didn't go and look around the showroom at all the other stuff that was not included, so that i didn;t get tempted by lovely big natural stone looking tiles that would add thousands of dollars extra to my prestart bill haha. so yes I'm happy, now just need to actually go in and do the paperwork, that's the part that scares me, I don't like to lock anything in too quickly. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 11Nov 24, 2014 10:36 pm Hi copper, Just wondering if you'd paid your site costs yet? We got our quote back from our builder today and it's $19k over what they'd put as provisional sum so we're not too happy at the moment. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 12Nov 24, 2014 11:24 pm Hi Bennycat, No nothing yet, the only thing I had was a quote for connecting all the down pipes up to the storm water drain which is $2100.00. but that's it, cant say my builder is in any hurry to get moving, had a building permit for nearly 2 months now apparently they are getting quotes and ordering materials so I should no shortly. What's the total cost there charging for site costs ? Does it include the storm water connection as well ? If its over 25k seems a bit excessive, as others were around that price. Hang in there hopefully it will get better. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 13Nov 24, 2014 11:43 pm We had $23k as the provisional sum and they've come back today and said they were expecting the footing detail to be C1 but it's actually C6 and we need a retaining wall at the front, so it's gone up by $19k. So about $42k all up. We're going to see if there's anyway we can delay settlement a little and have the $19k included in the provisional sum, and therefor mortgage rather than having to find that extra money up front. Our bank is also making us pay principal and interest from the get go so it'll be even harder to save. We also got told today we won't be getting our first home owners grant until the slab is laid. It's been a bad day financially! Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 14Nov 25, 2014 1:05 am Wow, that's huge. Why do you need a retaining wall at the front, I thought all the blocks were all level. I have principal and interest on the land loan, then interest only on the money they will pay on each section of the build until completion then it will get combined into 1 loan. Can you change lenders and get a different deal maybe interest only till completion. I am not looking forward to getting mine now, When the builder said it would be more like 25k instead of 40k as they had in the provisional sum I was already spending the 15k on something else. Good luck and let me know how it goes, I will shoot of an email to my builder and see if I can get some info out of him regards site costs. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 15Nov 25, 2014 10:34 am Hi Bennycat, by the contract it says that they can not exceed the site costs by anymore then 5% of the build costs so you can threaten them with pulling the contract if need be! With the bank charging you principal and interest from the get go it wont be on the full amount of your mortgage it will go up as the house does in installments so wont be too much of a difference. Your broker or financial advisor should have told you that the FHOG will not go through until the slab is down its the same for anyone. I have just contacted home group and told I want site costs done before we get finance and settlement because we also cant afford a 19k bill hope you find a way to get this down or in your mortgage Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 16Nov 25, 2014 11:17 am Also just spoke to my broker and she said if HGWA put in a variation with the additional costs on you can put it in your mortgage so if yoi threaten to pull the contract from them (even if your just bluffing) as they breached the contract with more then 5% increase you should be able to get them to do a variation hope this helps Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 17Nov 25, 2014 11:31 am Thanks so much emmz, that is really helpful. I will call around my builder and broker today and see what can be done. And yes I would definitely recommend getting your builder to put a high provisional sum to start with, would've been much easier if we'd had $40k in there to start. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 18Nov 25, 2014 6:08 pm We seem to be sorted. Our settlement is being extended by 4 weeks and the builder is drawing up a variation to have the extra amount put in the build price and our broker is contacting the bank to get the ok on borrowing extra, which should be no problem. *sigh of relief* So it is still $19k more expensive than first expected but at least we don't have to find it in cash by Feb/March. Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 19Nov 25, 2014 6:48 pm Understanding your pain after reading your post I went I to panic mode and spoke to the builder and asked to put a rush on things and thankfully they did they came back with our classification and its c5 so an extra 10k luckily we can put it on our mortgage but its still disheartening. Its the developers fault they havnt put enough sand down to cover the clay they took the easy way out really not happy with them they will be getting a big complaint from me and I think everyone else that incurs additional costs because of their lazyness should do the same! They knew there was clay they are just *** hats and wanted our money Re: HELENA VALLEY VIEWS - BUILDING A HOME 20Nov 25, 2014 9:22 pm So speaking to other people about this and as they gave us a s class we should be able to get some money off the developer as a false advertising type thing so make sure you complain. thanks guys! yes this is how I've exactly raised it with the builder. still awaiting response. 12 6067 We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16289 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110592 |