Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 28, 2013 1:56 am Timeline of our build. Click on the light blue description to see the pictures.
6 March 13 Offer made & accepted on block 17 April 13 Block completion 3 May 13 Signed PPA & PCQ 17 May 13 Draft plans 2 June 13 Tile selections 13 June 13 Updated plans 19 June 13 Plans and contracts received 21 June 13 More tiles 25 June 13 Developer approval 30 June 13 Ocean views from block 9 July 13 Pre-start & Selections 17 July 13 Variations Received 22 July 13 Building Permit received 3 August 13 Tap! 23 August 13 Site scraped & levelled 3 September 13 Footings dug 4 September 13 Footings partially poured 5 Sept 13 SLABBED 13 Sept 13 Window frames 17 Sept 13 Bricks,shed, toilet, sand and microwave delivered 23 Sept 13 Bricks started 1 Oct 13 Garage Bricks started & Huge Door frame 8 Oct 13 More bricking Day 6 10 Oct 13 External skin finished 12 Oct 13 Limestone boundary wall 21 Oct 13 External walls finished 23 Oct 13 Internal walls 25 Oct 13 Lower floor walls finished 29 Oct 13 Roof trusses delivered 7 & 8 Nov 13 Floor Trusses 23 Nov 13 Upper storey slab 25 Nov 13 Upper storey frame started 6 Dec 13 Upper Storey Framing finished & Roof Frame 16 Dec 13 Upper storey EPS Cladding 16 Jan 14 Colorbond Part One and render 21 Jan 14 Upper storey acrylic render 4 Feb 14 More upper storey render in Domino this time 24 March 14 Finally some roof carpentry 1 April 14 More roof carpentry 3 April 14 More roof, sunset and a surprise 25 April 14 Colorbond, Aircon Ducts and swearing 1 May 14 Internal and External grey float render 20 May 14 Rain damaged ceilings 30 May 14 Cabinets delivered 4 July 14 Tiling started 9 July 14 Ground floor render 25 July 14 Tiling finished 29 July 14 HUUGE Soakwells delivered 30 July 14 Paving finished 12 August 14 Ensuite leaks and garage door 24 August 14 Roof delivery, shower screens, very poor benchtop repair and tradies p1ss 28 August 14 Balcony balustrade 3 Sept 14 Front feature render and ensuite leak 10 Sept 14 Big ensuite leaks 11 Sept 14 Ensuite leaks revealed 5 Nov 2014 Blingy pool Hi All, We're a couple of Poms about to build our first home in Oz. We've just bought an elevated block on Spyglass Hill in Secret Harbour and we were looking for a reasonably priced 2 story, with a balcony, to make the most of the Ocean view. View of the block from the street View from the back of the block. We stumbled across Ben Trager and really liked the Rokeby http://www.bentragerhomes.com.au/home/premium/27/rokeby. We've spent the last couple of weeks working with the rep to change the design to get a balcony and change the Master Suite. We've been given the green light by the bank manager and we're hoping to have provisional plans and costing done by next weekend so we can get the ball rolling. In the mean time this is what we're hoping to achieve: Original design A rough approximation of what we want Very excited to be starting on the journey and will update the thread as the build progresses. Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 2Apr 28, 2013 5:10 am welcome looking forward to seeing your house progress great idea about the balcony for those awesome views. love the house plan Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 3Apr 28, 2013 6:48 pm Plan looks great. Sunset drinks for two... Good price for two story. http://www.housebythewater.wordpress.com From blank block to new home in Mandurah, Western Australia. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65564 Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 5Apr 28, 2013 7:20 pm Thanks everyone. We have a partial Ocean view from ground level but we really wanted a 2nd story balcony to make the most of the views. We looked at several builders but none could give us the internal space required (Spyglass guidelines), good sized beds and 2nd story, rear-facing balcony for Ben Trager's price. There's going to be no charge to change the lower story around but the balcony & changes to the upper story (including additional strengthening) are going to add about $25,000, even so it seems a good price. I guess we'll see when the full costings come back. Fingers crossed! Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 6Apr 28, 2013 7:41 pm Lovely house and looks like the balcony will be an amazing place to enjoy the sunset!! Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 7Apr 29, 2013 12:03 am Great house design and great area to build in, the view will be gorgeous. We are also currently building with Ben Trager. My Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62841 Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 8Apr 29, 2013 12:18 am Hi emacleo0, We were lead to this site by doing a Google search for Ben Trager reviews and saw your thread. We've been watching your build with great interest. Your plan looks good. We've got some (slightly strange) ideas about kitchen cupboards & doors. We want to mix a couple of colours, do you think it would be possible? How has the customer service been? & has there been any progress recently? Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 9Apr 29, 2013 12:43 am Thank you, spent a long time scrutinising over our floor plan and happy with the final result. Customer service has been brilliant, the whole process has been so quick as I'm sure your experiencing. They are only a new company so will be doing everything they can to build their rep, and we are definitely benefiting from it. Kitchen sounds interesting! We added overhead cupboards, 2 x bank of 3 drawers to either side of oven, and a tray draw under the oven itself. Adding the overheads was quite expensive but well worth the extra space. We have different finishes in laminex, was only charged the upgrade cost, no extra for having different types of laminex. Bricks arrived last week, brickies started Friday. Will be updating my thread once there are some actual walls. Very excited to see the house taking shape! My Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62841 Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 10May 04, 2013 1:02 am Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 11May 04, 2013 5:44 am love the design of our house Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 12May 04, 2013 3:17 pm Hi I went to school with Ben, he's a really great guy. He comes from a long line of builders (his dad has a company too), so you're in good hands. I was just looking on his website and the Rokeby sounds like a fantastic deal (we're building atm and I wished I'd thought of Ben whilst looking at homes - but we went with a single story large Aveling home all specced up). I'll be following your post eagerly to see your house come together. You're right about new builders, they always go that extra mile whilst still trying to build their rep - so you'll def benefit from this. Good luck! Our thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64272 Purchased land August '12 Titles Jan 27 '13 Prestart - Jan '13 Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 13May 04, 2013 3:51 pm I will also be keen to watch this build. Re: Ben Trager Rokeby (Altered) on Spyglass Hill Secret Harb 14May 04, 2013 5:24 pm Woohoo! Now the fun can begin My Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62841 Re: Ben Trager Rokeby Floorplans. Nearly right! 15May 19, 2013 10:04 pm Re: Ben Trager Rokeby Floorplans. Getting annoyed. 16May 28, 2013 9:21 pm Forgive me for having a bit of a rant but More than a week ago we received the updated sketches, which were wrong in couple of areas. These were all things that had been included in the PCQ (and are quite plainly drawn on the earlier plan) then changed without explanation: The master WIR didn't have the S&R that had been included in the PCQ. The WIR had been reduced by 500mm & the Ensuite had been lengthened by that amount. Dead space anyone? Bed 4 hadn't been widened to 3.2 metres. The Front entry door had been reduced from 2340mm tall to 2040. We thought "Not a problem, change these items and all's well". We also wanted the render to be more like the brochure and the Theatre Room window to be changed to a high level "letterbox". Today, more than a week later, we got an email from the SC with an updated hand drawn sketch. The 500mm discrepancy has been remedied but none of the other areas have been addressed. Worse still, instead of making Bed 4 wider he's changed Bed 3 making the corridor too narrow and taking space away from Bed 4! What really annoyed us is the e-mail said "we've got the site survey and engineers report now, so sign the the Post PPA variation sheet as we need to get everything drawn up and moving along". This has really got my back up, suggesting that we're somehow holding things up and need to rush into accepting their mistakes. We're on the verge of telling them to stuff it and going elsewhere. [/rant] Re: Ben Trager Rokeby Floorplans. Getting annoyed. 17May 28, 2013 9:28 pm Sorry to hear your having problems!! My thought would be dot point each thing that needs fixing up and say you will only be signing once they come through fixed. If they don't do it then consider walking away. I would be making it very clear you aren't happy it wasn't sorted correctly. Why do they make these things so difficult?! Re: Ben Trager Rokeby Floorplans. Getting annoyed. 18May 28, 2013 9:36 pm fmac Sorry to hear your having problems!! My thought would be dot point each thing that needs fixing up and say you will only be signing once they come through fixed. If they don't do it then consider walking away. I would be making it very clear you aren't happy it wasn't sorted correctly. Why do they make these things so difficult?! Cheers fmac! We've done exactly what you suggest, that's what makes it more annoying. We even numbered the points that needed addressing. We've told him that he gets a signature when we get everything down in writing. We're not risking potentially $1000's because of their laziness. Re: Ben Trager Rokeby Floorplans. Getting annoyed. 19May 28, 2013 9:43 pm I'm not surprised! Seem people just seem to lack attention to detail, I've noticed it so much during this process. And from the sounds of it what you asked weren't even big or complicated things. I hope it gets sorted for you! And quickly!! Re: Ben Trager Rokeby Floorplans. Getting annoyed. 20May 29, 2013 5:56 am hope you can get your issues sorted, how painful! Depends how much direct sun it gets. Is there any shading (eaves or trees)? If the sun hits a window directly it doesn't matter too much if it's double or single… 1 12671 9 24816 Congratulations! Nice to put that to bed before christmas, now you can relax 3 7187 |