Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 243Jun 10, 2015 10:26 pm Hey guys, I've recently had the same discussion regarding the vent mesh. I visited a few display homes and low and behold, most actually didn't have any mesh and when you shine a light in, you can see the frames and even some cables. There was one that did have a mesh for which I quizzed the SS. He mentioned the mesh is only provided for vents that can open/have a door. We may choose to add a mesh ourselves after handover as it was an argument that wasn't getting anywhere, I had/have bigger fish to fry. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 244Jun 11, 2015 7:10 am Thanks Harmelb and yes we are building in Craigieburn and thanks noisuf for your contribution. I think it just a simple case for simonds to have a vent cover that slide down so you can't see through it easily. I think simonds just goes for the cheaper options everytime. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 245Jun 13, 2015 7:14 am Hi Harmelb, please can you take a closer picture of your facade balcony showing the brickwork above and on side of your sliding door next time you are on your site please . Want to compare as a proof to what the facade should really look like. Thank u. I should go on site today and I will also be taking picture of the heat vent you requested. Thanks Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 246Jun 13, 2015 5:42 pm dran15 Hi Harmelb, please can you take a closer picture of your facade balcony showing the brickwork above and on side of your sliding door next time you are on your site please . Want to compare as a proof to what the facade should really look like. Thank u. I should go on site today and I will also be taking picture of the heat vent you requested. Thanks Here you go...photos of the balcony from different sides... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 248Jun 13, 2015 11:18 pm Thanks Harmelb for the pictures just to compare once mine is redone. Wow your house is almost finished and garage door is installed. Happy for you. Here is some pictures of my build taken today and also the vent you requested. Your windows in your vent is wider and makes the frame inside visible but mine is small. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Living area Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Kitchen area Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ensuite Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Powder room Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bathroom Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Entry Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 251Jun 15, 2015 10:50 am Ru2014 Harmelb beautiful entrance door. Same door handle as mine just different finish. Almost there Just wondering if you managed to change the position of your door handle and bring it down a bit...Mine looks a bit high as well, but not sure if they would be able to lower it now , as it might leave marks ... Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 252Jun 15, 2015 11:00 am Your powder room tiles look really good dran... So did you upgrade to glazed tiles for all the wet areas? How much extra did it cost you? Also, did you upgrade the lights above the island bench? I guess your cabinet colour is the same as ours ... Do you remember what colour it is ? So you moved the sink from the island bench to the kitchen bench? Your build is coming along great... You did an awesome job with your selections... I compared your heating vent to mine( in fact counted the holes )... It looks pretty same... I might have to try and convince my SS about the mesh... If it doesn't work , will install one after handover ... Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 253Jun 15, 2015 11:03 am Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 254Jun 15, 2015 11:13 am That really is fantastic ... I love your door and all your colours. Dran, you kitchen and wet area tiles are amazing ... very funky. Especially the lime green Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 255Jun 15, 2015 2:30 pm harmelb Ru2014 Harmelb beautiful entrance door. Same door handle as mine just different finish. Almost there Just wondering if you managed to change the position of your door handle and bring it down a bit...Mine looks a bit high as well, but not sure if they would be able to lower it now , as it might leave marks ... No they could not change the position of the handle as they said that is where Simonds position that particular handle. It is because the pad lock inside is positioned halfway inside( standard for Simonds) so that leaves the whole handle from outside higher. I did notice it but it doesnt seem awkward like before haha. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 256Jun 15, 2015 4:04 pm harmelb I have been going through many of the forums about New Homes here. Now that I am into it, thought of starting a new trail on my experiences. We have been looking at many designs through different builders, but the ones that particularly interested us from the very beginning were Simonds Avalon and Metricon Merricks. I came up with a list of all the upgrades that I wanted, and passed it on to both the builders and got quotes from them. It was initially very difficult to choose which one to go ahead with. Still we were only in the initial stages of the house. The quote that we got from Metricon was much more than what Simonds gave us and hence made up our mind to go with Simonds. By this time, we also started looking for a land which would suit our needs. After almost 6 weeks of search, managed to find a titled Lot in Forsyth Park, which ticked all our boxes and hence paid the advance for that on 16th of July 2014. The land was 546m2 (14*39). Its after visiting the Avalon display home, my husband felt that its not wide enough . As we had a lot which had a frontage of 14m, we wanted something even wider.. And that's when we started thinking about Cleo and Harcrest. The sales consultant(Al Twig) we were dealing with was very helpful. He gave us a quote for both the houses. Finally we decided to proceed with Harcrest - the most important reason was that it had a retreat along with the Master Bedroom. Since then its been a long journey.. We changed a few things in the floorplan and added an Alfresco.. We had to go back and forth on some of the items with the sales consultant and get things sorted out. Finally, we paid the advance on 4th of August. And then, after a few days, we got a call from our CRC (Crystal Stanley) , to collect out Tablet... It was exciting to get something at this stage.. The land finally got settled on the 4th of September. We had our gallery visit on the 16th of September, where the lady kept on increasing the price on some of the items, which were already reduced by our sales consultant. She said it wasn't estimated correctly, and if she didn't do it , the estimator would increase it. Even though we didn't agree to that, we thought of taking it up separately with the sales consultant. We selected all our interiors, electric items and tiles. There was an extra of almost 16k added to our total price, as part of the gallery additions. We were very happy with the electric appointment, as she (Negin Said Shakoor) sounded quite sensible and helpful. She gave genuine reasons for every increase in the price and helped us a lot in selecting the right items and upgrades. We did not upgrade anything when it came to tiling. We selected all the standard items. We were anyways planning to do the ground floor tiling outside and not go with Simonds tiling. So the only tile that we had to select were for the wet areas. We were happy with all our selections/upgrades and the only slight disappointment was the increase in the prices , that came to us a surprise for the items that were already agreed - such as carpet, windows and so on. All in all a really great experience with Simonds so far... Progress so far... Settlement of Land: 4/09/2014 Gallery Appointment: 16/09/2014 Contract Signed: 9/10/2014 Developer Approval : 31/10/2014 Building Permit and Insurances: 3/11/2014 Finance Approval: 10/2/2015 Site Start - Drains and Plumbing: 17/2/2015 Base Slab Pour: 27/2/2015 Frame Stage: 13/3/2015 Ground Floor Bricklayer: 31/3/2015 Lock Up Stage: 10/4/2014 First Floor Bricklayer: 17/4/2015 Fixing Stage: 24/4/2015 Hi. I built Marriot through Simonds in Aspire in Plumpton. Their tiling work is shocking.I am attaching some photos of the tiling work. There are inconsistent thick and thin grouting throughout. I got two niches , the cutting of the tiles had sharp edges, I got them to change those. In shower cubicals the grout is getting discolored considering my house was only finished last month. Please let me know if anyone else has the same issues with tiling works? If they do not fix I am planning to goto Consumer Affairs. Regards. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 257Jun 15, 2015 5:22 pm vix102 Hi. I built Marriot through Simonds in Aspire in Plumpton. Their tiling work is shocking.I am attaching some photos of the tiling work. There are inconsistent thick and thin grouting throughout. I got two niches , the cutting of the tiles had sharp edges, I got them to change those. In shower cubicals the grout is getting discolored considering my house was only finished last month. Please let me know if anyone else has the same issues with tiling works? If they do not fix I am planning to goto Consumer Affairs. Regards. We had a few levelling issues with the wet area tiling... But the SS is getting those fixed ... Do you have dark coloured grout? To me they had mentioned and given in writing in the contract that the dark coloured grout might get discoloured... So we selected lighter ones... But in your case it's only one month, and it's already getting discoloured, which is ridiculous ... I think you can point out all these issues in your 3 months report and see if they do anything about it , before going to consumer affairs.. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 258Jun 15, 2015 7:17 pm Thanks Guys. Harmelb I really love your brick it's so shining and bright next time I go for the Blackwood, mine looks very close but not as shining I think. Also regarding the tiles glazing I think we kinda picked an expensive one at the gallery if I can remember because the whole ideas is to have a good looking tiles in the powder room downstairs where must visitors would go and have same in the master room for me and the mrs pleasure . With the light pendant above the island bench it was an upgrade and we going to spray the the top same lemon green as the splashback because beacon lightening didn't do lemon green anymore . Yes we wanted the sink to be off the island bench so that we could have free space as a coffee/ bar kind off feel with two white high bar chairs infront. Harmelb just to ask you is simonds not going to paint or stain the timber decking and also paint the wood in front of the balcony at the bottom looking at it facing the house. They should paint it with same colour as the cladding I think. I need to ask my SS. Also just for your info, I have made them to remove the weatherboard on the balcony sliding door and replace it with brick as it is in my contract plan like yours. I had to speak to the their top manager for that as my SS has now gone deaf and not listening anymore. As all my issues are been escalated now because we are not happy with the way things are going. So any date for PCI or handover yet. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 259Jun 15, 2015 7:25 pm Harmelb I think the heat vent window in yours is slightly wider than mine looking at it again because mine u can hardly see through it unless you put your face close and then a mouse will then bite your nose. Also my vent is upstairs I do enjoy the drama:-D In his latest two videos he has started bringing security guards to site, I am waiting for the punch on to begin lol 6 45569 It's all about wireless, self install now. The cost/benefit of wired setups for the house are no longer what they used to be. Lots of wireless options. Eufy, Arlo and… 2 9798 I’m in a similar position except I’m after sliding 3 stacking doors. I am on a second-story apartment of which the balcony would not adequately fit any bi-fold or… 5 16164 |