Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 321Jul 17, 2015 9:22 pm Congratulations Harmelb. I thought your build looked fine ... I couldn't see what you did. I'm glad that you are now excited and seem happy Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 322Jul 18, 2015 7:44 am Congrats Harmelb, sorry guys I have been so busy and out of town and also having a big battle with this stupid builder putting wrong flooring different to what is in our colour document and they are now trying to wiggle their way out of it and giving theories and stories that it was a typing error after we specifically specified and paid extra for the flooring type. So we have lodge a complaint to VCAT. I really regret building with this builder and never ever will I do it again with them and personally I will never recommend them to anyone. Already I have discourage my colleagues at work that was thinking of building with them after seeing and hearing my continuous non stop bad experience with all the issues I had and still having with them. Asper the PCI it is set for next week and I will keep you updated. Harmelb please what was the process you took regarding making the final payment . Did u get a cheque from the bank? and if you did at what point did u request for it. Also at what stage did the bank visit the site for final inspection. Pls run me through your PCI stage to final payment (handover). Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 324Jul 18, 2015 1:37 pm msangs23 Congrats Harmelb. Did you take the private building inspector for your re-inspections aswell? Thanks msangs23... No, we didn't take the private inspector for inspections... We did it ourselves ... The items such as roof battens which we couldn't verify, we asked the SS to provide us pictures after it being fixed... Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 325Jul 18, 2015 1:50 pm dran15 Congrats Harmelb, sorry guys I have been so busy and out of town and also having a big battle with this stupid builder putting wrong flooring different to what is in our colour document and they are now trying to wiggle their way out of it and giving theories and stories that it was a typing error after we specifically specified and paid extra for the flooring type. So we have lodge a complaint to VCAT. I really regret building with this builder and never ever will I do it again with them and personally I will never recommend them to anyone. Already I have discourage my colleagues at work that was thinking of building with them after seeing and hearing my continuous non stop bad experience with all the issues I had and still having with them. Asper the PCI it is set for next week and I will keep you updated. Harmelb please what was the process you took regarding making the final payment . Did u get a cheque from the bank? and if you did at what point did u request for it. Also at what stage did the bank visit the site for final inspection. Pls run me through your PCI stage to final payment (handover). Oh, it's so sad to know that you had to take the issues up to the VCAT to get it resolved... Have they replaced the tiles now? After getting the occupancy certificate , I forwarded the certificate and the final invoice to my mortgage consultant and asked him if he can make arrangements to handover the final cheque to us instead of providing it to Simonds.. After the bank received the final invoice and OP, they did the final inspection ... Then they credited the final amount into our account and imposed a lock onto it, so that we wouldn't use it for any other purpose... We then went to the bank and drew a cheque favouring Simonds for that amount... All this time after the PCI , we have been following up with the SS to get the issues fixed... Getting a perfect painting was the most challenging one... But ultimately everything was sorted out and our CRC gave us a handover date... We handed over the final cheque to them just before getting the keys in their office... Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 326Jul 18, 2015 1:55 pm TomCat Congratulations Harmelb. I thought your build looked fine ... I couldn't see what you did. I'm glad that you are now excited and seem happy We had small issues with the build, but ultimately everything was fixed ... The ride was quite smooth till the fourth stage, but the build slowed down drastically after that ... It literally took them 2 months for the final stage and handover... But yeah, the ending was happy indeed ... All the issues pointed out to them were fixed and I am 100% satisfied with the end product... Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 327Jul 18, 2015 7:02 pm Thanks Harmelb, just wanted to double check again with you since you just had your handover. Yes they changed the brickwork over the balcony door and the rest of the other issues I told you about but some are still pending. The issue with the flooring is a new development since 2 weeks. Every week I go on site, there is always one issue or error made. Am so happy for you Harmelb because your house went smoothly as your SS did a good job but couldn't say that with mine as I had lot of structural errors and we both build exactly the same harcrest. So kudos to your SS and yourself. Welldone Harmelb and enjoy your beautiful home. Send us some moving in pictures. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 328Jul 19, 2015 12:03 pm Our fence is done now... The tiler has starting the flooring...The driveway and the perimeter concreting will start tomorrow... Back fence: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Side fence: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Living area tiles: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Alfresco tile: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 329Jul 19, 2015 6:54 pm Very nice tiles Harmelb and you were very wise for doing your own flooring and driveway . I should have done the same to save me all this drama with simonds and also by doing it yourself I guess you would have save properly have of what you would have paid simonds. Well done. I am doing exactly same colorbond fence and front drop down like yours. I will send pictures of my fence, driveway and flooring once complete. I bet you will be so glad to finally move in. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 330Jul 19, 2015 6:59 pm And wow! Your backyard is huge and you could even build another double storey there . That is a proper football field. It will be amazing what you can do at the backyard. Any landscaping plan for it? Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 331Jul 21, 2015 2:39 pm dran15 Very nice tiles Harmelb and you were very wise for doing your own flooring and driveway . I should have done the same to save me all this drama with simonds and also by doing it yourself I guess you would have save properly have of what you would have paid simonds. Well done. I am doing exactly same colorbond fence and front drop down like yours. I will send pictures of my fence, driveway and flooring once complete. I bet you will be so glad to finally move in. Thanks dran... Simonds quoted us around 7.5k for ceramic tiles and now we could do it for 6k for porcelain outside... It definitely saved us a lot of money...Moreover, the Simonds tiler did a horrible job with our wet area tiling and had to redo it several times to get it perfect... So we are glad that we didn't do the ground floor tiling through Simonds...We didn't get a quote for driveway through Simonds ... So not sure if we are saving any bucks there... Did you go to national tiles and do the tile selection or did it at the Simonds gallery.. I remember that RU2014 did their tile selection at National tiles ... Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 332Jul 21, 2015 2:44 pm dran15 And wow! Your backyard is huge and you could even build another double storey there . That is a proper football field. It will be amazing what you can do at the backyard. Any landscaping plan for it? The backyard is indeed huge... We would probably divide it into 2 - one as a kids playing area and the second one for gardening and some other entertainments... Don't have a definite landscape plan yet... We would be moving in on Friday and then decide later on how to transform our backyard into a beautiful and functional one... Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 333Jul 21, 2015 7:18 pm Yes very smart future plan for the backyard. I think dividing it as u said will work better I think and your land is a flat land too, so it wouldn't cost much. Also you are right the tiler also did a poor job with mine too and I am also requesting for a better finish and I didn't go to national tiles because I didn't know that it was an option as we were not advice of that and it was all just done at the gallery and the lady that did our tiling selection was not helpful at all and she wasn't even able to give better advice or guidance and we just did it in a rush as it was getting late on that day. RU2014 was very luck to have gone to national tile and it paid off looking at his tile selection. With simonds, My carpet cat 3 for upstairs and staircase cost $7468 and ground floor timber flooring cost $7,050 and they put the wrong floor (laminate) that only cost them $4,000 and they were trying to play a fast one on us. Driveway cost $4,428 for stencil coloured patterned. I would have save over $1,000 on each if I did it myself. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 334Jul 22, 2015 8:41 am dran15 Yes very smart future plan for the backyard. I think dividing it as u said will work better I think and your land is a flat land too, so it wouldn't cost much. Also you are right the tiler also did a poor job with mine too and I am also requesting for a better finish and I didn't go to national tiles because I didn't know that it was an option as we were not advice of that and it was all just done at the gallery and the lady that did our tiling selection was not helpful at all and she wasn't even able to give better advice or guidance and we just did it in a rush as it was getting late on that day. RU2014 was very luck to have gone to national tile and it paid off looking at his tile selection. With simonds, My carpet cat 3 for upstairs and staircase cost $7468 and ground floor timber flooring cost $7,050 and they put the wrong floor (laminate) that only cost them $4,000 and they were trying to play a fast one on us. Driveway cost $4,428 for stencil coloured patterned. I would have save over $1,000 on each if I did it myself. We have category3 carpet for the first floor, staircase and ground floor living room... I guess they allow you to select from national tiles only if you are tiling the living areas and not just the wet areas alone... Do you know how many square metres your driveway is? What's up with your build now? Is everything complete and just waiting for your PCI date? Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 335Jul 22, 2015 9:04 pm My driveway, porch and pathway is approx 33m2. I went onsite this morning and the driveway is not yet done but was promised it will be done tomorrow, few paint touches and wet area tiling imperfection especially with the niches in the showers. QA is tomorrow and PCI next week Tuesday. I wanted to take pictures but too busy trying to sort out the issue with the flooring with simonds. I will take pictures on PCI date. What type architraves and skirting type did you get because we were not given an option to choose otherwise. Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 336Jul 23, 2015 1:30 pm dran15 My driveway, porch and pathway is approx 33m2. I went onsite this morning and the driveway is not yet done but was promised it will be done tomorrow, few paint touches and wet area tiling imperfection especially with the niches in the showers. QA is tomorrow and PCI next week Tuesday. I wanted to take pictures but too busy trying to sort out the issue with the flooring with simonds. I will take pictures on PCI date. What type architraves and skirting type did you get because we were not given an option to choose otherwise. Good to hear that finally you got your PCI date...please post the pictures, can't wait to see those ... We were given an option to select the architraves and skirting a, but we went with the standard ones... Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 337Jul 23, 2015 4:09 pm harmelb dran15 My driveway, porch and pathway is approx 33m2. I went onsite this morning and the driveway is not yet done but was promised it will be done tomorrow, few paint touches and wet area tiling imperfection especially with the niches in the showers. QA is tomorrow and PCI next week Tuesday. I wanted to take pictures but too busy trying to sort out the issue with the flooring with simonds. I will take pictures on PCI date. What type architraves and skirting type did you get because we were not given an option to choose otherwise. Good to hear that finally you got your PCI date...please post the pictures, can't wait to see those ... We were given an option to select the architraves and skirting, but we went with the standard ones... Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 338Jul 30, 2015 10:48 pm We had PCI on Tuesday and the inspector identified 16 defects and 4 major ones that need to be rectified before the second inspection and handover. 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 ⋅ 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 ⋅ 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 ⋅ 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 ⋅ 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 ⋅ 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 ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Our Simonds Harcrest in Melbourne 340Jul 31, 2015 8:24 am Thanks TomCat, not there yet but almost and I just pray that all defects and incomplete work are all fix by the next re inspection. One advice for those building double storey make sure that under the staircase that studs have continuous rows of noggings from the top and bottom and the staircase are boarded on bothside with stud and not hollow. Going to a display home and going under the staircase will give u a better idea of what am talking about for health and safety issue, Staircase have to be properly installed. See the error in mine that the inspector picked up which is a major defect and not according to standard rules Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 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 45561 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 9797 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 16159 |