Simonds Harcrest - Adelaide Build

Well the time has come that I stop following everyone else on forum and start my own topic .......I am a blog virgin so have absolutely NO IDEA what I am doing when it comes to these things so be gentle with me and if I seem to be confused maybe offer me some computer advice!

Now this is not our first build - we built an amazing 4 bedroom, red brick sandstone fronted home in Golden Grove nearly 20 years ago - it was my dream home and I imagined being there for many many years - HOWEVER hubby gets bored easily and so our journey began......a new home (well not new new but a change of scene) every seven years!! Left that dream home for a 1970s place on a large block, then a Cape cod two storey again on a large block. This last move just about killed me and so when we pack up from this temporary home to move into our new Harcrest - it WILL be the last time!
The block we have purchased is in an established sub division and from memory we will be the first to knock down an existing home to rebuild. The block is 540sq is located within a leafy area with local park just down the road. Bus routes to the city and within walking distance (approx 10mins) to our large Westfield shopping centre.

So a little about me, us the family..... married nearly 20 years so that makes us in our 40's!! Two kids (15 and 12) and two fur kids! We have always lived in the same council area, attended schools, shopped and enjoyed the surroundings. Tea Tree Gully is north east of Adelaide approx 15kms from the city, lots of parks and many gum trees (although this time NONE on our block! )
We are looking forward to having a home similar in size to our last place but without the headache of constant maintenance (the last place was 50yrs old and there was always something to fix or maintain). We have halved the size of the block and also said goodbye to a swimming pool - too much work! We are hoping for a more relaxed lifestyle, less stress. small gardens and spending any leftover money on holidays instead of renovations!

So here goes...........
Simonds Harcrest
Hoping to knockdown and begin build March 2015
Selections completed Dec 2014 - hope to post details and pictures soon

Hope to see a few of you following me, offering suggestions and advice and become blogging friends

Great story! Yay for another Simonds build buddy. We'll probably be starting the same time as you. We finally signed our contract just before Christmas ... Hard to believe it took five months to get to there, unbelievable! Had no idea it was so hard. Looking forward to watching your build progress Pam!

Welcome Aussiepam!

Very interested to hear your build story and see it progress.

We had a really great experience with Simonds and would definitely use them again. We've heard some very average stories from our neighbours, friends and family and comparing to our last build experience - this one was really good.
Whether we were just lucky? I don't know! But we'll take it anyway!
Few little errors, but all were handled incredibly well with minimal pain.

We wish you the same smooth experience

Glad to see you started a forum so we can all follow your build.
I'm currently at lockup with simonds & loving every moment of it.
Looking forward to following your adventure.

Thanks TomCat I have enjoyed following you so far too - its great to learn from others experiences and sometimes even help others especially when Sinonds is relatively small over here is SA.
deluxes - thats great to hear. We have been impressed by Simonds so far and hope they continue to be as informative and helpful.
Simondscleo - lock up how exciting would be nice to click fingers and be at that stage as well I shall check out your thread soon

I still have to work out how to add photos - been so busy settling into this temp home, xmas, family life and work but will attempt it soon - not much to show yet aside from a few selections!
Happy new year to you all

So I think I have worked it out!!

Here are our selections -

We have chosen a colour scheme of black, taupe and white for both indoors and outdoors. I feel it will fit better with the area we are building in and also for the interior a lot more of my furniture.


Outdoor colours -

Roof tiles - Elabana sambuca
Colourbond fascia - Paperbark
Colourbond gutter - night sky
Roller doors - Paperbark
Windows - Black
Front door - Night sky
Weatherboard - Paperbark



Outdoor again



Inside paint -

Oak Buff - walls
Whitewash - skirtings archs etc



Kitchen bench and feature tile (I wanted a mosaic tile without the need to clean all the individual tiles and worse the grout - this tile is quite large and is easy to wipe over but it gives the illusion of mosaics)
We have chosen caesarstone Osprey with classic white cabinets.



Off to celebrate NYE - looking forward to an exciting New Year

Happy New Year to you all

Darn - I can see my links didnt work...I will speak to Mr I.T and hopefully sort it out soon

I find using an app called Tapatalk is easiest, if you have a smart phone? Adding photos is super easy on the app to.

Thx Simondscleo - I will give it a try

Oh yeah, can't wait to see your piccies Pam.

Try going back into your post (EDIT button .. FULL EDITOR button) and type: (img) immediately in front of your picture URLs and (/img) at the end of the URLs.

EXCEPT use SQUARE brackets instead of round brackets like this:

[img] and
[img/]

Darn I have tried both taptalk and the full editor setting on here......better go ask the teen of the house as Mr I.T couldnt be bothered helping (he may be IT but at home he switches off!)

Supposed to be signing the final contract this Friday but havent yet seen it so unsure at this stage if we be able to make the appointment. We need more than an hour appointment to check the contract, so many additions, variations, decisions. And as most people know the devil is in the details and after spending so long dreaming and planning we dont want to sign and not notice something that will later cause us an issue.
So cross fingers they email the final contract through tomorrow so we can at least have an evening together to go over it.

Hope all is going well for everyone else.

Ooh! Who's your CRC Pam? Yeah we thought it weird they don't give you much time to look at it. Are they scared we'll change summat again

Chloe but she is leaving very soon so hopefully the newbie is trained well!! We are not changing anything else - lol heard that before, but more time would be appreciated. Not like we are choosing from a menu this is a huge deal the more time the better 😊

Yes, agree absolutely. We need time to look at it. It's a HUGE deal. Did the send to you yet? Still on tomorrow?

Signed....whooo hooo. Couple of little errors in final contract but with a variation all sorted and believe it or not in our favour so pleased with that.
Still working on photos -think mine were too big!
I just realized where your build is TomCat great location especially close to good schools. We built our first home many years ago up behind the main shops on the last street before the hill dropped off to Salisbury council -always enjoyed golden grove. Showing my age but hubby and I remember standing on the second floor of our school at Modbury heights looking out onto grapevines and farm land.....wow has the area changed!!

fantastic! Haven't heard of Chloe. Cleo and deluxes had Bel. We've got Josh. He's really good - knows his stuff and is really pleasant to deal with

I grew up in Redwood park - I remember the farmland......boooooooooo

I've always lived in this area. Ttg last house one before that was on Milne rd redwood park! Actually the land along Milne rd was sold by a farming family they used to own the drumminor restaurant (now transformed in Harrison funerals).We had an old fence post along our creek line boundary that was left over from the farming days. Then we moved to ttg and the old brother sister neighbors who still have three farms in the hills told us that the land we lived on at Milne rd was sold off by them in the early seventies for development and many years before that they sold the old drumminor land. Small small world. I love Adelaide but the ttg council area is my home, it has everything we need, family,friends,community and trees (but for this new build none that will cause us issues like previous blocks/homes. 😊

We lived just off Milne road in the seventies/early eighties. Went to Ridgehaven primary school.... Mum still insists shopping at TTP if I take her shopping.
Looks like a few of us hopefully will be up and running feb/march/april.
We are hopefully demolishing in 2-3 weeks. Have been in council (in an in tray for 4 weeks Including the holidays)

bluesteel: I also grew up in Redwood Park and went to Ridgehaven Primary School! But I was born in 1986, so we wouldn't have overlapped at the school at all.

I moved out of the area for a few years, bought a house in Modbury North, lived here for 2 years, then moved to QLD for 3 years, and are now back into the house we bought. We should be demolishing it sometime in March/April/May I think.