Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 12, 2015 7:10 pm We are leaning towards building with Hotondo and quite like the Erskine range. Has anyone built with Hotondo, or even better built the Erskine and would like to share (or pm/email) me some photos? Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 2Mar 01, 2015 11:12 am Did you have any luck choosing? I am in the process of building with Hotondo, in south-west NSW. Construction is due to commence any day now, the builder is just waiting for the plans to get back from council. We have gone with the Jamieson 222, and have so far found the builder to be extremely accommodating with our changes and requests. We ended up choosing without seeing any Hotondo display homes as their display homes are few and far between. The Hotondo builder in my region also has a pretty reputation and my mortgage broker said the Hotondo Homes value quite well in our area. She told me to stay away from Dennis Family Homes but didn't elaborate. Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 3Mar 01, 2015 3:00 pm A good friend of mine built with Hotondo in Canberra. Her build went relatively smooth with a few changes. She has told me they were happy to make changes and even gave her some great ideas along the way. Hotondo faired a little more expensive than most builders but Canberra is generally expensive anyways to build. Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 4Mar 01, 2015 3:15 pm Yeah, I'd heard that Canberra is more expensive for property in general so that doesn't surprise me at all. Hotondo actually worked out much better than the other couple of builders in my area. They had more inclusions, aside from the driveway. I've also upgraded the oven and rangehood to 900mm w/stainless canopy range hood but thats just about the only inclusion that I wanted to change, everything else we have been happy with. Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 5Mar 01, 2015 5:00 pm Thanks for your replies We are going with hotondo. We enquired with a few other builders in this region but hotondo had a lot more inclusions that we wanted, and for a price we are happy with. Some builders looked impressive but were actually quite a lot more expensive for a smaller size of home and didn't include a few things like driveways. I haven't heard anything bad about the local hotondo team and notice they build quite a few homes in new areas (signs are up) so they must be ok and people are choosing them. We are now at the stage of waiting for our final quote, having picked all our selections and made a few minor changes/upgrades. Our only delay is the land. Still waiting on it to be registered and it has just been delayed until around may. Can't wait for the building to start! Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 6Mar 01, 2015 6:34 pm Two of my clients built their homes through Hotondo but they weren't from off their database, they were homes I drew for them. In both cases they were a lot cheaper than other builders in our area and they were quite happy with the way the builds progressed and the final quality. Stewie Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 7Mar 05, 2015 4:42 pm Our builder called to let me know yesterday that the DA approval came through so they will be doing our site scrape next week and plumber will follow shortly after to kick start that side of it. It only took 3 weeks for our application to get through council, I was impressed. Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 8Mar 05, 2015 4:49 pm That's fantastic news! You'll have to share some photos of the progress ! Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 10Mar 06, 2015 6:22 pm I just drove past our block and it has already been scraped! They said they were starting that next week so that was a pleasant surprise...the journey begins My newly established blog is here: http://thehouscapades.blogspot.com/ Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 11Mar 09, 2015 10:47 am Thanks so much for sharing your blog! I'll be following it. How long did your land take to settle? I'm so impatient. We exchanged contracts on our land last December and settlement isnt until May now (at this stage). Everything else is sorted, we are nearly at signing contracts with Hotondo. We ended up going with the Erskine 225. We were fortunate that we qualified for a kitchen upgrade so were able to upgrade oven, rangehood and stove to 900mm. it also includes a microwave and dishwasher. Otherwise we only upgraded the vanity in the ensuite and included cavities and sliding doors to the loungeroom so we can close it off (much easier to do during the construction than after). Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 12Mar 09, 2015 11:27 am Our land settled very quickly, and that was after a delay. We signed our contract 1st December. The developers were keen to sell as it was one of the last lots in this area left. Initially they wanted to settle in 2 weeks, but our finance couldn't be arranged that quickly so we ended up settling 16th January due to the Christmas closure. This is the first time my husband and I have ever owned property, let-alone built, so it has been a real eye opener and the building hasn't even commenced yet LOL. We were lucky with the upgrades too, we also got a kitchen upgrade and my local Hotondo builder includes a dishwasher as standard luckily. But we managed to get an upgrade to Clark Monaco double sink, the mixer tap was upgraded to a Caroma Titan and we are getting a stone bench top in the kitchen as part of the upgrade also. I didn't think we had changed much but once I started listing everything we've upgraded or changed the list started to grow...a lot. Anyway, here are our changes to date: -Upgraded to 900mm oven and rangehood + $2000 -Bamboo flooring in "Coffee" to the living areas + $2000 -Reece LED rain shower head in ensuite (husbands little splurge) + $500 -Stacker door from family room on the spare wall to the alfresco area to open it up + 2000 -Three pendant light connections over island bench + $255 -Extra wide 1200mm front door, as opposed to standard + only costing extra for install due to provisions for heavier door That's pretty much all we could afford to do. Otherwise we would have made more changes Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 13Mar 09, 2015 11:50 am Oh of course, we also upgraded to tiling in the hall and living areas so that was an extra $5300 or so Your kitchen upgrade sounds fantastic! It is all scary isnt it? We both had purchased houses before so knew a bit about what to expect. Now our issue is selling our current home to free up the finances for the build. Your land settlement didnt go too badly. Very exciting for you! Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 14Mar 09, 2015 12:25 pm It is scary, but so far I'm finding the wait times to be the worst part. I'm pretty impatient at the best of times though LOL I liked the Erskine 225 also, it was that and also the Dakota that we were strongly considering. I look forward to seeing how your build goes too questionable, be sure to keep us updated Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 15Mar 14, 2015 12:17 pm Happy to share how we go! We too liked the Jamison and also didn't mind the Birchgrove but ended up deciding on the Erskine. Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 16Mar 15, 2015 2:57 pm So happy to find this thread! I'm also going to be building with Hotondo (at the moment, the Erskine 202 is the front runner) and I understand your pain with waiting for registered land questionable. We found ours last April, we had to wait until October for it to be available for sale and it is expected to be registered NEXT March. Even the builders we talk to say it's the longest wait they've heard of - lucky us lol. Plenty of time to decide on the right house though, right? We are about to get a quote and so far our experience with Port Stephens Hotondo has been great. They have been patient and helpful, and very respectful of our budget and rather than encouraging us to spend more (like many other builders) they have given us lots of tips and suggestions so we get the house and look we want for cheaper! On the other hand, I didn't get as far as making general enquiries with Newcastle Hotondo branch before I realised I would never want to build with them. Our land is in their area so technically I should be building with their branch, but the gentleman running that place is rude and unhelpful. I ended up going to Hotondo head office and asking if I could go with another branch. I just love the Erskine and wasn't ready to give up on it! They were very attentive and immediately Port Stephens branch took over and have been wonderful! It really shows that your experience will differ depending on the branch you get, but it's good to know that head office is there to help if you need it! Looking forward to hearing updates and experiences, and seeing pics of course! Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 17Mar 16, 2015 10:37 am Oh wow sarahl86, that is definitely a long wait for the land to settle! must be hard waiting when you just want to get things going. I do really like that all the selections can be made with Hotondo and they will happily wait until the land registers then (well they do here). It is great that you were able to go with Port Stephens branch instead. I'll have to fix up my blog a bit and post the link so you can follow it for the timeline and progress shots Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 18Mar 16, 2015 10:48 am Here's a link to our blog https://dinglesbuildingadventures.wordpress.com Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 19Mar 16, 2015 3:56 pm Wow sarahl86, that's a ridiculously long time. Buying land and building is such an exciting time that you just want to get in and see some progress so I could imagine it's frustrating for you when you know it's going to be such a long wait. I'm still waiting for progress on my block. Builder says the plumbers will be onsite early this week, but I think by "early this week" he means Wednesday, which is technically not early. I just have a feeling haha. Re: Has anyone built with Hotondo? 20Apr 05, 2015 6:45 pm We are also building with Hotondo Port Stephens and they have been great with everything. We have gone with the Illawarra 220 and have made a few changes (added alfresco, extended the house by 1m to add extra room in the front lounge and to the kitchen so I can have a walk in pantry and put in a laundry shute from main WIR to laundry ) which they were very happy to accommodate. We got the Kitchen upgrade also which got us the stone bench tops, upgraded cook top and oven, dish washer and microwave. We also had our ducted air included in our price, which for a 2 story house they were the cheapest by far and met our budget. We have also upgraded our floor tiles as the ones that were in the builders range weren't very nice (we have chosen they tiles that look like floor boards) Our land registered in fern bay at the end of Feb and are waiting on our plans to be approved by the estate (3rd time lucky) then we can submit into council - which I'm hoping will be in the next few weeks! Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 13483 Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 640 wondering anyone built with omaxe homes and care to share their experiences. thanks 0 13782 |