Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 07, 2015 3:33 pm Hi all
I am going to post the building process of my new home here And can't wait to see you guys share thoughts with me. Thank you Detail as following Builder: Simonds Model: CLEO Double storey Block size: 14x28 We bought a land in Williams landing from an estate agent last year, and the agent guy recommended Simonds to build our home. My hubby also asked his uncle and he recommended Simonds too as his uncle had watched the TV advertising of Simonds, haha. Even though, we had collected infors from almost every builder in Williams landing display village and compared details and searched in google and on and on and off... Finally we decided to choose Simonds, haha. ~~~~~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~PLAN & QUOTE~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~~~~~~ According to the land size and orientation, Cleo is our favourite, and there is something to change such as to flip the floor plan(as we love north facing windows in living room) and exchange places with the rumpus and bathroom(as hubby's Dad said it is good to keep the toilets in the same vertical position of both floors). This is our floor plan (CLEO) and the facade (MALVERN) We are the first home buyer and we aim to get the grant and duty reduction as well, so we try to make sure the total price would not exceed.After several negotiations with the Simonds sale consultant ,we got a quote and I will list what we added to it. -We choose the "DREAM BIG" promotion offer to save about $26k from the original Cleo price. (Another promotion called "BIG BRAND" offer $20k free upgrade selected you want from a list. We didn't chose it because we didn't think we need to upgrade so much.) -We added these items to the quote, what it means the cost will be included in total price: Render finish to nominated areas(developer guidelines), French doors to balcony(developer guidelines), 25 degree roof pitch(developer guidelines), FIXED PRICE SITE COSTS, Upgrade ceiling height, Allowance for flooring, Remote control unit to garage, Brickwork above front garage door, Caesarstone benchtop to bathroom and ensuite and powder room and kitchen, Overhead cupboards to kitchen, NBN. -Sales consultant promotion, what it means no charge. Evaporative cooling We are satisfied with the total price, however it is just a estimate package price. Anyway, I hope it is a good deal, haha. ~~~~~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~SELECTION DAY~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~~~~~~ Before the colour selection day, we attended the Simonds Gallery Tour twice in order to get ready for the final selection. And we did find so many things to be done, because there are so many choices! It seems like we’er in a supermarket. However, to find our colour or material is easier than to control the total cost, and when we asked the gallery girls about the cost, they always said they would tell us on Selection day...not today. Also we inspected the Simonds Display House in Point cook and walked around in the Masters Warehouse to know more about the material and price. Acturally the gallery upgrade price will be much more higher than retail because the builder’s one includes the fee of installation. So we didnot upgrade the items which we could install by ourselves such as lights. We believed we were all ready for the selection, while we knew we were not when the colour selection day came. We suffered from the electrical plan which we had not thought about before, OMG so silly we are! It spend a long time to make a decision as the light points and power points are so important. It was a long day...lets see what we choose -We did a slight upgrade a wider mirrors in ensuite, a rosewood entry door, the bricks colour, privacy locks in toilets, chrome door stop to entry door, glossy wall tiles to kitchen -FLOORING Polished Tiles to Ground Floor excluding LDRY and PDR. Carpet to staircase and First Floor excluding ENS and BATH. Standard Tiles to LDRY, PDR, ENS and BATH. -The rest remains unchanged as standard We can breathe again when we finished all the selection and leave from Simonds Gallery, however, we came here again for another slight changes. -Change the vertical cabinet handles to horizontal -Add an power point to dining room -Move the light points out of the beds area (we might put table lamps on bedside) So this is the electrical plan updated ~~~~~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~CONTRACT~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~~~~~~ Finally we got our energy rating and soil assessment. Simonds told us that we should upgrade two windows to double glazing, in order to get 6 stars energy rating. At first we were not happy about that, as we knew another builder covers the cost of 6 stars upgrade. But we changed our mind after we found more knowledges on some websites and here this forum. Just two windows to be upgraded is a good bargain. Our orientation is not the worst! To be honest, I can’t understand the soil assessment at all... hubby just told me don’t worry about that, Simonds will done the job. Yes what we can do is to trust Simonds, haha. And the last sentence is ...could be considered with the minimum requirements for a “Class H2” (Hubby said H2 means the ground is high active, so the trees could not grow taller here in Western suburb than in Eastern suburb…really?) Plus we made a slight change again, we found no door to ensuite in master room, so we added one. How easy it is to forget this little things. We read the contract again and again carefully to make sure everything is all right, and finally we signed our contract and received a Tablet as a gift. The next step is to wait for our lending and building permit, and now we can relax a little bit, haha. Building period ~~~~~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~BUILDING PERMIT~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~~~~~~ Unluckily, more money has gone to our developer’s requirement. We need to upgrade/change something again. -change to CAT 1 roof tiles -change the rumpus and bedrooms windows to restrictive window -render to front side of garage -relocate the cooling unit to rear Just by the way, we asked builder to make a slight change again. -move the TV point from rumpus to master room When we were still waiting for the building permit, Simonds told us we have to remove the rubbish on our block. Just on the same day we received a letter from Wyndham Council telling us to clean our land or result a fine … but where did the rubbish come from? Several months ago we did inspection to our land after we purchased of it and took some photos yet. There was a few rubbish. However now we found more rubbish and obviously it is the construction waste such as brick, wood and fence etc. plus some bottles and stones. And we found the same materials in the neighbourhood so we believe they or their builder has dumped rubbish on our land. We provide some proof photos to the neighbourhoods’ buliders and we were ready to send to coucil, too. Finally one of them apologized to us and removed all the waste. After two weeks we were exciting to get our building permit, finally. Construction commenced on April 14. We met our supervisor and just in case we inspected our land again on April 11, before they start working. So annoying there were more rubbish bottles & boxes again! We had to removed them... Looks like Simonds began to dig... ~~~~~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~SLAB~~~~ヽ(=^・ω・^=)丿~~~~~~~~~ Our supervisor Charles said they would start to slab on April 21, so we had a look at it after work and found Wooooow they were too fast! … ( Winter is coming and when we got our land it is very dark!...) It is toooo dark! Maybe we should get there on daytime, but we were too busy. And here is taken on April 26. We were so exciting the slab is done! How time flies we can’t catch up with the speed of our builder! I will update this thread soon... Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 2Mar 07, 2015 5:28 pm Fantastic! Looking forward to your updates. I love the Cleo, especially the entry/downstairs living area. Where are you building shara? Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 3Mar 09, 2015 9:43 pm I've just built & moved into my Cleo... I'm loving it!! Best of luck with it all. Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=71963&start=50#p1203154 Settlement: January 2014 Currently waiting council approval Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 4Mar 21, 2015 9:39 pm TomCat Fantastic! Looking forward to your updates. I love the Cleo, especially the entry/downstairs living area. Where are you building shara? Hi Tomcat Our land is in Williams landing. I have updated my post tonight Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 5Mar 21, 2015 9:46 pm Simondscleo I've just built & moved into my Cleo... I'm loving it!! Best of luck with it all. Thank you! We have bookmarked your thread before, haha. Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 6Mar 22, 2015 8:53 pm your house/deal sounds great! I had to look up where Williams Landing is. I'm in Adelaide so didn't know it was a Melbourne suburb. So that's in our first lady PM's electorate I wish I could vote her back in Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 7Mar 27, 2015 9:25 pm TomCat 8) your house/deal sounds great! I had to look up where Williams Landing is. I'm in Adelaide so didn't know it was a Melbourne suburb. So that's in our first lady PM's electorate I wish I could vote her back in Yes Williams Landing is very close to Altona Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 8Mar 28, 2015 4:24 am What an interesting experience and perspective of the process determining finishes and colour schemes for your home (selections). The electrical plan is very difficult. I think that must be the gallery consultant's most stressful part of the job. We thought about it a lot beforehand and went in with a plan ready BUT we still made a couple of changes after. I like that you aren't having down lights either. I don't like how they look but to be honest I know I wouldn't know what I was doing if I had to decide where to install them to be effective. I've only ever lived in a house with traditional pendant ceilining lights complemented with flouro strips and batten oysters (small/wet rooms). It's what I know and am comfortable with. Besides I like how light fittings add a substantial element to the decor scheme to fill some space with colour/texture -- To me they are as important as window fittings in that regard. Looking forward to seeing your colours and selected finishes. BTW your electrical layout looks very efficient and practical. Good that you thought about putting a light in the manhole ... We did too Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 9Mar 29, 2015 10:57 pm TomCat you are right, it is too difficult. We did change the electrical plan twice. When we were planning the places of the furnitures, we found the power point would be blocked! And we might change the rumpus room to a study room, so the TV point should be move. We had inspected the Simonds display house and the down lights looks good, but I think down lights makes me feeling I am in an office, haha. Gallery consultant said the light points of ground floor could not be changed after they are installed, so we think using the standard light points is good to maintain ( when the old light is stop working and we need to install a new one). Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 11Apr 03, 2015 1:43 pm Last week we walked around and found someone's path blocked by a pipe. Do someone know what is this pipe used for? Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 14Apr 05, 2015 5:47 pm Thanks dran15! And I agree with you, ShanaLK. That pipe is in a dangerous place! However I found the same thing in our site plan... Many people told me it is an overflow-relief-gulley. I'm not sure, but there might be some reason why it should be put here, just in the middle of the frontage? As our site plan shows, the water meter and tap may be in the way of a future path from our porch to footpath. We might have a look on our site next weekend. Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 15Apr 06, 2015 11:26 am @shara what you have marked in your own plan is completely different from the other pics . The one in your plan looks like an outside water tap and meter and most of the time it is a developer guideline . It is closer to your edge of the footpath and it shd not be a problem. I have something similar like that on my plan too. Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 16Apr 19, 2015 12:43 pm Power points are the only issue in our house! We did not take extra time to consider where they should be and its so stressful now lol. We did however put a power point and antenna in the middle of the walls for mounted TVs but didn't put any at the bottom for DVD players etc. So annoying! Luckily my stepdad is an electrician but really wish we spent more time to add a heap more. Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=71963&start=50#p1203154 Settlement: January 2014 Currently waiting council approval Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 17Apr 19, 2015 7:59 pm Shame Cleo Gosh we added so many and wondered if we should have went even more. Downstairs will be a pain, even for your pa. But he can do it if you need yay! Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 18Apr 22, 2015 7:25 pm Hi Shara, How are things moving at your end? Have you received the building permit? Do you know when your site start is? Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 19May 01, 2015 1:36 pm dran15 @shara what you have marked in your own plan is completely different from the other pics . The one in your plan looks like an outside water tap and meter and most of the time it is a developer guideline . It is closer to your edge of the footpath and it shd not be a problem. I have something similar like that on my plan too. Thanks dran15 Yes we found no problem whit it. We walked around and found every neighbourhood is in the same situation. Here's neighbourhood's pipe and meter & tap. Re: Simonds CLEO our first home 20May 01, 2015 1:45 pm harmelb Hi Shara, How are things moving at your end? Have you received the building permit? Do you know when your site start is? Hi harmelb Finally I got the building permit and it got started on April 14. We were too busy last week so we are too late to update this topic We'd like to see our land every day, but the sunset time of Melbourne is too early, isn't it? 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 45438 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 9767 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 16082 |