Browse Forums Building A New House Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--front elevation 201Sep 11, 2015 11:34 pm Thanks malsannie and smiley77. Ya, I think the color scheme is not too bad. We are happy with it. The door color matches the feature color. I would be interested to know what our next door neighbour has chosen for theirs! They have the same roof tile and facebrick, except their feature wall will be painted. Different design. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--front elevation 202Sep 12, 2015 12:46 am Your colours look lovely sofia14! I think it goes together quite well. MalSannie is right about the feature wall...you can use it as a backdrop to highlight an interesting plant or artwork. With a wall that colour, the plant or artwork would stand out better than a darker brick. A light brick colour also enhances the texture of the brickwall, in contrast to the other rendered bits. That's my opinion anyway, and I am no designer or artist lol.... Our Build Thread: The "Extended" Marina by Visionone Homes Our Inspirations: Frank Lloyd Wright | Houzz Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--front elevation 203Sep 15, 2015 10:43 pm We had a site meeting with SS. It was like a mini PCI, which was nice because there is a chance that I won't be able to attend the first official PCI. Feature tile. It isn't grey. It has the silver circular pattern if you zoom in. Love it. Grout hasn't been applied. It seems like our tiler really takes his time but can't complain since he seems to do a good job lining everything up. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ensuite. The toilet suite hasn't been installed. That's why it looks pretty empty at the moment. We didn't put in a second sink because it will be close to the toilet suite. It won't give much space when one is using the sink. I love my long stone benchtop for sure. The full size mirror will make the ensuite looks bigger, though. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Kitchen splashback and the cooktop. Now i can get more dishes cooking all at once. Did i say kitchen is my favorite place in the house? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Another kitchen shot but this time is focusing on the main floor tile. The main floor tiler was super quick and did a good job. We saw the guy on Thurs and it was done when we walked in yesterday. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 204Sep 15, 2015 11:14 pm Really looking Fantastic! Your kitchen is nice size and functional. We are thinking of doing the Overhead after hand over. How much did they charge may I know? Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 205Sep 15, 2015 11:26 pm The office has given a PCI date! I'm not sure how realistic it is because it seems there are still many things need to be done after this week. To do list: -- water heater -- shower screen -- fly screen -- grout for wet area -- silicon seal -- garage door (probably won't be done before first PCI) -- toilet suite -- lock and handle bar -- mirror -- a lot of minor touch up Maybe more? Main thing to do after handover: -- Gully and grate for the driveway and re-aligning some of the grates for the downpipes. The grates for the downpipes were installed by our soakwell contractor. Speaking of this, two of our grates disappeared or were stolen at the front downpipes location. They must have been taken off during the downpipes installation because the grates were in the way (sitting too high off the ground). We couldn't find them within the perimeter of the house. There was another one being taken off for downpipe installation at the side of the house as well. Luckily, we recovered that one. Sigh...people really steal strange things. -- Paving -- Electrical for lights (we have junction boxes in place) -- Painting -- Blinds for the bedroom (will worry about the living area later) Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 206Sep 15, 2015 11:45 pm me786 Really looking Fantastic! Your kitchen is nice size and functional. We are thinking of doing the Overhead after hand over. How much did they charge may I know? I don't know the actual cost. It was brought up during the sale stage and we modified couple of other things at the same time. Our sale guy gave us a lump sum for the variation. He wasn't willing to break down the cost for each of the items we deleted or added. However, we tempted to take it out of the contract at pre-start because we thought we can do it after handover. If i remember correctly, the credit was like $700ish. Rule of thumb is that adding is more expensive, crediting is less. That means the actual price must have been more than. We left it in. No harm to ask at pre-start. You can always decide to add or not. BTW, soft close isn't included. It would be nice to have it but it isnt the priority to us. We were quoted $200+ for kitchen only. The other thing I thought about is the bulkhead. We got carried away during pre-start since we made so many modifications for the kitchen. We actually didn't realize how small the kitchen was until we saw the actual 3D drawing. The pre-start officer didn't offer us either. Does any one know how much it cost to do bulkhead? It is likely not a priority for us either given that we will do couple more things for the kitchen -- a carousel for the corner area and a fridge and microwave box. I need suggestion for the pendant light for the kitchen. Spacing and length from the ceiling? Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 207Sep 16, 2015 10:33 am Congrats on your first PCI date sofia14!! Don't worry about the items on your list. For ours we found that the list got shorter quite quickly if the scheduling is done well. Your kitchen and bathrooms look fab! Our Build Thread: The "Extended" Marina by Visionone Homes Our Inspirations: Frank Lloyd Wright | Houzz Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 208Sep 17, 2015 6:56 pm Sofia, regarding the height from ceiling for pendants, I found this via pinterest: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Source: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20797929_30121234,00.html?crlt.pid=camp.d3ya1FZa4hrt Doesn't say anything about pendant spacing/size in relation to the size of your bench though - I'll just have to hope our builder space our light fittings in a nice way - we're getting normal light fittings, and will add pendants after Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 209Sep 17, 2015 7:04 pm We get a recommendation for electrician so we will let the guy does the homework. All i need to do is to send him the electrical plan and explain what i want. He will then tell me where the downlight should go based on the ones he will provides. We ran into builder electrician on Monday and he also left his name card for us. We have a junction box in the kitchen because hubby doesn't want to guess the spacing until we can see the house. Thanks for the figure. It is very useful. BTW, mal, did you get your quote from the ascent blind? Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 210Sep 19, 2015 3:37 am Hi Sofia yes, sorry I missed your post for some reason. What sort of blinds are you considering? I only got quotes for vertical or panel blinds for for sliders and venetians (alum, plastic, timber) for the rest. Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 211Sep 19, 2015 10:16 pm We are looking for roller blind. We didn't want the alum blinds from builder (feel like office?) so we decided to do it after handover. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 212Sep 19, 2015 11:14 pm We are very happy with the progress and everything seems to come into place quickly. Wet area tiler has come back to grout the bathrooms. Toilet suites, water tank, evap, carpet and fly screen have been installed. Garage grano was done by our contractor. It looks like PCI date is not a pipe dream anymore. The list is very short now. -- site clean -- touch up (a lot) -- door knobs and deadbolts -- garage door -- mirror -- shower screen -- silicone seal -- shower head -- grano for storage We have a tree! Sort of. It looks like the landscaping company came by to plant a tree in front of our house. It looks like a minor touch up is going on for our front elevation. Ah...we don't know that the evap system would stand out so much. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Back side. As you can see, there is a gap between neighbour and our garage. I'm wondering if fencing company will fence it off? I don't think anyone can get through there but a skinny kid might fit, though. It is full of rubbish at the moment and we don't even know how to clean them out. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 213Sep 19, 2015 11:38 pm Ooo lovely you have a tree, garage floor and aircon We're also going for evap - much cheaper to run. If it is too bad then might get a split system in the main living one day. Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 214Sep 20, 2015 11:55 am Wow Sofia it looks awesome you will be in there before you know it!!! Re the bedroom blinds, given you need something immediately I do thoroughly recommend these block out blinds from Spotlight. I got them for our front bedroom (streetlight right in front of us) and the back bedrooms. They're not custom sizes but I've put ours above the windows rather than in the frame and have them rolling backwards so they sit against the wall and block the light. Complete block out in the middle of the day. Bought them during one of their regular sales for $40-50 each. Would be a good solution in the meantime and you might decide they don't need changing anyway. They do the double rollers too. Heaps of colours to choose from. Beats spending a grand when you've still got all the other stuff to do too. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I hope your neighbour's builder doesn't do what ours did and just put a bit of metal up between your garages on each side. It's created a massive drainage issue right where our footings have been exposed due to their excavation. All the water that falls between the two garages is dammed thanks to the clever one who came up with this solution. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hope you get a better fix to the gap issue than we did! BRING ON PCI!!!! Yanchep build with Dreamstart Homes ____________________________________________________________ Our build thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73323 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--photos 215Sep 20, 2015 12:52 pm Yes, we have decided to do like what you did with the blind. The block out will not be fitted to the frame. It is less neat but it won't have light leak problem. Unfortunately, the largest spotlight blind is 210cm and our windows are random size like 230cm etc. even the largest won't fit. Neighbours builder is DS. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--[PCI] 216Sep 25, 2015 1:32 pm Woohoo...First PCI next week! 7w since locked up. Good time frame considered we will do paving, internal painting and LED downlights after hand over. That would have added in another week or two. We were told that the garage door won't be in at this meeting but I hope it can be in sometime between first and second PCI. Our bank won't issue payment until it is in. Tips for PCI? Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--[PCI] 217Sep 25, 2015 3:29 pm Wow well done!!! Ours was booked in for today bit called on Wednesday late arvo and said it's cancelled. Not happy at all considering its been 4 weeks and nothin has been done and we were told it would all be done this week ready for us to go through today. 14 weeks since lockup for us!! Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--[PCI] 218Sep 25, 2015 4:01 pm My understanding is that you have change of SS at the last stage? This seems to be the source of the entire problem for you! Sorry, I hope they sort it out for you. We are very happy with the progress since the lock up. Everything was shuffled around if one trade wasn't available. They just advised us honestly that the garage door won't be ready at this PCI. That's perfectly fine with us. We have a delay after the land has been titled last Oct. Otherwise, we would have been in the house by May this year. Everything just has to be happening all at once. I don't expect a key until 3rd week of Oct, though. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--[PCI] 219Sep 25, 2015 4:06 pm Yeh we needed our windows fixed and we said we were happy to leave that as long as it was done before the second inspection. When they called on Wednesday I found out we have another new ss!!! Yerp 3 in the last 4 weeks! I honestly don't think that's the entire problem as from the last trade they require 2 weeks to fix things.. And one supervisor was there for that 2 weeks but clearly slack. Then when the next ss started another 2 weeks went by and again nothing booked in. We were give a new ss the next day each time I think it's because we told them we have a building inspector and they have done a crap job of the house and no one wants to deal with it and pick up the pieces.! I hope it goes quick for you. Not ling now and you will be in!! Re: Build@wellard with Dreamstart homes--[PCI] 220Sep 25, 2015 4:16 pm We originally hired a building inspector as a package -- brick, roof and PCI. They do let us get refund if i decide not to go ahead with the PCI inspection so we will just see how our first PCI goes. So far, SS has been prompt in fixing things. We are at the home stretch. As for quality, I can't comment just yet. Most issues you won't find out until you live in it. Timeline: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76782 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17511 3 47413 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74688 |