Building Simonds Hudson in Warrnambool Vic

Halcyon · Nov 07, 2015 3:49 pm

UPDATE 14.3.17
If you're just joining us, we are the worst case scenario for waiting for titles! Our titles went 2 years overdue and we've only just begun building! Jump straight to post #397 to see where the action begins, or follow along on Instagram @cait_x or #simondshudson

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After a lot of time reading through other people's building journeys I've started my own thread to document our own exciting journey (building the Hudson with Simonds in Warrnambool, Victoria) with my partner for our first home!

While researching the building process, being our first home, we were concerned with costs mostly, so in my thread I'd like to be a bit informative about prices (keeping in mind prices are different depending on where you're building) because of course we've found costs we didn't consider, so I'm more than happy to hear your suggestions on saving money and I don't mind discussing costs at all, so fire away with any questions.

All up so far our experience with Simonds has been fantastic. Everyone we've dealt with thus far have been friendly, helpful and most importantly very honest, understanding and genuine.

Hudson floorplan
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We made a few changes to the floorplan - making the garage wider ($1400), the butlers pantry upgrade ($2600) but we kept it in line with the garage extension so it wouldn't cut into the kitchen as pictured and adding a sliding door to the ensuite ($450).

Other extras we chose as a part of the 'great Australian upgrades' promotion where we got $25000 worth of upgrades for free included a dishwasher, overhead and above fridge kitchen cupboards, laundry cupboard and sink instead of trough, wider vanity in ensuite, 20 downlights, bathroom heaters, shower niches, laminate flooring, carpet, upgraded ducted heating, split system, pop-up bathroom waste instead of plugs, drawers in WIR and the NBN pack.

We had our gallery appointment yesterday, I have lots of pictures to post later, but we're very excited for our journey, even if we have to wait until Jan/Feb for our land title

GemmaS · Nov 07, 2015 6:28 pm

Yay!! Sounds like you spent your 25k wisely! Widening the garage is a brilliant idea!

Megera · Nov 07, 2015 7:11 pm

Looking forward to reading about your build & seeing your colour choices!

goody59 · Nov 07, 2015 8:08 pm

All the best. Our Hudson is about a month off completion. Of course I love the plan.

Halcyon · Nov 07, 2015 8:53 pm

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Our external colours
- 'Chestnut' brick which was from cat 2 which cost an extra $470.
- 'Barramundi' roof tiles
- Guttering, fascia and garage door will be the dark grey colourbond 'Monument'
- Window frames and front door will be 'Surfmist'
- Kew facade

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Flooring
- 'Dance' colour carpet, is actually quite a bit lighter grey than it looks.
- 'Sand oak' laminate floor.
- And the surfmist for the window frames

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My favourite part - the kitchen!
- 'Basalt' grey laminate benchtop and waterfall ends (to make benchtop wider and add waterfall ends $996)
- 'Polar white' laminate on cupboards
- 'Aura' paint colour which is a really beautiful off-white-kinda-thing
- but my favourite thing in the whole house is the 'Maria Gris' tile for the splash back and this photo does is no justice, it's just stunning. Unfortunately wasn't standard and cost an extra $380 - but so worth it!

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Handles that will be in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry and robes. The cost of these depended on size, I'm not sure on the exact size but we got cat 3 size in The kitchen which cost $5.50 per handle, and cat 2 size everywhere else which was $4.50 per handle. We upgraded because the standard handles were so small I think they'd just look silly!

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The bathroom and ensuite
- 'Lustrous Elm' laminate for the vanities with 'sarum grey' for the shadow line under the bench top.
- 'Simplicity light grey' tile for the floor
- Gloss white 'ripple' tile for on the bath and shower walls. You can't really tell in the photo but its textured.
- And Aura again for the paint

A lot of the more expensive choices were in the variations, and a few things we didn't expect, like frosting the bathroom windows wasn't standard and cost an extra nearly $700, which was surprising! As well as the privacy locks on bathroom doors which was another $100. Double hanging in the WIR was only $60. Driveway was $3000. We also upgraded the oven which was $350 and instead of the standard rangehood we opted for the pull out rangehood with cupboards above which was $1000 - a bit of a splurge but we really hated the standard rangehood

Another thing we spent a lot on was the electrical - but I'll probably have an essay to write about that too so I'll leave it for another time!

It all feels very real now and I can't help looking at my colour samples and hoping they'll look good together on a bigger scale!

But I'm wondering did anyone else find they had much to change between their gallery appointment and the contract signing? I'm finding we'll have to make a few changes because the plans were wrong at the gallery.

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TomCat · Nov 08, 2015 4:16 am

Nice choices. I didn't enjoy spending $1k for two useless kitchen cupboards either, but worth it to cover the 'cooking spout'

Halcyon · Nov 08, 2015 6:19 am

Thanks Tomcat, that's exactly what I thought, just makes the kitchen look compete as well, I think

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Halcyon · Nov 12, 2015 9:50 pm

Hitting our first hurdle! Our contract signing is meant to take place next week, but we've been trying to make sure our floor plan is sorted beforehand.

A month before gallery we decided to change to the butlers pantry but keep it in line with the extended garage (as opposed to the extra cupboards we originally opted for in the standard pantry, which worked out the same price anyway), and we're told that's no problem they'll change it over.

When we get to the gallery appointment the floorplan hasn't been changed, we could still work around it though, so after chasing it up and a few unreturned emails, turns out we'd still have to cut into our kitchen by 30cm shortening our pot drawers on one side, making it lopsided, which would drive me nuts, but to fix it by moving it further out would be an extra 3k because it "wasn't standard."

We've gone back to them today proposing to ditch the butlers pantry upgrade and extend the original pantry with the butlers pantry layout (bench on one side, open shelving on the other) so will have to wait and see if that's suitable.

But I think really were most annoyed that when the issue first arose we weren't contacted to work it out, but it's good, I suppose, to learn sooner rather than later that it's not safe to assume these things will work themselves out!

Compared to some of the issues I've heard other people experiencing with their builds and planning I'm sure I shouldn't be complaining, but it definitely helps to vent. But I'm sure there will be plenty more positives to post about along the way!

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goody59 · Nov 12, 2015 10:04 pm

Get used to the "let downs" There are usually quite a few when building. I have had my fair share.

Halcyon · Nov 13, 2015 7:30 am

goody59

Get used to the "let downs" There are usually quite a few when building. I have had my fair share.

It's definitely a big process, something is bound to go wrong somewhere, but it helps to do the research!
When your build started, did they give an estimated finish time Goody?

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Megera · Nov 13, 2015 7:58 am

Halcyon

Hitting our first hurdle! Our contract signing is meant to take place next week, but we've been trying to make sure our floor plan is sorted beforehand.

A month before gallery we decided to change to the butlers pantry but keep it in line with the extended garage (as opposed to the extra cupboards we originally opted for in the standard pantry, which worked out the same price anyway), and we're told that's no problem they'll change it over.

When we get to the gallery appointment the floorplan hasn't been changed, we could still work around it though, so after chasing it up and a few unreturned emails, turns out we'd still have to cut into our kitchen by 30cm shortening our pot drawers on one side, making it lopsided, which would drive me nuts, but to fix it by moving it further out would be an extra 3k because it "wasn't standard."

We've gone back to them today proposing to ditch the butlers pantry upgrade and extend the original pantry with the butlers pantry layout (bench on one side, open shelving on the other) so will have to wait and see if that's suitable.

But I think really were most annoyed that when the issue first arose we weren't contacted to work it out, but it's good, I suppose, to learn sooner rather than later that it's not safe to assume these things will work themselves out!

Compared to some of the issues I've heard other people experiencing with their builds and planning I'm sure I shouldn't be complaining, but it definitely helps to vent. But I'm sure there will be plenty more positives to post about along the way!

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Things get lost in translation sometimes, it's frustrating. We had a question about the locks on some of the doors but they somehow thought we were asking for the back garage door to be turned into a sliding glass door or something? I don't even know, but unsurprisingly they came back with "no we can't do that" and we just decided to drop the issue because it was too much hassle to explain what we really meant.

goody59 · Nov 13, 2015 8:14 am

I was given 27 weeks from the day they break ground. The usual is 26 weeks but I had in my contract that I wanted the slab left for minimum of 7 days before it was built on. That added a week to the build period because I wanted my slab cured, how ridiculous that it extra to have it built to NCC 2015 code in the first place. The NCC 2015 stated the slab should be cured but no builders seem to comply with that. Minimum curing period should be 7 days.
I had in my contract that I wanted the option of increasing slab top thickness and steel reo used in slab and the MPa of the concrete as well after I was given the minimum slab engineering which comes after soil and site tests are in. I went with 100mm thick top, all the "recommended by engineer extra steel bars" and with 25MPa concrete versus the recommended minimum of 20 MPa concrete as my slab on a H2 site was my biggest concern. That added about an extra $5000 or so to the build. Don't quote me on that extra cost off the top of my head but something like that. I considered it money well spent.

Halcyon · Nov 13, 2015 8:20 am

Megera

Things get lost in translation sometimes, it's frustrating. We had a question about the locks on some of the doors but they somehow thought we were asking for the back garage door to be turned into a sliding glass door or something? I don't even know, but unsurprisingly they came back with "no we can't do that" and we just decided to drop the issue because it was too much hassle to explain what we really meant.

Hahaha! Shouldn't laugh because that has got to be frustrating, but how locks turn into sliding doors, must have been an off day!
I think the communication is pretty bad, our CSC is 2 hours away from us so all our communication is through phone and email, then she has to relay that to the estimating department, so we're trying to make sure the CSC understands what we mean (we've been emailing diagrams and sketches haha) so she can get it right to the estimation guys. It's a bit of Chinese whispers sometimes!!

Halcyon · Nov 13, 2015 8:25 am

goody59

I was given 27 weeks from the day they break ground. The usual is 26 weeks but I had in my contract that I wanted the slab left for minimum of 7 days before it was built on. That added a week to the build period because I wanted my slab cured, how ridiculous that it extra to have it built to NCC 2015 code in the first place. The NCC 2015 stated the slab should be cured but no builders seem to comply with that. Minimum curing period should be 7 days.
I had in my contract that I wanted the option of increasing slab top thickness and steel reo used in slab and the MPa of the concrete as well after I was given the minimum slab engineering which comes after soil and site tests are in. I went with 100mm thick top, all the "recommended by engineer extra steel bars" and with 25MPa concrete versus the recommended minimum of 20 MPa concrete as my slab on a H2 site was my biggest concern. That added about an extra $5000 or so to the build. Don't quote me on that extra cost off the top of my head but something like that. I considered it money well spent.

Wow! We'll definitely be asking all the technical questions, we're expecting a H2 site, but they really need to get the slab right, that's the most important part!

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goody59 · Nov 13, 2015 8:27 am

Another thing, don't assume your SS knows your house and what is required in the build. They don't. Visit often with plans and specs in hand. You will know what is in the contract he won't. He is SS for 11 other houses (That is the case here in Melbourne) He will know a lot of things but when doing 12 houses at once, things get confusing between one build and another. You the owner needs to look, compare to plans and specs and speak out if it appears not quite right. Ask questions via email to keep a record of questions and responses just for the record. Word of mouth is soon forgotten.
Even when you try doing all this above you will find that things still go wrong. It has happened to me on a number of accounts. Visit site often and look and tick off the boxes in your head or on some list you make to check. My slab was still not quite right in one short dimension, my waste was in wrong location in the bathroom, a window was put in too high in Butler's pantry as we ordered a double hung window for a servery but it was put in wrong height and the prep work for the timber servery was not done so we scrapped the servery idea and now have a double hung window put in too high for its intended purpose that we paid an extra $1000 for nothing really. Sorry, they are giving us $160 back as a variation for their stuff up.
In summary, visit often, look hard and don't assume they know what they are doing. Ask questions. It is a big investment.

Halcyon · Nov 13, 2015 8:32 am

That's definitely good to know, thanks Goody! Did you have an independent builder do any inspections along the way?

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goody59 · Nov 13, 2015 8:37 am

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Being on a H2 site this topic needs to be read from page 1 to the very last post. Slab heave can be avoided if care is taken. That care needs to be taken by builder from the slab is poured and continued by you after handover.

Make builder 100% sure that you will be on the look out for site drainage from the day slab is poured and that you take photos of everything from the first day site is cut. Take hundreds of photos of everything like site cut, slab preparation of steel and form work, pipe locations and pipe penetrations, slab rebates, frame, trusses, plumbing location, electrical location all before plastering. It is what is under the plaster that you need to record. Do not allow any water to pool against slab or stay onsite from day 1. Get temporary downpipes placed into storm water from the day the roof is on.

goody59 · Nov 13, 2015 8:40 am

Halcyon

That's definitely good to know, thanks Goody! Did you have an independent builder do any inspections along the way?

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I did but unfortunately that didn't work out so well in the first instance. It was a prepour of slab inspection.
I had a retired building inspector who is a friend of mine come with me after that for the other stages up until lock up.

Halcyon · Nov 13, 2015 8:58 am

Thanks Goody, you're a champion! You must have been a builder in a past life

I'll have a read tonight, my partner will want to read it as well. His dad is an ex builder so we'll be taking him on inspections for sure, I haven't asked him about slabs yet but I'll be curious to see what he thinks.

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goody59 · Nov 13, 2015 9:19 am

I was anal about my slab. To me that is more important than anything else, especially on a H2 site and using waffle pod slab which I was against in the beginning as I thought I was getting a stiffened beam conventional raft slab.