Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 19, 2016 9:43 pm Hi my wife and I are building our first house finally. We purchased our block (512 Sqm, 32m x 16m, Back facing north block) back in December 2013 it finally settled in April 2015 however due to work and health circumstances had to wait till now till we build.
We have been around and looked at a lot of different display homes from 2013 till now and our preferences have changed a lot over the years. We first started looking at entry price houses with home buyers. They are more simple designs that just work then when the land finally settled we were looking at Boutique Homes, Urban Edge and Carlisle homes and spending up to 300k on a single storey. Now we are somewhere in the middle and we love the Simonds Bolton. Anyways we haven't committed to Simonds or any builder yet but tomorrow we do sit down with Simonds for our first full quote. The layout of the Bolton ticks all our boxes. Unfortunately all the WIR in every bedroom are excessive for us but the living rooms, study/media room, kitchen are awesome and orientation is perfect for our block. We did love the Simonds Palisade but I wanted a Bigger living room/Theater Room and also we wanted more storage cupboards and a Study room and by the time we added in them adjustments it was around $243,000. [b]Our Max budget $250,000[/b] Bolton rough costs. $218,000 Bolton Plan is $218,000 $17,000 Site costs $4,500 Bush Fire $7,000 Raise ceiling to 2.7m $5,000 AirCon -$10,000 First home buyers Total $251,500 EEEK!!!! The Palisade base start price is $182,000. The Bushfire is annoying, its like 1 metre onto my block and as more houses get built it pushes out. I wonder if I can get it changed. Also the extra 36K for the Bolton is killing me, I know their is almost an extra 8 Squares in house size that adds to the cost. I hope tomorrow we can work something out at the appointment. We do have the $10,000 from being first home buyers to help peg back the price. Look we are more than happy to go in with the base package and hardly any options upgraded but still there must be some costs on the back end with electrical, floor coverings and fittings etc that are necessity's. The current special is a FREE extra pack that includes 20mm stone bench top, cupboards kitchen, concrete drive way. But maybe we can pay cash for the upgrade appointments down the track or maybe things like alfresco can be done later in a year or two. My friend built with Simonds and he said he paid $5k and got a $40k gallery voucher. The other thing is a few other builders have told us - because our block is titled and we can build now they would throw in a free upgraders of the kitchen and maybe some other things. I think its rarer in our estate that clients just walk in and can sign a contract and start building and builders get paid straight away. The other builders we are considering Dennis Family, Boutique Homes, Home Buyers, Porter Davis, Metricon. I will update the thread as we progress and share. Do you think we have any chance of keeping it under $250,000? Cant wait to hear any comments and advice you may have, we would really appreciate it. thanks Re: First Home Build Mt Dunned - Thinking about going Simond 2Feb 19, 2016 10:06 pm It appears to me that the majority of your living rooms are on the western side of your block. You should look at different plans that have more living space at the rear of the house so your living spaces get the northern aspect rather than the hot western aspect. We are building a single story 29 sq in the western suburbs with JG King and are well above $250k, but we did get a lot of upgrades. (Also, if your fire rating is 12.5, it might be worth looking at JG King as well - they include BAL 12.5 as a standard inclusion - at least in the Allure range anyway!) Re: First Home Build Mt Dunned - Thinking about going Simond 3Feb 19, 2016 10:24 pm Only thing is do JG King use Metal frames? I'm not a fan of metal frames. I'm hoping the Bushfire 12.5 can be removed by applying or something. Also our parents have the block next door so we are open to having the house more open to the west also it gives us a little privacy fro the all the neighbors at the back. I was just reading the productriviews for Simonds. Looks like i am going to have to get them to put in detail everything thats happen to the house in the contract and use an independent inspector. Lucky for me I will be living next door to the house has its getting built. Everyday I can check on it. How much did you pay in extra stuff at the color appointments and stuff afterwards? Re: First Home Build Mt Dunned - Thinking about going Simond 4Feb 19, 2016 10:43 pm Was this supposed to be Mt Duneed? If so we are also building there shortly. We bought a private sale block not far from club armstrong and should be starting our build in the next few months. We are going with Metricon and I can't say i'd recommend them unless you are on the ball to pick up errors and know exactly what you want. We were originally going to go with Dennis Family but decided to go double story and they didn't have a double that suited us. They are supposedly really great to work with though! A friend built in Mt Duneed with Simonds and had a pretty good experience, her hubby is a chippy and was impressed with most of the build They are great at adjusting plans to fit what you want too so WIR's would easily be changed to BIR's! I'm sure you will get some more answers from them tomorrow when you sit with them. Good luck with it! Re: First Home Build Mt Dunned - Thinking about going Simond 5Feb 19, 2016 11:03 pm kylz4 Was this supposed to be Mt Duneed? If so we are also building there shortly. We bought a private sale block not far from club armstrong and should be starting our build in the next few months. We are going with Metricon and I can't say i'd recommend them unless you are on the ball to pick up errors and know exactly what you want. We were originally going to go with Dennis Family but decided to go double story and they didn't have a double that suited us. They are supposedly really great to work with though! A friend built in Mt Duneed with Simonds and had a pretty good experience, her hubby is a chippy and was impressed with most of the build They are great at adjusting plans to fit what you want too so WIR's would easily be changed to BIR's! I'm sure you will get some more answers from them tomorrow when you sit with them. Good luck with it! Thanks for the info. Yeah we are up near the high school. Club Armstrong is moving along fast, they reckon Christmas it will be complete. Yeah I would love to be at least 10k cheaper and have like 20k up our sleeves. I reckon If the WIR were removed that space alone would save us almost. Also the living room up the top left is massive and wouldnt mind shaving 5sqm off it. One good thing is we have already paid for all our fences around us. So thats one hidden cost gone. LOL Re: First Home Build Mt Dunned - Thinking about going Simond 6Feb 19, 2016 11:05 pm Fingers crossed for some good results we reduced a room from our design and saved $2k. If you need to save money just look at anything you can leave to upgrade later, only do the essential upgrades at time of build Build thread - viewtopic.php?t=81517 Metricon Glendale 42 Limited Edition Re: First Home Build Mt Dunned - Thinking about going Simond 7Feb 19, 2016 11:13 pm [quote="kylz4"]Fingers crossed for some good results we reduced a room from our design and saved $2k. If you need to save money just look at anything you can leave to upgrade later, only do the essential upgrades at time of build Yeah! Thats what I told my wife. Get the walls & ceilings where you want them etc. I do like the big open sliding doors, I haven't asked about the price of them yet LOL. But certainly they cant be done later. I have a friend that's a tiler so might do the tiles myself because I dont think they even give you cat 1 coverings included in the base price like other builders. Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 8Feb 19, 2016 11:15 pm We upgraded our sliding door to a 3600mm stacker door for $750 plus $150 to go to a bit thicker quality one. Might be different price through Simonds though but might be close Build thread - viewtopic.php?t=81517 Metricon Glendale 42 Limited Edition Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 9Feb 19, 2016 11:22 pm That sounds not to bad pricing. I guess it all will be revealed in 14.5 hours LOL. Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 10Feb 20, 2016 12:02 am Places we incurred extra charges were: 1200 feature pivot front door Render Upgraded brick to front of house Upgraded roof tiles Upgraded laminate by half a category Upgraded carpet underlay Upgraded stone to cat 3 (or 5 undecided yet LOL) Added overhead cupboards Increased ceiling height to 2550 Increased door height Added cavity sliders to pantry and ensuite Added hinged doors to rumpus Increased window size Added window splash back Upgraded stairs Zoned heating Evap cooling About 17 additional power points Additional junction boxes for future external lights and future downlights Provision for split system Extended garage Extended alfresco Put in oven/microwave tower Made ensuite vanity double and extended shower Upgraded taps/basins/shower heads Lots of data points Provision for alarm Garage door motorised Tiled shower bases Tiled recess to showers Facade upgrade Stacker door Laundry cabinetry Under stair storage Capped water point to fridge space Capped gas to outside for bbq Just wanted to point out that there are a lot of things that you may not have thought of. A lot can be done post handover though, especially electrical wise in a single story. That got us a bit because we are doing double we really have to get it right now as it will be quite hard to do later!! Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 11Feb 20, 2016 12:25 am How much was all the extra bit there that you done? Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 12Feb 20, 2016 9:45 am HatlessChimp Only thing is do JG King use Metal frames? I'm not a fan of metal frames. I'm hoping the Bushfire 12.5 can be removed by applying or something. Also our parents have the block next door so we are open to having the house more open to the west also it gives us a little privacy fro the all the neighbors at the back. I was just reading the productriviews for Simonds. Looks like i am going to have to get them to put in detail everything thats happen to the house in the contract and use an independent inspector. Lucky for me I will be living next door to the house has its getting built. Everyday I can check on it. How much did you pay in extra stuff at the color appointments and stuff afterwards? Yes. JG King do use steel frames - but I think it is something that more people should look into. Steel frames are stronger and straighter than timber frames, and have the added bonus of not being affected by termites or timber movements. From experience, the only downside is that wifi speed can sometimes be affected, but I consider that a minute issue in comparison to steel's advantages (we included data points in each of the bedrooms and living spaces to compensate for any potential loss of wifi speed) We ended up spending an additional $50K on top of our base price, including site costs. Our range (Allure) is very highly spec'd, so we didn't need to add much, but we did add a few luxury items including vinyl plank flooring and a gas log fireplace. Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 13Feb 21, 2016 12:28 am We spoke to a salesman today and got a rough quote drawn up. Things became a bit clearer for us. We have assessed it and made notes now we have to go back again and get it amended and see what we have again. I can easily see 3 goes at it if not more. The thing that concerned me is the Simonds Gallery. I don't know what we need to put in the contract and what can wait till the gallery. Thats the fustrating thing. Also the sale pack we got included a few things but we were told it didn't include raising the ceiling height but when I read through the pack closer it is an option we can pick and shouldn't be outside the pack. Anyways things like cupboards are weird. Obviously there are different types and who knows what they cost. Brick colors etc. So when do we have a tangible quote/contract to take to my bank so they can approve the loan? Is the contract not valid till after we have done the gallery appointment? Its the only thing that confuses me. Cheers for the help Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 14Feb 21, 2016 8:08 am Yes, you will do your gallery visit and finalise everything and then you will have a contract signing appointment. Once that is signed you submit it to the bank. The contract is subject to finance so there is no need to worry about signing it before taking it to the bank. Building Simonds Express Westbury Premium in Vic 2015 / 2016 Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 15Mar 02, 2016 2:35 pm Something to consider when weighing up timber vs steel frames, is that modern timber manufacturing machine-grades, kiln dries and treats timber to be extremely stable and termite resistant compared to the past, where it was common to use 'green' timbers. Timber also has superior thermal resistance properties than steel, just compare your wooden spoons to metal when left near the stove! Happy to help with technical and general advice on indoor and outdoor structural timber. Call us on 1300 304 963 or email info@hyne.com.au Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 16Mar 22, 2016 11:32 pm Are you sure you're dealing with Simonds chimp? They're completely transparent with their costs. There are a lot of us here on the forum who've built with them and none of us have complained about value for money or cost transparency. Re: First Home Build - Mt Duneed / Villawood - Thinking Simo 17Sep 06, 2016 8:32 pm Hello we are considering building for the very first time with Porter Davis at Mt Duneed. Are the site costs expensive - does it vary from builder? How much is reasonable ? 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