Simonds Dakota Kilmore

I’m good thanks. Been hibernating somewhat. Kilmore is so cold in the winter!

We had a few issues with our house too but Boutique was pretty good and resolving them. At the back of our house we had some of the mortar seperate from the brick leaving about an 8mm gap due to settling. Bricklayer came by to fill it and also touched up a few other areas. In the garage the ceiling looked to be seperating where the plaster joins together so that was also fixed. And then the big one that we couldn’t believe was the ducting in our study was not connected. Didn’t notice it over winter last year but over summer it was getting pretty hot in there so we got someone in to check why it wasn’t working and they told us it wasn’t even connected! The guy from Boutique was very apologetic about it and organised to get it fixed ASAP. I guess every build has some issues.

I love how the council (I assume) have redone the reserve across from you. Looks very neat. Wish they would build a playground in the estate where the kids can go play.

Paul the new manager of Simonds.. left the Wednesday after coming out to see us, after putting a plan in place. The new manager has put us back to square one to try find the needle in the haystack colour/texture match of our original tiles.. not by contacting us mind you but by having our supervisor show up at our door..Three more tiles delivered and not suprisingly, no match. I could cry....what a waste of time, effort and stress. Looks like our only option left is legal advice and vcat. What faith we had has been Blown through the roof

What a long drawn out process! I can understand your frustration! Hang in there. Hopefully Friday brings some good news.

After a few two and fro negotiations they have brought back their original promise. We are still making sure our 'on the same page' communication is very very clear and in writing (which I HIGHLY recommend for ALL builders... question/answers/promises/agreements have them all in writing so if any staff changes are made you can bring the new person up to speed quickly - they'll appreciate it too) but it is in motion *sigh of relief* we still need to clear up where there has been damages on shower screens, tap wear being installed at different heights, the kitchen bench full of holes, niches being wrong size.. the niches we'd be happy to leave if they meet us in the middle and provide a bath niche which we will contribute to cost wise..warranty excluded as its not in contract but and save the resize of the other two.. we'll see what they think... but with building pains aside, we have really enjoyed the build experience.. it was SO exciting watching our dream become a reality in front of our eyes.. the staff have all been really nice people ( I think people forget that they are 'people' who deserve fair treatment, communication and respect, their workload is enormous across the board at big building companies treating them like people will help make the experience pleasant.. but still keep a copy of communication for human error sake, seriously cant stress this enough lol). Our two staff changes didn't leave Simonds all together we found out when the managers were here, we had to ask.. one is on extended holiday and the other changed department. I was really worried there was something causing a rukkus making staff leave so often but alas we were just unlucky.
All builds have their pains big and small.. you'll find thousands of them from all builders across this forum..but it's all worth it in my opinion. I definitely would still recommend Simonds they have always been approachable and they genuinely want a great outcome..just keep that communication flowing, ask thousands of questions and get a building inspector no matter who you build with for your own peace of mind, they'll pick up on things which would otherwise take months to pick up on.. this was our mistake, we weren't financially able to at the time but if we could do it again we would find a way to have one.
Which house plan are you looking at building??Will you start a build thread?? The homeone forum has been a huge wealth of insight and information for me we have all questioned ourselves, cried, celebrated and shared the awesome emotional rollercoaster of building together haha. It's been great