Hickinbotham Homes in SA

Hi Mel,

We built in mawson Lakes so we had to have a large portico so instead of having a balcony we chose to have a parents retreat.

We added some pillars inside the house, moved the front half out to make bigger rooms....not that they needed to be any bigger!

Added a spa upstairs in the main bedroom.

If you look on google maps the house address is 14 Mapleton cct Mawson Lakes.

My brothers house...they really did a bad job on that. Foundations in the wrong position, stairs in the wrong position that was the start and it just go worse from there.

We subdivided the land that we have just built on so we will build next door and rent this one out. We are doing this so that we can claim primary place of residence at any time in the future and not pay capital gains tax....conditions apply of course.

We are now looking for the next property to develop but it is hard to find a property with a 20mt frontage as a minimum.

Regards Rick.

Hi Rick
Wow the house sounded great and it must have been huge!
That,s terrible about your brothers house....did it work out ok in the end?
Good luck with building again and finding another block....sounds like you,ll be very busy!
Cheers Mel

OOO MMM GGG !!! It gives me the heeby jeebies when i read about everyones problems with hickies(we are sitll in pre-construction stage- signed contract in dec'08) One major advantage i have is that we are living in a massive shed onsite, so we will be able to keep an eye on things all day and every day of construction (will it ever happen?????). And my fella is a pretty ssccccary looking guy, too. (i'll have to keep him hidden until my "good cop" thing doesnt work-then i can let him out and do the "bad cop" thing(he he))

BRING IT ON!!!!!! please?????

we are in the final stages of building with Hickinbotham. In my opinion i would stay well clear from them, every thing was a right stuff up at every stage. The bank on refused payment many times due to poor workmanship and hickies refused to do anything about it. We are seek legal advice now.

Hi Everyone,
Im a first time user of this web site. My partner and I are looking at building with Hickinbotham and I would love to hear any feedback people are willing to share. We are looking at the Inverness design. We have a 2.5 acre block of land in Lewiston SA.
Thanks

hi IanandBec, i am building with hickies near Two Wells. The pre-construction stage took forever but that was no fault of hickies. It was held up by the subdivision process (looooong stooooory!!!!!!!!) Let me tell you though that when they start they go so quick.We have just had the brickwork completed(slab was laid early september),so bring on the interior-woohoo! On a bit of a down note we just had an independent building inspector in and there are a few issues with the frame & brickwork that needs to be fixed before anything else can happen but once these have been done then the next stage will start. Hickies have been very good overall, but I strongly recommend getting a Building Inspector in at each stage. The council did the slab & septic inspection,and also the framework,though the council werent as thorough as the B.I.
How far are you into construction? I hope all goes well for you!!

Hi Issyjo,

Thanks for your comments. At least they arent too negative, I have been concerned with all the negative comments about them on here. We are about to sign contract this Sunday 25th before the price rise. Im a little nervous but also very excited. I look forward to posting more as we progress and look forward to hearing about your house as it progresses too.

Hi IanandBec, I looked up the Inverness house plan and it looks great!! Actually, my 'other 1/2' likes it better than ours-DOH! I'm building the Hamilton Alfresco with a few modifications. One of my tips would be to think how your furniture will be layed out in your house. eg- the bedroom next to the lounge in my layout had the walkin robe in a corner position so there wouldn't be a 'usable' corner in that room. I swapped the position of the robe and the storage room and then replaced the hinged bedroom door with a sliding door. It makes more walls to butt furniture up against. I also moved the loungeroom door closer to the study wall to make more wall space.Another thing i changed was with the laundry- I replaced the sliding door with a hinged door and then pushed the laundry trough right up aginst the wall. I cant stand that poxy space between the trough and sliding doors in laundries-SO HARD TO KEEP CLEAN! I was really happy about what my footings cost finally came to-only a few thousand over their original quote. I've read in this forum that some people ended up paying up to 30grand more for their footings than originally quoted-ouch. Touch wood that my relatively good run with the big H keeps going!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Everyone,

Well we are all signed up and have changed a few things in house so we are happy with final plan.
We went and had a look at house that will be on display at freeling and still love it! Also went to our block today and we have fencing and a crossover (cement between our block and road). We will have a circle driveway because we will have so much room. Also, does anyone know about going to colour selection with hickies, do you have to choose then and there or can you come away and think about it?
Our house plans are viewable at link below.
Enjoy


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Hi I&B, You only get 1 appointment with colour selections but I went in there a couple of times before mine to have a good look at everything they have. They dont have any prices until you go in for your appt so do your homework by getting your own prices of the things in your colour selections book (i googled everything). Then you atleast have some idea on where your $$ are best spent. I found I could get some of the upgrades cheaper elsewhere but then you have to find out how much delivery & installation would be on top. The colour selections person will give you prices of upgrades on the day but if you can't decide there and then you should be able to go home and confirm or change what decisions you had made. When you get the final paperwork to sign make sure you check, then double check everything, even item codes because once youv'e signed thats it! (even if they mucked up a code number its bad luck) Good luck and have fun,they are quite nice & helpful people in there.

Ola.. I & B....just been reading your posts, we are also building in Lewiston and signed our contract with Statesman about the same time as you, have you heard anything since????????????????????????????? have you had your selection brochure????

Hi,
We have had a couple of developments. Our land has finally settled after much running around to banks and a few tears shed. We rec'd out colour selection brochure today. Have just been through it and i think we have chosen most things! This was actually easy, we agreed on most things! We have upgraded a few things that we think will make life nicer! Fingers crossed they go out to do soil test by next week.
We went out to our block on weekend and people across the road have a frame up. Im a little jealous of them. Its nice to know that we arent going to be the only ones living there in 12m. So far there isnt any other signs of building on any other block. Mind you there are only 20 blocks in our estate.
Oh yeah, off the subject off houses. I also had an argument with a sign post in my car and am probably now up for a new bonnett. The crash repairer that was recommended to us cant fix it until after xmas. So i have to put up with looking at it for another few weeks.
Thats all for now. How is everyone else progressing?
Bec

Hi I & B, What estate are you in in Lewiston? (I sold up in the top part of Lewiston to fund my new build in Two Wells) and I still cruise all the streets of Angle Vale, Lewiston, Virginia, Two Wells, etc checking out all the houses even though mine is just about at hand-over stage. Can I ask you what hot water service you chose?

Hey,
We are in Hayman Estate, just off Frost Road. Havent chosen hot water service yet. Will do all colour selections after xmas. Im in the middle of doing tonnes of research and price comparisons! We rec'd our colour selection brochure last week.
Wow handover, that seemed to go fast. Im sure it was slow for you though! Where in Two Wells are you? I have friends in Tangari Estate.
Bec

Hi I&B,I am just west of you. I ride my horse through your estate quite often.I gathered from your last post thats where you are.(I've been riding my nag all around here for the past 10 years so I've got to know Lewiston/2Wells like the back of my hand!!) The fairmont house is pumping,hey!Have you got your "ok to start" date yet?

Hi,
Yeah its a nice Estate, i wanted neighbours but not to live on top of each other so this was perfect!
That Fairmont house is certainly coming on, i think they are a couple possibly mid 40's - 50. To me that is the perfect neighbour! I havent met them yet but really want to. Their house looked so tiny when it was just the slab, but now that they have frame it looks heaps bigger. Bedrooms look rather small though, but if they havent got kids at home i guess it doesnt really matter.
Nope, no ok to start date yet, im hoping to get that early in new year. However, the Inverness which we are building, is going to be open for display at Freeling as of 2nd Jan, so i cant wait to go and have a good look thru! Right now im just getting some prices together for comparison. How much did you upgrade and did you choose different brand appliances, rather than using just Westinghouse?
Bec

Hi all,
i'm building with Hickinbotham up at The Settlement (Golden Grove). San Marino Alfresco MK2, with a few alterations.

Signed the house off in July 2009. Slab went down in Nov, frames went up just b4 christmas, tiles up early Jan 2010. Bricks almost done at this point in time. Called them up, they said no eta completion date yet, call back in 6 weeks and they will give me a eta on completion date.

anyone built or building with them?

i believe that the quality of the house that u build generally depends on your contractors. lucky dip i guess.... sigh. anyway, touch wood, i'm happy so far.

Hi nzoptom, Welcome to the forum! I am with Hickies, building the "Hamilton Alfresco". My slab went down end of August and hand-over was meant to be 22nd December, but we didn't accept it (a few hiccups which will be rectified soon). We are living on-site which makes it so much easier to keep an eye on them. And yes, it is pot luck which tradies you get, some are good but some leave a lot to be desired! It gets me why certain tradespeople do such a crappy job then get cranky when called back to fix what they should have done properly in the first place. Ive heard horror stories not only about most mainstream builders but also boutique builders as well! It really is a lucky (or unlucky) dip on which tradies your allocated, so you have to rely on your SS to do the right thing and make sure all is done properly!!!!!!!!!! Happy (hopefully) building! Issy
PS- I strongly advise you to get an independent building inspector in (if you haven't already) when your brickwork is done and before the gyprock has started. It seems like an expensive outlay but it could be well worth your while!

How much is an indepedent building inspector? And do we need to let hickinbotham know?

They reckon it will be all finished 6 weeks after the kitchen goes in

I paid $1,100 for brickwork, frame and roof. I had to pay a bit extra because I live outside the metro area. I know it sounds like alot but when you think of the hundreds of thousands of dollars you are investing in your house it is well worth spending the extra $ to make sure it is done right! I am glad we did because there were a few concerns, with the frame in particular, that had to be attended to (and they did). I strongly advise getting someone in before the internal walls go up so they can see the frame. Let Hickies know when you are intending to get it inspected, and ask for a copy of your 'wall frame layout' and your 'roof layout'. Your inspector will need this when he/she goes to do the inspection.