Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 08, 2017 2:15 pm Hi, I can't believe I haven't seen this forum before. Could have come in handy. Hubby and I are just about to build our first home and have had a very odd experience for the whole time. We started talking to a consultant at Homestart a year and a half ago and she kept throwing ideas and suggestions at us while constantly telling us to save, save, save. She then left and we were passed to another consultant who had us in and initial design and the home deposit paid within a week (Feb 2016). We then met the developer about 3 weeks later and then had nearly 2 months before we got paperwork to pay the land deposit. It's been a strange process waiting for the pre-approval stage and titles to be released before we could go to pre-start and have only just completed this a few weeks ago. We finally got our Formal Approval (from Keystart) on Friday afternoon (wonderful way to start the long weekend:))). Has anyone else had a similar experience to this or am I right in thinking this is a very weird way to go about it all? We are now just waiting the paperwork for finance to arrive in the post so that we can sort that out but am not getting any sort of timeline as to when construction is likely to start or what (if any) steps now need to be taken. Any advice, suggestions or help would be appreciated. We are both really excited to start this next phase of our lives but are both a bit confused by it all. TIA Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 2Mar 09, 2017 9:04 am Congratulations on inching closer to building! Sounds like it's been a long process but now the loan has been approved I'm sure things will start ticking along. We didn't do our pre-start meeting until after the loan was formally approved although we did get offered the chance to. I wonder if they don't like doing pre-start before titles in case any lines were discontinued by their suppliers or they switch suppliers in the interim. I know titles can be delayed and it can turn into a lengthy process. Did they at least give you a pre-start book of some kind so you could at least start making choices? As for a timeline, you won't get that until after scheduling is complete. We didn't know when out build was starting until last week and earthworks started yesterday! Good luck with it all! Our build thread with Smart Homes for Living in Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=86092 Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 3Mar 09, 2017 10:22 am Thanks SilentBob. It's slowly getting there. We did get a Folder when we signed the plans (in Feb last year) and that helped. We had a rough idea of what colour schemes we wanted in certain rooms so we were able to pick tiles and cabinets to suit the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen. The only thing that's really painful is the house comes with carpet and vinyl instead of carpet and tiles, but we can always pull up the vinyl later and tile it. We've only put down carpet in the master bedroom and lounge and have put vinyl everywhere else. I'll be turning our front room into an office/nail salon so that I can work on clients from home without risking nail products ending up in our carpet. Thankfully Homestart is owned by BGC so we hopefully don't have to worry too much about most materials being discontinued. Hopefully we get our last lot of paperwork (the stuff from Keystart is now all we're missing) today and then we can finalise that and we're done. Thanks Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 4Mar 09, 2017 10:54 am These are our house plans. We've had to make the wall for the 2 bedrooms and bathroom flush due to a sewer easement under the block but we don't mind because we wanted a yard and as you can see we've got quite a decent one for a 'city block'. We also wanted something simple that suits us. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/sharilan/Our%20house/Final%20plans.png We ended up upgrading our carpet and underlay and decided to go with a nice grey (the top one) for the lounge and master bedroom. Vinyl everywhere else except the bathrooms and laundry. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/sharilan/Our%20house/1e0eb68b-737e-4793-bc39-e4a4d6dc3e9b.jpg Because we only got vinyl in the package we thought we'd go with a nice stone effect http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/sharilan/Our%20house/Vinyl.jpg For the ensuite we've gone with simple ice white floor tiles, marble accent tile and matte white for the rest with a blue benchtop and white cabinets. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/sharilan/Our%20house/Ensuite.jpg The main bathroom is a bit darker with black slate floor tiles, matte white for everything else and a black feature tile and red benchtop with white cabinets. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/sharilan/Our%20house/Bathroom%20tiles.jpg We had to change to the contemporary elevation as the developer (Terranovis) said the house size wasn't big enough for the block and after saying no way because we had to make the house smaller due to the sewer easement, they were happier with the new elevation instead. That is an extra cost (but a damn site less than the extra 50 square meter's they wanted) and because of that they dropped some of the block (so we still ended up saving $3k) http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/sharilan/Our%20house/20160219_113439.jpg Am getting really excited now that it's all happening. Now it's just that painful wait while the final paperwork is sorted with Keystart so that they can start the construction phase. Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 5Mar 09, 2017 11:37 pm Nice selections and a huge backyard there! Sounds like it won't be long until you start getting towards the construction phase now! Our build thread with Smart Homes for Living in Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=86092 Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 8Apr 04, 2017 9:38 am Well everything is now done and sorted! Settlement was last week. And after nearly a week of no contact I emailed our Contract Administrator who informed me the file is with the construction team and we should have Earthworks completed just after East and the slab down before end of the month. YAY!!!! Can't wait. Bit disappointed with the lack of information though. At every stage it's been "someone will be in touch" and then nothing until either I follow it up or they realise they need something. I really think they need to let people know what the processes are and at what point things happen! If we do a feedback sheet I will be bringing it up that it's a bit ridiculous that people aren't told what happens when. Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 10Apr 24, 2017 10:35 am Siteworks started last Wednesday and to end an absolutely horrible week at work I went past yesterday to discover that our slab has already been laid! So hopefully the rest of the build goes just as quick. One of the other houses on our street was at the same point 3 weeks ago and they're almost 3/4's of the way through the construction of the external walls. Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 11Apr 24, 2017 11:29 am Denea Siteworks started last Wednesday and to end an absolutely horrible week at work I went past yesterday to discover that our slab has already been laid! So hopefully the rest of the build goes just as quick. One of the other houses on our street was at the same point 3 weeks ago and they're almost 3/4's of the way through the construction of the external walls. Conslabulations! Our build thread with Smart Homes for Living in Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=86092 Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 13Apr 24, 2017 12:20 pm Congrats on things moving along! Nice selections for the interior. I hope you see your choices come to life soon. Re: Building first home with Homestart in Brabham 15Jul 07, 2017 11:02 am So we are now just awaiting our windows and doors for the lockup phase. Roof tiles are on, internal walls have plumbing, electrical wiring embedded, render and the ceilings have been done throughout. Though the house across the street hasn't yet got windows and doors, they do have cabinets and some more advanced plumbing, and the fencing has commenced. Which is a bit odd. But at least the roof is up and sorted now that the horrible weather is hanging around, it shouldn't affect the rest of the house progressing. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27689 Can anyone give me any onfo on New Homes WA? Good or bad, hopefully good just need to know if my choice was good or not? Thanks ❤️ 0 8936 That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I do enjoy watching that tik tok inspector from Victoria but he does go a little… 12 81883 |