JG King Lexington 240 - In!

Inspired by others here is our build.

we are building our first House though JG King

it's the Lexington 240.
No structural Changes to try and keep time line down but changing up Interior.


we are building on an acerage block near Nagambie.

The process has been pretty good so far other than slow permits as we were not told by council requirements and the environmental Engineer only works a couple days a week!.

Rough timeline

31/5/16 Settlement of block (with Planning Permit attached)
31/8/16 Signed contracts with JG King
24/11/16 Final quotes for bank
23/1/17 Unconditional Finance approved
17/3/17 Land Capability Assessment
29/3/17 Septic Permit
11/4/17 Building Permit
20/4/17 Site Scrape
3/5/17 3 Phase Power run in
3/5/17 Driveway run in
5/5/17 Boxing and waffle pods set
8/5/17 Slab Down
18/5/17 frame started
25/5/17 Frame up
25/5/17 Windows in
30/5/17 Wrapped
1/6/17 Gutters/Fascia
7/6/17 Roof Rail
9/6/17 Roof up
14/6/17 Power rough in
14/6/17 plumbing/gas rough in
14/6/17 Solar panels on roof
15/6/17 Ducting rough in
16/6/17 Batts in walls and stashed in roof
20/6/17 plaster delivered
21/6/17 plaster started
22/6/17 Water run in
26/6/17 bricks started
28/6/17 Lockout invoice
3/7/17 bricks done
4/7/17 plaster done
5/7/17 Kitchen started
21/7/17 skirting finished
21/7/17 inside doors hung
21/7/17 stone benchtops complete
21/7/17 kitchen sink installed
21/7/17 Fix out invoice
24/7/17 Paint started
15/8/17 Paint Finished
18/8/17 Tiling started
29/8/17 Tiling finished
31/8/17 plumbing and Electricity fix out
31/8/17 Stove installed and gas tested
31/8/17 Antenna installed
31/8/17 Render started
9/9/17 Render completed
9/9/17 Door knobs installed
15/9/17 Shelving installed
15/9/17 Mirrors installed
15/9/17 Splashback installed
21/9/17 Sewerage treatment plant installed
3/10/17 external concrete
3/10/17 range hood installed
12/10/17 internal clean
12/10/17 caulking
16/10/17 external paint started
16/10/17 PCI
31 Oct 17 handover!!!!!!!


Frame is already done and just waiting on Shipping hoping to be up next week
Aiming For Oct Move in...(yeah right)

Upgrades/Downgrades

450 MM eaves
Split 1 linen cupboard to 1/2 broom/Shelves
Security Door for Front Door
Security Door for Sliding Door in Lounge (these 2 as we have no close neighbors can open up house and let fresh air in)
Security Door for Laundry Door (to turn into a airing room)

Lockable Knobs on All Toilets
Sliding Door for Study
Sliding Door for "living room"
Sliding Door for Pantry
Shelf Tower with 4x draws and 3 shelves to the WIR for the non Master bedrooms

40 mm Stone Edging Kitchen
2x 40 mm Waterfalls in Kitchen
Cold Water point for Fridge
Pull out Chrome Mixer Kitchen
Delete 2x 600 mm Ovens and 900mm Stove top
Add Stand Alone Smeg gas/electric cooker
Matching Exposed Smeg Rang Hood (quietest one we could find specs for)
Delete Handles on overhead Cupboards

Now for the Controversial bit.
Delete Butlers Kitchen
Replace with just shelving

40mm edging For Ensuite
Wall Cavity for Shower Ensuite
Shower rail upgraded to twin unit for ensuite(overhead and hand heads)
40mm edging For Main Bathroom
Wall Cavity for Shower Main Bathroom
Shower rail upgraded to twin unit for Main Bathroom(overhead and hand heads)
40mm Edging Powder room
1800mm overhead Cupboards in Laundry
No Handles for overhead Cupboards in Laundry
14 extra power points
Heat Lamp/fan for Main and Ensuite
2x extra lights over Kitchen Island
Delete Gas Heating
Add 22kw Ducted Refrigerated Reverse Cycle AirCond/Heater
400l Solar Boosted Hot Water
Extra Paving In front of carport






Sewerage Treatment Plant (provided by us not builder)

SO first Pics From the Site Scrape and the Screw Piers in:

Busy Bee's
3 bob cats, 2 diggers, Electricians and the rock delivery all at the same time!

Getting ready for Concrete:

driveway beginning

Slab being Laid.

and the awful view we will have out the master bed room window of a morning.....bit different than the inner city I've had for past 12 years

You have a beautiful spot! Congrats on the slab down! You're lucky to have your frame ready to go! We had a month between slab and frame due to factory delays and a bit of bad weather.

What facade did you choose?

There's no too many JG Kings on here at the moment, I look forward to following your build!

We actually stuck with the allora as it had the most Country Vibe to it.

rest were looking a bit modern for what we plan to do landscaping wise.

Very lucky on frame as they ordered it prior to the delays with the Septic permit, so it's sitting there ready to go with the foreman calling our SS weekly asking when to ship.


My Drone arrived today so hoping to get a few Aerial shots this weekend and so we can start planning our the garden. and the trees...sooo many trees

Howdy fellow Lexington builder

I hope you guys have a smooth and happy build. If there is anything I can share with you, feel free to ask.

Which model smeg rangehood did you pick? And what solar hot water did you upgrade to?

Nico

went with the K24x90
44-60 db depending on setting

as the other 900 mm was a flat volue of 58db

this way can leave on low and should be not heard over TV.

HWS not sure on brand but as we don't have mains gas we had to go with Electric so they suggested this model..having to trust them as that was an area I knew nothing out.

But considering our previous one was 45L anything is an improvement.

just curious how often others hear from their SS

over 2 weeks for me now and only as they wanted to arrange the drive way


was told we were going to get weekly updates at start but yeah...

gather we should be more pushy?

more so as it over 100 km away so we cannot check it often?

The only call we have received was the first one. All other contact has been by us, they have always called back or responded to texts quickly though. We have initiated a fair bit of contact so it's hard to know if they would have given us an update had we not been asking questions.

yeah I was thinking when we were told we would get weekly updates would step back and give them the space to get it done...

starting to think time to be more proactive.

only reason we knew slab was getting poured was Wifes friend works for the concrete company and let us know

get the bill for the slab prior to letting us know it was getting poured


hoping when we swing by on the weekend that the frame is onsite.

will be asking them for more info shortly


thanks for the similar info however.

We could have easily missed our pour too! I ran into our base SS a few days before it was done and he indicated it would be end of the week if we were lucky, probably the following week. Then the day before the pour we saw the concretors working so we rang SS to see when it would be ready to inspect and he said the truck is booked for the morning! Our site had dried out quicker than others so I think we were bumped up. If we hadn't called the first we would have known was the invoice!

We've just hit 2 months onsite and the frame still isn't complete. It was meant to be finished last Friday, then they were meant to be back today, but they weren't

In our 6 month build we got called by the SS maybe 4 times. It was only when the SS wanted something that he called us.

Most calls and SMS went unanswered. No email was ever answered.

There were no updates on progress nor warnings on invoices. Invoices just arrived via email from head office.

We found more out on our build through the trades and the neighbours.

When I got the keys from the area manager I pointed all this out and he agreed that Kings don't have a good system in this regard and he was trying to get them to change it.

I am pretty sure Symonds and Metricon have apps for their clients and SS to track progress and this is what the area manger wanted to get Kings doing too.

I jealous of these apps, but a lot of the time they don't seem to be displaying the correct info which would do my head in. It's bad a enough that the little bit of info I managed to extract from our SS at our walk through for this week hasn't happened. Don't get me wrong I know building doesn't go to plan and trades don't just turn up because they're booked, but that doesn't make it any easier for my organised brain . The more we think about it, we're pretty sure our previous SS was just trying to stitch the new guy up booking so much this month and telling us "rain, hail, or shine"!

So swung by today,

slab is done and looking good

frame is onsite. will be buzzing my SS to check when it is going up tomorrow!

excited to see frame up

Framers onsite wed!

should be done by tues next week.

so moving nicely.

they also organising the water connections finally
(no idea why they didn't do it when they ran the trench for the power but that's their call.)

Nice! You'll overtake us in no time! No one onsite at ours again today.

Got out again on the weekend. (the joys of it being an hour drive away and it gets dark too early to go on weekdays)

fame is mostly up, just the side of the garage to go.
only a couple mm either over hang or setback anywhere on the slab so seems ok, most is flush however.

Hoping roof trusses up in next couple of days

seems windows arrived late last week as well so they have something to continue on with as well


Hopefully they continue with this having the next thing being delivered as the previous bit of work is done.
Plenty of space to store things so no reason why not.