Inspired Homes/Como Homes - Handover

Long time lurker, first time poster.

My hubby and I (and our almost 2 year old) bought some land in the outer east last year and are waiting for it to settle in September (or October or November based on previous releases settlement) and are getting to the pointy end of selecting a builder. We are tossing up between Yarrabank Homes, Inspired Homes and Rawdon Hill. Inspired is our preferred choice but we are not quite at a point where we want to sign the contract just yet - hopefully in the next few weeks!

Our land has a 2.8m slope from back to front across the whole lot. It is a corner block which is great and we are hoping to build and maximise the land as-is rather than trying to fully flatten it. With Yarrabank we have discussed a large split level (6 stairs), Rawdon have suggested 1m cut and fill across the building envelope for one small split (3 stairs) and the garage sunken down as well and Inspired would ideally like to build flat so it all just plays into the decision as to who we build with.

I am a bit of a 'sharer' and don't know many people who have built so this blog will be a way for me to get things out of my head - it always helps to write everything down.

Hi to anyone who reads and definitely open to all comments and feedback on anything good and bad.

Edit to add timeline

23/07/2018 - site cut
25/07/2018 - set out
26/07/2018 - piers
30/07/2018 - underground electrical
31/07/2018 - drains
24/08/2018 - slab start
29/08/2018 & 31/08/2018 - slab pour
07/08/2018 - frame delivery, site clean up
17/09/2018 - frame start
26/09/2018 - steel install
01/10/2018 - trusses
09/10/2018 - facia and gutter
17/10/2018 - roof tiles
24/10/2018 - plumbing rough in
01/11/2018 - wrapping
10/11/2018 - windows
17/11/2018 - bricks
17/11/2018 - electrical rough in
24/11/2018 - insulation
30/11/2018 - lock up invoice
01/12/2018 - render
10/12/2018 - plaster
23/12/2018 - cornices and skirting
14/01/2019 - cabinetry
17/01/2019 - fixing invoice
19/01/2019 - bricks to alfresco
26/01/2019 - stairs
26/01/2019 - additional render
09/02/2019 - scaffolding down
09/02/2019 - locked out
16/02/2019 - paint
25/02/2019 - tiling
04/03/2019 - electrical
11/03/2019 - garage door
03/04/2019 - PCI
12/04/2019 - fencing starts
16/04/2019 - carpet
22/04/2019 - vinyl tiles
06/05/2019 - fencing completed
06/05/2019 - driveway pour
07/05/2019 - Certificate of Occupancy
10/05/2019 - hand over and move in!

Speak to actual clients who have built with your chosen builder, this way you will get a realistic picture of what you can expect, and learn learn learn so you have knowledge of what's going on and get a inspector, one whom also does pre contract inspections, so your stage payments are accurate, not heavily loaded up early, most HIA contracts heavily favour builders, good luck.

Thanks Joker I really appreciate the advice. We were already thinking of an independent inspector as we have no idea what to look for. and the pre-contract is a great idea.

One of the builders on our short list doesn't take people on walk through's of current builds. Not sure if that's a deal breaker. Is it normal to ask to contact previous clients or do you just do some down low spy work and try to find people who have built with the builder and ask their opinion?

Hello, it's me again. We have chosen our builder - Inspired Homes. They will create the design and then subcontract out to Arden Homes to do the build. We love the finishings in both companies display homes and inclusions and are really happy with our choice. We have a floor plan design meeting with Inspired next Thursday to get the ball rolling.

I have seen a thread on Arden here so I will take some time to read through.

Very exciting

So .. 4 days after we pay our deposit to the builder we find out that our land settlement has been delayed until Feb or March next year. No need to stress just yet, we need to start building by June 2018 to avoid late fees and it gives us more time to come up with our floor plan and colours. Just breathe and relax..

Had our floor plan design meeting with Inspired today. It went really well! Our land is tricky - 430sqm or so and 2.8m of fall across the block. We managed to fit 4 bedrooms, 2 living areas and a small alfresco in without having to add retaining walls to the property. Next meeting will be to fully finalise the plan and come up with a front facade. Very exciting!

Floor plan finalised today. We added windows to the rooms and a door to the laundry. Moved the fridge into the pantry and added some insulation to the walls on BR2 to buffer sounds from the toilet and bathroom. We also came up with the front facade which will also have corner treatment for our lovely corner block.

Next step is we are passed over from Inspired Homes to Arden and we begin thinking about colours. We have a colour browse of their showroom booked in August.

exciting! Worth checking out beaumont tiles and just the various websites suppliers when you get a chance. Ardens showroom is quite small (in comparison to the big guys like M and PD)

Yes good advice thank you! We will definitely do so but have no real idea of colour schemes yet. I'm hoping the colour browse gives us some inspiration to then go and do the investigation.

Yup once they go through they try to help you put together a colour scheme. We just picked alot of ours from the displays hehe

Just a little update. We had our colour browse at the Arden show room last week and left more confused than when we went in. Lots of Googling, trawling Houzz etc and finally have some inspiration. White bench tops and cupboards with a neutral glass splash back with LED strip lighting and then a dark melamine on the back of the island to give a little depth and pop. Belga grey tiles for flooring and a dark grey carpet. We'll continue the theme into the bathroom and laundry with white bench tops and dark cupboards .. probably a light tile in the showers and maybe a pop of colour with the feature tile. I'm liking neutral colours as we can always chop and change things with coloured furnishings. Walls to be a warm white. Will be going to my friends flooring shop tomorrow to check out what they can do for us. Colour appointment is in about 3 weeks.

Meanwhile our land is still being worked on, we didn't drive by last week but the week before they were putting in draining for our street and have been working on our retaining walls for a while. Out toddler loooves seeing all the tractors.

Had our colour and electrical appointment today. I went in expecting it to be full on as we were not sure on a lot of choices but we were done and dusted in 5 hours. The staff member helping us was amazing!! And I'm actually very happy with our choices and she seemed to be too. She didn't seem like the kind of person who would hold back on advising if something was not going to look right and she didn't do it with us too much.

I have put together a few extremely basic collages to upload here but I'm sure those of you who are building will know colours and choices inside.

Facade:


Austral bricks - Redgum
Roof tiles - CSR Monier Elebana in Sambucca
Gutters, facia, garage door, window frames - Colourbond Monument
Render on facade - Dulux Endless Dusk and Western Myall

Kitchen:

Flooring - Polyflor 600 x 600 vinyl tiles in Light Grey Concrete
Benchtops - Ceaserstone Organic White
Overhead cupboard and drawers next to cooktop - Polytec Polar White
Rear of island bench (under breakfast bar section - Polytec Black Wenge
Glass splash back with a slight blue/green tinge to it and LED strip lighting along the bottom of the overhead cupboards

Bathrooms and Powder:


Benchtops - Ceaserstone Intensive White
Flooring and bath hob - Beaumont Belga Grey 450 x 450
Shower tiling - Beaumont Spacial White Gloss
Feature tile between sinks and mirrors - Beaumont Mosaic Broadway Squares
Standard fittings and taps etc
Lower cupboards - Polytec Black Wenge

We have continued the same theme in to the laundry with a white laminate bench top, white overhead cupboards and Black Wenge lower cupboards. Squared chrome handles for all cupboards, except overheads will be handle-less

Flooring throughout will be the Beaumont Belga Grey in the wet areas, a dark grey carpet (external supplier) in the bedrooms and the vinyl tile mentioned above in the remainder of the house.

Paint will be Dulux Lexicon Half throughout

We have our electrical plan and I will be running this past my electrician friend to see what we need Arden to do and what he can do for us after handover. We have also asked them to quote a driveway for us but from reading the main Arden thread they are super expensive. I like the look of printed/stenciled concrete so we will get some quotes.

We have tender in 2 weeks so I will post a full list of upgrades then.

Thanks for reading this far!

Great choices Clareymoo! Some the same as ours. Caeserstone intensive white must be a new colour? Exciting!

Thank you!

Yes it is a new one, has a slight fleck through it but mostly white.

Sent our floor plan to Archilogic and get a 3d model back. Coolest website ever! Been playing a bit with the furniture but with a toddler in the house free time to really set it up is .. non-existant

Playing around with the Austral Bricks website visualiser. Good way to spend a Sunday afternoon getting an idea of what our facade might look like.

Had our tender appointment today. Was a good day and the lady presenting to us was great. It was actually amusing to hear her tone switch from presenter to casual and back again so often Ended up sending her off to re-do the tender document about 5 times and came out with $67,000 worth of upgrades and additional costs (our site costs take a good $50k chunk of this and Inspired Homes offer is $15k of upgrades of choice so just a $15k credit added). I'll list our upgrades below and happy to share prices if anyone is curious.

Nib wall to the garage as it will be built on the boundary line
S type gutter for the same above reason
Recycled water connection
Velux skylight w plaster lined shaft to kitchen
Awning windows to bedrooms only
Double cavity sliding doors between main living area and kids zone
Sliding cavity door to ensuite (original floor plan has no door)
Hinged door to WIR (floor plan had no door)
Downgrade to laundry door, now just a plain timber door with window
Privacy looks to bathrooms and powder room
Sound proof insulation batts to bathroom/laundry walls that share walls with bedrooms/living areas
Heating vents to both bathrooms
Added a basin, mirror etc to toilet to create a powder room
Electrical upgrades
Overhead cabinets to laundry
Extended bench top in laundry
Rebate to overhead cupboards in kitchen to accommodate LED strip lighting
Sheen finish to kitchen cupboards
Upgrade kitchen bench tops to cat2 stone
Waterfall edges to island bench
Starfire glass splash back
Additional linen cupboard in entry hallway
Shelving set in WIR
Niches in showers
Upgraded tiles in showers and laundry splash back & labour costs for selected tiles
Upgraded feature tiles in bathrooms and powder - mosaic style
Flue range hood to outside rather than roof space

Phew what a list! And then we have to think about permits, our flooring done by someone else, landscaping, driveway, blinds, fencing, cooling, security doors, independent inspections, new furniture .. the list never ends!

Dear Clareymoo sent you a PM to check some pricing thanks heaps

Hi - how much did they charge for flue range hood to outside - thanks