HBC build - Lakelands

Ive been reading this site for advice and its so wonderful.
Anyway its my time to start my blog.

Back in September 2016 I accidently gave my details to a builder who harassed me until I met with them. They made me realise that building a house wasn't such a hard thing. So I met with their sales guy a few times over the next 2 months. Not the best experience, with him telling me what I can and cant have. Anyway he sent me to 4 different estates to look at land and I wasn't happy with any of the blocks. Near rail roads etc... So I found a block I liked and gave the details to the sales guy so he could put it all in a package for me.

And that's where it ended... I didn't like the house and there wasn't much room in my budget to make things how I like.

I then started searching around and enquired with nearly every builder in Perth. Only 3 builders got back to me with useful information. All ABN Group builders.
The guy from HBC was very informative and found me a house that would fit on that land perfectly (I don't want much garden). As I wanted to keep the land that I had put a deposit on.

I met with the HBC consultant and was very impressed. So I signed up and started on plans.

When I was happy with the plans I was sent to my prestart and that is where the nightmare began.

I found out that if you have an opening window in a toilet or bathroom, you don't get an exhaust fan. If you would like one its an extra $380 each!

I also found out that you pay $10,000 for site works, but if its not a council requirement for soakwells, you get plastic spoon drains and have to pay an additional $4000 for the soakwells to be added.

I also asked for full faced toilets and the Caroma Luna ones that I wanted weren't approved by the construction department. No reason given.

I spent 3 hours at prestart and didn't sign anything as a lot of things weren't finalized.

After prestart I went to Wanneroo blinds to look at upgrades. They are very good there. She took my details and my choices and by Saturday morning I had the quotes in my inbox. I was also told there is an option to pay in installments so that I'm not hit with a huge bill at lock up.

I then went to Trevors carpets and upgraded my carpet and underlay. My carpet costs an extra $23m2 than what was included. and I went for the Gold underlay. You have to put a 30% down and then pay the rest within 3 months.

I then went to Crosby tiles and spent hours getting tile combinations. When I sat down with the consultant, I was told that HBC don't allow full feature walls in the nice tiles (I know they are a special order and cost more but I'm willing to pay extra) My Ensuite shower has a 2.3m long wall and I had images of a feature wall with greys and blues (Hexion Turquoise is the name of the tile) but the consultant told me that if she quotes me on that tile she can lose her job because in her book HBC says that you cant have that. However you can have a feature strip... but I wanted the whole wall. I looked at the other tiles that I could have a feature wall with and they were very boring plain earthy colors so I'm very upset at the moment. I'm trying to find out why.

I also want a light blue splash back in the kitchen... I found some nice feature tiles and same response as above. So I walked out of my tile meeting not having anything signed or quoted (felt like a waste of 3 hours!) not to mention the disappointment as the tiles were what I was looking forward to the most. Has anyone else has issues with their tile selections?

I just feel like I cant have the house how I want it... and kind of wishing I had of gone with a different builder

Anyway I have contacted my Prestart Lady asking for some more information.

I will upload plans later.

The house is called the Bayview




But I have made a few adjustments to it.
-Adjusted the ensuite
-changed the walk in pantry to a scullery
- Removed the Study to extend the living area
- Added a store room at the back of the garage

I had my prestart a few weeks ago and thought I would share with you my upgrades and colour choices.



Roof Cover - Colorbond Basalt


Two Course Bricks - Loongana Limestone - Brikmakers

Main Render - Earth Child - Solver

Planter box render -Low Cloud - Solver

Third Render in lieu of feature brick - Fossil Creek - Solver


Guttering & Fascia - Colorbond Basalt


Exposed beams and steel posts - Southwards - Solver


Front door - Hume XS24 1200mm Merbau with translucent glazing (add $800) with Lockwood Nexion Element Chrome plate (add $100)


Garage door - Cosmopolitan in Colorbond Surfmist

Garage Entry door - Corinthian Doors Impression STA in white delight (solver) (add $100)


Internal Doors - Corinthian Impressions STA in white delight (Solver) (Add $40 per door)
Internal handles - Lockwood velocity series - Element Chrome plate (Add $10 per door)


Windows & Sliding door frames - Anotec Dark Grey

Internal Wardrobe Sliding Doors Bedrooms White frame with White Back Glass. (add $110 per set)


Flooring - Crystal Moods Pensive carpet with Gold Underlay (add $23m2)

European Silver oak timber laminate

Tiles - TBA

Applicances - Westinghouse 900mm Over and hotplate (free upgrade)
Westinghouse slide out rangehood 900mm (add $785)


Kitchen mixer Yukon Gooseneck (free upgrade)

Basins - Caroma Carboni II (add $30 per basin)

Basin Mixers - Stylus Yukon free upgrade

Bath - Base 1560 freestanding (Built into contract)

Bath mixer - Stylus Yukon (add $70)


Showers
Mixer Yukon (add $150 per shower mixer)

Bathroom - Caroma Quatro adjustable shower (add $120)


Ensuite - Caroma Quatro adjustable shower (add $120) and Caroma Quatro Rail shower (add $260)

Accessories - Caroma Cosmo

Laundry Sink Clark Flushline 45L with cupboard and benchtop extenion in laminate - add $1490

Laundry Mixer - Yukon gooseneck free upgrade


Toilets - Stylus Prima II Close coupled

Shower frames - Semi Frameless hobless clear (for both showers add $1050)

Mirrors - Slimline (add $160 per mirror)

Congratulations on the build! I'm building with APG (also part of the ABN group of companies). We had our sales consultant quote a heap of items for us as part of the sales & design process (extra power points, tapware we knew we wanted, carpets and tiling, etc), however, there's always going to be a few bits and pieces that come up through pre-start (ie. we had to pay extra for additional zones for the "included" ducted air conditioning as we added a few extra rooms to our plan).

Here's hoping the rest is smooth sailing! Any idea when they're going to start on site?

Thank you danbiscuit!
Your build looks like its coming along great!

HBC have such good customer service, after my prestart another lady started communicating with me regarding my selections etc, and I now understand why I cant have the nice 300x600mm tiles. Apparently they are a real pain to lay.

I went for a look at some display homes for some inspiration for my tiles and found a theme I really liked. I then went to a different crosby tiles and the lady there was very helpful.

The only huge shock was that I wanted the "Pure White" caesarstone rather than one of the "standard" ones for the kitchen and scullery. But for an extra $3853, I think Im happy to choose a standard one and keep the money in my pocket.

I believe they are going to start on site end of August, they are still waiting for me to sign my final plans and selection.

This is my first time building and its so overwhelming. And because I'm so indecisive I've had to drag a friend along to everything for her opinion.

After a long month of going back and forth trying to get the plans correct, I have been told that the slab will be down in about 4 weeks

Time line


30/08/2017 Earthworks commenced
23/09/2017 Slab laid
03/11/2017 Brickwork completed
18/11/2017 Roof Carpentry completed
29/11/2017 Electrical wiring, plumbing and roof cover done
3/12/2017 Internal Wall rendering completed
10/12/2017 Plastering completed
15/12/2017 Ceiling and cornices installed, windows installed
20/12/2017 Lock up
24/12/2017 Cabinets and sinks are in
12/01/2018 Ceilings painted, front render painted, garage flooring laid
25/01/2018 Tiling has been completed, driveway laid and alfresco pavement laid

Wow you've come a long way already!

I had the same frustrations with tiles - we've spent a fortune upgrading them but I still wasn't able to have the ones I *really* wanted. I had the same experience in Crosby, looking at all the nice feature tiles and then being told you can have a strip of them and that's it. So different from renovating your own place where you can just have whatever you want! We didn't go with Crobsy in the end as I didn't find them helpful and their showroom was overrun with people it was too overwhelming to make any kind of decision.

I hope you are happy with the finished product, your selections look really good!

I did my tile selection at Crosby and they were great, picked whatever we want and just paid the extras for anything non-standard. Are you sure it wasn't the builder limiting what you can do? Crosby would just be telling you what the builder has told them to do.