Building with Hall & Hart Homes

Awesome! Looking great!

My build will soon be finished in a couple of months. I was told i should start looking at driveways/landscaping/fences now so i can book the tradies/builder in before the long Christmas/New Year shutdown.

Anyone got any tradies/builder recommendation for driveways/landscaping/fences?

Is it better to get separate tradies/builder or get one that can manage the whole project?

Which area are you building in? The recommendations would be local.

If you can find 1 tradie to do all 3 then that would be great as bobcats are required for driveway, landscaping and it should work out cheaper from same tradie. There will be soil disposal after driveway and fencing, thus that is another reason for doing it together.

rdcool, fantastic. Congratulations about having your new home soon. Would you be able to move in before Christmas?

Would you be able to share your construction start date and est. finish date?

Hi Jacks, Jane, Zen, MickeyDonald and everyone else - I have paid the tender acceptance and officially joined the club. Excited about the next stage, especially the internal selections.

Regarding kitchen, are you all happy with Smeg or would you be able to share some experience with changing to other models and associated costs?

Congratulations BabyMichelle! Exciting days are coming.

Are you going CDC or DA?

Thanks MickeyDonald, I'm going through DA to achieve required setback all over, since my block is wider in the front.

I'm very excited about the selections

Bit of a request for anyone who has finished their build - can I please ask if you wouldn’t mind taking a photo of the alfresco roof as we’re trying to understand what “standard” is in regards to the finish as apparently it doesn’t include a perimeter beam to keep the weather out even though this is part of both the sienna and Elyse display homes. So a little confused as to how the roof is finished under the gutter. Thanks so much!

My build started in March 18 and hopefully be finished by mid-November.

I am in Willoughby.

Exciting news, babymichelle! Look forward to hearing how your build journey goes!


We decided to go with the standard appliances supplied by HHH.

Update from us - we got our stormwater and sewer costs yesterday and nearly fell off my chair. Was hoping it would come at or under the $25K PA but stormwater is coming at almost $32K! Sewer is also higher than PA at $4.5K As long as we can get council approval with these plans, then I guess it's worth it. jacks, our OSD is higher than @kjanes with 2 x 7500L below ground tanks, we also have 1 x 450mm pit and grate, 2 x 300m pit and grate, 1 x 600mm pit with trash screen, weep holes, hinged grate and geotech bed. I've sent an email to ask where these pits are being located and where these tanks will be buried. Our landscape plans didn't need to be modified but I'm not sure how it will look with all these grates dotted about. Our OSD is higher because we are keeping our existing single standalone garage.

We've finished our landscape plan, finalising stormwater plans, engaged Democorp, engaged the private certifier - HHH are planning to submit our plans for DA soon, fingers crossed everything goes quickly as our house is falling apart! The hot water tank has started leaking and we're not sure whether to spend the money to replace the tank or just hope that we will be able to demolish soon...

That's a monstrous amount for stormwater Zen. Good that you still find it worth it.

How much did you pay for the landscaping plan? I'll need one too and considering between hiring and self-drawing (lots of time investment I guess).

Fingers crossed things will move quickly for you!

I guess due to the characteristics of our land, we would incur these stormwater and sewer costs with any other builder. We just need to adjust our budget and not upgrade so much in the internal selection stage

We got quotes with 3 of the landscape designers HHH recommended and went with Ecodesign who quoted $995. They were the middle quote and we felt they took into consideration our desire to keep mature plants in our front and backyard by including an on-site visit, more revisions and seemed generally more flexible than the other 2. Neither my husband nor I know much about plants so self-drawing wasn't an option for us. Now that we've seen the final plan, we wouldn't have been able to do it ourselves - the plan included calculations of soft space in the front and back yard. With the retaining wall in the front yard and our request to maximise the driveway, it came very close to the minimum amount of landscaping required by our council. We felt we also got good advice from the designer on which plants were worth keeping so I'm hoping that will save us money when the time comes to do the landscaping. One thing I noticed though, the output from them wasn't as detailed as other plans I've seen on this forum.

If you have fairly straightforward landscape needs, you could probably go with the less expensive designer option, they just need to do enough to get you council approval. You might not want a plan that is too complicated as this will make it easier to pass the council checks when you've done your landscaping. Hope that helps!

Oh Zen, about internal selection upgrade - I just wish there is no option to take at all. Too many dilemmas cost vs wish

Thanks a lot for detailed reply on landscaping. My plan is somewhat straightforward but I have no idea what calculations needed for council. Plus I just realised due to its gentle sloping, I may need to fill some dirt to make alfresco level with garden - not sure if retaining wall is needed. Seems I wouldn't be able to do it myself. I guess professional advise about plant is worth noting too.

Thanks for your reply I've kind of cleared my head on this now.

I'm planning to have palmetto buffalo for front yard and empire zoysia for backyard. My hubby likes synthetic grass in front and we still have time to absorb different ideas.

Zen your stormwater is making me nervous. We’re also sloping away from the street with a rear easement and I think our PA is $30k and $4k sewer. Fingers crossed we don’t go over. I do suspect we will also need to bury some OSD. I’m trying to get a sense of what this will look like as I’m also hoping to not have a yard full of grates etc.

For those further ahead in the process, I have a question re the Notice of Commencement. Per the Intro Handbook it says we will need to pay bonds and fees to Council. Does anyone know how much these are? Something we haven’t yet budgeted for 😬 it says we need to provide receipt of payment along with the neighbour declaration.

Thanks!

Rdcool how has your build gone? Any issues or words of wisdom for those of us about to embark on the journey with HHH? Thanks!

I’ve also discovered another HHH build that has just commenced on Morrison Rd, Putney that we’re watching. The Lane Cove one seems to be going well albeit a few concerns I have re the brick work around the rear flashing and a couple of other things but overall a smart looking house. And the one on Constitution seems to have kicked off again. It’s interesting watching them take shape.

I am working on the landscaping now. Whenever, i have questions, i always ask H&H and they always able to answer. My storm water costs were very high as well, as per my council, i need to have a undergrond concrete so i came to about $47k.

We had the same "oh no, we haven't budgeted for that" moment with the bonds but thankfully they are not too expensive. We went into Ryde council in Top Ryde and paid ours. The refundable bond was $1,610 and infrastructure inspection was $279.50 (non refundable).

Our build has had all of the pits and drainage put in, if you do a drive by and have a look I can tell you what they are and how we plan to handle them with landscaping. Frames to be delivered this week.

Lucky you kjane on council contribution. Lucky me on lower stormwater cost.

My "oh no moment" came at 6.5k for s94 and 2k for s73 (or around) so 8.5k in total. I think HHH should have done better by warning customer about it.

I'm still happy with them though.