Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 09, 2017 7:36 pm Hi All,
I thought I would start a new thread for those who are interested in building the Monte Carlo Executive with Rear Activities. When my husband and I first started looking into doing a knock down rebuild of our existing home we knew that our build would be a little more complicated because our property is flood affected (i.e falls into the 1 in 100 year flood category which means extra surveys/costs/compliance certificates/council fees). Armed with that knowledge, we approached McDonald Jones in December 2016 and advised the Sales Consultant that we would like to build the Monte Carlo along with a Studio Suite/Granny Flat for my MIL. Little did we know how long this process would take. Just to give people who are new to the process an idea of how long the pre-build stage can be, please see timeline below. 18/12/2017 - Contract Deposit paid ($5,000) 11/01/2017 - Contour Survey 24/01/2017 - Selection Walk through (an information session on what to expect/consider for your Colour Selections appointment) 31/01/2017 - Soil Test 5/02/2017 - Consolidated Tender Issued 7/02/2017 - Consolidated Tender accepted 8/02/2017 - Contract Issued 13/03/2017 - Plan Drawings Appointment (A McDonald Jones rep guides you through the plans for your new home). 23/03/2017 - Colour Selections Appointment After numerous display home visits and countless hours looking at interior design websites I thought this appointment would be a breeze. It's not. You definitely need to have a very clear idea about what colours/aesthetic you want to achieve because any changes will be expensive ($1,000 admin fee + additional cost if the replacement item is more costly than what you originally selected). We advised our sales consultant that we wanted to raise the ceiling/internal & external door heights + increase the kitchen benchtop thickness to 40mm before the consolidated tender was issued. Flooring & electrical (lighting, power points, etc..) are an additional expense. If your budget is tight, I would recommend doing your own flooring & electrical. Some people found McDonald Jones prices comparable to quotes they received elsewhere but I want oak floating floors and it was cheaper (for us) to go with a local supplier/installer. Definitely get quotes beforehand. You can save yourself some serious money. 30/03/2017 - Engineering - (Armed with the results from your soil test and contour survey, builder designs unique engineering required for your new home and block of land) 10/04/2017 - Contract Signed 8/05/2017 - Electrical Appointment - Although you are granted a certain number of down lights, power points, fixed batten lights, etc... they are nowhere near enough to provide lighting for an entire house. Again, if you have budget constraints, I would recommend doing the electrical after handover. Here are some things to think about for your appointment. Do you want down lights throughout as per what is shown in the display homes or, do you want a more tailored lighting design? Have you thought about putting some lights on dimmer switches (we have selected to in the living areas & master bedroom)? Think placement of power points/light switches (our alfresco lights are operated from 2 places - we have a light switch by the stacker doors and another light switch in the laundry which leads out onto the alfresco area). How about in ceiling speakers, an intercom system, alarm system/security cameras, ducted air-conditioning? We're not adding these items but the option is there for those who want it. After our electrical appointment, 8 weeks passed with no word from McDonald Jones (in that time we arranged financing with our bank and contracted a company to do the demolition works) so I contacted our Project Coordinator for an update. We were advised that, due to the flood report we had submitted back in February, a flood engineers survey would need to be done. That was fine. We signed off on the contract variation and we've only just received the results of that report. Simply put, we are up for another $93K because both house and granny flat need to be elevated. Although the cost is higher than we were expecting, we've had a careful look over the charges and they seem to be in line with the scope of works that need to be undertaken. If I have a complaint to share I suppose it would be that progress with McDonald Jones can be terminally slow. Right from the beginning, we advised that we had a flood zoned property but it seems like it was only given due consideration 9 months into the process and we still haven't reached D.A approval stage. I can only hope that, once we sign off on this additional contract variation, some real progress will be made (like submitting our D.A approval before Xmas). It's been frustrating, I admit. I will keep this thread updated with our progress as it may be useful to people who are interested in this particular home design or curious about the challenges of building in a flood affected area. Re: Monte Carlo Exec with Rear Activities KDR Fairfield NSW 3Apr 24, 2018 8:43 am Any update? I'll be following your progress with interest, as we are considering the Monte Carlo with rear activities for our build. Hi All, see above image. The required setback from the rear boundary in my case is 5m, as you can see the shape of the site and location of the boundary is slightly… 0 8453 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37143 |