Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 14, 2018 2:17 pm HI All, Posting this so I can share with everyone our journey with Allcastle homes building the grandworth 45 mk2 We started the builder selection back in Oct 2017, We only liked the design of the grandworth so it made our choice easy to go with allcastle homes. we initally asked for a tender on the grandworth 42.5 but after all the changes we wanted it would have added another 100k ontop, but the sales consultant told us to look at the grandworth 45, not something she usually sale as not many people have the frontage for it. we looked at it and the design suited our needs alot better with less changes needing to be made. so we went with the 45 in the end. with 80k worth of changes it was going to be same cost as the 42.5 but with the added bonus of an additional 25sqm. we added the optional PDR downstairs and an additional bathroom to the top floor bring the final design to 6 br, 3.5 bath and double garage. Everything was going great for us, with the final tender price coming in at 499k, our site cost was 20k due to the need of drop beams. we are lucky in a way as they were giving out the 25 years birthday bonus with all the bonus additions we wanted anyway which is basically 60mm stone benchtop and 2.59m groundfloor, there was other stuff included as well, which was nice to have but we wouldn't have paid for. the process so far has been good except for one issue which made me a bit angry, after the plans have been signed off and the initial 5% paid, the basix consultant came back and said we need solar panels due to the house being so big. as we have no gas connection we have already paid for an upgrade basix package to include solar electric boosted hot water, which was what the consultant said we need to pass basix. So after back and forth with allcastle we agreed to installed a 4kw solar panels, which we were going to do after completion anyway but now have to go with the builder to do it. We are at the DA stage now, waiting for approval which should be soon as we received a letter from the council saying they inspected the nature strip and marked out existing damage. So the approval should come soon. waiting for CDC from the demolishers as well so we can start the knockdown process. We have our internal colour selection next week so hopefully we can get all that sorted with no fuss, the electrical will be the critical point as we want to bring in our own cablers as Allcastle charges $139 per run of network cable. will post back when we get more updates. Happy to answer questions. YM Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 2Feb 22, 2018 1:54 pm So we have done our internal colour selection yesterday, all up took about 1 and half hours. as we have already decided on pretty much everything there wasn't much upgrades that we wanted. fly screens are quite cheap for a builder that is. just waiting for price on the double vanity and rear screen door and front security door. ended up only upgrading the kitchen sink to include drainer. there wasn't much choice on doors as we have the 25th birthday special and there was only two doors to choose from due to the size. added our floor plan now Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 3Feb 22, 2018 2:10 pm Nice design. Where are you building mate? Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 5Mar 01, 2018 11:14 am ok another update, so we have DA approved now, also the CDC for demolition received as well. DA took 4 weeks all up, so was very fast. CDC around 2 and half weeks. Colour selection done with variations need to be confirmed. a few things was pretty expensive, but overall the pricing is actually pretty good with not much markup, invisiguard for the front door is 1.3k which is what i expect from them and pretty reasonable for the size of the door 2.3m x 1m somethings are not so cheap though, the pantry benchtop to upgrade to stone is another 1.7k. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 6Mar 09, 2018 8:58 am so another update, demolition is booked in for the end of march, one thing i don't like too much is, it takes 15 working days to draw up the construction plans, but they can't do this until after colour and electrical are finalised, but they are dragging their feet on the colour and electricals appointment. and another 20 working days to survey site and all that to start building. hopefully we can get the building started by the end of May. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 7Mar 20, 2018 1:00 pm Thanks for sharing, I am doing the Newbury 37mk2 and find whilst all castle are slow in admin , they do it right and not trying to rush you into anything compares to say Clarendon . I found their shutters and engineered timberflooring upgrade is really cheap compared to doing it post handover so happy with that. We spent over 120k upgrade thus far just Electricals left. Things costed an arm and a leg are upgraded 2.7 gf and 2.6 1f ceiling height costed $15k , supersized 45 square alfresco costed $40k and all adds up. As least for the same price of $550k at least it included $150k worth of upgrades compares to Clare doms next to nothing is a good deal . Also had 12 months tender which is crucial for us being a first home buildeR Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 8Mar 22, 2018 1:35 pm Hi Stan, Are you start building soon. My MK37 II should start very soon. Land already hand over to AC and organising delivery. Rain and Easter break coming up. After going through all design, approval process with AC I agreed they are quite reasonable. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 9Mar 22, 2018 4:17 pm LevaneT Hi Stan, Are you start building soon. My MK37 II should start very soon. Land already hand over to AC and organising delivery. Rain and Easter break coming up. After going through all design, approval process with AC I agreed they are quite reasonable. We are waiting for the banks to come to the party but looking at sept demo and October handover to ac at this stage. Can I ask if you have taken up the electrical pole upgrade at $2000 and also the NBN hub they think we need at $900 ? I am leaning not to do both as I felt it’s a rip off Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 10Mar 22, 2018 4:53 pm Yes I took the private electric pole option after consulting friend in the industry as all future wire/lines can make use of it. With the pole you don't have a electric wire run across the front, you can take a look at those newly build house most of them have it. (The power main wire now run from street pole on the right of the house to left above the garage. ) I have to put tiger tail to the power line during construction period. I didn't include the hub initially but after the electrical session, AC remind me that it will put inside the garage and connect the network cables. I have 2 data points inside the house, one in playroom , one in upstair. I think you can do it yourself. $900 you can buy a very good network hub. I don't even know what hub they will provide. I also have the NBN lead in $495 - conduit with draw wire from house to private pole. Not sure how much NBN will charge for installation if you do it later. If you wait another 6 months AC may increase the house base price. That is what I worry so demo was done straight after CDC approved and hand over immediately. They will do a site inspection and issue a pre build assessment report after demo to make sure if anything need to tidy up, or if the demo is clean or any special conditions etc.. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 11Mar 22, 2018 6:31 pm Hi L in my case, there is a street/council pole in front of the house already so adding another pole would mean two poles. for the sack of having a short run of underground wire from the pole to the house within 10 meters is a lot to ask I felt. Not to mention I am in the HFC NBN area so there will be some Cable running from the council pole to the house anyway. for the same reason, I don't need NBN lead in as NBN cable won't be underground but overhanging ( like any existing foxtel cable) They are common Hills hub that looks like an alarms box. https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/ ... new_home_/ I dislike their tactic trying to upgrade you before the electrical appiontment without clear cut understanding of what we are buying into is quite annoying. I plan to have every room wired up with the hub under the stair so it's hidden but very much in the dark if I can do that or not. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 12Mar 26, 2018 2:32 pm HI All, yes we experienced the same trying to push for the NBN upgrade before the electrical. I didn't get the NBN Hub as we are supplying our own network rack, as i have 24 data points in the house. we did go for the NBN leadin though and also another leadin from the external to the under stairs area where we are putting all the network stuff. Whilst our sales consultant was really good, and the first pre-build consultant was great, they have moved us to another pre-build consultant which we feel is really just pushing the bucks around. we have to chase things up with them constantly as they told us to wait for the electrical appointment for 3 weeks, and no one contacted us, i had to send multiple emails and call back until clipsal called us again to confirm details and they were given the wrong contact details. I just told them we are going to get a building inspector and our 2nd pre-build consultant was asking me what they do? anyways we have started demolition today. anyone left a bit of driveway so the trucks don't damage the council part of the driveway? we did find their pricing for the flooring upgrade to be really excessive, for the same type of flooring it would only cost us around 6-7k to install and they wanted close to 10k. so we just told them to remove all the upstairs flooring. the alfresco area whilst expensive is actually pretty good value since it's tiled and also tiled roof. our friend built with claredon it was 2/3 of the price but it's unfinished so they had to do tiling and all that after. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 13Mar 26, 2018 6:33 pm Thanks for sharing ymiao. Most timberflooring company charges 80 to 150 per square plus $30 on top for installation. Out NW 37 mk2 first floor is about 166 squares so we’re expecting to pay around $15 to $20k installed outside ( prior bargaining ) . Maybe they spooked me when my color consultant said AC WOULD charge a few grand to adapt the doors etc so the house remains compliant . As such we would lose the lousy $2500 1F carpet CR which reduces our needs. Was quite chocked to see the quote came in around $10k so was quite pleased with it. Shutter cost came in around $6k for all windows except two beds up stairs and playroom and the theatre room which is like 50% cheaper than rough quote Wynstan gave after seeing our plan I am not in NBN HTTP/N but HFC ONLY so there is no need for me to do the NBN LEAD IN I THINK. Please share your home betwork plans and pm me the cost if you don’t mind as plan to have the hub up stairs in the linen cabinet or unused space under stairway. I felt I just need to downstairs networking needs are done properly , then upstairs can be fixed later on. I had a call from Clipsal but funny they left a voice mail saying they are booking me in as per coral homes instead of AC . I will be using housepect I think cost around $2500 for all stages. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 14Mar 27, 2018 9:27 am just make sure you are getting timber and not laminate, if it's paradot, then it's AC3 laminate which what we were quoted on for 10k. we can get AC3 laminate for around $40 per sqm installed. or $30 if we install it ourself, so the cost wasn't good. my friend installed quickstep ultra after build around 250sqm for 15k and quickstep is on the expensive side for laminate. 80-150 is for engineered or bamboo flooring. you will find the larger the area the cheaper the install. we installing curtains after, already found a few places that does it well on bulk, we getting most of our stuff from lesso home in greenacre. network map i will upload after our clipsal appointment, I don't know how well ventilated the linen upstairs is so decided to put everything in understairs area as we don't use it anyway. yeah we using housepect as well, we not doing the wetarea inspection though, as in NSW the builder need to get a independent inspector to sign off, and the housepect on is visual inspection only. Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 15Mar 29, 2018 10:03 pm Hi, We are also building with All Castle in Blacktown area too. DA and CC done, just waiting for final construction plans (15 days) and then another 4 weeks after that will be hoping for a start on the build. Been ok so far... though whole admin/ selection process seems slow. First signed up for intial tender back in September! I'll be keen to hear others feedback on here and happy to answer any questions that might help others Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 16Mar 29, 2018 11:18 pm Hi cooper , whilst they are slow at least they are not pushy and very accomdative.. Doubt we would get the same treatment if it’s with Clarendon or metricon Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 18Mar 31, 2018 11:44 am metskim Guys can I ask who you used to do demolition and rough estimate I’m in marayong and we are about to do knock down end of june Area dependent but I went with site demo who are the only one came back with a price. Very patience staff and the CDC APPROVAL IS QUICK a month for us for ryde. All up around $29k assuming no rocks or additional asbestos surprises Re: KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2 20Apr 04, 2018 10:58 am I used demo C, 24k + additional asbestos 2.3k and vegetation 550 I was given a receipt for dumping it 578 per ton , how to tell whether ... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ They did a clean job and no rework required AC accept it without any comments during handover my house is small 3 Br brick veneer single storey and a car port. Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 1349 Was the offer also on their website? If so, you could check the Wayback Machine. 1 1613 Hi, I am looking into doing a KDR in Melbourne and am contemplating using Kialla Homes. I am looking for feedback on them from others who have built with them. 0 14060 |