Rossmoyne WA - First Build With Ventura

Hi All,

We have received a lot of valuable information from browsing this forum which led us to decide to build so we would like to contribute our building experience so far.

We visited a lot of display villages and homes and couldn't find a display home that we love. Eventually we got talking to a ventura rep which custom designed a floorplan for us. He included common pre-start items (such as extra lighting, powerpoints, upgrades to kitchen, bathrooms etc) into the initial quote before we paid the deposit so we would get a realistic build price up front prior to paying or signing anything. During pre-start, we already have most things we wanted priced in so it went relatively quickly. The electrical plan took a while deciding how many and where lights and powerpoints will go. The final contract build price ended up very close to the initial quotation.

It has been a pretty smooth process so far. Getting the design to the stage where we are 100% happy was the most time consuming process. From then on, it was pretty much a waiting game waiting for approvals from the council and bank. Our bad luck that the finance approval from the bank was only just given before the xmas break, which meant that construction was delayed by a month due to holidays etc.


- Build Timeline -
Land Settlement : 13/04/17 - (viewtopic.php?p=1792280#p1792281)
Builder Deposit Paid : 15/06/17
Contracts Signed : 09/08/17
Interior Design Consultation : 1/09/17
Prestart Completed :06/09/17 - Final Plans (viewtopic.php?p=1792280#p1792280)
Engineering Approval: 16/10/17
Council Approval : 02/11/17
Finance Approval : 20/12/17
Earthworks : 29/01/18 - (viewtopic.php?p=1792280#p1792282)
Slab Down : 09/02/18 - (viewtopic.php?p=1792280#p1792283)
Soakwells Installed : 15/02/18
Ground Floor Brickwork Completed: 26/02/18 to 21/03/18 - (viewtopic.php?p=1792280#p1792284)
1st Floor Slab Completed : 20/04/18
1st Floor Brickwork : 30/04/18 - 18/05/18
1st Floor Roof : Completed : 09/06/18
1st Floor Air-Con Ducting: 22/06/18
1st Floor Electrical: 22/06/18
1st Floor Plumbing: 29/06/18
1st Floor Ceiling/Cornice/Grey Coat: 7/07/18

Floorplan (Ground Floor)



Floorplan (1st Floor)




Front Elevation

Land Settlement

Earthworks

Slab Down

Bricks Delivered



Brickwork (1st Week)







Really happy with the brickwork quality so far. As the next door neighbour is also currently building, we can compare the quality of our brickwork and it is heaps better.

Brickwork (2nd Week)

Love your plan! Brickworks looks good too

Looking great!
We're close by, City of Canning too

Brickwork (3rd Week)

The 1st floor is pretty much done. Just have a bit of the garage left to do.



Front entrance



Guest bedroom



Stairs location



Laundry



Dining/Living Room



Kitchen/Scullery

Hi There, first time poster. We are thinking of building with Ventura.

Did you have to pay much more for a custom design? Was there no existing floor plan you could tweak?

Hi,

No we did not pay extra for a custom design over an existing floorplan. As the salesperson put it, its all about the materials in the end. It doesn't matter how you orientate the rooms etc but about how much bricks/concrete is needed. Certain designs are more costly as they add more perimeter to the home (i.e long rectangular shape) hence more bricks required etc. If you want to keep costs down, then you need to try and squish everything into a square box design as that will have the least perimeter.

We tried looking for an existing display home floorplan at the start that would fit our block however this was quite restrictive as there is always something done one way that doesnt suit our tastes. It was only after getting to talk with the sales rep that they could come up with a custom design for no extra charge. The sales representative are more than happy to sit down with you and design up a plan. We basically visited lots of display homes and found a feature that we liked. (which is the long open living/dining/kitchen). Then we fit in the other requirements that we have i.e how many bedrooms and toilets required and the sales rep designed it to fit our land and also came up with a facade for the house.

Its better to get your likes/dislikes in a list along with any requirements and features you liked and they will come up with something to fit your block. Then they will price it up. In terms of the base price of the house, its no different than the display homes if you roughly compare the $/m² figure in a similar shaped house. Its also best to price in stuff you would like at the start prior to signing and giving a deposit so you know what you are really working with. This also allowed us to compare a prices between different builders. We priced in higher ceilings, stone benchtops, softclose drawers, overhead cupboards, extra powerpoints, extra LED downlights, glass splashbacks. This was great for us as during prestart, it was only tiling that added up some cost as we have already priced in other upgrades prior.

Thanks Slugcatcher, very helpful.

I’m just trying to work out the following now...

I’ve been told if I take a custom design to a project builder, like Ventura, there will be extra costs.

But what you’re saying is if you go to them a do a custom design with them, in house, there’s no extra cost - provided it fits with their “box”?

would that be correct?

I would be shocked if any builder in Perth charged you "extra costs" for bringing your own plans to get a quote. As long as you have a copy of the site survey and an Engineers report, there really isn't much else they need to do in order to give you a quote for the whole project including site works.


The market isn't exactly booming right now... they want all the business they can get!

Also slugcatcher, love your plans!

What I meant is...

Bringing in your own custom design will cost more than selecting a floor plan and tweaking it.

I'm wondering if there's much of a price difference between bringing in your own custom design or doing a custom design with them in house.

Hopefully that makes a bit more sense?

Hi Hoothouse,

If you already have a clear idea of what your floorplan looks like, you can just go to these project builders and then pretty much dictate to them what you want it to look like. Then they will draft it up properly and price it all up for you for no cost at all.

If you custom design up a floorplan that is exactly the same as the display home, in theory there should be no price difference assuming the specifications are the same as the materials used will be identical.

I suggest you visit the display homes and chat with one of the reps there. They will be able to explain it better than I can which is how it kicked off for us. We had always started drawing roughly on paper ourselves what kind of house we wanted and then worrying it costs too much comparing with display home prices by using indicators like $/m2 etc. In the end the sales rep managed to translate our ideas in our heads onto paper and priced it all up for no charge.

Scaffolding is up ready to start the 2nd floor.

Brickwork cut ready for stairs to be made




Floortech system

Slugcatcher
It would be highly recommended that you get detailed engineering inspection photos
of your 1c slab truss connections & reinforcement prior to concrete placement, for future reference should you need it ....that's a big slab area mate... forewarned is forearmed

1t floor slab down





Concrete stairs





Storage room under stairs