WA - Ben Trager - Hammond Park

Key Handover was on Tuesday so now we can come and go as we please. Our flooring contractors started on Thursday and our Electrician on Wednesday so we had to rush around and get as much painting done as possible.

We smashed out most of our main living room and laundry and entry hall way but we are dead tired so Ill have to upload some photos later.

The new flooring is going in and looks really amazing. So happy with our choice in the end. We have started taking some stuff over and get it all ready for moving in. Looks like we will move in to our new house on 29th June.

We have had our sparky come through and replace a fair few light fittings as well. Looks really good.

Another nice surprise, NBN who said they would install the NTD on 31st July had it all hooked up earlier this week so looks like Ill have Internet much earlier than expected.

So far we have found a few smaller issues since moving in but only one major where our front porch lighting was not even or centralised.

Just need the concretor to get under way and itll really feel complete for us!

So just got the new house on Tuesday last week so I have been in absolute beast mode in terms of achieving things. Ill have to take photos tomorrow of half the stuff as I don't have them somehow yet. Too tired to think after finishing it all. One photo of our flooring laid.

• Painted entire lower floor (sealer + 2 coats) including sanding and filling where needed. Purchased from Paint 4 Less in Riverton which was way cheaper than Bunnings (saved at least 30% of costs) and very customer focussed service. Their sealer binder SHAT over the Dulux one we had to purchase to finish off a little bit extra. I couldn't believe how runny the Dulux was considering how much people raved about it and it was an absolute horrible experience to try and use.
• Installed 3 x Curtains 2 x Roller Blinds ($500), and 4 x Shutters ($1400) - if anyone is thinking of getting shutters, The Shutters Department built us custom jobbies at an AMAZING price. Obviously imported but sexy af. Had to make very minor modifications to make it fit in spots. Curtains and Rollers were from Spotlight. Having Mum hem them up a bit. We cut the rollers to fit ourselves.
• Replaced the Scullery Tap with an AliExpress one. Will be doing this in the kitchen too. Was pretty easy to do and instead of paying $1000 through our builder, we spent $100 delivered and I installed it.
• Constructed 6 x PAX Wardrobes from IKEA. We looked at custom jobs but they were SOOOO expensive and we were lucky in that the PAX systems would just fit fine in our WIR. Total cost was $1400 delivered and it looks like a custom job it fits that well. Custom would at least have been double that for a basic one.
• Installed new piping and a draw wire for the irrigation controller. - Picked up the bits from Total Eden as a bit cheaper and easier to deal with than Bunnings.

Contracted stuff done:

• Had an electrician install a bunch of new lights ordered from AliExpress. Most were good. Two blew up though which makes me SUPER sad. If only legislation wasn't so strict, I would have done this too. Electrician needs to come back and install remaining 4 pendant lights
• Had our flooring installed in main areas. We used a Hybrid Vinyl product and its exactly what we wanted.

• Our concrete is set up to be poured out the back and on the sides of the house. Awaiting actual pouring (damn you rain!!!) and the setup for the front of house.

Upcoming Stuff:

• Seal the rear planter bed before filling with aggregate and soil.
• Do the rear landscaping and irrigation to lawn and planter bed.
• Construct our Theatre Room - rebuild the Theatre Screen, mount all the speakers, mount the projector.
• Entry Hallway 3D artwork using treated pine. Wife is creating something to blow some minds on entry to our house.
• Move Into House and rebuild all the furniture.

More photos to all come tomorrow!

Wow. You HAVE been busy.
Your kitchen looks great, as do the floors. Proline Stamford is one I had considered but decided against hybrid because I don’t want the beading around the bottom of the island breakfast bar? And do you skirtings still have to be installed?
Looking forward to seeing more photos. 😁

We decided to stick with just the scotia. They had not installed them by the time of that photo but its in now. Ill take some more photos so you can see the scotia and what it actually feels like. I was initially very against it but its really served a few purposes

• Covers up any floor painting or wall damage I did
• Covers up the edging of the floor

I thought it would look atrociouss so I was super keen on the standard Vinyl plank but the wife convinced me otherwise. She was right

That’s a valuable lesson to learn. Wives are always right. 😜

http://imgur.com/a/evV5dtc

Album with latest photos. Still dont have concrete or all our light fittings or taps in yet. Our curtsins currently getting hemmed as well. Getting through it though!

Move in day tomorrow.

Hey, do you know what the paint brand was? We're in a similar spot soon, having to do the wall paint.

I'm not keen on going to Bunnings either and not a huge fan of Dulux. I've been recommended to go to Bonanza paints nearby in Inglewood, if it was closer I'd check out your man in Riverton.

We used their recommended.

It says Permalux Premium Architectural Coatings Supacoat. We picked Solvers Spirit Grey colour.

The amazing Sealer they had was called Supaseal by Topdeck.

Looks amazing! Good luck with the move in. Hope the rain stays away!

I found out that the company that makes that paint (Paint WA) has a shopfront in Claremont, so I'll be giving them a visit to grab some of their white set plaster sealer. Sells for about $134 for 10 litres.

Hi Steel just new to the forum and congrats on your new build. I read the whole lot LOL. I am researching Ben Trager homes yes going down that path, would you build with them again? What Spec did you choose? I have been reseaching for 1 year now building on my own and yes alot of research..... At the moment it's them, Plunkett or Novus. Appreciate any advise. Thanks

Sorry for the late reply.

Yes I would build with them again. We had some small issues during design which was rectified before construction.
Construction went really well, super quick and quality has been outstanding. After care service for minor issues has been quite good.
Benchmark spec on a house which was custom designed for us.

Been living in it for 6-7 weeks now and we love it.

I never researched deep into those other two.

Hope tha helps

Yes it does help, thanks for the response, so happy everything went well for you, nothing like seeing your dream house come to reality.
Did you have direct contact with the site supervisor?
Did you have an independent building inspector and how do you know what stages to get them to inspect?
They have a new deal out which includeds internal paint, solar and flooring sounds a good deal. Mine will also be custom too, just finalizing the design then just need to pick builder....scary

No. Was only through their office. We had 4 meeting with site super on site.
No I did not. The cost was astronomical in my eyes and I did not see enough value.

Thanks Steel, just one last question with your 2nd storey, is it all brick or panel with suspended concrete floor? and how do you find the outside noise & temperature if the 2nd storey walls are panel?
The astronomical part worries me too. It is so confusing, they seem to be able to build cheaper by using wall panel. I have walked into display homes as soon as they have opened and find them very cold, this is before they put the heating on. I just seem to find that brick doesn't seem to be as cold. Then we move on to the inside wall part, plaster or g-tech system, warmth & noise from other rooms. I am really researching these areas as this will be a future house not one I will sell in 10yrs.

panel with suspended concrete floor
Outside noise and heat was a worry for me. I upgraded upstairs windows to laminated glass. Road noise and neighbor noise is no concern at all for me. My house is far warmer than my 2011 build full brick single storey house in general. I have zero regrets about the panelling system used. The hardest part was mounting stuff to gyprock and stud which I am not used to.

My upstairs is used as a study right next to bedroom where watches TV late at night. We generally don't disturb each other if the doors are closed and we don't listen at quiet levels.

Itll never be as good for noise on internal walls because its all gyprock. External walls where panels are used seems at least just as good as brick. I found the thermal mass of bricks was a negative as it just retains the cold or heat. Winter was horrible in my old house. This one seems great right now.

We had the same worries as you. I'd still do the upstairs windows again. We also upgraded the Insulation to R4.0 from memory. Every little bit helps. I asked for higher insulation but they didn't like that. Said it was too hard basically.

Great thanks Steel appreciate all your feedback, here's to many happy years in your new house.

Hi Steel, I see you did a lot of research into your build. With the eps cladding, is there a cavity gap between the wrap and eps cladding?

Hi dingo55
Welcome to the forum
Here this may assist
EPS, Cavity and flashings
Cheers
Chris