Inspired Homes/ Como Homes - Custom Build Corner Block

It appears that I am the second person here documenting a build with Inspired/ Como Homes.

The whole load of useful information I have received by various forum members here have helped me hugely in shaping my build, and I thought it might be nice to post some useful information throughout my build to help others.

Since I had a fairly small corner block of 342 m2, it was very hard to find an already made plan to fit properly - since almost all volume builders have plans for regular blocks, and whilst a few will try to change them for you to suit, in the end a custom design was needed. I was able to utilise the short setback on one of the frontages to be my architectural front, whilst keeping the garage and driveway on the other side of the corner.




In the end I designed the house (with invaluable advice from this forum) and got a local draftsman to draw it all up (more about the problems I encountered before this later)

One day I drove by Inspired Homes - I had never heard of them before and literally drove by their display house in Berwick on a whim and went in. They do custom designs for what used to be a subsidiary of Arden Homes, although the custom build arm is now separate and called Como Homes. They do have their own designs (the other thread by Clareymoo features one of their specific designs) but I was pleased to find they do complete customisation too.

I had a chat with Charley in sales, and immediately realised that she knew what she was talking about, was totally on the ball, and after looking over my drafted design, was able to give me a price for my custom build within 30 minutes, which has held accurate to within 5% even after engineering, upgrade costings and tender. If you ever want to see what a great, knowledgeable sales consultant is, go and see her.

So 5 months on, I've been through tender with Como Homes, and just ironing the last few things out before contract signing soon.



Just little things like why did their draftsman put the plumbing stack right in front of the open staircase?! And why did they also decrease the internal depth of the walk-in wardrobes from 600mm to 510mm (means the doors hit the coats and suits every time)


and what on earth have they done with all the drawer towers and rails in the master bedroom WIR?

I could write for ages about the path eventually taken to get to Inspired/ Como, but I'll try to keep it short and useful.

Burbank - a solid volume builder than came with recommendations and good reviews. But trying to get a volume builder to significantly alter structural designs was more painful than getting teeth pulled, even though they offered to. And maybe I was unlucky with the sales consultant there (who has now left) or the one after (who also left), but I was a bit taken aback that he used a pair of scissors and a glue stick to alter plans.
At at the end of the day, even their own building surveyor didn't think their plan met building regulations and we had to go back to square one again.

MY TIP: don't try to get a volume builder to try change the structure of their build. Perhaps it was more efficient of the other volume builders who had a look at my plot and simply said "no".

Latitude 37 - a custom builder with good reviews and a nice sales consultant. They offered to do some designing (for a fee of course) and showed more knowledge of building regulations for a corner block than the previous builder. But after several design iterations, we finally got one that met our requirements. But having given them a budget, they came back to me at $120k over budget, not including upgrades. He said that "the price on concrete had increased" LOL.

MY TIP: if someone can't keep to your budget at an early stage, walk away!

LSC Homes - a very small custom builder based in Wantirna. Andrew was very knowledgeable and took time to explain everything to me, including the building and engineering side of it. Met my budget too. Would've been my second choice builder, but the fact that he didn't have a design studio with interior design - as is common with small builders - meant my wife was more keen to go with Como.

MY TIP: got to please the wife.

Leneeva Homes - another small custom builder with a display home in Berwick. Again were very knowlegeable and had good vibes with them, and met my budget too. Just had to pick one in the end and Charley from Inspired swayed it for me.

MY TIP - go and talk to the small custom builders - they are personal and not a whole lot more expensive than volume builders.

And this is hopefully what it'll look like:



and a rather rough 3D model I did on Sketchup. Yes, let's hope it looks better than that in real life!

Hi nice to see another IH build here, hope it all goes well will be following along. Como only have 2 site supervisors so you'll either have BA who we have or the other guy who my back neighbours have and neither of us have any major complaints about them.

Thanks for your good wishes, Clareymoo. I'm glad that your build with Como is getting along well, and that gives me confidence that mine will turn out OK too in the end.

Because we got stuck in a rut for the past month. Having drawn up all the plans and chosen all the colours and materials and actually signed the contract, the building surveyor DJM would not issue the building permit. They thought that the build did not meet the Building Regs in regards to the siting and setback of the build (as discussed here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=94002) So we had to go back and forth to the council again and in the end the council decided that it did meet the Building Regs, and so now waiting for the building surveyor to issue the building permit again.

Delayed the start for about a month for absolutely nothing. And doesn't really inspire me any confidence in the building surveyor either. But hopefully things go more smoothly from here on...

The colour selection with Como Homes was interesting too, and if anyone is considering building with Como they should take note:

As Como was a subsidiary of Arden Homes (a reputable volume builder) they still use the same design studio and interior designers of Arden Homes. So whilst they are a custom builder, they still seem to default to the mindset of a volume builder - ie they will try to offer you a limited number of fixed colours and options, as this is obviously the way a volume builder would work to cut costs and improve efficiency.

But fixed options whilst cheap and efficient, are not always the best or what you might want in your house. And so for many things you would have to ask them "are there any other options for this?", or "could you do this instead?" and then they would um and ah for a bit before then trying to accommodate your request.

A good example was the staircase. They offered about 5 different designs, but none that I wanted; in particular I wanted a fairly open modern design:

and they literally didn't know whether they could do it or not, so in the end I contacted their staircase manufacturer directly to liaise with them and to get an answer - and as a custom builder, of course they could do it!

So just have to remember that Como are a custom builder, but you really have to ask about everything or else you'll end up with the standard range.

Hey Ben888,
Can I ask who you dealt with at Como whilst doing your tender?
Also How did you go with the plans re: the wardrobe depths? I am at tender stage atm and the wardrobe depth is one of my concerns. I have on my plan a depth of 700 for the exact same reason as you stated. I hope they don't change it after tender?
I am also finding it frustrating when asking for what I think is a simple upgrade or a simple question about finish. I sort of get the feeling that they are not willing to really go out of their way to sway from, like you said their standard range and if you question the finish of something in their display they told me that it was the manufacturers and that is the specific design. This is what has really got me concerned as I also went direct to the manufacturer and showed them pictures of my concern and they actually said that the item has been installed incorrectly or the builder has ordered the wrong size?! So not only has the fellow at Como told me a story about the manufacturers designing the item specifically, but the owner of Inspired also went along with what the fellow at Como stated and went on to saying that the Como fellow contacted the manufacturer! I just want to build my house and be happy with the finished product I don't want to be told stories that are not true and made to feel like a princess just because I question the finished product? If I didn't ask and down the track found out that it was an option I could of changed I am only going to kick myself! Feeling really concerned at this early stage that I am already getting told rubbish and that the supplier has said the builder has either ordered the wrong size or hasn't install there product properly?

Everything seemed so easy and achievable whilst dealing with (Name removed) at Inspired even (Name removed) the owner stated that they can do anything!!! The whole thing is making me anxious already....

Hi Lukaa,

Good to see someone else building with Como - well, at least I hope it's going to be good, if we all get out the other side unscathed and with a smile on our face! Fingers crossed...

I dealt with several people at Como - James, Courtney, and Alison, and it was Alison in the end who seemed to be most experienced and sorted things out. I guess I'm not surprised that you've had a similar experience to me, about them offering their standard specifications, and trying to deviate from those specifications being a bit tricky, as I'm sure most of the staff had been previously working at Arden homes, the volume builder bit, before.

But in the end all I'd suggest is to just be civil and polite and ask them again, and if things aren't quite to your liking, to ask them again to change it to the way you want. As long as you're asking for someone doable, I can't see a reason why they can't do it - it'll obviously cost you a bit to change or upgrade, though. And make sure it's written in the tender before signing it.

Do you wish to elaborate what in particular about the standard design/ finish that you were worried about and thought was installed incorrectly?

So I found some of the specifications which needs to be looked when doing the tender (and hopefully this may be useful to anyone else building their house) included:-

Depth of wardrobes. The standard was given at 510mm depth, which for hinged wardrobe doors should not cause much of an issue, but for sliding doors, the door will brush against the larger hangers every time it is opened or closed. Como were happy to increase the depth to 600mm for me at no cost.

Height of wardrobe doors. The top of the robe towers inside the wardrobe was 2000mm high, and the wardrobe doors were 2100mm high. That meant a 100mm or so gap for access to the topmost shelf, which is impractical. Como were happy to increase the size of the wardrobe doors to reach the ceiling, for a cost.

Wardrobe layout.

Initially they drew a shelf tower in the centre of the wardrobe. If you have two sliding doors, then you'll only be able to see under half a shelf at any one time. Or if you have drawers, then clearly none of them would open. I asked Como to move the tower and they were happy to do so.

Kitchen height.

With a standard worktop height of 900mm, and a splashback window, the initial drawings were of the wall cabinets being 700mm above the worktop - ie 1600mm from the ground. For someone not that tall, this would be too high for normal usage. Como was happy to reduce the size of the window and lower the wall cabinets to a useable height.


So really the message from the tender is that not everything's going to start out perfect. But the tender process is an opportunity for you to communicate to them what you want, and for them to help iron out these problems. And speaking with my friends building with other builders, it's the same - you work out what you need, what needs tweaking in the plans, and you work together with the builder until finally you all agree on something that everyone is happy with.

Hi Ben888
Thanks for your reply, I was not going to go to much into detail as I feel a bit awful having it on a public domain especially when I am still so early in the process. Maybe once done and dusted I will be happy to share specifics. At the moment any emails between (yes) James and myself are being CC'd with Courtney, Andrew and Joe. So I am feeling that I am obviously creating head aches? The sad thing is when the actual supplier /manufacturer tells me that what I am asking is normal I will see what this week brings. Hopefully as you say it will all work out....

I guess if you don't feel like you should go into specifics, then it's probably best not to.

But I always say - it's not usually that someone is doing something wrong. There's more than one way to skin a cat, if you pardon the expression, and one builder may build it one way, and another builder may build it another way. Everyone's normal in their own way! Hopefully with a bit of constructive discussion, you can get them to do it your way.

As for creating headaches, I'm sure it's nothing they haven't come across and sorted out before in their professional role. And in fact, if their job was plain sailing all the time and everyone agreed with everything, then they'd probably find it a lot more boring!

I hope that you are right. I think I have just been burnt a few too many times so my optimism has been tarnished.

Well things have started happening on my plot. And I haven't had time to update anything on this thread either, since I was off on a business/ holiday for 2 weeks, and most of it happened then, and I've been trying to catch up with my life on return!

Site cut started 8th February

which was good timing, because the council started writing to me saying my plot was overgrown and becoming a fire hazard!

The following week they had put the screw piles in, and connected the underground electrical, water and drainage.

And then I had to go abroad for a couple of weeks, and missed them pouring the slab.


I kinda wanted to have a dance on the slab, but I was 10000 miles away... nevermind.

And then the framing started in earnest. I didn't realise it would go up quicker than it takes me to build a house out of Lego.

Than halfway through the framing, we realised that the heating and cooling plans hadn't been completed, and the return air voids needing adding in. So using a paint app on my mobile phone from a hotel bathroom, I managed to draw and convey to them where the voids should go (isn't technology great nowadays?)

And now the framing is complete, and the windows have been delivered. It's very much starting to look like an actual house!

Amazing how quick they erect the frames onsite hey. The trusses seemed to take a day or two longer for our crew, but understandable as it looks complicated.

Do you what type of windows are going into your house?

Just standard aluminium awning windows.

Black frames on white walls, and white frames on dark walls. Plus sliding stacker doors, and a window splashback for the kitchen.

I think awnings are a good choice. We were originally going to specify sliding windows (but upgraded 'Signature' versions), but after we checked our samples at the window supplier and compared the different types we changed to awnings.

I like that with the awnings they have proper compression seals, instead of brush seals of the sliders. Also we liked how you could have the window partly open and not worry as much about rain and security etc.