KDR Customised Brighton Homes Jamieson

An update on the frame inspection. After our inspection and before the brickies started, the carpenters went through and straightened the frames, finishing nailing off the incomplete bracing etc. I presume a lot of that would have been done anyway without our inspection as it was apparently not planned to be complete until the frame straightening anyway. Other specifically identified defects like the separation of plumbing penetrations through the framing got corrected to meet Aus standards, but I suspect may not have been changed without our inspector's report.

The builder's appointed certifier then came through and did their frame inspection and had another list of things to fix, I think mostly related to meeting the N4 wind rating. Several heavy duty brackets have been added around the place as well as upgrading to M10 bolts in other locations. A amount of strapping has also been added throughout, tying truss bottom chords to the interior framing in various locations.

... still bricking

varsity How did you confirm the frame straightening was done correctly? Did you engage Darbecca for a follow up inspection after the carpenters had finished or did you check this afterwards yourself? If Darbecca came back what was your cost of this?

There wasn't much out of plumb to fix on the first inspection. Most of the straightening involved blocking the frame intersections properly, refitting knocked out noggins and truing noggins to the studs, all clearly visible. No real point doing a reinspection at this stage considering the builder's appointed inspector is also another reputable firm (PCG).

To be honest so much rough in has been happening in parallel to the framing, most of the plumbing and electricals had been completed prior to frame inspection, I'm not even sure the pre plaster inspection will achieve much.

Varsity Agree, as you have, its best to check things are straight and to standard before plastering. Nothing like seeing for yourself because the SS can tell you anything just to keep you happy and the job moving moving. This is what Metricon tried with me which resulted in delays when they later had to remove, straighten the frame and replace about 40% of the wavy bowed gyprock. All you need to check are a straight edge, a step ladder and a few hours onsite.

Bricking was finished yesterday and the plastering has already started. According to the Brighton Homes written protocols there was supposed to be a pre lining inspection scheduled but the SS has been pushing to get the site to lockup. As noted earlier much of the rough in had been completed prior to the frame inspection so not too bad, but there are a few items like ducted AC and vacuum system that did not get checked yet.

A rain event is forecast for this weekend with up to 35 mm expected tomorrow. The only really open area now is the garage that is waiting on the panel lift door but that is facing south and the forecast is for northerly winds with the rain, so it should keep dry. Fingers crossed.

Plastered.

Hi Varsity,

Cant wait to see your house finished - such a great home design.

We are thinking of building with Brighton in North Brisbane.

Overall would you recommend them?

Was there a good selection of included tiles/flooring etc?

Thank you!

Andy we are currently 50% through the build process and the experience has so far been pretty positive. To be honest we were surprised at how flexible Brighton were in accommodating our floor plan changes. As you can see from an earlier post it is a significant variation to the original Jamieson 30.

There were quite a few standard selections available in the package we signed under (apparently the offers vary a fair bit from time to time). We felt the colour palette of standard selections skewed heavily to the greys and taupes, but that seems to be the common theme these days. There are quite a few upgrade selections available at varying price ranges. We opted for a few upgrade selections to get away from an entirely grey home. A few things we wanted, specifically in the kitchen fitout, were not available as selections and we have had to settle for something else from the available Brighton range.

At the moment I believe the build will be completed in the suggested 22 week timeframe. There have been a couple of niggles during the build but these will get sorted one way or another. I think the actual build experience depends greatly on the site supervisor you get allocated. We are pretty happy with the trades our SS has organized so far but I don't fully understand the process.

This is a project home build not a bespoke build. It is essentially handsoff for the client until they hand over the keys. Every design detail had to be decided prior to the build start and in theory you shouldn't need to see or do anything until completion. A bespoke builder would perhaps be more interactive with the client and allow some selections to be made later in the process, but the build costs would be substantially greater.

Varsity, thank you so much for such a detailed response. I really appreciate it!

We are first home buyers and the whole process has me excited and also very nervous! So I really do appreciate your feedback!

Cant wait to see your build progress! I have all my fingers crossed for you!

Thanks again! Andy.

No pictures but fit out complete (i.e. the doors, architraves, etc. have been installed) and wet areas sealed. Next week there might be some cabinetry and the tiling start is scheduled for the week following.

Progress this week, waterproofing completed, cabinets nstalled and the tiles have been delivered.

The waterproofing compound must be very expensive, it looks like they just do the bare minimum. Who would have thought the 50mm strip between edge of the shower and the window was worth skipping? Also only the ensuite floor has been fully covered, the main bathroom only got the wall edges sealed. I guess the difference is the ensuite won't have a hob and door on the shower.

A pic of the installed kitchen cabinets.

Painting and fit off has been progressing over the last couple of weeks. We are finally getting to see the choices made from the small samples in the colour studio in full scale. A bit scary. To be honest we probably didn't spend enough time sweating over colours, We spent much more effort thinking through the cabinetry layout and floor plan changes. We have gone for a neutral wall colour almond Ice(altair) and upgraded the kitchen splashback and flooring to more colourful options than were available from the standard greyiege palette. So far we are happy with the neutral cabinets and wall colour. We are looking forward to seeing it all come together flooring.

The kitchen benchtop and appliance are now in.




Plenty of space in the long hallway.


The ensuite coming together as well.

The driveway was installed today.


The interior getting close to finished as well. Just a few more weeks till PCI.

What flooring are these? Looks nice.

It's engineered laminate flooring in Spotted Gum. I think it might be QuickStep. It was a special upgrade, not one of the standard Brighton selections.

Today was handover day. This almost went off the rails since the company forgot to send us the final invoice to pay and they must have cleared payment in hand before the keys are handed over. All sorted by this afternoon, thankfully!

We have a lot to do now! The bare dirt around the block is going to be a problem until we can get some landscaping done. I have organised a landscaper but he's booked solid for the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime a few pics. It really needs a wide angle lens to take meaningful pics in the rooms, but for what they are worth:

The entry hallway from outside and inside:


Bed 2 and 3 joined into a shared area by taking out one robe.




The ensuite:


The main bathroom


And the most photogenic room, a seat and a couple of drinks in the living room after handover:



I have a few thoughts on the whole process but I haven't got around to sorting them all out in my head yet. But just 20 weeks from levelling the site to handover was overall pretty painless.

The structural part of the landscaping is now complete, we just have to start planting out!

We found a few of the last Claypave pavers still available and decided to lay those down the side of the house for the main utility area.




The front has been turfed around some garden beds


We considered a number of options to finish off between the alfresco and the retaining wall after it ended up higher than we expected. In the end the best solution seemed to be just extend the alfresco to the edge, so we got a big lump of concrete pumped in to fill in. We'll have to wait for it to cure and then tile it and add a glass balcony fence.

We might do something like that also, as we have a 1.7M retaining wall along the back at the easement!