Thomas Archer Hue 42 Bayside Build - 2020/21

Hi!! I thought I would join in and include my build journey here too after receiving a lot of great help and guidance from other forum members during our scoping stage.

We started our journey back in November last year after securing a 650 sqm block in Bayside Melbourne.

With a budget of around $600-650k for the build only (plus extra for pool/landscape) we looked at different builders in Melbourne but decided on Thomas Archer. They are quite a boutique builder and sparked our interest when the owners and an investor both built down the road from us. The quality and aesthetic of their builds and facades always impressed us so we were very happy to see that we could achieve what we wanted within our budget.

Pros and Cons of why we went with Thomas Archer
Pros
· We thought there was good value for money on their base price and their standard inclusions were higher than other similar builders.
· Sales team- no pressure approach to signing on and when quoting no pressure to upgrade. Were very honest and proactive in getting us the highest quality house within our budget.
· Appreciated the caliber of suppliers they used (most as standard inclusions) including Signorio Tiles, Pheonix Tapware, Franke Sinks, Made by Story floorboards, Haymes Paint, Polytec Cabinetry, Caesarstone/Quantum Quartz Stone Benchtops etc.
· Loved going through ‘The Gallery’ (the owners house) to get ideas of what we could achieve. Their build was about double the price with lots of different textures, finishes and marble/stones but it is great inspiration.
· Very supportive and helpful when we were looking to purchase land – providing us all the required info around easements, any potential additional costs, restrictions etc. Would definetly recommend utilising this service if you’re still at this stage.
· They understood the challenges of building in Bayside, so had some great solutions to ensure our build was compliant to the councils requirements.
· They are a volume builder but are very open to customizing to what you need. In hindsight we could have done more but were really happy with what we ended up with.
· The stylist has impeccable taste, a great Instagram account and lots of fun creative solutions that were all within our budget and really elevated the aesthetic and quality of the house. She is the owner’s wife also so is responsible for the beautiful Gallery home.
· In our opinion they had the most architectural looking facades we had seen- we wanted a timeless look
· Frank the owner has been quite involved in our plans (I don’t know if this is normal or just a result of the current times). Reassuring to know the owner still is across the details.
· Their operations manager is a gun and has been helping us at all hours of the day and night.


Cons
· At times it seems the teams run quite lean. In saying that it does seem like they are taking on more head count, especially in the project coordinator department.
· As a result, Communication can be a little bit ad-hoc at times however again it seems like with more headcount and focus now this has been remedied. They’ve also been very open to taking our feedback on this front and we’ve seen vast improvements.
· Limited in options - They could probably do with a few more façade options when compared to the likes of CG, Halibury etc. There isn’t much flexibility in working with any other suppliers or bringing in any other trades – again I assume this is standard for a lot of volume builders but we’ve seen some that are more open to this.
* The process has seemed quite slow at points however we don't know how standard this is of the building industry or if its just a result of us initially engaging them close to Christmas time.

· Reviews have been mixed from owners as to end results. We are going to put this down to being a new company with teething problems and hope for the best with our build.

Timelines so far:
Sept 19 - Engage sales team
Nov 19 - Secure block
Nov 19 - Paid Deposit for Soil & Survey Report
Mid Jan 20 - Receive Soil & Survey Report
End Jan 20 - Receive plans.
Early Feb - Engage Third Party for R&C submission to local council
Early Feb 19 - Styling Appointment & Electrical Appointment
Mid March - Receive Tender
Mid March - Settle on house
End April - R&C approved by council
End April - Sign back Tender
April - Demo complete
Late May - Receive back final elevations
Will soon be signing contract.
Hoping to install sleeper pool this week and site start end June/early July.

A list of suppliers we are using or have used so far:
· Build: Thomas Archer
· Landscaping: Adam Cox Landscaping
· Pool: Narellan Pools
· Demo: Online Demo (can highly recommend)
· Wine Room Fitout: Vine & Vault
* Third Party Inspection: New Home Inspections


I'll put up some separate posts on design & landscaping now.

So we went with their Hue floor plan (their bayside compliant floor plan) with a few mods. Originally, we wanted a 44 sq house but due to our block and relating council restrictions we ended at 42sq (mainly due to reducing size of upstairs because of raised ceiling heights). The main must haves for us was a flexible floor plan that can be adapted as our newish family grows and evolves, enough space to allow for backyard & pool, a wine room (this was the only way to get husband over the line to build instead of buy), high ceilings, a fairly simple and timeless aesthetic and lots of natural light.






We went with the C4 façade which is very similar to the owner’s ‘The Gallery’ façade. We'll be doing this in a Silkwort render contrasted with Black Shadowclad.

House Design/Upgrades

General
· Refrigerated Heating & Cooling.
· European Engineered Oak Flooring – Made by Story ‘Sesame’
· 3m ceilings downstairs, 2.6m upstairs. All door heights increased to match.
· Square Set downstairs, coved cornice upstairs.
· Brushed Chrome Hardware
· Shower to be included in powder room downstairs so can convert current Rumpus/Playroom to bedroom in future if need. Pool and functionally easier with a child also.
· R3.1 insulation between floors for sound proofing.
· Finger pull cabinetry throughout house.
· 2000L slim line water tank plumbed to outdoor and 3 x toilets.
· Trenching of gas line for future BBQ area next to alfresco.
· Pre wiring for future solar panel installation.

Kitchen/Dining/Living
· increased height to have 2.7m high sliding doors throughout dining and living area double glazed.
· 4.5m Extra large sliding doors next to dining room
· Appliances – Bosch 2 x Black Oven, Induction (To be installed post handover), F&P induction.
· Bar Area to be created next to fridge.
· Wine Room coming off Dining Room – fit out to be complete post handover featuring black steel French doors. Higher grade internal insulation to be done by TA for regulating air temperature.
· Feature paint to fridge, bar and wine room.
· Polytec black timber joinery to be installed in living room across length of wall.
· Quantum Quartz Superwhite Porcelain Island Bench in kitchen (to be installed post handover) – 40mm edging & 200mm legs.
· Laminex white drawers and Polytec black timber overhead cabinetry.
· Additional window along kitchen splash back to allow for more natural light. Landscaping to be done along side walls so lots of lovely greenery to look out to.

Upstairs/Bathrooms
· WIR changed to BIR for additional room in some Bed 2+3.
· Joinery in activity area.
· Convert all showers to frameless and additional tiling throughout bathrooms.
· Include ledges in bathrooms.
· Upgrade carpet to S4 – Carpet Court Country Texture in Indie colour.

Here's a few rough images of some of the colours we chose.

I stole this one from their instagram - its not our house but similar finishes and tones (stone, carpet, laminate, floorboards).


Powderroom Downstairs:



Laundry:



Kitchen, Living + Dining: Black overhead cabinetry (and bar joinery), Superwhite stone, Sesame floorboards, Ghostgum drawers, black joinery in living room.



Bathrooms:



And here are a few 3d elevations we have of the living, dining and facade (the doors to the wine room will be larger than image and installed post handover -hoping to get black french steel doors).

And one more!

Here is also a picture of our rough landscaping plans. Nothing too revolutionary in the front yard – currently have aggregate driveaway but would love a smoother finish if we can afford. Will look to have 2-3 silver birch trees next to walk way, then oversized granite steppers in a light grey (stone TBC).





Will utilise the space created by flipping the dining room and create a paved courtyard area to the left of the house. We’ll have black steel arches with vines flowing across to create a more shaded area that still allows for natural light to seep into house. Will do a retaining wall with climbers from behind and install BBQ area next to Alfresco (design TBC). It will feel like this:

We have decided to pave all down the side, alfresco and around the pool in a marble stone called 'Grey Apricot' in 800x400mm pavers.

Pool positioning was a bit contentious but ultimately decided to place in front of house due to location of sewer tie. Looking to do black steel pool fencing as have heard glass can be a nightmare to clean. Likely will have to get already established trees running down the back of the property as there is a two storey house that looks directly into our back yard. Narellan Pools are installing 8 x 4m fibre glass Symphony pool in Grey Quartz (image reference below of pool size and colour)

Overall, interesting design. Where is you North I wonder?

510 mm are very narrow robes, if you ask me, though.
In reality you get 490 mm due to plaster and they won't be able to fit anything.

appreciate the feedback we were ummming and ahhing about that will talk to the builder to see if can make deeper.

Nice design. I agree with alexp79 510mm are way too narrow for wardrobes. Ideally you want 620mm so 20mm is lost to gib/plasterboard and you are left with 600mm usable

and for slider robes it should at least 710 mm, as 100 mm will be "taken" by the sliding mechanism.

thanks guys! also our block is north facing!

how close is the contract to your original budget?

what were the other builders that you considered?

We're actually ended up right on our budget which was a nice surprise! However we removed a lot of items but then also added in other items. Most of the upgrades we chose didn't vary in price from the original PSQ and site costs were already built into the PSQ. Probably the only surprise was additional energy requirement costs to get to 6 star which hadn't been included in our PSQ. In saying that I always recommending through the tender with a fine tooth comb and making sure your comfortable line by line.
There's also a few things we'll need to do post handover - e.g. we're doing a little bit of the upstairs electrical work post handover, the wine room fit out, landscaping, driveway etc.
other builders we considered and looked at show homes - InForm (LOVED but just out of our budget with their predesigned range), Carter Grange (have heard very mixed reviews on them and they're slightly more expensive than TA for what is essentially a huge volume builder), Arden, Glenville and Hallbury. We asked around to people in the industry and they recommended TA over other premium/boutique volume builders.

Can’t wait to see it all come together. Love your choices!

Oh wowee!

I love your plans, can see how the Hue has been altered to suit your needs.
You had me at "Wine Room"!

Some beautiful selections in there too, can't wait to see it all come together.
I am officially "watching". Yay!

And yes to those skinny robes. Standard I believe is 600.

hi lilaandco. Thanks for sharing such a detailed update, your plans look amazing so far. I love the garage facade. Do you have any details on the type/material of cladding the will use over the garage door? Any also who will provide the garage door assembly? We are planning our home and we want a flush finish garage door.

Hi Lilaandco! Love your design so far, the mood board that you posted is actually mine! We are also building a similar home to yours with TA 🥰, looking forward to seeing your one come to life ☺️

I've seen some of your stuff on TA's insta - your stone selections for example.

Oh yes! I really enjoyed styled selection, however I did make a few last mins changed to the splash back stone in the kitchen and the facade render colour

Hi Larry! Thanks so kind of you to say! The material is black shadowclad. I'm not sure on who does the garage door assembly as it is all done by our builder Thomas Archer.

Hi Guys!
Bit of a progress update!
Block has been demoed (never have I thought a pile of dirt was so sexy)
Online Demolition did our demo and did a GREAT job. Even the neighbours commenting on how proactive they were on managing the dust from their work. They also have reused a lot of the materials from our home so it is nice to know that there'll be a next chapter and repurposing. They also stopped work to accommodate the neighbours and kept the road clean throughout their stay.








and...
sleeper pool shell has gone in!
They'll finish concreting etc this week with TA to come back end of week to do soil test.
We're still aiming for ACCC end of June! Fingers crossed!

Looking great! How exciting!

Hi

thanks for your detailed post looks great. We are in a very similar position with you, having just had our tender discussion recently. Just decided to create an account after spending so much time on here reading only.

Just 2 comments / questions from me:
- We spent a lot of time discussing garage width with them as I think their standard is 5.5m internal, which I think is the size of yours. We finally were able to increase to 5.9m and even then I think it's still 100-200mm smaller than what i'd like. I measured out my current and its 5.9m, but that doesn't allow you to have both cars with their doors open fully. Just something you may want to consider.
- I see that you are installing your benchtop post handover. Is there a reason for this? cost?

thanks