Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 14, 2013 12:07 pm We are about to start building a modified version of the Gallery House by InForm Design and Construction in Melbourne. So far the process has been very efficient with impeccable service and we are very impressed by the speed that things have progressed. We had weekly meetings with InForm and their architect from Pleiser Perkins to modify the original Gallery House project design and they have come up with a 3D computer model, detailed drawings and contract specifications for our dream house in just 4 and a half months from when we started to talk to them. Is anyone else out there building a Gallery House or any other house by InForm? It would be interesting to compare notes. Re: The Gallery House 2Aug 27, 2013 9:36 pm We are now 3 weeks into the build of our modified Gallery House by InForm Design and Construction and the ground floor frame is all ready up and they are onto the First Floor. We expect the frame to be finished in about 10 days. We abandoned our planned build of the Fuwa House with Henley on 22 Feb 2013 after a disappointing Tender Meeting and first spoke with InForm about the Gallery House design on 24 Feb. We signed the construction contract on 19 July after a very busy 5 months working with Pleiser Perkins and InForm to customise the Gallery design. We finished the demolition of our existing house on 30 July. The soil survey was done the next day and InForm started the site works on 7 August. The slab was poured on 15 August. Underground power was installed on 19 August. Frame was started on 21 August. So far so good. It is very exciting to see so much progress in such a short period of time, especially after about 9 years of looking at various options of renovation versus construction and traipsing around hundreds of project display homes. In the end it looks like we will get exactly what we want and a classic, Modernist style house to suit our site at not much more than we would have had to pay Henley for a house that would have been very bling but at the end of the day would have still looked like a project home and be a bit of a compromise. Re: The Gallery House 4Aug 28, 2013 9:34 pm I'm new to HomeOne and don't know how to attach a photo. However, you can see artists impressions of the InForm standard Gallery House at http://www.informdesign.com.au/designs/gallery. We are building in Glen Iris, Melbourne, on a nearly level block with a 0.6 m fall across the block. Although we have a relatively wide block of 16.7 m we have chosen a 6 m wide house, which will allow us to have sweeping views of Melbourne from the first floor which has always been our aim. Re: The Gallery House 5Aug 30, 2013 6:25 pm To upload photos - you need another site. http://photobucket.com/ is a fairly common one. Or you can do something like me and start up a blog at a site like tumblr, wordpress or blogspot where you can upload photos to there and link them from here. Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: The Gallery House 6Nov 18, 2013 9:46 pm Hi Everyone We are in discussion with Inform about building a version of their Quad house. From what I hear from the comments, everyone seems to be impressed with the progress of their building. Would anyone like to share what kind of building costs were involved? Re: The Gallery House 7Nov 27, 2013 9:56 pm Hi hammrz, We built a slightly expanded version of the Gallery House (6 m wide rather than the standard 5 m) and also added a workshop to the double garage and a 9 m x 3.5 m Loggia (al fresco). We also added several upgrades such as an aluminium screen to the facade, a remote controlled skylight (looks wonderful), two full-height internal doors and two cavity sliding doors. Along with other more standard upgrades (such as more expensive ovens, range hood, cooktop and dishwasher and floor to ceiling wall tiles in the bathrooms), the total cost (with variations) is around $750k but the quoted base price without most of the upgrades was $640k (including solid timber floors, pure wool carpets and a ModCon high velocity ducted heating and refrigerated cooling system). We were told by InForm that generally clients spend around $100k on upgrades/variations and they were right! Even if you start off with the best of intentions to keep the costs down and stick to just the InForm basic inclusions as time goes on you just tend to add a few $k here and a few $k there to get everything just right. The point is that we are nearly at the end of fixing stage (the stairs and timber flooring are going in this week and the joinery next week) and we really do appear to have everything that we could wish for without having to compromise on quality. I am still very impressed with InForm's service, although there have been a few issues and mistakes by InForm along the way. However, as soon as we point out the problem it gets fixed. What particularly impresses me is the site supervisor's efficient scheduling of the tasks so that a quoted 10 month build (in the contract) is now on track to be a 6 month build for an architect designed, modified project home. I am also impressed by the overall level of service, very different to our experience with Henley who we dealt with up to tender stage before walking away due to poor service and lack of flexibility. I don't know much about the Quad House but it would appear to me to be a larger project home than the Gallery and therefore would probably be slightly dearer. However, that said, we did make our house into a 390 m2 house (including garage/workshop but not including the Loggia) so it is not that small. One tip, don't let InForm rush you through the design stage to start the build. Take your time and make sure that you are completely happy with every detail before you sign the construction contract so that there are as few variations for design mistakes as possible further down the track. Go over the drawings and specification with a fine tooth comb and it will really make the building process easier and less stressful. Good luck with the build if you decide to go ahead. Re: The Gallery House 8Apr 01, 2016 9:49 pm Hi, I know it's been a few years, but just wondering how you went with the gallery Diego? We are just about to embark on the same course... Just had our second appt with architects over customising the gallery deisign by Inform. Must add, price has gone up quite a bit!! Re: The Gallery House 9Apr 02, 2016 8:04 pm Hi, we have been in our modified Gallery House two years now and are very happy with the result. All up with modifications it cost us $730k. We made quite a number of changes, including all brick second storey (not foam) and aluminium fixed louvres to the front Master window and over the Al Fresco. We chose the Gallery design as it was so close to our ideal design for our block, allowing us to have wonderful views from the upstairs windows without having to frost any glass or worry about overlooking. It also allowed us to have a swimming pool at the side of the house outside the dining/family room sliding doors. After several visits after handover from the ModCons people the ducted heating and A/C works well and the house is cool in summer and warm in winter, and very thermally efficient. Re: The Gallery House 10Apr 05, 2016 9:39 pm Thankyou so much for that update.. We want to do the exact same thing and put the pool in the zone outside the kitchen/dining, boxed in by Loggia and theatre. I think a few specs have changed.. Our standard spec is now engineered floors (which we don't like) and I'm not sure if upstairs is brick or hebel, I'll have to check now that you mention it! On the higher spec level (which has mod cons ), base price is about $820k from memory.. So price has gone up quite a bit! Add to that the eaves, the upper level roof line, screen for master suite window, loggia/alfresco build... I hope there isn't much more to update internally. We are going to go have a look at their tile range this week, just to see what the baseline is (and hope we like something within that range)... The joys of building. We are building in Beaumaris Thankyou again, a lot of help.. Especially that it's the same house, and it's uncommon You’re on the right track, wire brush in a grinder then a zinc rich epoxy primer then a top coat of some sort, like a waterproofing membrane. Raising the concrete would… 1 7030 How good is Simeon?! Always taking time to help others out! Wish we were building in NSW and could work together. Thanks for all that you do! 7 6564 Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? Study books - does anyone really use them these days? Large storage closet would be more functional. 2 6884 |