Not enough small house builds on this forum
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Building a Noosa 23 - narrow block design from Coral Homes.
I will try and keep this up to date as things progress along with pictures - everyone loves pictures!
The process to date
As a first home buyer this entire process was one hell of a learning curve!
Initially began hunting for some land and house back in October 2013.
Had to quickly put a hold on a block of land as they were disappearing at an alarmingly fast rate. Luck i did - the next couple that walked in the door also wanted to put the block i just took on hold.
The land was not ready and wouldn't be until late March 2014. No problem - enough time to collect my thoughts and requirements for choosing a house.
With that i began builder hunting.
I spent the next four months dealing with a builder. I won't name them for their sake, but the incompetence of both the sales agent and head office led me to look elsewhere in January 2014. Decided to delete the rest of what i was going to say just in case. This experience was a great eye-opener to the world of building a house.
Eventually i settled on Coral Homes. The sales agent was brilliant when i began talking with them and prices felt more "right" compared to the first builder. It was a tough decision - Noosa 23 or Avoca 24. Price wise the Noosa was cheaper, but the Avoca appealed more to me. Eventually i settled on the Noosa23, on the exception that i would upgrade the ensuite as the included was just way too small. Reasons: four bedrooms compared to the three in the Avoca, kitchen/living layout was more modern and open compared to the Avoca and it was cheaper. The Avoca was a more traditional, rectangular house, where as the Noosa had corners that broke things up. The good for the Avoca: Large ensuite and larger bedrooms.
Today
It has been a long 7 months since i engaged Coral but i am close to being issued a job start date. Just awaiting some fixes the colour variation so i can sign, get the ACC form completed and then a job start date. Sadly i don't believe the build will be done in time for Christmas.
How would i rate coral thus far?
The sales agent was brilliant. Up front about costs, you ask for something and they add it to the quote or give you a price, they didn't forget things. No request was too far outside of the norm (IE plan changes).
Head office is another story. You will see mentioned that Coral is slow when it comes to head office. And they are. It has taken three months to get through head office from requesting tender to now. Will be four months by the time earthworks start. Coral work a bit different to other builders - other builders will start tender stage before land is registered and ready to go. Coral didn't want to request a tender until the land was registered and soil tests complete. Hallmark was able to get houses started within two weeks after the land was made available in the street. Two of those houses are already complete.
It is kind of frustrating to watch the weeks go by without anything happening and other builders are already completing there works.
That being said - head office respond within 24hours of emailing and are otherwise decent to deal with, so mainly the time frustrations would be my only complaint.
I took advantage of two of Coral's promotion at the time - colorbond roof for $999 (which they later made free... Sadly unless i was willing to accept a $1.6k base house price increase, they wouldn't provide it for free) and the free kitchen upgrade, which i am looking forward to!
The kitchen is a big focus in this house and as i enjoy cooking i decided to spend the extra.
Land;
Plans;
Electrical
More to come.