Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1586Mar 04, 2016 9:20 pm Hi guys, can anyone give me some advice re tree removal for a knock down rebuild? There are trees on our site that need to be removed - our plans have these trees marked as needing removal subject to council approval. Wisdom said we need to organise approval for removal of these separately but my question is do I wait for Wisdom to lodge our construction plans first and then apply to council for the trees? Do I need to link it back to the DA application? I am so confused as to how to go about this... Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1587Mar 05, 2016 3:18 pm @msjovi most councils have an tree permit system which is used for major pruning or removal. We had to apply for a tree to be removed last year which involved getting a tree removal permit from the council and an arborist report detailing why the tree should be removed. We had to do all of this outside the Wisdom process and actually arranged for the tree to be removed on its own merit before we signed the contract otherwise it would've impacted our ability to go the CDC route. The tree permit application generally has a space where you put your DA number. Since you're already going down the DA path I don't suspect it's an issue. Best to talk to your council about this, maybe the DA already comes with the permission to remove trees and demolish the existing dwelling Wisdom Homes Abode 27 KDRB - Inner West Sydney https://wisdomhomesabode27.wordpress.com/ Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1588Mar 05, 2016 4:41 pm Hi MsJovi, for our KDR as we are in a heritage area we had to apply to council for a DA and could not get a CDC. We also had to get council approval to demolish the previous house. We applied for both construction and demolition at the same time and we submitted the build plans with a notation that trees that were marked in red would need to be removed. Council approved the plans and buried in the 50 conditions was approval for all trees highlighted to be removed. I don't know if you need council approve to demolish or if that was just linked to our heritage area. Subsequently we wanted to remove a fairly large tree in our back corner. We had a arborist come and identify it as a noxious weed (Camphor Laurel) and I contacted council about removing it and got their ok over the phone. We just needed to call them the day it was being removed incase they had any neighbours ring and complain. She advised that all councils were trying to streamline the process for removing trees (as long as they are not local to the area we were advised). It was much easier than previously when we had to get council approval to remove a tree in our front yard and pay a council inspector to come out and confirm that the tree was half dead and was cracking the foundation of our old house (it was massive with the most extensive root system). that was a complete pain and waste of money. Probably best to give them a call - i found our council (Hornsby) surprisingly helpful. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1590Mar 06, 2016 8:56 am Thanks Lou. We have to go through DA for our house as the house to land area is bigger than what CDC allows. But we were told by Wisdom that we would need to organise demolition approval on our own (we need a CDC approval for demolition). Did Wisdom actually apply for your demolition approval too? The trees that need to be removed are marked on the landscape plans but our landscape consultant told us we would need to apply to council for this on our own. Hence my confusion! I'll be ringing both council and Wisdom tomorrow to clarify exactly what I need to do. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1591Mar 06, 2016 9:19 am Maybe it was because of our heritage zone. We were told by council before going to any builder that we had to lodge both demo and construction at the same time. Approval needed to go to a heritage board and they would not approve construction unless they could see what was being demolished.We advised Wisdom of this every step of the way and this was done when we lodged. Good luck with council Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1592Mar 09, 2016 11:32 am amf139 I think I drove past your site today I look forward to following your progress. We are building up the road from you. Yeah I got to visit the site this morning to talk with the landscaper about fencing, layback and water meter issues. Got some pics of the piers and the slab formwork at my blog Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1593Mar 11, 2016 5:27 pm Anyone building the ambassador wisdom home. I am planning to build the ambassador 36. However not happy with the WIR and bathroom off the master suite has anyone redesigned this ?? I'm planning to reduce the size of the bathroom and have the WIR near the bath rather than behind the bed head which reduces my room size. Any ideas/ pictures to share... Also planning to get the sliding door to the home theatre. Any idea how much that costs... I would like to hear of what people have upgraded in the ambassador home... Just to get an idea... Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1594Mar 11, 2016 7:08 pm Guys, For those building an Ambassador I have heard a 36 display home will open tomorrow at Stockland Elara Marsden Park. We are going to have a look as we are starting to think about the interior decoration. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1595Mar 12, 2016 11:03 am Hi Greg, Hopefully you will have some pictures to share. We are planning to build a Ambassador 36 as well. Where are you building? Cheers, Aggy Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1596Mar 12, 2016 11:16 am Hi Aggy, We are building the Ambassador 41 and although we haven't changed the master suite (as we are getting the walk in robe fit out behind the bed head and love the design) we have modified the main bathroom upstairs. Instead of having it as a jack and Jill bathroom we have closed off the side doors from the bedrooms and have made one entrance from the hallway. We are losing part of the linen to do this but gaining more wardrobe space in the bedrooms and we can now also fit a double vanity in the bathroom too. As far as upgrades go we have chosen a lot! Not sure if you saw the display at the ponds but we've chosen the same facade, staircase, kitchen and big windows looking out to the leisure room. The same as the pics on the Wisdom website. Also added a shower to the powder room and timber sliding door to master, increased ceiling and door height and upgraded all our bathroom vanities to polyurethane with 40mm stone tops. Went a bit crazy at Knebel and also getting built in media cabinetry for the theatre and leisure and a laundry fit out. We're also adding a fireplace after handover as it was considerably cheaper than Wisdoms price. We didn't select the sliding doors to the theatre as these were $6500 (!!) and my husband is a glazier so he'll be installing aluminium and glass sliding doors after handover. We've just asked for a square set opening. Similarly with our master bedroom we've asked for a square set opening between the bedroom and ensuite and we're putting a big panel of glass there after handover so you'll be able to see into the bathroom from the bedroom. No pics to share yet as we are still waiting for council approval. What stage are you at? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1597Mar 12, 2016 11:54 am Hi Jovi, Thank you for your response. We are at the very initial stages of getting our tender for Ambassador 36 and have a looonnngg way to go.... We also wanted to do the sliding doors to the theatre, but i guess $6500 is going to be too expensive. We might also just ask for a square set opening and get quotes from elsewhere to fit the same. But i guess there will be labour charges involved there as well. Where are you sourcing your fireplace from, thats another thing we would want to include as well.. I understand from this forum that the driveways are cheaper if we get it done externally ... your thoughts? We are planning on doing the savannah facade with the balcony but again the balcony is more of the bedroom than the lounge room.. Might have to redesign this as well as they do not have many options of the balcony over the garage. Any idea if there is going to be a price hike in April, as the $9900 promotion has been on for a while now. Cheers, Aggy Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1598Mar 12, 2016 8:07 pm Hi All, The Ambassador 36 Display Home is open at Stockland Elara Marsden Park. They have made a few layout changes which are interesting - i like the door that closes off the butlers pantry/laundry area from the kitchen but prefer the original design of the master bedroom. Its definitely worth a look. Hi Aggy, You should definitely have a look at the display home as they have made that very change to the WIR - basically now it has its own little area before you get to the bathroom. In terms of the main upgrades we did the following: Increase upstairs ceiling height including increasing door heights Square set cornices Three panel floor to almost ceiling windows off the dining room (this will overlook our pool) Overhead cabinets to butlers pantry Upgraded all the doors to Hume panels (including slider to home theatre with bar handle - this worked out much cheaper than the actual display home upgrade) Shower to downstairs powder room Upgrading the second access to the alfresco to a triple stacker sliding door Avanti facade with rendering Sliding door to master suite Understair access door along with tiling inside Laundry cupboard fitout as per display home Upgraded main ensuite as per display home Gas and hot/cold water points to alfresco Upgraded butlers pantry caeserstone to 40mm Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1600Mar 12, 2016 9:01 pm Aggy, we're getting our fireplace direct from Jetmaster which is the same company Wisdom uses. It's working out to be about $3K cheaper. We are also getting the driveway done after handover. The actual driveway within our property wasn't that much more expensive with Wisdom but we need to swap our layback and crossover to the opposite side (knock down rebuild) and that was much more expensive through Wisdom. So we're using our $5.5K landscape credit towards our retaining walls. You'll get a landscape quote for all the works including driveway and you can pick and choose from there. I believe price rises occur every 6 months but you're best to check that with Wisdom. The last one that I'm aware of was Sep last year, as we signed the day before the price rise. Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18473 In fairness nobody gave a crap about the ACCC and the gag clauses continued in the pro forma templates of a few other builders after the ACCC took on Wisdom, and more… 19 73522 Hi Everyone, I am exploring builder in NSW and received a very tempting quote from Wisdom home for their momentum series. I just want to know experience of building… 0 8241 |