Hermitage Grande - MDJ

ace91 · Oct 29, 2018 7:26 pm

Any photos?

We have got our quote for this house and would love to see other people’s hermitage homes to get ideas !!

gogo65 · Oct 29, 2018 8:30 pm

Where are you building?
We are reconsidering our options and the hermitage has peaked our interest.

ace91 · Oct 29, 2018 9:18 pm

Building in the Shoalhaven. What about you?

Tossing up between that and the Bronte. Considering making some changes to the Bronte to include the Hermitage kitchen and ensuite. So far, MDJ have not been very keen to help with this.

gogo65 · Oct 29, 2018 9:53 pm

Oh that’s interesting, we are looking at building in Sydney’s north west.
We’ve been told we can pretty much do whatever we want from a design point of view. The sales guy said we can cut and paste and do anything as long as we pay a $500 design fee.
Funnily enough, we were looking at changing the master in the hermitage to the master from the Bronte, we wanted both the master and ensuite overlooking the backyard/bush.

ace91 · Oct 29, 2018 9:58 pm

There is the option to mirror the master/en-suite so it would be the opposite layout. Have they sent you a price list? It should be on there

I just checked my price list for the hermitage and its $750 to mirror the master suite ie suite to rear

gogo65 · Oct 30, 2018 11:37 am

Yes I’ve got the price list and I’ve seen the optional ensuite, but the bath is at the front of the house, where as we prefer the bath also overlooking the rear..

ace91 · Oct 30, 2018 11:44 am

Ahh ok! I didn’t realise they charged for modifications pre contract signing.

Good to know

gogo65 · Oct 30, 2018 2:29 pm

They only charge if you make huge changes to the plans, he virtually told us it would be like a custom design.
We’ve already had an architect do a concept plan but the price started getting out of hand, so the MJD salesperson said he could get similar plan but will base it on one of their original designs, hence a $500 fee.
For simple changes like extending walls or moving walls, there is no charge.

ace91 · Oct 30, 2018 3:41 pm

gogo65 · Oct 30, 2018 5:01 pm

Ive only had an initial meeting with them, still deciding on what our plan is.
We had a deposit on land, but after having our house on the market for 4 months and seeing the value plummet, we are re-looking at our options.
One was to build with GJ gardener or MJD, saving about $400k in building costs compared to our custom design or we may just stay where we are for a few years.
We’ve built 3 times before so have a clear idea of what we want and the restrictions that building a project home will bring, so very undecided at the moment.
However we were very impressed with the sales guy at kellyville, very accomodating, although they wont let us supply our own appliances.

Grakat · Oct 31, 2018 9:00 am

Hi there

We are also interested in the Hermitage Grande. We gave the Bronte some serious consideration but there was a lot more that needed to be changed in the Bronte than the Hermitage to get the home we want. Our land is in the Hunter area and has a great outlook.

Some things we considered in the Hermitage are as follows;

1/ Extending the alfresco over the kitchen area as well, with the island kitchen and the stacker doors it will give an awesome indoor/outdoor flow.

2/ Removing the study and respacing the 3 bedrooms along the front wall into 3m x 4m bedrooms. We looked at this in the show home at Thornton, it makes the rooms huge.

3/ Cavity Slider door to the toilet in the master ensuite. I don't think your significant other wants to hear you in the bathroom lol.

4/ Extending the laundry along the back of the garage to provide a mud room option.

As far as appliances are concerned I would take whatever the builder offers and then change them out afterwards. The only appliance I would specify from the beginning and pay the extra for would be the cooktop, as it would need to be cut into the stone benchtop.

We got an initial quote at Thornton, and the sales guy was very helpful. One thing we did like was that he took us through the show home and showed us what was included and what was excluded from the quotation. The main thing that is giving concern is the price rise upon price rise, the market is not supporting these increases. If it goes up another couple of times then custom build is going to become an option for us.

Hope this helps.

ace91 · Oct 31, 2018 9:13 pm

gogo65 · Oct 31, 2018 11:00 pm

Ace I’m not sure where you get a custom build for that price. The cheapest we came across was $1850 with moderate inclusions, $2100 for good inclusions and $2500sqm for excellent inclusions.
Maybe Sydney has a bigger premium??

ace91 · Nov 01, 2018 8:18 am

We’ve received two custom build quotes - one for 1325 per sqm another 1450 per sqm

Other quotes have been above. Some around 1650 and others as high as 4000

There’s such a massive range here

ace91 · Nov 01, 2018 8:21 am

All of those quotes included the upgrades and extras in MJH as standard:

- 2.7 m ceilings
- including down lights to home
- flooring
- site costs
- 20mm stone benches. Some included 40 as standard
- floor to ceiling tiles in wet areas for all but one builders quote

SH60 · Nov 08, 2018 10:20 pm

Ace 91 our first build was with a Private Builder ..it was the worst experience of our life .. . Everything quoted was a estimate or Provisional Cost (it was noted as PA and we didn't know what it meant) ..nothing was fixed in price and we didn't realize . Selections were awkward and very basic. Visiting tile shops, kitchen factory and bathroom plumbing shops and then the electrical contractor"s garage/office just wasn't our idea of a good experience... and none of the estimates allowed in our quote were enough to buy even the most basic. The build quality was poor in the end. Our costs blew out tremendously nearly causing our marriage to breakup. During the build the over costs were invoiced monthly it was an horrendous experience I think we paid almost 35% over originally quoted
We sold our first home and risked building again this time with a Project Builder . We checked out their displays and was amazed at how much houses had moved on since our last experience . We chose, after a good look around, to build the Bronte acreage home with McDonald Jones built with a steel frame. We were brave to do it but the experience turned out to be brilliant ,... we stayed in budget with no surprises after all the plan changes and selections were made.There were no cost surprises at all ...we even got Miele appliances . We have a beautiful home.. well built and we found them generally good decent people to deal with . My daughter built with them too in one of Sydney's newer suburbs .She had a similar experience to our Bronte build .
I'm sorry i cant provide better news about our Private Builder experience but really it almost sent us broke and nearly ruined us ! I am sure not all Private Builders are as ours was but we read it regularly that you need at least 20/25% in reserve for overs and extra costs . Enjoy

Thomas09 · Aug 09, 2019 9:20 pm

ace91

We requested a pre deposit walk through the colour studio. We found that so many of the prices and “standard inclusions” the sales rep shared with us were far from the truth.

There were features throughout the home that we questioned and were assured were included in the base price. However, just as we assumed, they were extras.

It seems that the sales reps will do anything to get you to sign up and once you are in the mycolour studio you are stuck upgrading if you want those features and items you assumed were standard.

If you are unsure about any future costs I would request a walk through pre deposit. It was enough for us to choose custom build and leave the project home option behind.

The total build for the hermitage with upgrades, site costs, verandahs for us came to $1450 sqm. A custom build can be done for the same or slightly more. If you were happy with the standard and/or little upgrades it was priced well.

Hey did you go ahead with the Hermitage? We are considering it at the moment would love you feedback

ace91 · Aug 10, 2019 4:15 pm

Thomas09 · Aug 10, 2019 4:37 pm

Thanks for your reply - what was the final square meter eatery for your new build?

bede82 · Apr 15, 2020 10:55 am

gogo65

Oh that’s interesting, we are looking at building in Sydney’s north west.
We’ve been told we can pretty much do whatever we want from a design point of view. The sales guy said we can cut and paste and do anything as long as we pay a $500 design fee.
Funnily enough, we were looking at changing the master in the hermitage to the master from the Bronte, we wanted both the master and ensuite overlooking the backyard/bush.

Hi Gorgo65, we are currently looking to do just what you talked about. Did you end up doing this? If so, how did it all work out? Thanks for your help!