It appears that I am the second person here documenting a build with Inspired/ Como Homes.
The whole load of useful information I have received by various forum members here have helped me hugely in shaping my build, and I thought it might be nice to post some useful information throughout my build to help others.
Since I had a fairly small corner block of 342 m2, it was very hard to find an already made plan to fit properly - since almost all volume builders have plans for regular blocks, and whilst a few will try to change them for you to suit, in the end a custom design was needed. I was able to utilise the short setback on one of the frontages to be my architectural front, whilst keeping the garage and driveway on the other side of the corner.
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In the end I designed the house (with invaluable advice from this forum) and got a local draftsman to draw it all up (more about the problems I encountered before this later)
One day I drove by Inspired Homes - I had never heard of them before and literally drove by their display house in Berwick on a whim and went in. They do custom designs for what used to be a subsidiary of Arden Homes, although the custom build arm is now separate and called Como Homes. They do have their own designs (the other thread by Clareymoo features one of their specific designs) but I was pleased to find they do complete customisation too.
I had a chat with Charley in sales, and immediately realised that she knew what she was talking about, was totally on the ball, and after looking over my drafted design, was able to give me a price for my custom build within 30 minutes, which has held accurate to within 5% even after engineering, upgrade costings and tender. If you ever want to see what a great, knowledgeable sales consultant is, go and see her.
So 5 months on, I've been through tender with Como Homes, and just ironing the last few things out before contract signing soon.
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Just little things like why did their draftsman put the plumbing stack right in front of the open staircase?! And why did they also decrease the internal depth of the walk-in wardrobes from 600mm to 510mm (means the doors hit the coats and suits every time)
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and what on earth have they done with all the drawer towers and rails in the master bedroom WIR?