Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 15, 2008 9:53 pm HI everyone,
we've recently purchased a block of land in mernda, victoria and are now looking for a builder. Has anyone had any experiences with lucas morris homes or boutique homes? After months of traipsing around the whole of victoria looking at display homes and poring over a thousand and one house plans - we are now trying to decide between lucas morris homes and boutique homes or anyone recommend a double-storey home builder that would build in mernda. Any feedback would much appreciated. J & J Re: anyone built with lucas morris or boutique homes? 2Mar 16, 2008 9:22 am We quite liked the Boutique homes on display at Pakenham. What turned us off though was that the sales rep wouldn't even give us a basic price unless we paid an initial deposit first!
Needless to say we're not building with them. Re: anyone built with lucas morris or boutique homes? 3Mar 16, 2008 9:36 am well that doesn't sound very good. it's almost impossible to extract a price from some of these sales people. anyway, we're going to doreen today to look at the urbanedge display homes. we've been talking to one of their sales consultants (from taylors hill) and he's been very, very good. he's been very happy to provide us with alternative plans and has been upfront about costs from the start. we'll let you know how we go!
J&J Re: anyone built with lucas morris or boutique homes? 4Mar 16, 2008 9:46 pm I'm about "half" way through building a double story with Boutique (who knows how much longer it will take!!). Had a great experience with David, their sales guy at Caroline Springs (he's at the site with the Melburnian, not the Manhattan, which is what we're actually building). We made literally hundreds of changes to the base design of the Manhattan, including lengthening, swapping room locations around, rotating room layouts, adding extensions to the side, using different external claddings, etc etc. None of the changes cost us anything (other than what the final estimate for actually building them was).
While not perfect, they have been very flexible in approach, and good to deal with all the way along. I guess God didn't use subbies... manhattan - boutique homes 5Apr 25, 2008 9:31 pm Hi Mr T,
I just wanted to find out how your double storey is going. Our block of land is settling next month and we're still researching and talking to as many people as possible. Unfortunately, I haven't read too many good things about Boutique lately. I guess over the 'net, you can say whatever you want so you can't always believe what you read. I would be very grateful if you could share your experiences with us. Thanks! J&J Re: anyone built with lucas morris or boutique homes? 6Apr 25, 2008 9:54 pm Hi,
We're (hopefully!!) about half way through. Pretty happy with how it is all going, although not a great deal of progress in the last couple of weeks. I've been trying to keep a reasonably close eye on what they're doing, and had an independent inspector in for the frame stage, which found a few things to fix up, but nothing too concerning. One of our issues has been the weather, which is out of their hands, but it wasn't much fun having the rain pelting down without a roof on! As I said before, we found their sales guy really easy to deal with. At the time we started looking, we had no problems getting a price list from them for the houses we were interested in (we only ever looked at Caroline Springs and Tarneit, not Pakenham). We modified extensively, and we didn't have to pay anything until we were basically satisfied with the design. Many many iterations before contract, and lots of extra things we've added since. They gave us contact details for people who are/have built with them, so we could see what they thought. The sales rep even came out to meet with us in our suburb to discuss options as we made up our minds. Our block is a narrow one, on a main road, with a flood overlay that means we have our floor 1m above the ground. This has added cost to the project, but no major blowouts as we've built. Could perhaps be a bit quicker with the overall build, but I guess most people say this! Brickwork looks good, but too early to make any comments about the internal finish. pm me if you want any more details. Good luck! I guess God didn't use subbies... Re: anyone built with lucas morris or boutique homes? 7Apr 25, 2008 9:55 pm Hi,
We're (hopefully!!) about half way through. Pretty happy with how it is all going, although not a great deal of progress in the last couple of weeks. I've been trying to keep a reasonably close eye on what they're doing, and had an independent inspector in for the frame stage, which found a few things to fix up, but nothing too concerning. One of our issues has been the weather, which is out of their hands, but it wasn't much fun having the rain pelting down without a roof on! As I said before, we found their sales guy really easy to deal with. At the time we started looking, we had no problems getting a price list from them for the houses we were interested in (we only ever looked at Caroline Springs and Tarneit, not Pakenham). We modified extensively, and we didn't have to pay anything until we were basically satisfied with the design. Many many iterations before contract, and lots of extra things we've added since. They gave us contact details for people who are/have built with them, so we could see what they thought. The sales rep even came out to meet with us in our suburb to discuss options as we made up our minds. Our block is a narrow one, on a main road, with a flood overlay that means we have our floor 1m above the ground. This has added cost to the project, but no major blowouts as we've built. Could perhaps be a bit quicker with the overall build, but I guess most people say this! Brickwork looks good, but too early to make any comments about the internal finish. pm me if you want any more details. Good luck! I guess God didn't use subbies... Re: anyone built with lucas morris or boutique homes? 8Dec 25, 2020 7:26 am MrT do you mind sharing pics of how your home sits on your land and what exactly the slab was referred to when they laid it? We are discussing with boutique homes a different solution to a cut and fill with retaining walls by using drop edge beams and a higher slab but they have said they don’t build on a high slab so your post has got me thinking that they might be able to. Thanks for your help. 10 15971 I haven’t. But have a Lowe Design home. Not only did I find Matt Lowe patronising and a bully, but the home is NOT TO CODE. I have water coming through the bricks… 1 14780 |