Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 17, 2009 12:26 pm Finally found a buidler that we could trust and listens. We dealt with (i.e. Paid money) Comdain and Fasham before selecting Urbayne Homes. If you want to read some of the experience, look at the Background section below. Urbayne Homes Urbayne Homes are fantastic. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone. They are professional, patient and very flexible and are a boutique builder. Their display homes are ultra modern designs however they can adjust their designs to suit people that don't want the ultra modern look that is displayed. I have just signed the contract with them and hope to start building in Mid / Late May. Before meeting the team at Urbayne, I was frustrated and totally disenchanted with the whole industry. After dealing with Comdain and Fasham, they were like "the knight in shining armour". The Background We initially commenced our project in Feb 2008, anticipating that we would be in by early 2009. We started with Comdain homes and spent a smallish some of money to go through a very frustrating experience. Comdain This was a disappointing experience. What we asked the guys at Comdain was if we could build a single storey 37sq home on our block. "Yes" they said and we started down the design path with them. After several months, we received our initial design which fell well short of the mark. The house was about 29sq and when I asked them about increasing the size of the home to 37sq as a single, they said it was not possible. We then gave them a second chance and they redesigned a house (now 35sq!) that was a mixture of several display homes with no real cohesion / flow. It was a mediocre design and when they priced it they gave us a verbal price and told us to pay an additional $8k and to trust them that they would get the design right. Fasham Fasham would be the most unprofessional and disorganised company I have ever dealt with. I would never recommend them to anyone. They DO NOT show any respect for your budget and here are a couple of things we experienced: - They promised that an item will cost a certain amount, when you get the price back it is many times higher and when you delete the item, they only delete a certain % of another figure. e.g. When we asked about the price to add a SPA or a Bathtub, they said it was around $2.5k-$4k - in the initial design, we added a Bath. Subsequently, we removed the bath and the deletion price was $990. When I asked why the difference, they denied quoting such a figure. Unfortunately, I have many more examples of this.... - We did a review of the initial design (after paying a significant deposit for a hand sketch floor plan!) and the designer said these changes would cost a few hundred dollars - when we got a re-price, the price increased by $20k. When I asked how the price went up this much, they could not answer. It took them 3 weeks to get back to me on the reason! I then asked for a detailed spec to be resent again (as they did not provide this on the 2nd visit) and when I received it in the mail, the price had gone up by abother $3k. When I asked why, they did even now that they had increased the price and could not justify why. That was obviously the last straw. One other point, Fasham insist on contract signing prior to finalising design / specs / colour / selections which I do not believe is normal building practice. Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 3Apr 17, 2009 1:50 pm wow very nice i just had a look at their website Beautiful homes cant wait to follow your journey John, Tarin and the Kids Built and moving in to the Regent Grande with Masterton homes http://thebrownsaremovingtothecountry.blogspot.com Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 4Apr 17, 2009 3:36 pm Interesting to read that about Comdain and Fasham, they always look so high end and professional in their ads in The Age and stuff!! Good luck with your Urbayne build. Hope they keep your good opinion of them during the build as much as they have pre-start!!! "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 5Apr 17, 2009 3:40 pm Good luck! We looked at their displays at Caroline Springs, and thought that they were absolutely stunning houses. The lady was lovely, too, and they seem to be a bit more fkexible with plans, etc than the bigger volume builders. Hope it goes well! Solidarity, not solidity.......The Lexicon of Life Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 6Apr 30, 2009 4:01 pm Thanks. I am also keeping my fingers crossed about the build experience. One thing I found - we liked the "Matrix" however it was a bit Ultra modern for us....we toned down the modern look slightly and modified the design quite significantly. The surprising thing was that they were quite reasonable with their pricing, even though we significantly changed the design/layout. E.g. We removed a balcony on the first floor to increase the size of the bedrooms - their charge for this was $0. (zero!) Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 8Apr 30, 2009 7:13 pm Oh Matrix, i really like it too, i have been to the display a couple of times and don't want to walk out from the house. Already told DH, that's my next house.. hehehe Blog - http://clageonewhouse.blogspot.com/ Building Thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=10886&hilit=milan I am in, with my husband and my beautiful bunny Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 9May 05, 2009 7:54 pm Pics are attached below http://www.flickr.com/photos/tvkapadia/ Not much as of today - you will see pictures of an old weatherboard home, demolition works and a vacant block! Hopefully, some interesting images will start appearing from June! Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 10May 05, 2009 8:11 pm hey tk, what a gorgeous area to do a knock down and build! I'm soooo jealous! I'd love to see your floorplan for this job (being narrow etc)... Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 11May 06, 2009 4:09 pm Hi Annie Our floorplan is modified version of the original. The block is only ~13.5m wide so we made the garage a bit narrorwer to fit. This is the original floorplan: http://urbaynehomes.com.au/Downloads/UH ... 4Flyer.pdf I have also updated the flickr page to include my final floor plans which are quite different to the original. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tvkapadia/sets/ Tushar Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 13Feb 23, 2010 2:43 pm Hi I am a new user, I am just wondering how you went with Urbayne Homes, I like the Varenna and the Matrix did they actually give you a specification? I have the plans but no real detail, ie how many coats of paint etc.. I am real interested to know how your expereinece has been like, and the pros and cons..and what top watch out for in terms of varitaions. Our family is just real new at this, and I note your positive experience when you 1st started this journey with Urbayne Homes. Your feedback and help would really assist us... Re: Why we chose Urbayne Homes 15Jun 16, 2013 1:55 pm Nice design as with many of the Urbayne plans. We went with Sekisui House a Japanese builder Lots of light and well thought out plans using all available space so well Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. So we ended up agreeing to a number with the insurance company, and after an extensive amount of hand… 8 24665 A Sabco spin mop, minimal moisture, not very regularly. I was told these hybrids are water resistant 🤷♀️ 2 9735 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 109950 |