Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 03, 2011 2:11 pm Hi everyone!
I've been searching through the blogs on this site, and while people have created threads about specific homes they are building, I haven't come across anything re Statesman Homes in general. Hopefully someone reads this and adds their own experiences with SH I've been looking at building a home for ages, and have finally found a little block in metro Adelaide and the perfect little house to go on it. Things kicked off in late November 2010 when my offer for the allotment was accepted, and finally after land settlement earlier this year, things have started to progress nicely. I have found SH to be quite good so far. The sales consultant at Andrews Farm was very helpful when I was going through their display homes, and the colour consultant and administration people on North Terrace have been very accommodating. This is completely different to the stories I have read online and heard from people who have built in the last 5 or so years that's for sure! So far, everything has gone smoothly (fingers crossed it remains that way!). I went and visited the site the other day to find that the earthworks has started and hopefully the footings will be completed in the next week or so. Re: Building with Statesman Homes 2May 03, 2011 2:36 pm Hi JessieKay, Here is a link to other posts about Statesman: http://forum.homeone.com.au/search.php?keywords=statesman&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search I'm also building with them and it seems from your link that I'm building the same design too! But you're a bit further beyond where I am so far (I've only just signed the contract). I don't have any complaints so far. Generally people seem to be quicker to complain than to praise so posts on internet forums will definitely be skewed compared to how satisfied people really are. I try to remember that builders are human too - they'll try their best but they'll make mistakes, so I try and remain as level-headed as possible. 23 Aug 2011: Land settlement 14 Sep 2011: Block levelled 20 Oct 2011: Slab 3 Nov 2011: Frame 10 Feb 2012: Handover http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/Dazzab6/ Re: Building with Statesman Homes 3May 03, 2011 4:44 pm Thanks DazzaB.
I've found that SH was really pushing my mortgage manager and lender to get the mortgage paperwork through and obtain my sign off ASAP. I originally signed up with SH in late November last year, and things would've been started sooner if I hadn't taken my time in booking the selections appointment and gaining unconditional finance. So if you can sort out your lender (if you need one) and book in to the colour selections as soon as you can I would hazard a guess that SH will start quite quickly! Colour selections and other extras like aircon came in a grand or so over what I expected, so it wasn't too bad. Are you making many changes to the standard plan? I put in an extra sliding door in the living area and a roller door on the rear of the garage and that's about it. Majority of everything else is from their standard selection, which I thought was pretty good. I saw on other posts from your link above that some people are having trouble with their banks wanting them to have all flooring, fencing and landscaping etc done immediately after handover. I had no problems at all with this from my lender and I will be doing the flooring and garden myself and getting a contractor to do the perimeter and driveway concreting and fencing once handover has occured. Are you building in the Adelaide area? It would be funny if we ended up being neighbours! Re: Building with Statesman Homes 4May 03, 2011 5:40 pm I made a few changes to the plan. I also put in the rear roller door. I flipped the bottom half of the house (Living, Bed 1, Garage) to make use of an existing crossover; Put in double sliding doors at the back; moved the side window in the family room to the meals area (because it works better with the block orientation); and I replaced the WIR with a long/narrow built in robe so I can have a roomier ensuite (check-out their Cleland design to know what I mean); oh and I had to narrow the bedroom by 9cm so it fits on the block (I have a very narrow block). Did you do some research on flooring, driveway, aircon, etc prices? How did the builders prices compare with other contractors? We may end up being neighbours! I'm building in Northfield. And you? (no worries if you're not willing to give out that info tho) 23 Aug 2011: Land settlement 14 Sep 2011: Block levelled 20 Oct 2011: Slab 3 Nov 2011: Frame 10 Feb 2012: Handover http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/Dazzab6/ Re: Building with Statesman Homes 5May 03, 2011 7:06 pm My place is going to be in a new estate at Elizabeth Park, so quite a way from yours. I am eligible for the FHOG and will live in it for the statutory time, but ultimately it will be my first investment home. I like your plan with the roomier ensuite... If I was going to live in the house instead of using it for an investment I would have change a fair bit more. I've obtained some quotes for fencing, concreting and flooring. Let me know if you get good quotes - Aircon was a PC item at around $9k for a 7 outlet 4 zone system; - I didn't look at flooring through SH, but I have recently installed a floating floor in the house I live in and will be putting the exact same floor in the new place (from Ikea, Tundra in antique oak - check it out it's quite nice and very hardy). - Carpet $995; - Concreting quote $5284.07 for 88m2; - Supply and installation of 66m good neighbour colourbond fencing (mix of 1800 and 900) $4500, including driveway and walk gates. Have you got any ideas of how much your footings will be at Northfield? Mine came in close to estimation, around $17k. What colour schemes do you have in mind? What about your elevation? I went for the Classic #4 with the bay window and the house will have "nougat" as the main brick and "chocolate" as the feature. Inside will be a mixture of greys, chocolate and beige. I hope that it ends up looking ok! You need to have a good imagination when picking your selections Will you be going on your own or with someone else? Re: Building with Statesman Homes 6May 03, 2011 7:14 pm Hi JessieKay, Congratulations on your progress so far - glad to hear that stories are all good! I have just bought myself some land not far from you at all. It's rare to come across people in the Northfield / Clearview / Enfield area. I am in Clearview, and have purchased a 700+m2 block and just looking around at different builders and options. Can I ask how you came around to Statesman as your preferred builder? I have been to see plenty of builders but really can't establish who is telling me the truth, and who are hiding things from me. Again, congratulations - such an exciting time!!! Kingyuri Re: Building with Statesman Homes 7May 03, 2011 7:31 pm Hi Kingyuri So far so good at least! I'm building at Elizabeth Park and DazzaB is building at Northfield I have been looking for ages at getting into the property market and spoke to lots of people I know who built their homes with different builders (none with Statesman Homes though). So many builders offer similar ideas, but vary with what comes as standard and what costs extra. I think I had been looking at the Brooklyn floorplan for a while, because I could really only afford to buy a small, narrow block (my allotment is 370m2) and my budget is quite small too, which has restricted me a bit. The sales lady at Andrew's Farm (last November) was exceptionally helpful and the communication I have had so far with Stateman Homes has been really good. I guess we will see if the communication remains at this level IF something goes wrong during the next stages So it really depends (I think) on what type of house you want to build, what your budget is and what type of extras do you want? Also, what type of things do you believe builders might be holding back? Progress pictures can be viewed at http://s1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff460/jessiekay2/ or go to viewtopic.php?f=31&t=47145 Re: Building with Statesman Homes 8May 03, 2011 11:21 pm JessieKay, You seem to be going well with your quotes. I've had an air-con quote which was similar, and a fencing quote which was more expensive (per metre) than yours. Looks like I better look around more. Also your concreting quote looks good. Where did you get them from? Elevation? Not sure yet. I'm getting a colorbond roof (love the sound of rain on tin). Generally want to go for light grey/beige bricks and roof. Then internally going for a very dark brown floating floor and a generally brown/chocolate/cream theme for everything else. I think I better recruit my sister for the day to help me with my colour selection meeting. Although I've heard they help you out quite well to make sure you don't end up with crazy colour combinations. Is that right? Haven't got the footing costs yet but they've estimated $25k due to Northfield having highly reactive soils. Hopefully it comes in less than that so I can upgrade more interesting things like taps and tiles, etc. Kingyuri, Well, looks like we'll be neighbours. In terms of how I chose Statesman, I actually chose the floor plan rather than the builder. In fact, I chose the land and house separately but at the same time. There were about 5 blocks of land that I was happy to buy, and 5 floorplans that I like from various builders. And I went for the best value for money combination I could find. I spent about a month of weekends looking at all the display homes in Adelaide and there were a couple of builders that I wrote off from the start due their workmanship (I won't name them here though). And there were some builders whose display homes were amazing but were just out of my budget. 23 Aug 2011: Land settlement 14 Sep 2011: Block levelled 20 Oct 2011: Slab 3 Nov 2011: Frame 10 Feb 2012: Handover http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/Dazzab6/ Re: Building with Statesman Homes 9May 04, 2011 9:57 pm The colour selection went really well for me, I think it took just over an hour (as I was the only one picking out exactly what I wanted!). I pretty much had a set theme in mind. If I could suggest going to their colour selection centre on North Terrace one or two times before your appointment so you can browse through what's there. And yes, the consultant will help if you on the day if you can't decide or if they think that your choice might be a little bit cRazY! I like the way customers only need to go to the one place to make selections. I've heard that with other builders you either need to go to all their display homes to make a selection or go to several different suppliers. The selections I ended up with were pretty much all from the bronze series (which actually had better cabinet handles, tiles, bricks and other selections then what was expected - nicer then the ones listed in the selection booklet). The colours look completely different to what's printed in their booklet, so don't use it as gospel but rather to get some ideas. I ended up upgrading the front door, external and internal door handles, locks and taps. I love the sound of rain on the roof too, which is why the house will have also colourbond roof. It sounds like we will have similar colour theme for the house! This is the elevation I am going to have - of course you need to imagine it with a single garage next to the front door The colours will be very similar to what is shown (darker quoins etc), grey window frames and with the colourbond roof. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building with Statesman Homes 10May 05, 2011 6:09 pm Facade looks good JessieKay. And thanks for the PM with your concreting and fencing prices. I finally got my contract in the mail today, along with the colour selections book. But it has no prices! When you have your appointment do they tell you exactly how much each upgrade costs or do they need to go away and calculate it and get back to you days later. I guess I'm concerned that I'll want to upgrade a few things without knowing if I'll be blowing out my budget. And yes it is good that we can go to the one place for everything - one of the advantages of going with a big builder. 23 Aug 2011: Land settlement 14 Sep 2011: Block levelled 20 Oct 2011: Slab 3 Nov 2011: Frame 10 Feb 2012: Handover http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/Dazzab6/ Re: Building with Statesman Homes 12May 05, 2011 8:56 pm Lovely facade my new build thread- Ben Trager https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=89826 my switch build thread (2011) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36569 Re: Building with Statesman Homes 13May 05, 2011 9:46 pm JessieKay it looks great. Classy but not over the top! Well done. I have a friend of mine that lives in Elizabeth Park and she loves it! I have spoken to a lot of consultants over the last few weeks and they have all impressed me. None that I have experienced have turned me off their company .. and that's a good start. You asked earlier what I thought builders might be holding back. Well, for example, preliminarily I have been asking each builder whether they build in timber or steel or offer a choice. If it is a company that uses steel they make all these claims against timber and pro-steel. And then the reverse happens if it is a company that uses timber. How is a newbie supposed to know the truth? There are just a few things like that which have me a little offside, I know that that is their job to sell their product - but when does the sales pitch become a little more dishonest I am not entirely sure ... DazzaB - everyone tells me how much fun the selection process can be. Enjoy it!! Re: Building with Statesman Homes 14May 06, 2011 3:21 pm I suppose it's just a matter of considering what each sales consultant has advised and determining which one appeals to you most. Researching on the net is good too, it means that you can peruse forums and builders websites etc without the pressure. I think that the measure of a good salesperson is how much they can convince you that their product is the best for you in the long term. But ultimately, if you want steel frame because YOU want it and think that it's better, then go for it! And vice versa The selling point for me was at the time when I was humming and haa'ing over signing the initial quote. SH had a promotion where they were offering significant reductions off the price of the Brooklyn (down to around $94k) plus solar pv system. They also offered other incentives for me to sign the contract, which has worked out to my advantage I don't know if I just lucked the timing (no one was visiting the display village at Andrew Farm when I went there, and over a few weekends too! I had all the salespeople to myself), or if they always offer this type of thing to seal the deal. Re: Building with Statesman Homes 16May 07, 2011 1:39 am That's awesome! 23 Aug 2011: Land settlement 14 Sep 2011: Block levelled 20 Oct 2011: Slab 3 Nov 2011: Frame 10 Feb 2012: Handover http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/Dazzab6/ Re: Building with Statesman Homes 17May 14, 2011 8:40 am Yay! Footings completed 11/5/11 Statesman Homes telephoned me to let me know and they also sent me a footing completion confirmation by email. Here's some photos from this morning: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Progress pictures can be viewed at http://s1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff460/jessiekay2/ or go to viewtopic.php?f=31&t=47145 Re: Building with Statesman Homes 18May 14, 2011 9:02 am I was thinking.... Maybe I should put up the plans of the place I am building? http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff460/jessiekay2/2011-01-08192908.jpg Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Progress pictures can be viewed at http://s1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff460/jessiekay2/ or go to viewtopic.php?f=31&t=47145 Re: Building with Statesman Homes 19May 22, 2011 10:21 pm Good to see the progress, Jessie. I visited my block yesterday and saw two little holes that had been drilled so I should be getting my soil report soon. 23 Aug 2011: Land settlement 14 Sep 2011: Block levelled 20 Oct 2011: Slab 3 Nov 2011: Frame 10 Feb 2012: Handover http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/Dazzab6/ 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 110738 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 27053 Wish you all the best. Once you signed the contract, they will find millions excuses to charge you. And have seen their sites unfinished for a long time. 4 26061 |