Our Benham 33 journey

Forg · Oct 14, 2012 9:24 pm

Jen1977

Forg - you have the patience of a saint!

Yes, he wants it back!
*boom*-*tish*
Thankyou, thankyou, I'll be here for ... well a few months it would seem, try the veal!

tarsha678 · Oct 15, 2012 8:24 am

Welcome to the group Sullivan! The guys at Chisolm are definitely awesome.

Forg has there been any progress??

Tondar hopefully things come good for you this week

We are off on Wednesday but I'm sure I'll probably not be able to resist checking the forum haha.
Scaffolding went up Thursday still no more bricks delivered though.. Hubby says its a lot of scaffolding and might have taken them more than a day :/

Sullivan · Oct 15, 2012 1:16 pm

I took my parents up to RH on the weekend to take a look thru the display homes. They were very impressed which was lovely. I have to say again how happy I am with the sales guys up there - I have bombarded Kate with emails and phone calls trying to work out my variations and she is so relaxed and helpful. I wish I could say I'd be as patient with someone if they did the same to me LOL! Anyway we made some progress and finalised all our variations for the tender and geotech/survey done! Looking forward to seeing the tender and what we will be up for. We have included structural things that we could give or take so there will be some room to move if the figure that comes back is to scary! I'm conscious that our colour appointment may give the budget a bit of a hit. How did you all manage this part? Did you find the standard RH options were okay? I've had a look at the suppliers and they all seem pretty good but worried we will get there and get in a upgrade frenzy!!

Bigted - We'll be close but not quite neighbours. We are building just outside Warners Bay. I've driven thru CP tho it's a nice area. The community centre there is really good if you have kids?

Forg - OMG I have followed your progress. You are very patient and I think you have the right attitude. I'd love to submit plans ASAP but on a positive the longer it takes the more we can save. We'll be living with the in-laws whilst the build is underway.

Duesseldorlf - We chose RH for the same reason i.e. workmanship and fixed price. Plus the sales team have been very upfront about the delays at admin stage so when it does happen at least it won't be so unexpected!

Jen - that's exciting I bet you see some real progress now. Fingers crossed this sunny weather sticks around for you

Sully

Jen1977 · Oct 15, 2012 2:07 pm

What a day it has been. The block is unrecognisable.

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We are not there yet. Another couple of days work to clean out all the overgrown gardens and to level the block.

Received the authority to commence today, so hopefully once these site works are completed, we can start soon.

bigted · Oct 15, 2012 3:32 pm

Sully,
It is possible to get through colour selections without spending too much. Rawson's standard inclusions are excellent especially if you managed to get the Supplier's Bonus. Even when we did upgrade things I didn't think the costs were excessive, & things which other builders charge for we're included at no cost. We still managed to break the budget, but we could see the value in what we were paying for. I think we've all commented on what we were charged for things so it's worth trawling throught the posts to get an idea!
Jen - great to see some progress!
Tarsha - have a fantastic holiday, just imagine how much progress you will see when you get back.

Forg · Oct 15, 2012 4:47 pm

bigted

I think we've all commented on what we were charged for things so it's worth trawling throught the posts to get an idea!

Like ... we took the Chifley 42 & used the concept of that (ie. top level of house is same size as bottom level excepting garage), we took the rear area of the 42 & adapted to the stairs/powder-room setup of the Chifley 32 & then added the lounge/living/dining areas of the Chifley 32 (so as to retain the voids upstairs which the Chifley 27 doesn't have as well as the main hallway width of the 32). We then knocked-out the wall between the small downstairs lounge & media rooms to make a 4.16m x about 9m room, and then instead of a wall between that & the dining we've got big double cavity-sliders opening into the dining & matching double cavity-sliders from the entry into the big lounge/living room. Then upstairs we've shuffled the rooms around a bit, because with the upstairs layout of the 42 & yet the footprint of the 32, we'd have had 4 tiny secondary-bedrooms and a tiny rumpus; instead we've got 2 decent (over-3m by over-3m that's not eaten-into by the built-ins/walk-ins) secondary bedrooms, the main bedroom's much the same as the Chifley 32, and then there's a 3m x 5.5m games/workshop room which could also double as a big 4th bedroom if it needed to.
And then downstairs the front half of the garage is ~7.5m wide so as to fit 2 cars plus a bit of storage; the garage is L-shaped and the rear is 4.1m x ~8.5m, and the garage steps down from the house so it can have a 3.75m ceiling and hence allow a hoist in the rear part ...

Did someone mention changes?

This is why the tender has taken a long time to come back; we've pretty much designed a custom house, and really only used the various pieces of Chifley to "describe" it to the architects/drafties (ie. so they can cut-and-paste to draft it up). Plus the block of land is sub 600sqm, so our house ain't allowed to be as large as some of yours overall ... some of the extremeties have been pulled-in a little where we think they won't make a big difference (eg. the original design has a sort of dining area plus a kitchen plus a lounge in the rear part of the house, so we've flipped the kitchen to where the lounge was and dragged the rear wall of the house in to reduce the floorspace 'cos you don't really need a 9m x 5m dining room when you've got a 9m x 4m alfresco just off that dining room).

*deep breath*

Anyhoo; we were supposed to hear something last week, hoping it's this week!

Jen1977, hope you can keep the neighbours from continually bringing their machinery onto your land & messing with the trees etc! That would become annoying real quick ...

duesseldorf67 · Oct 15, 2012 6:16 pm

bigted

Sully,
It is possible to get through colour selections without spending too much. Rawson's standard inclusions are excellent especially if you managed to get the Supplier's Bonus. Even when we did upgrade things I didn't think the costs were excessive, & things which other builders charge for we're included at no cost. We still managed to break the budget, but we could see the value in what we were paying for. I think we've all commented on what we were charged for things so it's worth trawling throught the posts to get an idea!
Jen - great to see some progress!
Tarsha - have a fantastic holiday, just imagine how much progress you will see when you get back.

Sully, I agree with BigTed, I think they are VERY reasonable. Probably a good idea to look at what others building with Rawson are spending on upgrades, Jen in particular has been very forthcoming with Photos and Pricing, so have others

Anyway, we had a spreadsheet with A Upgrades (must have's) and B upgrades (would like if reasonable) and to be honest, Julie was so helpful and wonderful, we got all A's and all B's except for 2 things. I decided upgrading the internal doors from plain flush to a pattern was not THAT important and I decided I could live with the standard supplied bath tub tap. Everything else was great, we even got some freebies. We also have the supplier bonus, but Rawson's general inclusions are the most comprehensive in the industry, apart from Wisdom.

free will · Oct 16, 2012 5:49 am

Hi

Did a quick thread search but no luck - can someone tell me the supplier Rawson uses for timber floors and tiles?

smorgzzz · Oct 16, 2012 6:59 am

Tiles is TileDirect, not sure about timber floor, although I do recall samples being at the colour consultation?

Jen1977 · Oct 16, 2012 8:55 am

Sully, we spent $12000 at colours, however, our big add at colours was just under $4000 for gutter guard. With it being a two storey house and having a lot of trees around we thought it was necessary.

i have blogged the upgrades that we made http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/day-87-ouch-ouch-ouch.html

We have made a few changes to the kitchen adding pot drawers throughout. I actually think that Rawsons standard selections are very good and dont really need upgrading if you dont want to (or cant afford it).

To my surprise the site works on the block should be complete late this morning, so much for the 4 - 5 days. The neighbours commented that they could not believe how quickly the trees came down and what a difference the block looks from just a day ago.

Tondar · Oct 16, 2012 9:43 pm

free will

Hi

Did a quick thread search but no luck - can someone tell me the supplier Rawson uses for timber floors and tiles?

The timber flooring is provided by the carpet place. We were not told this by R, but by their supplier.

Sullivan · Oct 17, 2012 6:54 am

Bigted & Duesseldorf - Thanks for that info. That's really reassuring about the colours. I had heard from other people not building with RH that they had spent upwards of $60K at colours and that started to get me worried. We were able to get the suppliers bonus too which will save us a bit in upgrades. So hopefully our budget won't get to badly broken

Forg - OMG that is a lot of changes! Sounds like its going to be fabulous tho and it will be lovely to have a custom home. Hope you hear something back soon!

Jen - Thanks so much for the link to your blog. Some of the upgrades you went with are what we had in mind also so its handy to know the $$ that we will be up for. Great news about your tree removal getting finished so quickly. How much longer till RH are on site?

Tondar - Do you (or anyone else) know who the carpet supplier is? We are looking at getting timber flooring as well but still figuring out what kind we want so would be helpful to be able to go and sus out the options at the supplier!

Sully

Jen1977 · Oct 17, 2012 8:24 am

Sullivan - we had the pre colour walk through with McDonald Jones and without even blinking we were up for $10,000 and that does not include the things that we have upgraded with Rawson. I have also heard stories from people building with other builders that they have spent about $50,000. The good thing is a lot of the upgrades with other builders is standard with Rawson.

I asked Maree when we go to site. She said that the site supervisor will collect the file next Tuesday and we should have a slab within 2 weeks after that.

bigted · Oct 17, 2012 11:50 am

Rawson use Accent Carpets (I think it's the Homebush one?), but you should be able to get an idea from any of the stores even though they are independently owned.

Melspring · Oct 17, 2012 12:41 pm

Hi everyone! I have been greedily reading your posts for the past few days - since finding this forum.

Last weekend we signed our tender with rawsons to build a chifley 42 in canberra.

Reading your posts has been really helpful and has provided us with some great ideas and food for thought! Big thank you to all of you for sharing!

Now we are waiting for the colours appointment! So excited!

Mel

smorgzzz · Oct 18, 2012 8:10 am

Jen - your block looks so different, it looks good. Not long now.

Our place is being tiled still, floors to wet areas are done and I think they're grouted now.
Splashback to kitchen/butlers pantry is in, and I think they're doing the bathrooms now.

Jen1977 · Oct 18, 2012 9:20 am

Smorgzzz it does look so different. Even DH and I have taken awhile to get used to it. We were going through all our photos of it last night and the difference is staggering.

Some more pics of before and after

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This is what it looks like at the moment

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I am going to have to take some pictures of it from the road - it looks really different from there as well. The house is going to really stand out once it starts going up as the majority of the houses in the street are single storey.

Less than a week until we get some action. Maree sent me over a letter that she has done for OSR as we have gone over our 6 months. It states that works commences 23/10/12 and a slab within 2 weeks. Happy with that. Hoping the weather stays dry as now that the block has been cut, all the clay is exposed and it is going to be fun if that gets wet.

Koroboo · Oct 18, 2012 12:40 pm

Wow what a difference Jen, I will have to take before and after photos of our place when we demo. (ETA 2-3 weeks) It looks all ready for Rawson to commence!

News update on my front:
1. attempting to sell our old kitchen, trickier than I imagined
2. CDC approvers say we have to move the frontage of our house BACK 1.95m from the street to meet the 'average of either side neighbour frontages'... Rawson busily checking on whether this will impact on a sewer line we have in the back yard (hoping not!)
3. Kitchen/Bathroom/Ensuite changes finally locked down... pricey!
4. Colours to be finalised today!
5. Electrical... soon?

That contract is big, and I've had it for a week and only gone through about 30% of it.

duesseldorf67 · Oct 18, 2012 12:59 pm

Koroboo

Wow what a difference Jen, I will have to take before and after photos of our place when we demo. (ETA 2-3 weeks) It looks all ready for Rawson to commence!

News update on my front:
1. attempting to sell our old kitchen, trickier than I imagined
2. CDC approvers say we have to move the frontage of our house BACK 1.95m from the street to meet the 'average of either side neighbour frontages'... Rawson busily checking on whether this will impact on a sewer line we have in the back yard (hoping not!)
3. Kitchen/Bathroom/Ensuite changes finally locked down... pricey!
4. Colours to be finalised today!
5. Electrical... soon?

That contract is big, and I've had it for a week and only gone through about 30% of it.

Well, I took one look at the contract and went: Get me the solicitors mailing address! I don't care how 'standard' it is in the building industry, I'd rather have a professional look at it and explain it to me or flag things we don't like or are unclear about.
lol
Jen, it's starting to look like LAND now, not a forest! lol
Well done.
So far not impressed with admin. delays. But as my wife says, it is what it is and I doubt any other builder is much faster and even if they were, what product/building headaches, might one end up with.....

Jen1977 · Oct 18, 2012 1:51 pm

Koroboo as I work for a builder, it is the standard HIA contract. I read through it and there was nothing in there that I was not happy with. The only thing I was a bit miffed about was that we have to pay water and electricity charges during the build. Not impressed, but what can you do. As you said it is a big contract and every page has to be signed - and in triplicate.

It does look like a vacant block of land. I was quite shocked and thought the council is going to have a heart attack as it looks like we have bulldozed all the trees. There are still 27 trees left, so I think we are doing our fair share of sucking out Co2