Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Provincial Homes 363Oct 15, 2015 10:07 am SB944, looks like your experience is a good one so far. With some of the upgrade costs they can be quite large. But from what I have seen going through the process, that any change you makes is something that can go wrong during the build... which in the end costs the builder time and money. So they are going to charge you a premium to make the change. If it were me I would just paint the house with a third coat after handover, which is what we are doing. For example we increased our fridge height, but they cabinet maker didn't end up doing this. Thankfully the fridge we want will fit in the standard space provided. But in this instance if we had wanted to cabinet height increased well someone would have to cop a loss to fix it. Saltwater, can't comment on the kitchen manufacturer, but from what we were told, what you see int he display is largely what you will get cabinet wise. We didn't feel it was necessary to make any changes. Re: Provincial Homes 364Oct 15, 2015 2:37 pm kavehman Saltwater, can't comment on the kitchen manufacturer, but from what we were told, what you see int he display is largely what you will get cabinet wise. We didn't feel it was necessary to make any changes. Thanks for your response kavehman, I appreciate it. I am happy with the quality provided, it's more a cosmetic thing. I am just curious if there is a good range of cabinetry (aside from plain white) and if this is going to add to cost. There is very little information forthcoming on this (we have viewed bricks and tiles but that's it.) We have a tender from Wisdom and all colour choices etc on a USB which makes it so much easier to get an idea of what to expect/plan for kitchen/bathroom upgrades. We are on a tight budget and these things will be the decider of which builder we go for. The problem is that Provincial only release that kind of detail after starting the tender process with a juicy $7500. I need to know this side of that kind of money Re: Provincial Homes 365Oct 15, 2015 3:07 pm Saltwater kavehman Saltwater, can't comment on the kitchen manufacturer, but from what we were told, what you see int he display is largely what you will get cabinet wise. We didn't feel it was necessary to make any changes. Thanks for your response kavehman, I appreciate it. I am happy with the quality provided, it's more a cosmetic thing. I am just curious if there is a good range of cabinetry (aside from plain white) and if this is going to add to cost. With Provincial I think you would most likely choose the upgrade package which means Polyurethane finish is what you will get on all cabinetry. You can choose any color you like for Poly finishes from Tuabmans (I think) colors, but darker color finishes are charged a little extra. The color you choose for bathrooms and kitchen will be the same unless you pay a fee to order different colors. Re: Provincial Homes 366Oct 15, 2015 3:22 pm kavehman Saltwater kavehman Saltwater, can't comment on the kitchen manufacturer, but from what we were told, what you see int he display is largely what you will get cabinet wise. We didn't feel it was necessary to make any changes. Thanks for your response kavehman, I appreciate it. I am happy with the quality provided, it's more a cosmetic thing. I am just curious if there is a good range of cabinetry (aside from plain white) and if this is going to add to cost. With Provincial I think you would most likely choose the upgrade package which means Polyurethane finish is what you will get on all cabinetry. You can choose any color you like for Poly finishes from Tuabmans (I think) colors, but darker color finishes are charged a little extra. The color you choose for bathrooms and kitchen will be the same unless you pay a fee to order different colors. We have opted for an upgrade that offers Poly for cabinets. We were thinking we would like to go dark or that woodgrain finish for lower cabinets. Just not sure if woodgrain is in the range? Re: Provincial Homes 367Oct 16, 2015 9:50 am Polyurethane is a spray painted finish, and is one of the most durable out there. It leaves a seem free finish on cabinets so you don't see any joins like you do with laminate finishes. If you want a wood look finish I think you would have to opt with laminex. I'm not sure of upgrade costs but darker colors were I think a hundred or 2 extra... Not much. Most people try to upgrade from Laminex to a Poly finish, but everyone is different. To be honest after signing up with Provincial I found that standard inclusions were comparable, if not better than some of the other builders. At the end of the day, some builders will charge less for one thing and more for another thing. It will work out to the same cost in the end. So my only advice would be to go with the floor plan you are happier with, and the construction level meets your needs (as in you are happy with the bricks, and slab). You don't want to end up with something pretty that will need repairs 10 years from now. Re: Provincial Homes 368Oct 16, 2015 2:29 pm Thanks again kavehman, I really appreciate your replies. Yes we have a very concise spreadsheet that proves exactly what you are saying, builders shift things around to look like this or that and offer one deal or another but it's all factored in and they do come out about the same. Provincial have actually still come out the cheapest for us and yes, with a better quality slab and full brick. Well with no light shed on who the kitchen company is I suppose I will just have to ask some more questions and will certainly consider your comments on durability versus trend… Re: Provincial Homes 370Nov 02, 2015 7:49 am As I am finding building a house seems to be never ending. Landscaping is under way. We had a bobcat guy come out and fill and level the block, compact roadbase and getting it ready for some 500x500 pavers that I managed to pick up at a very good price. We will have to do a small retaining wall at the rear, and another at the front. Then side gates and turf (thinking Couch... it's nice and soft). Our roof leak has been fixed, it ended up being a gutter which hadn't been silicon-ed very well. That was the only maintenance request we had raised at that stage. The other issues which we plan on raising shortly are relatively minor but extremely irritating. 1. Front Door issues. Whoever stained it got stain on the door handle, and the tiles which won't come off. The little screw which holds the draft stopper down is missing which is extremely irritating as you do get drafts come through. 2. Bathroom door has started to swell at the bottom with moisture getting in. We raised at PCI that the bottom of doors hadn't been painted so this is really disappointing. It can probably still be saved at this stage but I'll leave that for Provincial to determine. 3. Sinks are missing the little trim that goes over the overflow hole, which bugs me every time I wash my hands. Soooo annoying. 4. Both shower heads started to rust after a few uses, so we replaced these with better ones. Thankfully we did because one had started to rust onto the tiles.. incredibly hard to get it off. That's really it at this stage, most of the other issues were really paint related, which I was fortunate enough to have someone give it a top coat for me for free. Our NBN hasn't been able to be installed because the pipe is apparently broken somewhere along the line. Not sure who is responsible here. The concrete footing I have went nowhere near it so that's not to blame. The electrician and NBN people came out to check everything, electrician seems to think the break is outside of the boundary. Time will tell. The other things that bug me are. 1. Kitchen drawers are so wide you have to close them from the middle, otherwise they twist. Maybe the new soft close drawers they use in the upgrade package have fixed this. They do look nice though. 2. You can't open the fridge door fully without it hitting the pantry door. 3. The single panel glass shower whilst it looks ok, isn't completely practical to be honest. We will probably add a door later in life. Re: Provincial Homes 371Nov 02, 2015 10:04 am We signed and paid to commence for Woollahra 40 with Sienna facade (+3rd garage +extended alfresco). Our land is due to settle in around 6 weeks-ish, so hoping to lodge with council shortly after. Any hints with this stage or planning for selections, electrical etc would be very much appreciated. Building in Hills Shire. Re: Provincial Homes 372Nov 07, 2015 7:36 pm Hi all, It has been a while since our last update... Progress has been constant since the bricking finished for us. We are very close to lockup stage now and have been given Feb as a likely finish date. The house is looking fantastic! Since our last update the electrical, a/c, and alarm rough-ins have been done, and the Insulation and walls/ceilings just completed. Unfortunately there is a delay with the supply of our timber floor until the week of the 16th November, and many other things have been booked in by the SS :- Stairs 23rd November, Waterproofing of wet areas 24th, Kitchen 26th, Floor heating 30th November. We had a building inspection done just before the insulation and walls were done - we would recommend everyone gets this done for piece of mind! Although nothing too major was found we gave Provincial the report and a lot of the more important issues have been tended to already. On Friday we had a site inspection with the SS and got to see the rooms closed in for the first time, the fireplace in, and the house looking a lot closer to finishing... We can't wait! We are starting the accelerate the furniture search and landscape planning. All the pictures from our site visit have been uploaded to our blog already! Re: Provincial Homes 373Nov 09, 2015 8:11 am niknandy We had a building inspection done just before the insulation and walls were done - we would recommend everyone gets this done for piece of mind! Although nothing too major was found we gave Provincial the report and a lot of the more important issues have been tended to already. Out of curiosity, what kind of issues were found ? Re: Provincial Homes 374Nov 09, 2015 3:41 pm It's been a very busy few weeks. Visiting all sorts of display centres, researching etc before colour selections, which has now come and gone, though still need to finalise things. The latest is: * Council has been pretty quick so far (not CDC), and been good to deal with. As advised by Provincial they didn't like the big sitting room window we added, so it will need to be made a lot smaller. We also need to reduce/obscure an added bedroom window for privacy, even though Provincial said bedroom windows are exempt from privacy rules, because you don't sit in front of bedroom windows usually. They also drafted some retaining walls before the landscape architect did the official work, but didn't bother changing the plan, but council says both must match, so they need to redraw that. If I'd known Provincial would charge $250 for a redraw, I would have probably reduced the size of the window so that council would most likely approve it, but too late, $250 fee is done. * We also got advised to not worry about an arborist report by Monaco, but council said they need one. Cost us $1100, which was totally unbudgeted for, and really is very basic information that Paul said council shouldn't need, but they do. Tree removal/protection might also add up. We budgeted for a tree to be removed, but it might not be passed by council, in which case it could be really expensive to protect, as well as the demo people saying they won't continue if that tree is still there, god knows what that means. On top of that, they want a temporary fence to be put up to preotect our existing and not to be demolished back yard, so there is another $750 gone. * Colour selections went very well so far, although the kitchen changes is still unknown cost. My advice for people is to ask about costs for anything, because some things are as expensive as you think they might be, others are cheap and occasionally free. We stuck with one colour for the walls, but of course can colour the kids bedrooms in any paint ourselves later. We got a quote for flooring, and it was more expensive than budget, but just close enough to consider, roughly 15% above my budget, but to have it done, and all accountable through Provincial is worth something to us. Kitchen is mostly unknown as we requested a few changes, still waiting on quotes. Bathroom is bigger mirror, Woollhara style vanities and full tiling to ceiling so that adds some cost. A few extras like a feature sliding door between family and hallway, water tap to fridge, lock to internal garage door, porbably others I forget. If we went with their flooring quote, and the kitchen PA holds up, I think colour selection has added about $7K to our original budget. * Disconnection is causing me headaches now. Even though we got a quote, when we asked a question about that quote, they added $2K onto it, quoting massively increased brick dumping as the reason. We begrudgingly accepted (it was still cheaper than a competitor), and then put down 2 deposits and paid a CDC certifier $1K, which I didn't budget for at all. Apart from pricing, everything is going smoothly with them. They suggest disconnecting services 15 business days before moving out, which is just OK, but a google suggests 20 days. I rang AGL, and got some info, though not everything. Apparently they don't disconnect power, I need to get an electrician, which surprised me, but gives me an excuse to keep some other electrical goodies from our house. Reconnection later will apparently be $125 with AGL, I hope that is all the costs of electrical stuff for the build. Gas was next. They said it's 3-5 days to confirm the order, and 10-15 days after that to do it. They said we can make the order while living there, so it's 10-15 business days from when we move out. So all up, that fits with our plans. Unplanned was an $1100 bill to disconnect the gas! I budgeted $300 for all disconnections, so I'm already $800 over that without the electrical cost, and anything else I might need to do (which is hopefully nothing). Overall, my budget for demolition has increased at least $5K so far. So, we are still miles off starting a build, and already I'm about $14K into my $25K "unknown buffer budget" I allowed, super scary. My thought is this budget could still be hit by extra costs for kitchen PA blowout, electrical selections overspend, site costs PA blowout, landscaping, retaining walls, driveway/paths, reconnection costs. So at the rate it's currently blowing out, I'm guessing my $25K unknown budffer is unrealistic, and may need to be closer to $35K now? More thought needed. TL;DR: builder/council/demo are all still going well to deal with, but the unbudgeted costs are piling on far quicker than expected and from all directions right now. Re: Provincial Homes 375Nov 09, 2015 4:13 pm nav12c We signed and paid to commence for Woollahra 40 with Sienna facade (+3rd garage +extended alfresco). Our land is due to settle in around 6 weeks-ish, so hoping to lodge with council shortly after. Any hints with this stage or planning for selections, electrical etc would be very much appreciated. Building in Hills Shire. Congrats, very exciting. We are mid way through colour/electrical selection, so it's fresh in our minds, feel free to ask more specific questions. You can add a lot to your budget in these selections, we've probably added $20K internal, and will probably add $7K or so in electricals, and this is pretty mild additions, people easily blow more internally, and I've seen plenty on homeone get over $15K on electricals (so we are nervous). I'll try to think of a few things. I guess for us it was a bit suprising that colour selections were mostly just the paperwork they send out, and confirming it during the allocated meeting. Very little real choice or help given before the meeting and no way to see choices with them if it's not in a display home. It didn't work out too bad, just a little surprised they didn't have a nice showroom full of options you could get. Tiling to roof in bathrooms is roughly $1.5K per bathroom, but more cost for material and labour if you want nicer tiles. Caeserstone range is very limited, there are 3 more levels of pricing, you probably like the most expensive ranges if you take a look at them. Flooring might be 15% dearer through provincial, but they will charge you extra for skirting boards if you do flooring after, as well as kitchens needing beading if you do floorboards after. Height of kitchen cupboards can be upgraded (unknown cost so far), can go handless cupboards ($1200ish for Nu Caprice). Choices in kitchen must match bathroom unless you want to pay a fee. Wall colour range is pretty limited, so pay close attention to that, but cupboard/splashback/skirting colours can be full Taubman range. There is a lot more that we stayed with the standard that you may want to change, can't help much with that stuff. Electricals is unknown to us for now too, though I will say $5K extra would be a bare minimum to budget for extra power points and some downlights. If you love downlights and power points, you might get closer to $15K. Will update you after we get through that in a couple of weeks time. Ask away if you get specific questions. Re: Provincial Homes 376Nov 09, 2015 8:57 pm kavehman niknandy We had a building inspection done just before the insulation and walls were done - we would recommend everyone gets this done for piece of mind! Although nothing too major was found we gave Provincial the report and a lot of the more important issues have been tended to already. Out of curiosity, what kind of issues were found ? Hi kavehman, Here are the issues found in the report and as stated the more significant issues were resolved prior to the walls/ceiling going in. * Cavity Breach, Plumbing pipes/electrical services - the cavity was breached or bridged by plumbing pipes/electrical services, leaving a gap less than 35 mm * Bracing boards - bracing boards have not been installed correctly. In several areas, nails are missing or have been spaced too far apart * Distance between holes in studs, Electrical and plumbing - The distance used by the plumber and electrician is considerably less than AS. * Silicon missing from water pipe penetrations - silicon was not placed in a number of water service pipe holes in the studs. * Notching in studs - The notches in the wall framing of the bathroom, ensuite WC and powder room are greater than 20mm. * Window Installations missing packers - the windows have not had packing installed between the reveal and the stud as per the Bradnam Windows installation instructions attached to the windows. * Jack Stud Installation substandard - The installation of a Jack Stud appears to have been completed to a substandard level of workmanship as it is not plumb. * Sarking slightly damaged - Master Bedroom/Alfresco * Water pipe kinked - Bedroom 2 * Common brickwork - The installation of the common brickwork in the master bedroom appears to have been completed to a substandard level of workmanship as a number of the perp joints do not have an adequate amount of mortar in the joint. In some cases, daylight can be seen through the joints. * Sarking installation substandard, Alfresco - The sarking to the dwelling has been installed without ponding boards and is currently folded back in several areas short of the gutter. It has also stopped short of the valley. These conditions were apparent in the Alfresco area. This will lead to a build-up of water to the ponded areas and thus the build up will leak through over causing damage. * Brick ties fixing - At the time of the inspection, it was noted that the brick ties only had one nail fixed in them. The tie has two holes and they should both be used for fixing. *Girder Truss Installation - The installation of this girder truss appears to have been completed to a substandard level of workmanship as the strap has only been fixed with one nail. Re: Provincial Homes 377Nov 13, 2015 2:51 pm sb944 Ask away if you get specific questions. Thanks, yes we got the color folder yesterday with all the info and brochures. We're pretty good on choices for most things. Areas of concern/ further investigation are: - seeing our actual brick shortlist in person - we like the marble look caeserstone - pricing could put us off - have budgeted 15k for electricals but looking at the prices esp downlights, it might not be enough - we want different hand rail and balustrades than what is offered - kitchen in a big mystery as my wife wants shaker style cupboard doors Re: Provincial Homes 378Dec 09, 2015 7:59 pm Hi all, Just keen to get the thoughts of some experienced Provincial customers as I am really frustrated by our current building situation with them and wondering what to do about it. Our slab was down in early June, it's now nearly 6 months later and we still don't have a completed roof on our 2-storey 33 sqm house. Took them forever to get brickies out to our site, still not feeling any urgency and it feels like they haven't got a hope of delivering this house by early March which is the agreed date in the contract (after this, they have to pay the weekly compensation).They clearly don't care if we're actually happy or not... I'm thinking they don't have to as there's no expectation of repeat business. So given that, I feel quite powerless. I guess I'm keen to know - if you all agree that these delays are extreme, and if you have any advice. I've spoken with my SS and with the person we signed contracts with, but not getting any acknowledgement of even any slowness on their part, nor assurances as to the future. Thanks Re: Provincial Homes 379Dec 10, 2015 8:45 am kageanrage I guess I'm keen to know - if you all agree that these delays are extreme, and if you have any advice. I've spoken with my SS and with the person we signed contracts with, but not getting any acknowledgement of even any slowness on their part, nor assurances as to the future. Thanks In my opinion as long as they are in the contractual period, let them work to their own pace. I agree it probably has taken a bit longer than I would have thought to get a roof on, but having said that. Once the roof does go on things do move along pretty quickly. No reason why they can't get it done in time I would think. Haven't had a chance to update my blog, but have had a lot done over the past month or two since moving in. Extremely tiring to be honest. Here's the short notes version since my last update. • House repainted on the inside, once we moved in we really were surprised at how bad some of the spots were, we redid it with Wattle ID and it is amazing how much better it looks. Fortunately we have a friend who is a Licensed Painter. • Retaining walls done around the front and back by myself. • Lot leveled with the help of a bobcat driver over 2 days. • Areas to be paved filled with roadbase (15 tonnes !!!!), should be paved this week • Some drainage put in, more to come after paving. • Lots of small things done internally. • Walk in wardrobes all fitted out. Didn't cost as much as we thought for the whole house !!!! Just wish we didn't have the shelf and rails. Pulling them out was a nightmare and meant patching and repainting. • Getting NBN connected was a nightmare, the electrician apparently didn’t hook it up to the street so an excavator had to come in and redo it. Not sure if it was NBN or the electrician at fault here. They blame each other. I'll be preparing my list for Maintenance to send through to Provincial after the break so we shall see how that goes, they came out and fixed the leaking gutter which was great. Adding to the list I mentioned previously. • Door trims coming off front door, and the draft protector doesn't work which means we get soil and dirt coming in, and more recently water under the front doors when we had some sideways rain (thankfully we were home when this happened). • Articulation joint foam has come out in some spots. Going to see if they will just sikaflex them for me like every other house in our area. • Garage door rattles like no other, so much so that we don't use it anymore. • Front door handle is stained with the same stuff that is on the tiles. Whoever they got back to stain the side door trim really did a sloppy job. There are runs all through the paint... it really is just shockingly terrible. Our painter friend says it needs to be sanded back and be redone properly. • Kitchen tap blew apart one night spraying water all over the ceiling. Not fun cleaning up that mess. We had it replaced the next day and will be requesting Provincial replace the piece of crap one that fell apart so we can use it in a laundry fit out one day. The quality of tapware is not that great I feel. The feel of the bathroom taps is not consistent, they all feel either hard to turn on or normal. I guess everyone is different but things I would pay more attention to next time are. • Kitchen drawers only 42cm deep which means no inserts actually fit into them because the standard size seems to be 50cm. We are seriously considering seeing if we can retrofit some standard sized drawers into them. • We didn’t opt to get fly screens at our tender, and finding someone who will come out and do them has been a nightmare. • We were told our water tank couldn’t go on the other side of the house because of the outlet. Well they stuffed this up and our outlet is on the side we wanted it on. This also means getting a side gate has been hard because of the placement of pipes and windows finding a place to mount the gate to the wall is not ideal. • Tapware is questionable, and the wonky toilet is a real pet peeve. Will we build again ? Yes one day, this is our first house after all. With who I don’t know, let’s see if they can fix up the little things. They failed with the brick clean which annoys me every time I look at the bricks above our garage. Re: Provincial Homes 380Dec 10, 2015 9:03 am kavehman In my opinion as long as they are in the contractual period, let them work to their own pace. I agree it probably has taken a bit longer than I would have thought to get a roof on, but having said that. Once the roof does go on things do move along pretty quickly. No reason why they can't get it done in time I would think. Thanks very much kavehman for your advice, and congratulations on all your progress! Exciting times. I'd be interested to hear others' advice also if you have the time, as my wife is strongly of the opinion that we should be writing VERY assertive letters and I'm not so sure. Thanks again The Dulux colour consultants are awesome. If you show them the photos they should be able to figure it out for you straight away 1 1618 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74716 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 105599 |