Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Provincial Homes 515Jul 12, 2017 10:23 am sb944 Hi, we are about a week or so away from finishing up, very exciting. For the person who hopes for Christmas final date, we were also ready to start Christmas eve 2015, and obviously didn't make it by Christmas 2016, but good luck. I won't go into massive details, but here are some tips for those on the other side of the tender/contract process where everything seems to be an unknown. 1. Internal selections. It is very tough for Provincial to hand this information as sales stage, as it may be 3 conversations on each product, so the main sales staff stay out of this. For example, you see what you get included for bench top, but you can then go better, better, better, best, and best could add many $000's, while just better might be $800-$1200. MOst stuff was as expected, and some things were free which really surprised us. You only really up the cost if you want fancy anything from my observation. NOTE: Big big thing. You only get 1 internals person for everything but final tile choices, and while Vicky was very good, she missed writing down some things that cost us $1K, plus other things we have to live with. The big big thing is that don't think what she said will happen, make her write down every last detail before signing anything. Don't assume anything, because once you are noticing the opposite of what you discussed with her, us saying we asked for different, or even showing them emails of what we discussed didn't hold up against what we signed off on. It is a big ask, but go over this document half a dozen things, and question everything that isn't clearly written. I'd even encourage you to specify exact positions of rails and anything else, just to make sure. I will note that the default for anything not written is as display home, which can help. Electricals - it's pretty easy to get to about $6K extra, some go up to $15K. $6K is just a decent amount of downlights, a few extra power points and a few extra lights. It also won't include any external light fittings, any oyster light fittings or fan installations, so you'll still need an expensive electrician and some more lights to buy after handover. We scaled it back to not include downlights, just make sure all the positions and switches are in place, then get someone to do the exact lights you like after build. This may actually save you a little, and give you more freedom. Tiling - We added something like $5K, and didn't go crazy by any stretch. You may say the base tiles will be fine, but this is your tiling for 10+ years, you'll use it everyday, I'd recommend leaving $3-5K even if you think base will be fine. PA's - I mentioned above Vicky Sue had mentioned you don't pay these until final payment, we found out why. A huge overestimation on excavation caused a pretty nice credit, which I don't think they really wanted to pay us before seeing if other PA's would come in. With some persistence we got the credit on about the 3rd payment. I still can't say what the final will be, but we are probably in credit on PA's, the biggest difference was concrete piers, which were about $2K extra. What else? I feel the council has asked for way more than what I initially expected, though it may not be as bad if you aren't knock down rebuild. Some fault of ours(ish), some just not knowing they charge here and there. Apparently some is owed back after certification, but we are out about $5K so far. Landscaping... We thought we nailed a nice design, but just wanted to move the retaining wall a little, and remove the front path, which is not an issue. But it is an amendment, which with a lot of work ourselves, and $1K later, we have this slight change approved. My advice here is: Don't draw anything specific that isn't needed in your landscape plans. The certifier has to be strict on landscape plans, because if anything happens down the track, they may be liable. This means, all those wonderful plants we saw on the plan, were 100% expected, exact counts and exact species as written. I'm annoyed at Paul Monaco, because he put everything in such detail, we didn't realise we were going to be accountable for 15 lily pillys in exactly that place, but that is what the certifier would have told us. However, if you put in 0, the council will still approve and you can add 15 after certification without asking anyone. So I'd advise to just put lawn, mandatory trees (don't name it) and retaining walls in your plans, get it certified as that, then work the garden to exactly how you want it later. This will also help if you run out of money. Overall, it hasn't been a smooth ride, but we would say comfortable enough. It can be tough to get info, it can be difficult to get people, but for the most part everyone has tried to get this project finished as well as possible from our point of view. Re: Provincial Homes 516Jul 25, 2017 6:19 pm Hi Just updating our work. Slab poured on 5th july .still no fence around my land..next door builder driving their truck just back of my slab and all workers having their break on my house slab. Does any one know supervisor name called troy???This person allocated as our building supervisor Re: Provincial Homes 517Jul 26, 2017 9:11 am Wow. I just had internal colour selection and a remember very clearly during contract signing that under no circumstances are we allowed on the land when they have control. If we do they will stop work, assess any damage and charge us... Then it comes to your build and they dont even have a fence. Re: Provincial Homes 518Jul 27, 2017 11:36 am I have questioned the same thing to Vicky sue.. she is not answered.According to contract, we are not allowed to access the land..but the public can access....I have never seen any of the builders do these way..when they have scraped land they removed some soil into next door land and builders responsibility to remove this they haven't removed yet.We already paid to remove excess soil Re: Provincial Homes 520Aug 03, 2017 10:59 pm Good to hear few good stories about this builder group "Provincial homes". For us, its a disaster. If i had a time machine, i would go back and delete that decision of signing up with this builder. Wasted our precious 1 year of Administration work with stupid people. Lost more than AU$33K for loan interest alone during this period. Still not yet started the work. From last 2 days, we are thinking of scrapping this project, trying to sell this land and home ( existing contract) to somebody else. Provincial homes have shattered our dreams... Guys.. Our thumbs down. Stay away from these unprofessional group and find any other builder. You will rejoice and have good peace of mind. 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 1603 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74220 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 105134 |