Building with Wisdom Homes

Keys! 29/08/11

2011-08-31T23:44:00.000+10:00

Its Done! The house is ours! Met our SS at midday today, went over things that had been fixed and what was left to do. Had a quick look around, everything looked good! So next stop was Narellan, a good hours drive but well worth the wait. Handed over the final payment and got some shiny metal in return. Oh and a gift pack too! Just realised how much we have to do and the fact that we havent even begun to pack. Next few posts are going to be pictures galore so those with low quota beware! Timber booked in for tomorrow, should take two days to complete. Also a little bit of concreting too.

House inspection 19/08/11

2011-08-29T01:01:00.000+10:00

Since we have been constantly updaed by our site supervisor, we hoped that there wouldnt be too many problems to find. Our kitchen cupboards had already been fixed, with the kitchen sink to be moved early next week. Theres always the thought of hiring a private inspector to go over things that you might have missed. My suggestion is that if you're really not sure what to look out for, it might be a good idea. Basically the things we would be checking are: paint, opening and closing EVERYTHING, lights, powerpoints, check the walls are straight and level, cornice / skirting, location of tv - telephone points etc, scratches and the inclusions list. We were'nt too fussed as builders usually give 3 months maintenance period where you can find and document faults for them to fix. The build quality of Wisdom Homes has been very good so far. The only problems we found were a few minor scratches, areas to be repainted and possibly 1 missing whirlybird. Nothing to worry about really. For those worried about a really thorough inspection I found a great website. Its
http://www.anewhouse.com.au/?page_id=235
A lot of great advice on what to look out for. Also includes a link to the aussie building standards and a checklist guide. Generally a great website for those building. Wish I had found it sooner.
In other news our driveway was completed yesterday and it looks absolutly amazing. Our SS had told us to expect handover for 29/08/11. Cant wait!

Painting, Electrical and Carpet 12/08/11

2011-08-29T00:31:00.000+10:00

Work has been steadily progressing the last few weeks. Hard to get updated now as we are locked out. but here are a few sneak peeks!

Carpet looks a lot different then what we expected. The colour does vary greatly depending on how much natural light there is. For example it looks a lot darker on the stairs.

House is nearly complete. Inspection date is set for 19/08/11. Finger crossed all goes well!

Phone line and Internet

2011-08-21T19:09:00.001+10:00

If you're building a new home, don't forget the phone line. In most cases when building a new home, it's necessary to dig a trench for cabling when telephone services need to be provided to a new site.You can dig and backfill the trench yourself or hire a contractor / Telstra to do it for you. Find out if this is something that your builder will do for you or if its in your contract. With our driveway to be done soon, I realised that this was a good time to find out. We were lucky in our case as Wisdom Homes would do this for us as part of thier inclusions. All we had to do was call up telstra and apply for a new connection. This will cost $299. A Telstra technician will most likely come out hook up the line and also test it.

On the subject of internet I know that I definately wont be going with telstra again. I am looking for a company that is reliable, affordable, generous in thier quota and wont lie to me. For affordability I have been thinking of tpg but i have also been eyeing off iinet. Iinet has been recieving good reviews and is constantly in the tops ranks for service. This will most likley be my choice, hopefully they can give me a good deal.

Picasso was here - 31/07/11

2011-08-20T17:38:00.001+10:00

Painting is underway! Can really see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Not much left now. Things tend to slow up a bit towards the end. Builders will have recieved the majority of thier payment, only the final payment remaining in our case. But Wisdom Homes has been good so far, work has been constantly hapenning throughout the build, even if its just little things. We have electrical work, driveway, carpet and cleaning remaining.Things such as appliances and aircon are usually done after handover due to theft concerns.

More Kitchen Drama 27/07/11

2011-08-20T17:25:00.001+10:00

Regarding that funny indented cupboard two posts ago, Timpelle Kitchens have said they can fix it however at an additional labour cost. We really cant be bothered arguing any further about this so we have no choice but to pay. We were quoted $300 to fix it but were finally charged $350. Now on to another problem. The kitchen sink has been installed incorrectly. It is currently sticking out of the nib wall and is not according to our plan. Also we had asked for an underbench oven with cooktop option as opposed to the standard standalone. It looks like they will have to replace the entire ceaserstone benchtop. Our site supervisor has told us that this will not be a problem to fix at all, and without any charges as it is clearly not according to our plan/contract. Some pictures below

In other news, we are locked out!

Our beautiful front door above. The tiler has finally completed his work. It was a single lonesome man doing the tiling to our whole house. No wonder it has taken him about two weeks to complete. This is probably the only thing that has felt a bit slow in progress in our build so far.

Main Bathroom nieche

Balcony

More about Timber Flooring

2011-08-20T16:17:00.005+10:00

Our last two houses were both tiled and we felt that it was time for a change. Timber also feels "warmer" in my opinion and I really think that it adds to the value an appeal of a house. There were some issues that we had to think about though, such as surface scratches and maintenance. There were three main types of timber that we saw:

1. Solid Timber

2.Floating Timber

3.Floating Laminate

There was also Bamboo Flooring and Engineered Hardwood Floating (distressed timber) but were of less appeal to us.

Solid Timber is real thick timber flooring and perhaps the best value for money out of the three. On the positive side they can be sanded multiple times in case of scratches however some do not come pre-finished which means that that HAVE to be sanded and polished during installation. Another problem is that when laying this type of timber on concrete, it has to be nailed onto a secondary layer of timber which is in turn attached to the concrete slab/surface. This will increase the floor height quite a bit and will be a problem for door height, height of first step on stairs, Dishwasher and fridge space, skirting's, transition from timber to tile/carpet etc. This may make it harder for those looking at a diy installation. You must tell your builder before construction begins so they can adjust all these accordingly.

Floating Timber is made from 3 layers of timber materials. Each individual layer is laid so that the grain is glued at opposite directions. This reduces the timber warping and the overall strength is increased. In addition, expansion and contraction is reduced compared to solid timber floors. It is easy to do a diy installation and comes polished and ready to lay in a simple click lock system. The downside is that they can only be sanded perhaps 2 or 3 times. This is what we have chosen for our house.

Laminate is probably the cheapest option. It is very hard wearing, resistance to scratches, low maintenance and also easy to install. However it is not real timber and in my opinion can look a bit cheap too.

Most timbers will have colour variation and most will scratch so you must chose carefully. In the words of a flooring specialist "if you are worried about scratches, don't buy timber". Few things to remember:

1.Colour - The colour of timber flooring will vary even with particular species of timber flooring

2.Hardness - Timber has a hardness rating system called the Janka rating. I would recommend a rating of 5.0 or higher. Bamboo and Doussie are one of the hardest rated timbers we came across.

3.Origin - Where the timber originated might be of some concern as well as where it was manufactured.

In our search for best price and quality we visited Carpet Call, Deco Rug, Carpet Court. We went though a few overly pushy sales reps who seemed to be full of crap but found Deco Rug and Solomons Flooring at Bella Vista to be genuinely helpful and informative. We have gone with Solomans and will report back once it has been installed. I feel that we have received a good price but perhaps there are better bargains out there if one looks hard enough or is prepared to wait for stock. Compareativley our neighbour has paid $60 sq/m or so for Solid Kempas fully installed from a smaller outlet in Auburn. For us it really came down to different retailers quoting us different sizes of area that they would cover. A 10sq/m difference is a difference of $960! It will really pay to measure up the area yourself or to get them to do an on site measurement instead of the house drawings/floor plans.

View from the top and some progress

2011-08-14T01:17:00.000+10:00

A nice panoramic view from the first floor. Easily taken since we now have stairs! Speaking of which..

Absolutely love the stairs! Thinking of getting first two steps done in timber to match with timber floor downstairs and the rest in carpet to match upstairs. After much deliberation from Kempas to Jatoba we have actually decided to go with Doussie as our choice in timber flooring for the downstairs area. Everywhere except the tv room and study. We have even put our deposit down through Solomons Flooring. We paid about $96 per meter square and this also included installation.

Kitchen drama 6/07/11

2011-08-14T00:37:00.000+10:00

At this stage the kitchen had started to get installed. All looked well from a distance. We were a bit worried how the nib wall (servery style wall behind sink to hide tap and dish-drainer etc) would look. But in my opinion it turned out great especially since we had done it in polyeurathane.

Upon closer inspection of the microwave cupboard next to our fridge space we noticed something a bit strange. They had decided to push this cupboard space into the wall, meaning that these were now recessed into the wall while the rest of the cupboards were flush with the gyprock wall. I could not begin to understand why they would design this in such a way. We frantically looked at out kitchen plans trying to understand this strange design. To give you an idea of what the actual display kitchen looks like, I will show you a picture.

Now I understand this is an upgraded kitchen, but if they are doing so much as indenting a wall they should have at least pointed out this difference to us? We were told about the cupboards, sink and benchtop difference but nothing about this. We hope that this can be fixed.The site supervisor is unable to help us as he is simply "going by the drawings". It is quite impossible to see this indent in the front and top views that we recieved of the kitchen drawings. So we will have to take this matter up with Timpelle Kitchens. On a more positive note, the rest of the kitchen looks great

We have Gyprock! 18/06/11

2011-08-13T02:11:00.001+10:00

As I approached the site on this day, the scene was exactly as I had pictured in my head. A few Asian men, cigarette in one hand, drill in the other, zapping away and covering our house in gyprock. They didnt speak much english but what they lacked in communication skills they certainly made up in thier speed of work. It only would have taken them two days or so but offcourse the skirtings and cornice will take a little longer. Prior to this stage, if your builder / site supervisor allows it, you may do some wiring of home theatre systems, intercoms, security etc as this is pretty much the last chance you will have. However any data or power cabling must be done by a licensed electrician. In our case we are very lucky to have an amazing site supervisor who has made our lives / build much easier and relatively stress free so far.

Kitchen area

Entrance and study on the right

The waterproofing for wet areas was done shortly afterwards and tiling also started

Main bathroom

Our massive downstairs shower

Electrical and insulation completed 9/06/11

2011-07-08T00:03:00.001+10:00

Rumpus room

Kitchen

Dining, Living and Rumpus

Entrance

Gyprock has arrived! 11/06/11

Brick, Roof and Eves completed 28/05/2011

2011-07-07T23:20:00.001+10:00

19/05/2011

28/05/2011

As you can see the brick work is complete, roof is on (bar the rumpus area), eves and gutters done and we had also arranged for the front rendering to be completed (to be painted ourselves upon handover).

Bit more progress 20/04/11 to 4/05/11

2011-07-07T23:06:00.000+10:00

Scaffolding is up which means brick and roof completion not too far away

20/04/2011

The garage door side. We opted for two doors simply because we thought it looked better. Also you dont need the whole garage to be open at one time

Right side of house

Panorama view of the left side - 4/05/2011

Front view - 4/05/2011

Brick work started 13/04/2011

2011-07-03T03:09:00.000+10:00

The bricks and sand arrived a few days prior and the brickwork is underway

Bricks at the front

More bricks at the back

Work done as of 13/04/11

So far so good!

A bit of structure in our life 30/03/2011

2011-07-01T01:03:00.001+10:00

The frames for our house have arrived! Along with the windows as well.

1 Level up - 31/03/2011

2 Levels up 2-04-2011

Front

Rear

Plumbing done 6.04.2011

Meanwhile...

2011-06-30T23:34:00.001+10:00

Some tile selection shots:

Outdoor tile

Bathroom choice 1

Bathroom Choice 2

We were pleasantly surprised at the included tile selection at De Lorenzo. We decided not to have too much variety and keep things simple with neutral colours offset by an eye catching niche or border. However beware of excessive costs for different grout colours (they even charge extra labour for this) and larger tile sizes.

We also settled on a carpet choice for our house. We will be carpeting the top floor and using timber floor for downstairs. I have to say the inclusive range for carpets was quite awful. Colour range was limited as was quality. An upgraded selection is not currently within our budget so we will have to put up with some basic carpet and basic underlay for now. For those interested there are three levels of carpet underlay available, going from thin to thick. A thicker underlay provides a softer feel and may be of benefit in high traffic areas.

This is the carpet that we have decided to go with

The inclusive range is both sides of this rack. Sorry for the low quality phone pics here

All slabbed up 14/03/11

2011-06-18T03:12:00.000+10:00

We have slab!

Piering and Pods 9/03/11 to 11/03/11

2011-05-30T02:03:00.000+10:00

Peering at our land (excuse the pun), we could see that the piering had been completed! Ready for the waffle pods and the slab to be poured shortly afterwards. Finally we were able to get a real feeling for the size of our new home. Wisdom Homes moving at a steady pace so far.

I was also able to spot some work going on in the neighbourhood, interesting photo of how they do the piering and slab below

Expect lots of pics to come!

The almighty port-a-loo 17/02/11

2011-05-30T00:19:00.000+10:00

Today we discovered the port-a-loo, a reason for great excitement as this meant that construction was finally underway! Our site was fenced off and excavation completed. Luckily we had mowed the grass/weed in anticipation, so we did not incur any fee from the builder.

Things to remember

2011-05-22T22:41:00.000+10:00

Below is a list of things that I feel are essential to consider during a build. They are things one can easily forget to add in the tender and can be very difficult / costly to do during / after a build. Some of these things you may be able to do during construction depending on the leniency of you site supervisor

Kitchen:

· Check dimensions of fridge space. Increase to 1000mm or more if possible.

· Plumbing near fridge for those with ice/chilled water dispensers. Preferably in a cupboard above or next to it.

· Check dimensions of microwave space.

· Consider upgrading from laminate to granite

· Two bowl sink with filtered water tap

· Consider provisioning for outdoor / second kitchen. You will need a gas point, water, and power point

· Extra cupboards, especially overhead with bulkheads

· For wooden flooring and some tiles height of kitchen appliances need to be adjusted as well as first step of stairs

· Ask skirtings to be only tacked in so they can be easily removed for floor covering installation

Bathroom:

· Frosted windows

· Medicine cabinet

· Heater/fan/light

· Granite basin

· Floor to ceiling tiles

Bedroom:

· Mirrored sliding robes

· Double glaze windows for sound and heat insulation

Garage:

· Consider dimensions especially if you own a 4wd

· Consider Widening for extra storage space

· Drive through roller door can be very useful

· Auto garage doors or at least power point provisions for future installation

· Power points for tools. Will you need 3 phase power?

· Power points for second fridge or dryer and ducted vacuum motor

Electrical:

· Telephone points, TV points and double power points,

· Power points for vacuuming

· Cordless phones also need power points

· Power point / light provision for garden shed

· Provisioning for garden lighting

· Ducted vacuuming

· Doorbell / video intercom and or alarm system

· Height of power points e.g.: wall mounted TV or projector

· Sensor lights around house

· Check positions of power points and light switches

· Data points. Consider Foxtel, IPTV, Internet connection in other rooms, printers, and also for streaming data.

· Outdoor power point or in alfresco. Also consider outdoor gas point.

· Low voltage floor lights / niche lights or along stairs look great

· Consider Dimmer switches for some rooms

Other:

· Solar power

· Consider positions and number of fresh water / recycled taps

· Insulation

· Consider backyard drainage and any pipes you may have to lay

· Recessed electrical meter box

· Zoned ducted air conditioning with control pad for upstairs and downstairs

· At framing stage, take photos of walls in all rooms before gyprock goes on so you know location of all studs and wooden frames

Tender Presentation to Council approval - 07/10 to 12/10

2011-05-20T23:07:00.000+10:00

During this period we had a number of changes / revisions that we made to our tender. Our preliminary plans were drawn by 14.08.10 but we made even more changes and this delayed the start of our build a bit further. Also we had to get approval by The Ponds Board before it would be sent off to Blacktown Council. Finding a suitable brick that The Ponds wouldn’t reject was our biggest nightmare as it seemed as though their minds kept on changing. We wanted to avoid spending extra on bricks if possible. Our bricks were rejected about three times between the Board and Wisdom homes. Some reasons being: discontinuation and not being able to make them in an exposure grade for the so called saline soil at The Ponds. However we finally did it! The Ponds Board took about 2-3 weeks to approve. During this time we also had to lodge a landscape plan. We decided to save ourselves some money and do this ourselves. How hard could it possibly be? It took me two attempts, but it passed without any major hurdles.

Wisdom our choice – 21/05/10 deposit for tender paid

2011-04-28T22:35:00.000+10:00

There were a few key points that we were looking for in our new home.

· Affordability

· Standard and bonus inclusions

· Downstairs bathroom, large study, good sized kitchen

· Drive through garage

· Four large bedrooms

· Rooms we were actually going to use (e.g. no need for formal living or dining)

· Alfresco with provision for second kitchen

Few simple requirements we thought, however turn out to be almost impossible to find! After numerous visits to display villages all around Sydney, we realised that our favourite homes would be between Wisdom and Masterton. In particular we were really happy with the inclusions that Wisdom homes were offering for a small price. The homes we liked were the Aspiration and the Impression. That is until we made a visit to Oran Park and saw the Manhattan. Give us 36 squares, no extra ensuites, downstairs bathroom and perfect! We really liked the layout and modern styling including the sunken home theatre room. The sales reps at The Ponds Display Village for Wisdom Homes were very helpful, as we bugged them with hundreds of questions and ideas. In the end it was a very tough choice between the Impression and Manhattan but we made up our minds and decided on the Manhattan 36 at last. So $700 was paid to draw up a tender and the waiting game began.

I wont add any photos of the display home but they can be found here:
http://www.wisdomhomes.com.au/home_details.asp?productID=48

Land! - What you need to know

2011-04-28T21:24:00.000+10:00

Some key points when buying land:

· Design guidelines / restrictions. The Ponds has very strict guidelines that must be followed including landscape if you're after their $5000 rebate. There 8 pages in fact which can be downloaded from the ponds website. Basically covers setbacks, house exterior textures (render / cladding etc), solar shading, articulation, driveway and concreting as well as many, many more. They might have had good intentions with these restrictions but it has become slightly ridiculous in my opinion. They will not even accept certain bricks or colours.

· Orientation – We wanted ours to face either north or east (solar and auspicious reasons)

· Classification of soil. Have a pre purchase soil test done if possible. Typically you will have either M class or H class soil, the latter being slightly more expensive to build on as it requires a thicker slab. You definitely want to stay away from E or P (Problem site) soil. H class can cost 5k to 10k more. In my opinion though, the stronger foundation u have, the better it is.

· Check for sewer lines and manholes. Building over these is something you want to avoid

· Trees. Some may have to be removed and this can cost you a pretty penny

· Find out the slope of the land. The flatter it is, the less site costs you will incur. You will also avoid having to build retaining walls etc

· Width of land. Will the house you want fit? Beware of narrow “smart lots”. Check each dimension carefully. Remember corner blocks require you to leave more space.

· Is there recycled water? Will save you from a rainwater tank.

· Check for soil salinity. If it is classified as saline soil you will have to pay extra for a layer of protection between the slab and the soil. Also you will only be permitted the use of exposure grade bricks which may narrow your choices a bit further.

As you can see, buying land is not as easy as it seems!

27/02/10 – Land Reserved

2011-04-22T22:08:00.006+10:00

It was a late February Friday afternoon and new blocks of land were scheduled for release the next day. It wasn’t even dark yet and there were already lines of cars and people camping out in eager anticipation of next morning. It was then we knew that we too would have to camp out if we wanted our dream land. And so we did, spending the night in the car and hoping that number 8 in the queue would suffice. We did however get to spend some time with some of our future neighbours, which made us glad to be hopefully part of such a friendly neighbourhood. Luckily enough as the sun rose the next morning; we were able to secure the land of our choice. Very lucky indeed.

A Reservation fee of $200 was paid on the day and a 5% deposit was to be paid 21 days later and contracts exchanged. What next? You wait for the land to be registered. An estimated month of July was given however ours registered earlier in June. It is pretty import to keep track of when the land will be registered as you only get about 1 week from that day to pay off the land. The land we picked is located in the Alba neighbourhood and has a very funky street name. Our little piece of Australia:

For those that don’t know, The Ponds is a new suburb about 1 hour from Sydney City. It is close to shops, schools and has sports fields, tennis courts, cycling tracks and is pretty close to public transport also. The M7 isn't far but the library and leisure centre is even closer. Plenty of parks to be found as well.

Hello World

2011-04-21T18:41:00.001+10:00

Welcome to our Blog! This is my first post so firstly I will give you a bit of background information. The first few posts will be backdated as a lot has happened and there is a fair bit of catching up to do. The purpose of this blog will be for reflection and perhaps a few tips and advice for fellow home builders. This house is to be the third house we will have built in Sydney. The last being built in Newbury, Stanhope Gardens with Mirvac Homes. Photos are attached for that feeling of nostalgia. Our main reasons for selling were a small kitchen, lots of waste of space, clubhouse levies, and we wanted a smaller house to suit a family of three.

So after a very long search we decided to build in The Ponds. This area would be most suitable for us due to its affordability and decent sized blocks. As a bonus it is situated quite close to Quakers Hill station and there are no ongoing levies to pay. Here our journey begins.