Today we had our appointment booked with Beaumont Tiles to hopefully choose our tiles for the bathrooms, shower and laundry areas as these are all included with the builder. Now of course what is standard is absolute rubbish and would maybe, just maybe be selected in a house 200 years old.
We had visited Beaumont Tiles several times before in hope that we could be prepared and just point out all of our choices come the actual decision making time. As mentioned before, ANYTHING that is even passable as a modern tile is extra cost, and if you want a porcelain modern tile - well apparently that isn't even allowed with Plantation!!
We were shocked, according to the sheet which Beaumont provides which states what the customer is allowed to choose, Porcelain tiles AREN'T actually allowed. How can this be? We had picked our tiles thinking that because the display homes have Porcelain tiles all throughout that surely this wouldn't be a problem. We definately know it's possible, but this is just ridiculous. We had to kindly appologise to our consultant and let her know that we had to talk to our builder first as we refuse to sign contracts if we cant have Porcelain tiles.
Yes we are happy to pay the extra costs associated with them, but to simply refuse the customer to have Porcelain at all when all of their display homes include them?? Hey!??
Overall choosing tiles has been the worst experience in the process of building so far. We really did try to find tiles in their standard and gold ranges but there just isn't anything half decent. It's quite sad and we were very disappointed after today :(
Ah well hopefully a call to the builder first thing Monday can sort this out!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
New Home Proposal - Signed! Only 3 weeks left until Contracts!
Today was the appointment with the Builder at their Head Office to go over the entire final quote and basically present a draft of what will be comprised in the final contract. The appointment went for over 3 hours but was extremely thorough.
We did make a few nice little changes to the NHP on the spot such as double 920mm entry doors, a freestanding bath in the ensuite and a few extra's like an additional tap where the drains will be etc. The whole experience was very pleasant and there really wasn't anything the customer consultant wasn't willing to try and make happen for us. We initially thought the double entry doors and freestanding bath couldn't be had in our design but thankfully after a quick trip to drafting they confirmed that would could indeed have both. How exciting! :)
We signed the final NHP and paid a further deposit which has locked us in to sign the final contract on the 3rd of March. We also have our colour consultation straight after the contract which means a full day at the Head Office again. We have a pretty fair idea of what colours we want, but inbetween all of the arguments we still cant agree lol. But we're getting close! Apparently we can still make minor changes on the day of the contract but I think the only changes I'll be making is to get provisions for us to use our own cablers (for data comms) and home theatre etc.
Aparently we also have a wonderful 14 week wait to get through Brisbane Council approval. Unfortunately it's due to the boundry relaxtion, site setback relaxtion and building over a sewer line. All of these add up to the extra long wait. I cant believe it's just going to sit on someones desk for over 3 months while all we get in return is more weeds on our block! hehe
Overall dealing with the Sales people and the Customer Consultants has been a real pleasure with Plantation - I can only hope now that the Site Supervisor will continue this tradition!
We did make a few nice little changes to the NHP on the spot such as double 920mm entry doors, a freestanding bath in the ensuite and a few extra's like an additional tap where the drains will be etc. The whole experience was very pleasant and there really wasn't anything the customer consultant wasn't willing to try and make happen for us. We initially thought the double entry doors and freestanding bath couldn't be had in our design but thankfully after a quick trip to drafting they confirmed that would could indeed have both. How exciting! :)
We signed the final NHP and paid a further deposit which has locked us in to sign the final contract on the 3rd of March. We also have our colour consultation straight after the contract which means a full day at the Head Office again. We have a pretty fair idea of what colours we want, but inbetween all of the arguments we still cant agree lol. But we're getting close! Apparently we can still make minor changes on the day of the contract but I think the only changes I'll be making is to get provisions for us to use our own cablers (for data comms) and home theatre etc.
Aparently we also have a wonderful 14 week wait to get through Brisbane Council approval. Unfortunately it's due to the boundry relaxtion, site setback relaxtion and building over a sewer line. All of these add up to the extra long wait. I cant believe it's just going to sit on someones desk for over 3 months while all we get in return is more weeds on our block! hehe
Overall dealing with the Sales people and the Customer Consultants has been a real pleasure with Plantation - I can only hope now that the Site Supervisor will continue this tradition!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
More Trust Issues with the Builder
Our Land finally settled on the 27th of January 2009. Hooray! 2 days later we received another suprise from the builder. Our "flat" block needs 43 meters of Stone Link retaining walls as the Stone is a covenant requirement and the Surveyor has advised us so.
We couldn't believe it. Our block is flat with approximately a 20cm gradient across it from left to right. Again - this was quoted at approximately $20k for the retaining walls. I really dont think we'll be going through the builder for this one! As the wall only needs to be between 20-40cm high we will just build it ourselves for under $3k. Argh - there goes our saving from only needing a S-Class slab! If anyone can offer some advice on the best way to build it - please do!
In the meantime the estate is coming along nicely. There is bitument down now and a few street trees and the street lamps have been installed. It's starting to look pretty cosy now! The pics are from mid Jan 09 - (Excuse the quality, it's taken on the "amazing" iPhone!)
We couldn't believe it. Our block is flat with approximately a 20cm gradient across it from left to right. Again - this was quoted at approximately $20k for the retaining walls. I really dont think we'll be going through the builder for this one! As the wall only needs to be between 20-40cm high we will just build it ourselves for under $3k. Argh - there goes our saving from only needing a S-Class slab! If anyone can offer some advice on the best way to build it - please do!
In the meantime the estate is coming along nicely. There is bitument down now and a few street trees and the street lamps have been installed. It's starting to look pretty cosy now! The pics are from mid Jan 09 - (Excuse the quality, it's taken on the "amazing" iPhone!)
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