This blog is to commemorate the building process and learning experience of building our first home in Hammond Park, WA.
Both Warren and I are excited at not only owning our first home, but doing it together and building the life that we envision.
Thanks for checking out our blog and we look forward to reading your responses to the blog entries!
Hi guys! I came across your blog as we are about to embark on a build with celebration homes, also with the Polaris. We have made some minor modifications, and haven't gone through prestart yet. On that basis I was hoping for a few pointers on things you modified from the plan, and any issues, difficulties; or advise on what went well and why? Could you write back or drop me a line? Congrats on the baby! Thanks, Andrew
Put in all your extra light fittings and power points. i'd recommend at least 2 double power points in each room. it seems expensive at first but it's cheaper than doing it later.
Same with lights.
There were a few little issues that got fixed up as we had a decent building manager. but make sure the drawings reflect exactly what you want and hold them to it for construction.
Also negotiate everything you can like flooring etc before initial sales agreement.
Once it gets to pre-start they will not budge on their price, and things that may have been cheap to chance before the initial deposit are expensive at pre-start
Thanks Warren, Luckily my dad-in-law is a sparky, so we will update the rooms' outside walls with double GPO's. Plan to move most of the lights off-centre a little as I think the beams will be alongside most light globs, but we will fit downlights. I have to be honest, I didn't know anything could be negotiated! So that sucks. We're just going through the whole brick, roof tiles, garage, brick paver selections - tougher times than we thought!
What sort of things did you upgrade and what charges are we talking about? Thanks peeps!
At point of sale we managed to get an old promotion to apply to get an upgrade to ceasarstone benches for 2k.
at pre-start changing the study area from carpet to tiled cost over $1200, but would have cost a mere $200 before we signed the contract. we added overhead cupboards and a few doors. we had a wide drawer put in under the oven, double sinks in the ensuite and wider cabinet to suit. also the benchtop extension in the laundry. The entry paving we had widened and added a double front door.
Extra lights and powerpoints etc.
All up we spent an extra 6.5k after pre-start.
We added the storage nook to the garage at POS for an extra $1500-ish.
we made a lot of no cost changes moving windows etc also.
Be wary of changes they try to sneak through at various stages of approval.
Also they tend to try and process payments for stages before they are complete. make sure everything is the way it's supposed to be as per the plan before handing over money
Hi guys!
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog as we are about to embark on a build with celebration homes, also with the Polaris. We have made some minor modifications, and haven't gone through prestart yet. On that basis I was hoping for a few pointers on things you modified from the plan, and any issues, difficulties; or advise on what went well and why?
Could you write back or drop me a line? Congrats on the baby! Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Mate.
DeletePut in all your extra light fittings and power points. i'd recommend at least 2 double power points in each room. it seems expensive at first but it's cheaper than doing it later.
Same with lights.
There were a few little issues that got fixed up as we had a decent building manager. but make sure the drawings reflect exactly what you want and hold them to it for construction.
Also negotiate everything you can like flooring etc before initial sales agreement.
Once it gets to pre-start they will not budge on their price, and things that may have been cheap to chance before the initial deposit are expensive at pre-start
Thanks Warren,
ReplyDeleteLuckily my dad-in-law is a sparky, so we will update the rooms' outside walls with double GPO's. Plan to move most of the lights off-centre a little as I think the beams will be alongside most light globs, but we will fit downlights.
I have to be honest, I didn't know anything could be negotiated! So that sucks. We're just going through the whole brick, roof tiles, garage, brick paver selections - tougher times than we thought!
What sort of things did you upgrade and what charges are we talking about?
Thanks peeps!
At point of sale we managed to get an old promotion to apply to get an upgrade to ceasarstone benches for 2k.
ReplyDeleteat pre-start changing the study area from carpet to tiled cost over $1200, but would have cost a mere $200 before we signed the contract. we added overhead cupboards and a few doors. we had a wide drawer put in under the oven, double sinks in the ensuite and wider cabinet to suit. also the benchtop extension in the laundry.
The entry paving we had widened and added a double front door.
Extra lights and powerpoints etc.
All up we spent an extra 6.5k after pre-start.
We added the storage nook to the garage at POS for an extra $1500-ish.
we made a lot of no cost changes moving windows etc also.
Be wary of changes they try to sneak through at various stages of approval.
Also they tend to try and process payments for stages before they are complete. make sure everything is the way it's supposed to be as per the plan before handing over money