Exciting News!
Our Development Application was submitted to council on November 17th. We were advised by our Client Relations Specialist (CRS) that it would take up to 2-3 months to gain approval due to the busy period and Christmas closures coming up. Well that was definitely not the case for us. Two days after submission, we have full approval (and no changes required).
0 Comments
This appointment was huge and completed via Zoom due to COVID-19. Doing this over video was a major regret and turned the whole experience into a nightmare. There was a lot of back and forth and escalation needed due to lack of explanations from our consultant.
The appointment covered: doors, timberwork, handles, paint colours, plumbing and bathroom fixtures, cabinetry (excluding kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms), appliances, and gas points. Our upgrades included: External Doors
Internal Doors
Cabinetry
Paint
Appliances
Bathrooms
Gas
One thing I knew I needed to do was upgrade the standard carpet. This appointment was done through Accent Carpets at their Narellan Showroom.
We opted for the Victoria Carpets "Bermo" range. The colour chosen was Melanite which is a black/charcoal colour with a light grey fleck through it. I also upgraded the underlay to 10mm to complement the thick carpet. All up, this came to $5,050.00 - $4,100.00 for the carpet and $950.00 for the underlay. Today we had our kitchen appointment at Brindabella Kitchens with Keisha. It was by far the best appointment we have had during this pre-construction process.
Cabinetry - Polytec Black Woodmatt Kitchen Stone - Silestone Blanco Orion Bathroom and Laundry Stone - Silestone Blanco Zeus We did have a few upgrades which was expected as we had already discussed some things we wanted. One main thing going into this appointment was the need to add cabinetry to the laundry and make it functional. Kitchen Upgrades:
Laundry Upgrades:
Bathroom Upgrades:
When we signed up to build with Fowler Homes, our Sales Consultant Layne had gotten the Winter Warmer Promotion thrown in for no additional cost. Solar wasn't something we were looking at as it was an additional thing that wasn't a main priority for us. However, when something is getting given to you at no charge, you take it!
The original solar system was 1.5kW which is tiny so we instantly knew we were going to upgrade to a bigger system. The consultant had said that a 5kW inverter and a 6.6kW system would be perfect as we weren't wanting to have $0 electricity bills like most people want. We were just happy to have something that would save us money - any savings are great in today's society! The consultant had stated that our house was positioned perfectly for solar which was a relief. They will sit on the left side of the house, which happens to be north-west facing. Fast forward to today and we received our variation costing and we were both shocked at the price that came through. The solar system upgrade was only $1,588 extra! With the package already worth $3,500, we were only required to pay the difference which was fantastic 😁 Our solar system includes:
Appointment number 2 for today - Clipsal!
This is the appointment we allocated the most money for so we were ready for a big bill! I had previously sat with our plan and drew all over it with where we wanted downlights, batten holders, junction boxes, data points, and TV points. This was the best thing we could've done - it made the process ten times easier and only took half of the allocated time. I definitely recommend having a rough plan before going to this appointment. We still changed a few things, but we were able to have a decent idea of what we wanted and needed. Fowler Homes have worked really well with Clipsal to ensure that everything is transparent with all clients. Pricing is given on the spot and that's for supply and install (including any margins). Clipsal Iconic switches are standard which is amazing and has that luxury feel to them. The downlights are also an exciting addition as they are customisable. They feature a switch on each downlight that goes between the three light settings (3K/4K/6K). We have chosen 6K as standard and will change any downlights to lower settings if need be. Our upgrades list included:
We met Nikole at Abruzzo Ceramics who was very accommodating during our appointment. We went in with a fairly clear idea with what we wanted so that really helped.
We stuck to the included tiles as we have quite large tiled areas. Any upgrades would quite easily see prices sky rocket. The only upgrade was the mosaic which will feature in our shower niches and laundry splash back. Today was a day full of reports and we were quite nervous to get them back. We received our BAL Assessment, Acoustic Assessment, and BASIX Certificate.
BAL Assessment Our neighbours had received a BAL rating of 29 so we had gotten provisions in our tender to accommodate this. With today's reports, this was the best news by far! With both sides of our land either already finished their build or about to start, our BAL rating came in lower than expected. We had a provision of $18,000 to cover the additional requirements for BAL29. Our report came back at a BAL19!! Due to this, our variation bill was only $9,500! The only disappointing part is our front door had to be changed to be compliant with the BAL construction requirements. Acoustic Assessment We also live on a main road (which leads to Burragorang Lookout - so not too busy) so acoustic requirements were necessary. We are lucky that only the front windows are affected. With only two windows at the front, they were the only ones needing additional glazing. A lot of the acoustic requirements were already covered with our BAL requirements so they were already covered. We had a provision of $5,000 for this, and came back at just under $2,000. BASIX Certificate We don't have any additional costs with that which was a great relief. I had read some horror stories so was really nervous to get this back. This was conducted before we organised our solar system so I can only imagine our rating would be even better now. McCormick Concepts are in charge of the home automation for Fowler Homes. They look after the alarm system, CCTV, intercoms, networking and WiFi, audio and visual systems, lighting and home automation.
We were pretty set with this appointment as the alarm is standard and we were only interested in the networking and WiFi aspect. The alarm system is fantastic for a standard inclusion. The sensors are partially pet friendly (more for dogs under 20kgs - most other animals will set it off with their movements) which typically is an upgrade with other builders. We added an additional sensor in the garage, and remotes for the alarm as we will be using the garage to enter the house most of the time. I got pricing on the CCTV and intercom systems but it really wasn't something we were interested as we are fitting the house with Ring products. We did add Wireless Access Points (WAP) to the house. With our house design, we were incredibly lucky that we only require two points to cover the entire house. This appointment came in at just over $2,000 so that was another great outcome! We were expecting to have to upgrade the standard system, but we were really lucky in that the standard system was 17kW so was plenty for our house. There was an option to upgrade but we couldn't justify almost $8,000.
I added the NEO controller as I was obsessed as soon as I saw it. It has the ability to control the air conditioning from an app. Being able to turn the aircon on before we get home especially in winter is a major bonus! The square 4-way vent was recommended by the consultant. He said with higher ceilings these were recommended as they could be altered to aim at the floor as with that wasn't an option with the round vents. We were given 2 zones as standard but we ended up adding an additional two zones:
This appointment came in at just over $2,000 so that was a bonus! We were extremely lucky and were able to get in to do our external colour consultation within 4 days of being allocated our Customer Relations Specialist (CRS).
We had already put a lot of thought into our external colours so it was a smooth appointment. The only dilemma was that we were not advised that the Blackberry brick in the Wilderness Range was discontinued - lucky we had chosen two brick colours so that was easily overcome. Our consultant was amazing and accommodating. She is definitely an asset to Austral Bricks! Our colours are: - Roof: Tungsten (now Cool Smoke) - Bricks: Freedom (Everyday Life Collection) - Main Render: Dune - Secondary Render (Front Entry Portico): Wallaby - Cladding (Front Entry Portico Infill): Surfmist - Garage Door: Caoba (Slimline Woodgrain Finish) - Windows: Matt Black - Gutters, Water Tank, Meter Box, Downpipes: Monument - Fascia and Parapet Capping: Dune - Eaves: Illusive White Today we received our plans and tender - we were extremely happy with the tender and the pricing of our changes to the original floor plan. We were expecting delays with receiving our plans and tender due to the lock-down in NSW and the repercussions on the construction industry. But true to their word, Fowler delivered our plans on the exact date (4 weeks from our consultation).
We had our tender presentation meeting with Sandra who was absolutely amazing! Sandra was extremely accommodating and scheduled our Zoom meeting after standard work hours to accommodate our work schedule. Sandra went through absolutely everything and ensured we understood every part of the building agreements and contractual agreements. Today was our first consultation with Fowler Homes to begin our building process. I have looked through every design offered with every builder multiple times over the past 12 months. We started 12 months ago looking at the Havana design with Fowler but we felt like it was just missing something, so our journey of finding the perfect design continued. 12 months later, we are back looking at Fowler Homes - their inclusions are incredible and just cannot be overlooked. We had our first appointment with Layne, the Sales Consultant, at the Oran Park display home.
What can I say? Layne was friendly, and didn't try to sell us anything. Could not recommend him enough to anyone looking to build. He said it was evident we had done our research and knew exactly what we wanted. We played around with the floor plan, selected the Elegance Inclusions, added the Ooh La Luxe promotion package, and have requested some changes:
Now we wait the 4 weeks for the tender! |