It has been an extraordinarily long time since our last update. A lot has happened since then - most importantly, we got married and went on honeymoon! It has been the best and busiest time of my life. Now that things have quietened down, I can bring you up to date on everything that has been going on with our house.
First things first - we've locked in our build with Stylemaster Homes! Our contract was signed back in mid-October 2015, we did our colour selection in late October (3 days before the wedding ...) and plans are through council. Stylemaster have come back from their Christmas break, and site works have just started on our block. I''ll go through each of these in separate blog posts!
So, let's start with the contract. What did we learn? So much. See below:
1. READ the contract - everything. Twice. Thrice. Four times. Now, I am a lawyer so I read these things with a hawk eye. That said, I was shocked at the amount of errors in the contract documentation, and was mortified when the sales rep told us that most people don't even read their contract before signing! I spent hours upon hours, night after night, combing through the contract and comparing it against the plans, the marketing material provided by the builder, the inclusions guide and every email between me and the sales rep to check everything had been covered off correctly. I literally ticked them off one by one with a pencil - every single thing in the inclusions guide. The amount of errors was frightening. If it isn't in the contract, you're not getting it, so take the time to make sure the contract captures every little thing you want and every promise made by the sales rep. See point two below ...
2. Get it in writing. We saved THOUSANDS simply by holding the sales rep to account over promises he made us during the sales process. After every meeting with the sales rep, I would email him a big list of queries we had discussed and got him to confirm these in writing. When it came to the final contract paperwork, I pulled out those old emails on several occasions when prices differed, or level of inclusions differed. Stylemaster either matched their original promise, or on some really big ticket things, at least met us halfway or threw in other freebies to compensate us for not following through on what they'd agreed in writing. We took the time to really think about what we wanted in our house, and got prices from the builder for these things before we handed over our non-refundable deposit ...
3. You'll make mistakes. Our build hasn't even started yet, and already we've come across a few mistakes we've made or things we would do differently. For example, we paid extra to upgrade to a rainwater shower head, but forgot to make sure the shower head was in the centre of our long, rectangular shower. Instead, it is stuck 30cm out from the wall in the corner, with the remaining one and a half metres of the shower sitting as empty space. Can't wait to shower with my head stuck in the corner! We're hoping the site supervisor will let us fix that up when we meet to do the plumbing rough-in. We also forgot to put a powerpoint where we intend to put our Christmas tree ... so we can't plug in Christmas tree lights without running a giant extension cord across the living room floor. Luckily, my husband (eep - love saying that!!) has an electrician for a brother, so we are hoping he will help us out with that one ;-) Anyway, there is no point beating yourself up over it, and definitely first world problems in the big scheme of things!
4. Good tips - we were given lots of those! Some tips we included in our home include:
First things first - we've locked in our build with Stylemaster Homes! Our contract was signed back in mid-October 2015, we did our colour selection in late October (3 days before the wedding ...) and plans are through council. Stylemaster have come back from their Christmas break, and site works have just started on our block. I''ll go through each of these in separate blog posts!
So, let's start with the contract. What did we learn? So much. See below:
1. READ the contract - everything. Twice. Thrice. Four times. Now, I am a lawyer so I read these things with a hawk eye. That said, I was shocked at the amount of errors in the contract documentation, and was mortified when the sales rep told us that most people don't even read their contract before signing! I spent hours upon hours, night after night, combing through the contract and comparing it against the plans, the marketing material provided by the builder, the inclusions guide and every email between me and the sales rep to check everything had been covered off correctly. I literally ticked them off one by one with a pencil - every single thing in the inclusions guide. The amount of errors was frightening. If it isn't in the contract, you're not getting it, so take the time to make sure the contract captures every little thing you want and every promise made by the sales rep. See point two below ...
2. Get it in writing. We saved THOUSANDS simply by holding the sales rep to account over promises he made us during the sales process. After every meeting with the sales rep, I would email him a big list of queries we had discussed and got him to confirm these in writing. When it came to the final contract paperwork, I pulled out those old emails on several occasions when prices differed, or level of inclusions differed. Stylemaster either matched their original promise, or on some really big ticket things, at least met us halfway or threw in other freebies to compensate us for not following through on what they'd agreed in writing. We took the time to really think about what we wanted in our house, and got prices from the builder for these things before we handed over our non-refundable deposit ...
3. You'll make mistakes. Our build hasn't even started yet, and already we've come across a few mistakes we've made or things we would do differently. For example, we paid extra to upgrade to a rainwater shower head, but forgot to make sure the shower head was in the centre of our long, rectangular shower. Instead, it is stuck 30cm out from the wall in the corner, with the remaining one and a half metres of the shower sitting as empty space. Can't wait to shower with my head stuck in the corner! We're hoping the site supervisor will let us fix that up when we meet to do the plumbing rough-in. We also forgot to put a powerpoint where we intend to put our Christmas tree ... so we can't plug in Christmas tree lights without running a giant extension cord across the living room floor. Luckily, my husband (eep - love saying that!!) has an electrician for a brother, so we are hoping he will help us out with that one ;-) Anyway, there is no point beating yourself up over it, and definitely first world problems in the big scheme of things!
4. Good tips - we were given lots of those! Some tips we included in our home include:
- Moving the shower taps so you don't need to lean through the water to turn on the tap;
- We are building a double storey house, so placed most of our power point allocation on external downstairs walls (where it is hard (if not impossible) for electricians to install extra power points after completion);
- Spend money on the structural stuff that is expensive to change later - save money on the fancy finishes you can do yourself;
- Supply your own lights. The builder's price with their mark up was ridiculous (and their range was small). Stylemaster is installing batten lights through our house only (a plain plastic light socket), and we are having our light fittings installed after handover (by the lovely electrician brother in law!);
- Inceased the shelf height in our robes. A lot of the shelf space in the top of robes is dead space - we increased the shelf height so we had more hanging space underneath;
- Checked our dishwasher / washing machine / fridge space actually fits the models of the appliances we want;
- Checked our upstairs windows will not directly open onto our neighbours upstairs windows (awkward - especially on a narrow lot!);
- Added power point to the media room ceiling for a projector;
- We are having timber floors, so we checked skirting boards will be laid AFTER the flooring is laid (so we don't have ugly timber beading around the perimeter of the rooms);
- Made our windows "standard" sizes, so it is cheaper to source curtains / blinds down the track;
- Add extra noggins where we will be hanging televisions, mirrors etc. off the wall; and
- We will take photos of the noggins / studs at the frame stage so we know where these are when we go to hang said televisions, mirrors etc.