Prestart

With prestart almost a week ago everything seems to be moving along.
Meeting with a interior designer beforehand was great. We organized our own interior designer because 101 residential in house interior designer only works Monday to Friday. This seemed ridiculous, surely most people building would have jobs meaning this was not possible, but 101 residential maintain that is all they do. And definitely no chance of a credit. It seems to be a great marketing ploy, offer something and rely on very few actually bring able to use it.
Jenny from topshelf interior design was incredible. She happily accommodated our thoughts, and offered great advice on where to spend extra, and got our colors and patterns working together. For what was really quite a small cost it has made the world of difference. I would happily recommend Jenny to everyone.
Prestart began at 10am with a detailed review of the drawings, which continued until almost 1pm, not that there was errors in the drawings, but we wanted everything to be right. After running to the local lunch bar for lunch it was back into it for the fun selections of colours, handles taps and the like. Megan came to the fore here, making great decisions.
A couple of days later we get the variation through, as well known the prices for some items were excessive, such as vinyl wrapped cupboards, blinds and painting, but it seems 101 residential are happy to remove these from their contract.

Contracts

Received contracts through, pretty close to being right. A good effort from 101 residential. 

More playing around with our walk in robe, we have a idea now that seems to work well, will see how it goes at pre start. 

101 residential

Prior to our previous builder parting ways I had spoken to 101 residential. The sales rep was very adamant that he could come up with a better design, and with some apprehension I let him try. Extremely glad I did, he made great changes and our house went from being a average house to something that looks a bit special. Great with realizing what we wanted, when even we didn't really know, we happily gave them the go ahead.

Our new design still focuses on the living area and alfresco at the rear to make the most of the parks, but also incorporates a double height entry and scullery. A gas heater detail in the rear wall should keep it all nice and cosy, whilst doors out to the alfresco will allow for a open entertaining area.

Not the perfect match

After a discussion today we have come to the agreement that This builder is not the right match for us. Their designs are amazing and construction methodology innovative and efficient, however my expectations are quite high and not suited to their style of business.
The phone call would not have been a easy one for them to make, but does demonstrate their pride in the business and product.
All seems to have ended well, and given the right project in the future I would not hesitate to deal with them.

Contracts

Finally received a set of drawings from our builder, and the preliminary sketches were better.
No attention was paid to our lighting, doors which were to be recessed sliding were exposed and our bifold doors are missing.
The sales guys solution... We can fix them as variations. What happened to getting it right?
Icing on the cake was a 9 month "maximum" build time is now almost 12 months.

Land Titles

Satterly have finally got their act together and titles are available, now it's just waiting for settlement to go through.
The builder seem to have done nothing, no plans have been shown to us. Hopefully they have been working on something, the plan was always to submit for building permit immediately after settlement. Unfortunately their house design isn't really matched by anyone else with the main bedroom downstairs and three others upstairs.
We have been looking at various options for the multitude of choices, colours, tiles, doors, splashbacks, door handles, bench tops etc. A set of double doors is quite exciting, looking at a glazed detail. Glass splash backs seem to be the nicest to clean, and as cool as lighting in the glass is, it probably isn't essential.

The original design

Having decided on a plan we have been in touch with the builder to look at minor changes. From the standard we'll push the kitchen out about 1200mm to use that extra 1m on the block. Deciding how to connect the kitchen to the alfresco is still up in the air, at the moment we are looking at a window as large as possible above bench height, figuring it is easier to fill in than increase the window size.
Windows have also thrown up a interesting possibility, with the estate agreement including noise requirements given the close location to the freeway. These include a requirement for laminated glass and mechanical ventilation to bedrooms. I think that their intention with mechanical ventilation is to be part of a ducted air conditioning system, but the estate manager didn't really know so we'll just put the plans in and see if they get approved. Similarly with laminated glazing there doesn't look to be laminated glass in any other houses there. Given the range of windows the builder normally deals with can only do laminate in a awning window (which really makes the elevation look bad), we'll also take our luck on whether the plans will be approved without this.
After we've spoken about the changes they are in to be drafted, I thought this would now be a convenient lull until land titles come through, but no, we get a selections file for door handles, tiles, windows & doors. Looking through these is great, but also so easy to get wrong, so we're considering a interior designer to pass our choices by.