Slab Preparation

No works Monday (Public holiday) or Tuesday (RDO) but work seems to have commenced today.  Crushed rock has been spread to level the site and packed down. Footings have been excervated around the alfresco and front entrance. Site Supervisor expects slab to be poured next week. 

Services & Trenching

Contractors started back on site on the 12th of January. Plumbers began trenching and this confirmed that rock was going to be an issue all over the property. 60 more metres came out on the first day back,  and although I have not confirmed with Site Supervisor, I have measured 100-150 cubes of rock has been removed from the ground since Christmas,  bringing us to 200-250 cubic metres. At this point my Wife called Kings and suggested work stop on site until we sit down and negotiate rock excervation costs. Kings did the right thing and proposed a much better deal within 24 hours (which I won't go into) that is fair to both parties. We were very impressed.

Strangely enough, minimal rock came out of the electrical conduit run. We have a meter box ready for Powercor to commission. Electrical work looks a good standard.

The site now looks ready for slab prep to begin, SS expects slab poured in a week.

Site Cut

Site work started mid December and this is where the fun began. Kings had allowed $6900 provisional rock allowance  in the quote (33 cubic metres). The 800mm cut took 2 days, and a whopping 105 cubic metres of rock came out of the ground. Contract price was $210 a cubic meter.

All extra soil was moved to front of cut to bring us more useable space directly at the front of the house. We struck a deal with Kings and the exervation contractor to slightly lower the cost of excess rock. At this stage I was a bit worried about how much more rock would come out for the trenching of services.

House Design

We decided on the JG King Renaissance 295 design for our home. It is ranch style 4 bedroom home which suited our needs without too many modifications. JG King has good standard inclusions. Plenty of power points (only needed to add 3) 
Below are extras/modifications we added, structural are in Bold


3 Phase power (52m run from put to MSB)
3 Phase power run to future shed location on property (for future solar panel installation)
Stormwater dispersion pit (as per property covenant requirements
20,000L water tank (as per property covenant requirements)
Square set cornice in all rooms apart from bedrooms.
Downlights throughout living areas
40mm caeserstone kitchen bench top, extended to 1200mm depth with waterfalls

20mm caeserstone for bathroom, ensuite and powderoom bechtops

Walk in Linen (by reducing size of laundry)
2700 Ceiling height
BAL (bushfire attack level) 12.5 upgrade
450mm eaves
Extend garage by 500mm side and rear (check your garage measurments when building, you will find a standard garage is quite small)
Extend master bedroom to fill void at front of house
10x5m alfresco at rear
Hume 2340x1200 front door
2340 high internal doors
Provide internal wall from hallway to library, we did not want access from hallway as per standard plans.

We also had quite a few minor upgrades that I wont list individually that were picked up at the colour selection such as bathroom basins/baths. If anyone would like a full list of the extras we chose and pricing, do not hesitate to ask.

 The total extras were approx $70,000 (not including site costs).

Introduction

I am creating this blog to give prospect home builders an insight into the JG King building process. I was initially not going to create a blog, but feel there is a lack of information out there about the building process and would like to pass the knowledge I learn on to others.

We purchased our 3 acre block at Merrimu Victoria January 2014 with a 30 day settlement. We put an offer in (below agents reserve) about a month before the Auction date and got accepted within two hours. We were direct and made it clear we had the cash, and I think this helped.

We were set on the Metricon Denver design and approached them strait away, We paid our $1000 deposit and started the extensive process but found throughout the process the sales people we dealt with too unreliable at keeping appointment times and made plenty of false promises they would not include in the final contract. We decided to cut a loss on the deposit and start fresh.

We visited many other builders, both Volume and Local, and finally decided to settle on a JG King Renaissance home with a few modifications. I tried to make the process as thorough as possible. We has a few hiccups such as a mixup with the house placement and a few drafting issues but overall the JG King sales process went well.

We signed contracts with JG King Melbourne early December 2014 after approx 6 months of negotiations.

I am an electrician by trade but never worked in a domestic environment. I was working away doing FIFO work during the negotiating and design process with Kings so most was done via Email or via  my Wife (who is alot better at negotiating costs than me due to her line of work). Just after the contracts  were signed I managed to get a transfer back to Melbourne, perfect timing!