Building a home is a time consuming project, and if you’re like me and have absolutely no patience, it can be painful! Here’s our timeline, so you can see just how long the process takes!
21st July 2010: Land settlement – we are the proud owners of a block of dirt!
25th July 2010: Selected Wisdom Manhattan 43 Bathroom as the home we want to build, and requested a tender
15th August 2010: Received 1st version of tender document
30th September 2010: Tender acceptance (after lots of revisions!)
26th October 2010: Preliminary plans received from Wisdom
27th October 2010: Colour selection information received from Wisdom
29th October 2010: Met with sales office and made final changes to plans
9th November 2010: Received revised plans (with errors)
12th November 2010: Received correct plans
15th November 2010: Received contract for signing
22nd November 2010: Bank valuation received
24th November 2010: Contract signing
11th December 2010: Landscaping Design and Colour Selection with Wisdom
17th December 2010: Submission of plans to Medallist for approval
18th January 2011: Plans resubmitted to Medallist with new garage setback
22nd January 2011: Electrical consult with Wisdom
2nd February 2011: Developer approval received from Medallist
11th February 2011: Plan submitted to council for approval
3rd March 2011: Council’s neighbour notification period ends
14th March 2011: Council Approval received!
30th March 2011: Excavation Pegs (House Pegs) noticed on site
14th April 2011: Construction Certificate received, and job signed off by Wisdom, and sent to ordering
19th April 2011: Sediment control fencing fencing and Wisdom signage erected, port-a-loo and gravel delivered to site.
12th May 2011: Site scrape and cut out
13th May 2011: Piering and formwork done for slab
16th May 2011: Waffle Pods delivered to site
17th May 2011: Waffle Pods, drainage pipes and rio all installed
18th May 2011: Slab poured
1st June 2011: Frame started being built
3rd June 2011: Second story of frame commenced
7th June 2011: Roof trusses complete
10th June 2011: Windows & sliding doors installed, plumbing complete
11th June 2011: First delivery of bricks
12th August 2011: Brickwork completed, bricks cleaned and facade rendered
23rd August 2011: Eaves painted, external cladding started, air con ducting & electrical rough-in completed
24th August 2011: Roofing completed, and majority of scaffolding down
10th September 2011: Cladding painted, gyprock commenced
20th September 2011: Gyprock and cornices completed
21st September 2011: Staircase installed, framed and gyprocked
22nd September 2011: LOCK UP!!!
27th September 2011: Kitchen cabinet shell was delivered and commenced installation. Vanities installed, waterproofing completed, laundry cabinets installed
15th October 2011: Painting completed
17th October 2011: Tiling delivered and due to commence
27th October 2011: Tiling completed
5th November 2011: Driveway poured
11th November 2011: PCI (Practical Completion Inspection) & carpet being layed
11th – 24th November 2011: Quality Assurance List items being addressed (issues that were uncovered during PCI)
24th November 2011: Handover – WE HAVE KEYS!!
25th November 2011: Appliance installation (oven, dishwasher, hot water)
26th November 2011: MOVE IN, YAY!
28th November 2011: Air conditioner installation completed
Thanks for sharing the timeline of building with wisdom. I wonder if the timeline is normal as I feel it is a bit slower than what the sales guy advised.
I also consider a model Impression 38 and am discussing with Wisdom.
Wisdom said they compensate only $15 a day for delay and is it common to have behind scheduled timeline.
All the best with your home till completed and I will keep an eye on this page how wisdom does!
Hi Edward,
Our contract was for a 26 week build, and Wisdom handed over almost exactly 26 weeks after they commenced construction. We did have a few days delay due to rain here and there, which all up probably amounted to maybe 2 weeks of rain delays. It wasn’t much. We were really happy with the speed at which they did our home – it went up a lot faster than others near us, which started at the same time. For instance, a single story near us had their slab laid a week after ours, yet they moved in 3 weeks after we did, and the house is still not 100% complete. A single story should not have taken longer than our home, yet it did.
I honestly can’t speak highly enough of Wisdom, and the job that they did for us. We are now approaching our 13 week inspection, and have put together a list of defects that we need to have resolved, but the majority of things on the list are cosmetic, there is nothing major that we have to deal with. The quality of the work they have done for us, and the responsiveness of their people whenever we had a query or an issue, was second to none. Obviously everyone has different experiences, and I do know of one or two who have built with Wisdom, whose experience has not been as positive as ours, but if I were to ever build again, I wouldn’t hesitate in using Wisdom.
The Impression 38 is a beautiful home, there are a few here in our estate, I’m sure you’ll be very happy with it. Good luck!
PS: I should update the timeline, huh, to show that we’ve handed over and moved in!!
Thanks for your valuable tips.
I think the quality of built depends on which sub-contractor has built?
Can I know which sub contractor built yours?
When I read productreview.com.au it’s scary to go almost every builder because quite a few have experienced terrible situation with project builders.
What do you mean by ’13 week inspection’ ? Does the buillder come to your home to inspect regular basis?
Edward, not quite sure what you mean about “which subcontractor built” our home, but our site manager was a lovely man by the name of Joe Cosentino, who did a fabulous job. If you do build with Wisdom and you get Joe as your site manager, I’m sure everything will go very well for you.
You will always find bad reviews about builders. People put a lot of effort into sharing their bad experiences; not as many people tell the good stories, so it always seems that there are more bad stories than good!
And with regards to the 13 week inspection, essentially we have 13 weeks after handover to make an exhaustive list of any defects or issues with the house, which aren’t picked up at the time of handover. Sometimes you need to live in a house for a while before you find out that there may be problems – for example if the house leaks you won’t know until you get some good rain! So after 13 weeks, we supply a list to Wisdom of anything that we believe needs to be rectified. Wisdom go through the list and together we agree what they are going to fix. Then they come back on site at some stage and undertake the repairs.
That is the only “inspection” that they do. I think all builders do something similar, however I understand that Wisdom give one of the longest time frames, ie: 13 weeks. Many other builders give I think between 8-12 weeks.
And thankfully, with all this rain, we have no leaks! Everything on our list is fairly minor.
Hi lia.
It is great to hear no leaking issues within you house.
Yesterday I requested a tender to Wisdom! We are building manhattan 36 with a granny flat.
When I deposited 1k there was severe heavy storm in homewold v. We couldn’t do paperwork because electricity became outage.
After then we learned that the display home had few leaking spots including under the range hood in kitchen.
I hope my new home won’t have any leaking!
How much site cost did you spend yours? It seems so varying.