We have decided to build the Masterton Synergy 32 home on our block of land in Sydney, NSW. This blog will detail our journey, an optimistic but realistic one towards our end result of a new home for our family.
December update. KEYS! We are in.
We have decided to build the Masterton Synergy 32 home on our block of land in Sydney, NSW. This blog will detail our journey, an optimistic but realistic one towards our end result of a new home for our family.
December update. KEYS! We are in.
synergy 
Congratulations! We were given a tender for the Synergy 29 and given an estimate or 367K. This included the promotions and Mansion package. Which facade did you pick?
Were you given a similar estimate too?
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Hi Bel. Our current tender is $420K but includes $16K in allowances for electrical, stairs, kitchen etc. We also added an ensuite to front bedroom and exended garage. Facade we have is contemporary but have modified it to be more like Jazz facade with glass balcony, smaller parapet and Jazz windows. We are waiting for plans (any day now) and then we can get into appointments. Bricks are still confusing us atm. We paid the $3900 on Mothers Day so that was 7 weeks ago. We are building in Sutherland Shire, where are you guys? Exciting but very stressful so far. Matt
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Hi Matt,
Congratulations and I really love that you guys have started a blog about this. I will definitely be following. We are about to give our $3900 this week. We are building the Synergy 32 as well and we are in the shire too. We are doing a KDR. Are you on a busy or quiet street?
Masterton were very open about costs that may pop up. Because we are on a busier street we might be hit with a higher cost for traffic control. Your cost has come in at a great price considering you are making a few changes. The only change we made to the current plans is add a shower to the toilet downstairs.
Good luck with it all and keep us posted. Mira
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Hi Mira,
Thanks for your message. We are in a fairly quiet street but a bit narrow. We don’t have any extra costs for traffic costs, just $1700 for tiger tails on the poles. We are now waiting on the final plans to come through then off to council. Happy to chat about the plans, it’s a massive decision isn’t it? My wife wanted to add the shower downstairs but we chose against it. How are you going with colours? Are you dealing with Yvonne down at Shell Cove as well? Regards, Matt
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Hi!
I eagerly watching your build because we are deciding between two.
Have you been given the final fixed tender price? 420k is amazing with all the changes your making. How much was the break down of site costs, council and variations please?
Thanks
Bel
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Hi Bel,
420 seems a lifetime ago!! We are signing contracts this week and contracts sits at $452K. Biggest changes to the base cost have been upgraded bricks to Diamond range ($6,600), the covered alfresco ($15,000), stormwater hydraulics ($10,900), bigger water tank ($1700), colorbond roof and blanket ($1000). We also raised all the windows and doors in the back room because we have raised ceilings so wanted to make the most of them. This probably cost another $1500. We also have $5000 allowance for stair upgrade, $2,500 for laundry upgrade, $3,500 for butlers pantry and kitchen drawer fitout and $5,000 for electrical fitout. Site costs (Basix etc) have been listed as $30K with council costs as $18K. I’m sure the appointments are going to cost more but we have tried to add some allowances to soften the blow. Happy to give you more info if you need it. Best of luck. Matt
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Hi Matt,
I really appreciate the info. Look forward to watching your build.
Thanks
Belbwl
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HI Matt,
I just saw that you responded to my post. That’s great for you guys you are moving along now. We are just waiting for the plans to finish then submit to council. This process feels a little slow but we will get there.
We went to the Shell Cove display and to Leppington so we decided to deal with Kristina from Leppington, she has been very helpful.
Choosing the colours is not too bad although Masterton don’t have a nice solid dark colour for the exterior that I would prefer to go with so I think we will have to pick one outside their options. For the interior we will prob just go with one of the white options that they have.
My biggest challenge is the stairs… can’t wait to see what we can do I have a few things in mind but I think this will just bump up the price even more.
Also we have gone with the Trend 2 faรงade but I want to close in the balcony instead of exposed as it is. We have young kids so I think it might be safer and also bit more privacy as we are on a bit of a busier road.
How are you going with Kitchen? have you guys picked colours and had your kitchen appointment yet?
Regards,
Mira
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Hi Mira,
We are not far ahead of you then, we too have been held up. We signed off on plans and paid 5% a few weeks ago and are waiting for the plans to go to council any day now. We also loved the trend 2 facade but couldn’t justify the cost. We should have our appointments in a few weeks and are looking forward to the kitchen and stair design as well. Will let you know how we go. Did you change any other parts of your standard plan?
Matt
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Hi Matt,
Looking forward to moving ahead with the build. This period really feels slow. We have had a big gap between the initial $3900 to getting our plans. Hopefully things start speeding up.
The only change we made is our Theatre room downstairs will actually become a bedroom, we have included a shower in the powder room down stairs and where you have your Alfresco we are putting a swimming pool in. (Obviously not through Masterton) We have an entertaining area at the back of our yard so we thought we wouldn’t need an Alfresco, although it looks amazing with the Alfresco.
Have you guys progressed from your last post to me?
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Hi Mira,
We are currently in Council and have booked all our appointments for the next three weeks. Sounds like a big 3 days to fit everything in. Should be demolished early November but don’t expect anything but a temporary fence in 2015 and will have to wait until 2016 to get the building started unfortunately. A slow period for us too I’m afraid but looking forward to the appointments coming up.
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HI Matt,
How exciting you guys are at demolishing stage! that’s fantastic!
Hope you don’t mind me asking you what the additional cost is to extend your garage?
good luck with everything.
Mira ๐
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Hi Mira. Cost for garage was $2682 for 500mm front extension, $3283 for 1m side extension and then $8115 for the upstairs bedroom which we added the ensuite and wir due to the increase in size. Hope that helps. Matt
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thanks Matt! ๐
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Hi Matt,
I noticed that you are moving along quite quickly with the build now. How exciting. Any unexpected surprises so far?
We have had a number of issues with Masterton submitting our plans. They didn’t update changes that we highlighted throughout the tender process (Many times). They submitted the plans incorrectly before Christmas (Even though we picked up on the errors and asked them to change it before they submit, they still submitted them incorrectly) that was a 10 week delay due to the Christmas period, updating the plans etc.
2nd attempt to submit the plans and they ended up submitting our house plans with the floor plans of a house from Punchbowl….
It seems like whoever in their admin is submitting the paper work they are not checking what they are submitting.
We just hope that once the plans are approved and they start building that we have a smoother ride.
Has Masterton given you a rough idea when they will finish?
Mira ๐
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Hi Mira. Yes the build is going along quite quickly at this stage. This week they finished the all the framework and the downstairs windows. All has gone to plan, and the Supervisor has been good with regular Friday updates via text. We are really happy with the changes we made and it looks very positive. As to time frame, no he hasn’t spoken about that. The 200 days finish beginning of October but we are hoping August/September. If you need advice with the colour appointments, just let me know. They are quite a big process and we can share all our stories if you like.
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Thanks Matt,
We finished the Colour Apt. Last apt left is the Electrical which is this Thursday. It’s really refreshing to hear that your build is travelling along nicely. We are looking forward to getting there. ๐
Is your supervisor Ben? We have heard amazing feedback on the Supervisor in our area and I think his name is Ben. Glad to hear that you get regular updates as well. Have you organised a Private assessor to check the frame work once it’s all done?
It’s great to see your updates and the image timeline. thanks heaps for responding too.
Have a great day
Mira
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Hi Mira,
Yes our SS is Ben, really nice guy. Sends good updates each Friday via text. We didn’t worry about Private Certifier as we have been very happy with the work so far, maybe down the track we will. I can email you our electricals if you want a bit of info before Thursday. I enjoyed that session but it did cost $14K to do downlights and power everywhere.
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Hi Matt,
Yes the electrical Apt done. Yay.
Now we are just waiting for demo day. Things should hopefully start moving along now. Looking forward to meeting Ben. Glad he will be the site supervisor.
thanks for responding to my comments. Look forward to seeing your end result.
Mira ๐
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Hi Matt,
It’s looking great! Were you delayed at all waiting for a brick layer? Apparently there has been delays due to the shortage of brickies.
so good to see your home progress.
Mira ๐
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Hi Mira,
So far so good. We are quite happy with the progress at the moment. The bricks look great, we are really happy with them. We had to wait about 2 weeks for the brickie to finish his other job but now he is just on our job until he finishes. We only have one brickie and one labourer for the entire house. Site supervisor is great and is good at organising all the trades on site. Fingers crossed we keep going well and we will start inside hopefully by June.
Where are you up to?
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That’s amazing. Fingers crossed once we start building we have the same progress.
Our house has been knocked down now we are just waiting for the peg out and it shall begin.
Up until now it has been a slow process and mainly due to errors on the plans and variations that Masterton kept missing. Had a slight hiccup with council regarding the 2nd floor but that was all rectified so now hopefully it shoul dbe smooth sailing.
Do you have an idea of when you should be moving in?
looking forward to more of your image timeline updates. They are great ๐
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Hi Mira,
Haven’t been told officially when we are due to be finished, we are expecting October. Each stage has been exciting, I remember being excited when the house got knocked down, then the slab, then the frame, then the bricks. I hope you enjoy the journey and it is a positive one for you as well.
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Hi Matt,
Wow, you guys are close now. You must be over the moon… it has been a long process.
Our process has been very disappointing. House was knocked down in April and they haven’t even put the frames up yet… they started last week after we had enough and I started calling and complaining. They had to remove tradies from one site to start our job…
They were there for one day and didn’t even finish the bottom level….. now it’s been a week and there has been no-one on site since.
our supervisor has changed twice, apparently they are training a new supervisor…. just painful. If we are lucky enough we might be in by next Christmas.
What have you found to be your biggest challenge? Who has your supervisor been?
Do you have any advice on how we can speed them up or who we could go to so we can get things moving. So disappointing and super hard on the whole family.
Mira
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Hi Mira,
Thanks for your message, we get keys this week so very excited. It’s been a long journey.
We have had our share of slow times but just had to keep chipping away at the progress. Our supervisor (BP) provided weekly text messages so that helped a lot. After lock up we slowed down a lot, had to chat to construction coordinator and area manager to get back on track. To be honest, if it wasn’t for Xmas we probably wouldn’t be moving in this week. I do know that they make a decision to throw lots of resources into the houses they want to finish before Xmas which means others like yours stops.
My advice would be to start chatting with the CC and area manager to start the process back up. We felt bad for complaining but otherwise we weren’t going anywhere. Once I got the area manager’s number I rang him until we got some action. The challenge is to complain but still retain the relationship with the supervisor as he determines what happens and when.
Good luck with it all, I hope you start moving again in January.
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Hi Matt,
thanks for replying. ๐
we were super quiet and trusting that they will move along but that wasn’t happening.
Finally we are in touch with the Area Manager who is really helpful and making things happen now. This has been the first week we have had someone on site for 2 consecutive days. Which is huge for us. We had 7 weeks of nothing happening at all, no-one on site. that was tough to watch.
We are living in the area so we drive past every day and it’s tough watching material just sitting on the block and nothing happening.
Apparently our house should be up by Christmas…. I’m really excited to watch this progress.
Congrats on finally getting your keys and good luck with the move. Very exciting for you and your family.
Mira
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Thanks Mira, if you see us at the house please drop in.
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I am thinking of building the synergy 32 a kdr. What was the experience like and what things would you do differently. I am in Cronuฤบla so also sutherland shire council. Cheer susan
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