It was a positive experience building my new home with Dechellis. The project was not entirely straight forward, as it involved a land sub-division, but the quality of the service I received from my first contact right through to completion was exceptional, and I am also delighted with the quality of the finished product.
My initial reason for choosing Dechellis was the attractiveness of their designs and the flexible floor plans. From the start I was particularly drawn to one particular design, the McLaren, which suited my needs, and it seemed particularly good value for its size. I also went for the `As Displayed’ option, which was worth the extra cost in terms of the ‘wow factor’ of the end result, and what you see in the display home is what you get. The sales consultant who I dealt with at the display home at Aldinga was in tune with my needs, and was able to modify and further increase the size of the floor plan to better suit my block, which affected the final build cost only slightly. He was also amazingly patient with my many requests for other small changes. The subsequent selections process was handled very efficiently, and I was very happy with the suppliers and the wide range of options available.
The new house was built at the rear of a large block in the inner north eastern suburbs; this was a `hammerhead’ sub-division, and prior to as well as during the build, I was living in and renovating the old Art Deco house at the front of the block. While the subdivision and renovation project was something that I organized and supervised myself, close co-ordination was necessary with Dechellis while they built the new house, and their help and advice during this process was invaluable. There were many challenges, including difficult access to the rear of the block during much of the build, and the planning and installation of new sewer, gas & water services for both houses. The construction manager and the building supervisor worked with me with considerable professionalism and flexibility so that the entire project flowed well and was completed in 5 months, despite a very wet winter.
Living right next to the build was a pretty full-on experience, but it did give me the opportunity to keep a close eye on things and I enjoyed chatting with the tradesmen from time to time. Maintaining close contact with everything was helpful I think, and I found it hard to fault the quality of the work at all stages. When the brickies came on site, the supervisor arranged for them to talk to me about different options for the mortar joints. They showed me examples and I ended up changing from the originally selected flush joints to much neater looking rolled joints, which I am very happy with.
By handover in late June 2014, everything had been completed to my satisfaction, and three months after that my list of things to be fixed at the Scheduled Maintenance visit was very short indeed. I’ve now been in the new house for over 3 months and I continue to be very happy with the excellent design and the quality of the build. It’s also a particularly comfortable house to live in, and very energy efficient – helped by the northerly aspect combined with LED lighting and good insulation. It is hard to fault the whole process – perhaps my only regret is that I didn’t up-grade the shower screens during the selection process, as the standard framed ones supplied are a bit light-weight, but still attractive and very adequate nevertheless.
In summary, I would highly recommend Dechellis Homes. Building with them was an exciting and satisfying experience. I was careful to maintain very close and regular communication with them during the whole process, helped by living so close to the site, but I’ve ended up with a great and well built house that is set to stand the test of time.