In 2012 we purchased a vacant block of land with great views and overlooking the Brisbane River. Our dream was to build a retirement home that we could live in for a long time, unfortunately the block was very steep and it became quickly evident that your normal project builder could not fit the brief and were not interested in being flexible to meet our needs and the blocks special requirements.
Some 10 years prior Peter had completed a major renovation on a previous house which we were very happy with, so we gave him a call. Unlike some of the other building companies we spoke to he was open to our ideas as well as giving us new ideas and options to consider. Due to the difficult block and the bespoke nature of the build we needed assistance with drawing up plans. Peter was able to recommend an architect Greg Kearney who was great to deal with, both he and Peter gave us heaps of options both in design and materials, and were able to put all the things we wanted to achieve in the final draft.
Due to the challenging block and high level of finishes the contract price was a little bit more than your average project builder, however we were building our dream home and wanted a quality finish and a builder that we could trust and finish the project on time. That decision was later justified when the builder constructing our neighbour’s house went bankrupt, their build finished up taking another 12 months to finish and went well over budget and required heaps building repairs. After signing the contract Peter & Greg took control over most of the approval process which in our case was major as we were building over the normal building height.
Looking back the things we really liked about the build were :-
- Most of Peter’s team and different trades had worked with him for many years, and that reflected in the quality of their work. As I had just retired I was on site a fair bit, all the tradies were great to deal with, they helped us make decisions in all aspects of the build (lighting, plumping, colours, etc.)
- Apart from the changes we made there were no variations from the builder, which is a rarity in this day and age, some of our friends had variations up to 30%.
- Peter and his team were very open to our changes during the construction and in some cases offered great advice in changes we should make. There were times when we would question the design or want to change something, Peter would explain the pros and cons of the change and most cases we kept to the original design.
- The build was completed within time frame, about 6 weeks out Peter was able to give us a handover date which made moving from a rental property much easier.
- Like any build there will always be small issues, in our case there were not many and they were fixed up very quickly.
We have been in our house for nearly 2 years now and are very happy we had the P J Stormonth group build our property. We would highly recommend Peter and his team to anyone, they have been building quality houses for many years. Whether you are building a first home or a place we think you will be very happy with the final result.
— Paul & Janelle Heffernan
