Gallery Living

Our build with Gallery Living was well managed from design to handover. Issues arose, naturally, but were dealt with expeditiously. We felt part of the process from beginning to end.

What a positive experience with Gallery Living. We visited the display at Aspire and fell in love. The thing we liked the most was that the Gallery home designs were different. We didn't just want plain old bricks and mortar an couldn't walk away without talking to the sales consultant. This is where we met Jade and our journey began. We can't speak highly enough of Jade, from initial discussions right the way through to completion she has been there with us every step of the way. Jade got us, she worked with us to design a floorplan that not only suited us but also our budget. Jade's design knowledge and guidance really helped us get the house we dreamed of and we couldn't and probably wouldn't have it if wasn't for her.

Once construction had started we were kept well informed by Jon our build supervisor, we made what he probably thinks a million calls to him but he was able to reassure us and answer all questions or concerns we may have had in a timely manner. It is also worth noting that the trades used during the build were excellent as well. We visited the site almost daily when the build started and all of the trades were welcoming, polite and happy to explain what was going on. The final build costs were as estimated, there were a few issues encountered along the way (out of the builders hands, council to blame) but overall the cost of the build was maintained to almost the dollar (actually it was in our favour) which was a relief to us.

Once we finally got to handover day, walking through our new home was exciting. The workmanship of the home is excellent and we have since had many trades comment on how straight the walls, slabs and the quality of the paintwork etc are. We have had many people comment on the how well the different materials used looks. We wanted something different and we got exactly what we asked for. Couldn't be happier.

Would we recommend Gallery Living? You bet we would, in fact because of this positive experience we are already considering another build. Thanks to Jade, Jon and the team at Gallery for bringing our home to life.

We were seeking a custom floor plan and sick of other builders not being flexible with design.
Then we found Gallery Living.
We are so happy with our beautiful home. It was designed with to be eco-friendly, with function, the environment and style a top priority.
Our floor plan has such a natural flow to our home, all who visit compliment how accessible it is.
If you want to stand out from the crowd and are after a truly unique home, we recommend Gallery Living.
Our street is full of black bricked, black roofed houses - we stand out with a neutral palette, individualized style and architectural features you will find standard in all Gallery Living homes.

After visiting many companies to look for the right builder, we chose Gallery on many factors. Firstly, it's different! After a while a lot of homes start to look the same, Gallery do not. We loved the finishes, very good quality as standard, the design and the consultant! (Not pushy but helpful)
We wanted a specific design in mind for our build and our consultant Russell, listened and made suggestions the enhanced our ideas. The end result is a home that feels spacious, easy to live in and meets all our needs as a family.
We had a lot of ums and ahhs about certain aspects, and Russell was patience and considerate to helping us decide.
We love our new home and the smooth journey to get it. Thanks Russell and team.

This was our second time around building with Gallery Living (have already reviewed the first build). When we decided to build again we went straight to Gallery Living based on the strength of our first build. We had [name removed] at the Aldinga display village as our sales consultant and she was outstanding. If I was reviewing her service it would be 5 stars. She had a good design eye, was efficient, communicated clearly and the initial stages went very smoothly. Unfortunately, once [name removed] left the process we found things a lot more frustrating. The council process went really quickly (thankfully) but it then took Gallery Living quite some time to start. The communication with both the office and site staff was very inconsistent and, at times, quite unacceptable. Once the build did finally get going, the actual build time wasn't too bad. However, having now been in the place for a year, we're finding the quality not nearly as good as our first build. Some examples of this include several walls noticeably not square, poorly hung doors and external cladding that is roughly finished in several spots. The site supervisor was obviously very good, but he just wasn't involved to the same extent (too busy) as the supervisor first time around was, which has no doubt had an impact on the final product. I sent detailed feedback at the end of our build, which the general manager did reply to (for which I am grateful). Sadly though, while we love the design and functionality of the Gallery Living brand, I don't think we would use them again, unless several aspects of the current experience were improved.

Our first contact with Gallery Living was to view their PICASSO 235 design at Aldinga Beach, and immediately liked what we saw. From our first meeting with Sales Manager, Russell Slater, we knew that this was the house we wanted built for us. Russell was extremely helpful assisting us with our many alterations and additions to the basic design. Once all the plans had been council approved GL quickly got on to the building of the house. We were told the average build time was 24 weeks and that is how it turned out. Site Manager, Zenon, was the perfect man in this regard. He kept us fully informed by way of weekly updates and photo's of the progress achieved. We found him to be a man of his word, and his attention to the details of the workmanship to be exemplary.
We have now lived in the house for over 2 months and we are extremely happy with the quality of the building and end product.
Accordingly, we rate Gallery Living highly.

The GL designs are certainly what lured us in and we are happy with the main rooms which do offer fantastic views through the large spec windows & we appreciate the high ceilings and open plan. However the amount of things wrong & we've had to fix in just 6 years outweighs the positives. The main problem is the lack of quality. Everything is so cheaply made & yet it wasn't a cheap house compared to others so paying for an 'architecturally' designed home made the overall price too expensive for what we now have.
List of problems include, showers leak, soap holders & taps are already falling out of the walls. Doors do not close, the space for the fridge is only big enough for a small fridge, toilet is so small you have to squeeze passed the door to get in, laundry is small (our mistake for missing these things). Bathroom tiles & walls were left with spatters of yellow substance we are still trying to remove, the paint coverage was awful it didn't even look like it had been painted at all, definitely watered down! The skirting boards are already falling apart being just MDF (like cardboard). Outside window frames have these plastic pieces on them that have warped and fallen off (been replace and same thing happened). The window wind out brackets are getting stuck in places. Outside wall panels are popping nails out, I really don't think these things should be happening with a 6 year old house.
The customer service wasn't really there either, you rarely could get to talk to anyone once the contract is signed. The selection process was a shock, they had minimal selections and if you wanted anything outside their range it would add to the cost.
We've tried our best to make our home as beautiful as it can be with the positive attributes it does have. Overall we're really disappointed & would be looking at other builders next time. If you choose GL do your homework & check everything!

After visiting what seemed every display village in Adelaide we found Chris and selected gallery living. Chris was great in ideas and alterations to the standard design to make it into our house for our way of living. Build went very smooth Jon was great supervisor. Everything was finished to high standard and works great. A great builder and something different to the standard brick

We have just built with GL in early 2016. Unfortunately it was the most horrible stressful experience. The main problems we had with GL were 1. The horrible customer service, they treated us so badly it was disgraceful. Office staff would not return phone calls, rude and condescending emails, refusing to acknowledge errors in our build. 2. Everything in their office moves very slowly. Administration happens slowly, quotes come back slowly, their trades move slowly (the roofer took 3 weeks to complete our roof, our neighbours all had their roofs put on in 2 days), we had torrential summer rains with no roof capping and all the electrical work inside had been done! 3. They have no conflict resolution skills! Our kitchen bench was put in wrong. It took 5 weeks of back and forward before we managed to get them to supply us with what was in our contract. It was 5 weeks of constant stress and was only resolved when we told them our only recourse left was to lodge a dispute with Consumer Business affairs. 4. They have the worst selections process and selection staff. Most of our problems came back to errors made by GL selection staff in our selections, for example letting us select a bathroom bench top in a matt finish, in a laminate that only comes in a high gloss finish. Things that trained selection staff should know. Then due to all the small errors that they made, we had to drop everything to run around town to fix their errors. This happened to us 4 times. All their errors created more phone calls, more paperwork and more running around for us.

By the time our build was finished we were so frustrated, furious and stressed, they managed to suck all the excitement and joy out of building a new home for us. If you don't mind constant paperwork, emails, phone calls and constant stress dealing with their staff then you will get a lovely house out of GL

The shining light at GL is [name removed]. She spent hours tweaking our house design to have all the features that we wanted. She was the reason we decided to build with GL and the only person at GL that went out of her way to try and help us to resolve the issues we were constantly having. She has fabulous out of the box ideas. Our site supervisor [name removed] was also very good, he always returned our phone calls but I felt his hands were tied by the GL managers as to what he could do to actually resolve our issues.

Would we build with them again, never ever, nor would we recommend them to anyone.

As this was the first time that I had built a home I was repeatedly told by others how stressful it would be. I did not find this the case at all, in fact quite the opposite. While I initially found the Gallery Living floor plan that ticked all my boxes the overall floor area was too big for my needs, as I was downsizing. Bronywn was able to reduce the overall floor area while retaining all the features that I loved in the original design. Thank you Bronwyn! During the build John, the Site Supervisor, responded promptly to all my calls and it was a pleasure watching it all come together. I now have a lovely, north facing, light filled, energy efficient home, that looks a little bit different to the others in the street. My Gallery Living home has exceeded all my expectations. I love it!

From the first time visiting Bronwyn in the display home, Gallery Living really showed attention to detail bringing our vision to a reality. We chose Gallery as the Picasso matched the basic layout we were after for our North facing block.
Working with Bronwyn through many iterations to get the plan just right to our requirements was nothing short of a pleasure. Bronwyn's enthusiasm for house design really showed and her advice was invaluable in providing us with an energy efficient, comfortable and practical house. We are absolutely ecstatic with the result and love our new house that feels more like a lavish hotel than a house.
Reality is that no build is without its issues and ours was no different. However, you can't tell how good a company is until they deal with a problem. Whilst Andrew was sometimes hard to contact (usually a couple of days), we always had practical discussions around any issues and came to good resolutions that left us satisfied. I strongly suggest with any build that you are visiting site on a regular basis to ensure you pick up issues as they are occurring rather than a longer defect list at the end.
We are very happy with the result, the quality of workmanship is very good and the few minor defects that we reported have been resolved in a timely manner.
I would certainly engage Gallery Living, and in particular Bronwyn, to conduct another design and build for us. It certainly won't be for a replacement residence for us as we love this one too much, but we will certainly be working on a sub-division with them.

Throughout the whole process from kicking tyres to finished product the professionalism and communications of the staff never faltered. Our home is now built and we moved in two weeks ago and we could not be happier.
Having lived on site for the entirety of the build, we know the attention to detail that the tradies put in. The work of our site manager to keep things moving along and on track even through some severe weather events shows his desire to see good outcomes for the home owners.
The last few bits and pieces are being fixed fixed up now (one door sticks) but even after the final cheque has been paid the customer service continues.
For the money conscious, we received multiple credits along the way and ended up several thousand under budget.
My word of advice for building a house with Gallery Living (or anyone really)- set realistic expectations and communication works two ways.
Thanks to Russell and Andrew.

We have made the difficult decision to remove our previous 5 star review, as we feel it no longer represents the company and building experience as a whole. The planning stage was definitely top notch, but once the build began, the service, quality and communication all went downhill considerably.

It's now the slowest build of four in the street, and also the poorest quality. However, the lack of communication from the site manager is the most disappointing part.

We will wait until the build is finished before we rewrite a proper review.

They've build the house well except few minor things that were not satisfactory but the footpath alone my block was destroyed ; cracked and pieces were missing where plumbing pipes were laid. When I asked to fix it, as the council demanded, Gallery living didn't want to hear about it. I've contacted them multiple times and sent pictures of the footpath that council build and the damage they caused, it was fairly obvious that Gallery Living was reluctant to do anything about it, even though I provided pictures if the missing piece of the path which was a hazard for pedestrians.

I could not find what I wanted, where I wanted, so I decided to build another house, you would of thought I had enough of that after the my earlier experiences building. So off we went around to the display homes looking for ideas and a builder.

The first builder was too expensive, the second was too cheap and nasty, but Gallery Living was just right (sounds like a fairy tale).

Seriously we went to one builder where the salesman told us how good he was and that he could design anything for us and he would call us next week, well we are still waiting for the phone call. Their name ends in [name removed]. Then there was a another company with a Japanese name that took 4 months to get back to us and the best they could do is send me an email. Given the amount of money a house costs you would think they would give you more than an email, but no. maybe that is why they are no longer building homes in Adelaide.

But it wasn't all a nightmare and this story does have a happy ending, we discovered Gallery Living and Bronwyn Aldridge. Gallery Living was different from the moment that we walked into the display home, the sales rep Bronwyn Aldridge was on our wavelength right away, she listened to us and worked with our request to come up with a design that worked, and if she didn't know she just said so and found out nothing was to much effort.

Then there was Russell, smart and knowledgeable about all the eco aspects of the housing which was important to me. Andrew the building supervisor was just superb very quiet but on the ball and always near by keeping an eye on the house. The tradies were all friendly, polite and hard working, and every single one of them kept the site absolutely clean. The final product is amazing a simply stunning house, a truly unique and beautiful home that both stands out and blends into the surrounding area at the same time. This company did not just take your money and walk away they were there all the time from start to finish.

If you want a truly wonderful home and superb building experience then Gallery Living is a company you should seriously take a look at. If you want someone who will take time and listen to you then you should talk to Bronwyn Aldridge if she can't fix your problem there and then then give her a couple of days she will sort it out for you.

I'm loving my Gallery Living Home, design, look standards and comfort.

Thank so much Gallery Living and Bronwyn for this house.

Building with you guys was so much fun.

My husband and I bought a small land at Lightsview individually and our architect introduced us to build the house with Gallery Living. Once we signed the contract, the nightmare began……

- Contract signed on 6th August 2013 but construction just started in June 2014. They took almost a year to prepare our stuff. And of course, the construction hasn’t finished yet. So here are the processes we have been through…..
- After contract signed, we were offered a colour selection in September 2013. (Well, they did start doing on our project which was great!!) But the selection finalized in October 2013, took a month to do that because there were some issues to confirm.
- After colour selection, we were not contacted for any updates until we received an email from one of their Admin – [name removed] in January 2014. The email was regarding some amendment for getting encumbrance approval. (Wow, 3 months after they were still working on some sort of approvals…Hmm, I should understand that there is nobody working during Christmas and New Year holiday….)

- We had been contacted with [name removed] via email for almost ONE month and it was all about amendment on encumbrance approval. But then we lost contact for 3 weeks because she went on leave and another Admin – [name removed] took over our project. She sent us an email 3 weeks after…..and still she was following up the issues of encumbrance approval.
- In March 2013, good news!!! Someone else from Admin – [name removed] send us an email telling us encumbrance plans was approved by Lightsview and was sent to Council. (We really don’t know why it would take 3 months to finalize encumbrance plans….the wait was a nightmare…..)
- During these 3 months, we received couples of variations which increased the building cost a lot. We also didn’t know who to contact as they kept changing contact persons especially from Admin. We complained via email and also spoke with the manager…All we wanted was just to build our house ASAP.

- 1st May 2014, they got Planning Approval received. Thank God!
- 9th May 2014, Building Approval received!
- 20th May 2014, Development Approval received! (This was the only month we felt the efficiency which we wanted to see as a customer.)

- 10th June 2014, construction documents were issued to our site supervisor - Andrew.
- There is another nightmare begin…As our land had been vacant for almost 1 year due to the wait for all the preparation done by Gallery Living, our neighbors on both sides already finished building their houses. Originally, our land was beautifully flattened by Lightsview when we bought it. But we knew there were heaps grass and soil left over by the neighbours after a year, so we asked Andrew if we needed to clear up the land by our own. We also quoted an amount from private soil removal company in case they needed us to do that asap. However, he said they couldn’t wait, they had to start so that it wouldn’t behind the schedule. They cleared up already and said it’s included in our building contract. We ended up getting charged for $3XXX, a double of the original sum that we signed on the initial contract…..I would say if they let us do by our own, it will just cost us approx. $1000 as we quoted from the company.

- We didn’t pay the 2nd invoice before we meet their Finance Manager to talk about this issue. He told us there were two provisional sums needed to be confirmed with our site supervisor who was on leave. They needed to wait for one more week. We asked if it will affect the construction progress as we didn’t pay the invoice by due date. He said not to worry about rushing for payment. Ok fine, then we waited two more weeks for his response. We also checked our site every week but we couldn’t see any progress which we assumed that they didn’t work there for already 3 weeks now…….They delayed our new house again……very speechless….

- From Aug 2013 til now Sept 2014, we still don’t have our new house finished. Needless to say, they won’t get it done before the end of 2014. We are really upset and fed up with this builder. We will never come back to this company and never ever recommend it to all my friends and everyone out there. We wanna end this nightmare asap……
- As the house hasn’t finished building, I cannot comment on the quality of their materials and house condition. But I will definitely post a review here again after it’s done. We are expecting a very impressive, stunning and beautiful house because it has been prepared for more than a year!!(woo-ho~) If it is not, my review will be much longer than this one. I give it 2-star in this review as I may vote a lower/higher rate in the future one after my house is finished. Who knows….

We moved into our GL home (our first home no less!) about 2 years ago now but are still enjoying and excited with our house. Our block was 14m wide across the front narrowing down to 8m at the back but very long, so we couldn't really use an "off the shelf" plan. But our salesperson was excellent and tailored a plan to our site and needs. We were really impressed by her honesty and thoughtfulness in suggesting design elements we hadn't even thought of but now love. We went through the the same process simultaneously with another popular (brick) home builder but kept coming back to the GL design; the combination of Hebel, Colourbond and other cladding materials, along with the use of lots of really well placed windows, made for such a light, airy but very energy efficient house. The building process itself was smooth and only took around 5 months start to finish (Christmas extended this timeframe somewhat). Our site supervisor, Jim, was also very helpful and was happy to arrange people even to come back and fix niggly little things well after we'd moved in. But in the time we've now been in the house we really haven't had anything go amiss at all. There were no major issues with GL in the process but we did find a few things a little frustrating along the way. We felt the whole selections process was a little basic and "unprofessional" compared to some friends' experiences with their building companies (in terms of the quality, flexibility and thought/planning of the process). We also found the council approval stage a little frustrating; we were prepared for the length of time but found the lady who managed the approvals at GL a little defensive and lacking in communication (I think she felt we were criticising her when we were actually just wanting an update). These are small things though and overall we are very happy with our whole build process with GL and our house now is everything we wanted!
Great designs, helpful sales staff and building supervisor, very competitive on price.
Slightly frustrating selections process aside, nothing really!

Like many other reviewers of Gallery Living we found our building experience to be trouble free and very enjoyable. The only issue we had was building through a very wet winter but even that was managed extremely well by the site supervisor Andrew Obst and the various trades.

After six months living in our new home, which is a variation of the Monet, I am still amazed that we were able to fit such a spacious energy efficient home on a courtyard block.

Having built and renovated a number of times over the years we knew what we wanted in a new home. The process was made so much easier working with Russell Slater on our design. As mentioned by others Russell had the ability to interpret our requirements for the plan and improve on our suggestions, always with patience and an obvious desire to deliver exactly what we wanted.

We found the various contractors working on the job to be very professional, communicative and pleasant to deal with and the end result is a very attractive energy efficient home.

In fact we are so pleased with this project we are now consulting with Russell to build another home for our retirement. We have every confidence that we will again be delighted with the home built by Gallery Living.

Apart from the changes we will make to suit a different block of land, there are not too many things we will do differently in this build. The only slight disappointment was the quality of the interior painting and I will therefore upgrade to a more durable quality paint.

Apart from that, I would highly recommend Gallery Living to anybody who is wanting to build an energy efficient home with many interesting features, for no more cost than that with a standard building company.

Special thanks to Russell and everybody else who contributed to our most enjoyable building experience.
Energy efficient, great use of space
Interior paint not quite up to standard

Gallery Living were chosen on the basis of the Picasso floor plan. Unlike most other plans, the Picasso allowed for a long thin house. My house had a long gestation period which was entirely my fault for spending too much time researching all the options. Interestingly after looking at all kinds of variations, materials, design details etc in most circumstances those of the GL team were the ones I chose as they proved to have done their research well.

I am pleased with the house. Its layout works well and its visually quite striking. One aspect I'm particularly pleased with is the passive floor heating. I have a polished concrete floor in the large open plan area. The house is north facing on a large 10 acre plot. Currently there is not external shading (although a large deck and pagoda are planned) and no internal blinds. The plan was that in winter, fall and spring the lower sun would come through the large windows and heat the slab and as the temperature cools release the slab's retained heat. It works very very well and is like having free heating. In summer the high north sun is blocked by the roof overhangs (which do not look large enough to succeed) and stop the sun from entering the building. It works well.

To get the perfect mistake free house I think one has to go through the process a number of times. I'm pleased with GL although obviously there are negatives. Many, or in deed most of the drawbacks are no doubt uniform across the entire building services industry. The selections process is truly ridiculous and appears more concerned with irrelevant 'pretty things' that any sensible person can predict rather than being shown issues with the build / spec process that you may have ignored or simply not thought of. The build time, although within the standard contract specs, seemed quite long or rather there appeared to be a lot of no show days where the site was dead. I can't remember the build time but I do remember thinking if contractors turned up 5 days a week stage after stage then the house would have been completed in under 3 months (excl planning application). Contractors make their money by getting things done quickly and this shows in some of the construction and mistakes were made - again this is not just GL but is probably applicable to all builders.

On the up side, most mistakes were rectified prior to moving in or within a couple of months. Back up service from GL and its contractors (particularly A&L Windows) has been very good. This was quite a surprise as once the final stage payment is made you as a client have no clout. Aside from the Picasso design, GL's other star is Russell Slater. A patient man with product, build and construction knowledge above and beyond his sales role.

I set out to build a bright, light and modern family home in a beautiful landscape and GL allowed me to achieve this goal within the time and budget specified - what else can one ask for?

I had a small block but was still looking for somethig different. I really liked the look of the Gallery Living homes and with [name removed] help i was able to get a 4 bedroom home with 2 living areas on a small block. He suggested to add some colourbond panels to break up the long sides of the house and i was very pleased with the outcome having Hebel, cladding and colourbond on the exterior walls, so i have ended up with a house that stands out and looks great. The building process went very well, [name removed] the supervisor was great and kept me up to date at all times and the house was finished weeks ahead of the orgininal hand over date. There was only some minor things to fix after hand over so over all i am very happy with the whole process and the cost came in under what i had budgeted for. A great home to live in..