Living the dream on the Gold Coast! – I wrote a review last year at the pre-build stage about why we picked Stroud and how their contract process and inclusive price was perfect for us, and now I’m delighted to submit a review at the post-build stage! Stroud built our single storey 5 bedroom home within the 16 week promised build time which was fantastic. We loved the weekly updates sent through as recordings on Voxer, sometimes with images showing the progress that had occurred during the week. It quickly became a Friday afternoon family get-together as we eagerly listened to the latest news on our build. We also used this medium to communicate whenever we had a question, which was quickly responded to.

Our site supervisor changed mid-build but this had little impact overall. Geraldine, at the office in Burleigh Heads, is amazing. She makes me smile every time I interact with her, and her ability to problem solve is second to none! The house build went smoothly in the main. There were a couple of issues that needed to be addressed, but these were handled professionally and resolved to our satisfaction. One of these was the zero boundary garage wall which held up the issuance of the Form 21, and we did have to follow this one up several times. Thankfully we have a wonderful neighbour, as it was her side that was impacted more than ours! Another was a water system we personally purchased (with chilled, sparkling and ambient water) and paid Stroud to install. There were a variety of issues with this getting finalised, which ended up being the most protracted issue of our entire build, but all good now - Geraldine to the rescue again!

The workmanship in our house is excellent and it looks fantastic. The floor plan is the main reason we picked the Bellmere 268 and with a few tweaks pre-build (like customising our butler’s pantry), it is perfect for us. The contract price agreed at sign-off was a firm price. The only additional costs were some variations we asked for along the way (for example additional electrical, cabinetry, front door glazing and handle, etc. that were not part of the original contract).

What would we do differently if we were starting the process again today? 1. Upgrade the dishwasher. We didn’t, and have since replaced it with an black steel Asko which thankfully looks inbuilt! 2. Check before they install what the included security sliding doors look like. We didn’t and disliked them, the diamond patterned screens did not fit with our streamlined vision and was the first thing we replaced after we moved in. 3. Upgrade to a bigger Alfresco ceiling fan. 4. (This is a personal preference) Ask for the ceiling fan in the Master to come with a remote ... nothing worse than having to get out of bed to turn on/off the fan in the middle of the night)! 5. Get them to quote storage cabinetry in your garage if you want it, I only thought about it nearing the end of the build time. Luckily we were able to contact the cabinet maker direct and get it designed and installed (at a reasonable cost) on the day of our handover.

And the big important question ... would we build with Stroud again? Absolutely!