Author Archives: Annette Southwood

So you’re thinking about building a custom home? No doubt there are many ideas running through your head; particularly, how you can achieve a balance of style and quality, while staying within your budget.

To get you on the right path, Midland Brick at down with Glenn Stannard, Managing Director of the Stannard Group – one of Perth’s best custom home builders for over 50 years – to get his top 5 tips for your 2018 custom home building journey.

1. Personalised Design

Design your home to enhance your lifestyle, not limit it, and remember – good design doesn’t just look good. It must combine functionality and aesthetics and most of all Feel Like Home.

2. Timeless Style

The emphasis should be on designing a home that is ageless, with a style that says ‘quality’. Your home needs to keep its looks and hold its value for years to come, and a well-designed home should sit comfortably within its surrounds.

3. Quality Product and Construction

All homes are definitely not created equal – while budgets are an important consideration, don’t just be swayed by the lowest price. Also, make sure you take the time to critically review the plans, check all details and ask any questions you need to.

4. Energy Efficiency

A 6-star energy efficiency rating is now the industry standard, so it shouldn’t come at a higher price or as a premium add-on.

5. Contract Clarity

Make sure you understand your commitments, and those of your builder. No question is silly when it comes to your custom home!

Want to know more? Read on below.The differences that make the difference

Personalised Design
If you’re building a custom home, it should be built for life and designed for living. As personalised design isn’t just about aesthetics – but also how it makes you feel – you should expect to have your builder fully understand you and your family’s lifestyles. This means you’ll need to communicate your wants and wishes early on in the discussions.

Glenn says that working with a builder who has years of experience will bring a depth of knowledge and peace-of-mind to the planning process.

“An experienced custom home builder will have an understanding of how to facilitate a relationship that encourages open communication and bringing fresh, new ideas to the table. This in turn helps them to design you a custom home that exceeds your expectations.”

So, what is Glenn’s top custom home design tip?

“Don’t forget – good design doesn’t just finish with the handover of the keys. It carries through to furniture selection and interior styling, which a good custom home builder will offer, and goes right down to where to hang your favourite artwork.”

Timeless Style

The emphasis should be on designing a home that is ageless, with a style that says ‘quality’, without focusing too much on current trends. Your home needs to keep its looks and hold its value for years to come, and a well-designed home should sit comfortably within its surrounds – and compliment them.

Glenn spoke about the emphasis the Stannard Group place on size and scale when designing a custom home.

“We ensure all our homes have a real sense of presence from the moment you walk in. Space and lighting are incredibly important elements to factor in when it comes to the feel, flow and comfort of each custom home, and we consider these carefully in each design.”

Another important style consideration is also one of the most often overlooked: landscaping! Glenn says landscape design can truly be a make-or-break component of custom home build.

“Ever wondered why display homes look so good? A knowledgeable custom home builder will appreciate that landscaping can have a truly amazing effect on the finish of your home, and will advise you to factor in landscape design to your custom home planning.”

Quality Product and Construction

Tempted by builder promotions offering big discounts and bonus inclusions? Glenn says that, as the old adage goes: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

“With those “too-good-to-be-true” discounts, you’ll likely be sacrificing something – or somewhere – in the build, so the builder can maintain their margins. Otherwise, it will be built into the price, so you’re paying for it anyway.”

It’s also important to remember that all homes are definitely not created equal. While budgets are an important consideration, don’t just be swayed by the lowest price at the expense of quality. Glenn’s recommendation?

“Choose a builder that prides themselves on quality and client satisfaction. If or when something goes wrong, you’ll be glad you didn’t pick the builder with the far cheaper quote.”

To ensure you really do get the custom home of your dreams, make sure you take the time to calmly and methodically look over and review the plans with your builder. Check all the details, ask questions and assess the building methods. Time spent with you at this point of the process is a sign of a good builder. There should be just as much time spent on good planning as there is in the actual building of the home.

As an example of quality construction, Glenn said that the Stannard Group always build in full double clay brick in all double-storey homes.

“While there are numerous construction alternatives available, any premium home builder worth their salt in Perth will tell you that double-brick construction is superior in its quality and affordability. Generally speaking, the savings made from alternative methods are only reflected in a small amount of time saved for the builder, not the home owner. Don’t be talked into settling for less.”

Glenn Stannard highlighted that the Stannard Group has found over an extensive period that the consistency and quality of Midland Brick products has been exceptional.

“We choose product not on who is the cheapest, but on the quality of the product, the value for our clients and the service of the group to back up their product over and over. We work on long term commitments, and this is why we have worked with Midland Brick for 54 years now and counting.”

Energy Efficiency

If you’re building in 2018, you’ll want to know that your home is designed and built in a way that will keep running costs to an absolute minimum. The minimum energy efficiency standard for all new homes built in Western Australia is a 6-star rating; put into context, Glenn says a 6-star rated house can be cooled or heated using 20-25% less energy than a lower-rated 5-star home.

“While energy efficient building designs and technologies once used to be considered a luxury, they are becoming much more accessible. As a 6-star energy efficiency rating is now the industry standard, it shouldn’t come at a higher price or as a premium add-on.”

Glenn also says to make sure your builder is talking to you about standard technology inclusions, and the ability to integrate with new technologies down the track.

“If you choose to include solar panels for instance, you’ll want to make sure the inverter can be adapted to integrate with battery technology, which is progressing incredibly quickly and is only becoming more cost-effective. A little forward planning now can make a big difference in the cost of integrating new technologies when they’re more accessible in the future.”

Contract Clarity

Whether you’re building your first home or your third, you’ll know it can sometimes be a stressful experience, what with managing payments, finalising designs, keeping up to date with progress, starting to plan the packing, moving and unpacking process… all while you’re leading a busy working life. For a whole number of reasons, things can be delayed or issues can arise for both builder and client.

Glenn says that it is important to know that a good builder doesn’t hide behind their contracts or use them as a shield. At the end of it all, it is about building a home for families and respecting the incredible value in the relationship with their clients, and safe guarding them.

“Contracts are a necessity for joint security in the journey you and your builder are about to undertake, so you’ll want to be working with a builder who takes the time to help you and understand the commitments you are both making. It’s imperative you take your time and ask all the questions you need, so you have absolute clarity about your obligations – and those of your builder. No question is a silly question, especially when it comes to your custom home.”

For over 54 years, Peter Stannard has been building homes for Perth families; in fact, the group has built over 4,000 of them!

Founded in 1964 by Peter, who with son Glenn still runs the company, The Stannard Group is a thriving next-generation family business that is acknowledged as Perth’s longest operating family building group. This longevity and success can be attributed to four main principles; integrity, professionalism, a passion for building and, most importantly, an understanding what their clients really want.

These values, together with more building experience than most, have created a business that is unique in many respects. Close relationships developed with customers and their families see many return to build again – even generations apart. And the working environment that Peter and Glenn have with their staff, many who have been working together for decades, creates an understanding and stability that brings many advantages to the business, and ultimately, their clients.

At Stannard Group, there always seems to be something fun going on. Whether its changes to our website, creating fun TV advertisements or new display homes opening, each month always brings something new. This month we were excited to be involved in the behind-the-scenes action of ‘Fresh TV.’

For an upcoming episode of Channel 7’s ‘Fresh TV,’ a couple of Stannard Group homes were used as set locations. The Stunning ‘Aria’ home in Alfred Cove as well as ‘The View’ in Woodlands were both used as the settings for a number of ‘Fresh’ TV’s segments.

Fresh TV is a Western Australian produced lifestyle television show that airs weekly. They work to provide their viewers with the latest in food, reviews and “all the ideas you need to get inspired.” Episodes air each Saturday at 5:30PM on Channel 7.

I am not sure about you, but we love the look of a Stannard home on the “Silver Screen.” Feel free to watch the episode below and enjoy the settings.