BELLHAVEN HOUSE REVIEW FOR PETER JONES CONSTRUCTIONS
We made contact with Peter Jones when we were trying to find another builder for our new house at Bellthorpe. We’d worked with a couple of builder/ designers and even an architect, but didn’t proceed with them due to problems with cost or direction. So our plans were fairly advanced when a bloke in the industry put us onto Peter, saying that he knew various people who’d had houses done by him and they were all happy and had referred other work to him.
Straight away, Peter found ways to save money on our “plans” by using alternative methods, and had lots of ideas on ways to do things. It was obvious that he really knew what he was doing. In the planning phase he was very clear and we knew exactly where we were. We had to go to Peter’s place at various times to meet, discuss the progress and sign forms etc but it was always well worth the trip as he was able to show us options using his own house as an example, plus photos and brochures etc. We’d spent months researching various things in great detail but found that we could have skipped a lot of it as Peter had done this so much, he had a lot of the options and issues already sorted. He has well tried system of suppliers and consultants that dovetail together to make the process seamless.
Things went into a holding pattern when we had to deal with some town planning/ council issues, but the moment we got council approval, construction started pretty much straight away! It really moved along fast.
I have to make it clear that we’re writing this review completely voluntarily with no incentives, just in case you have doubts … because we honestly don’t have anything negative to say about our experience! We feel very lucky to have had Peter and his crew for our house build. After all the horror stories we’d heard about budget and schedule blowouts and all sorts of unexpected dramas, we just didn’t have to deal with any of that – the process was enjoyable and fun to be honest and we feel like we had a dream run.
Peter seems to have a strong personal pride in his work and in proactively finding ways to avoid anyone being unhappy with the results. It’s not about just making profit – he wears the quality of his work as a badge of honour. His tradesmen were great guys who were a pleasure to have around, and he visited the site almost every single day of the build to check progress and resolve any issues. It’s amazing the little things he picked up and straightened out.
When something needed to be resolved or decided, Peter would visit us and talk through the options very clearly and in detail, and was able to give costing comparisons quickly. It helped massively and we are very thankful that at times when we couldn’t really understand or visualize the outcomes, we were steered towards decisions that worked out great.
We had some very specific practical requirements which weren’t the usual run-of-the mill build, some of which were quite tricky, but he revelled in the challenge, and did a lot of extra work to find ways to get the result we needed. And although they were probably a nuisance to him, he also indulged our whims to create some unusual personalized details and was clearly happy to get them right.
Peter’s quote was definitely very competitive but he is never going to be the cheapest because he insists on using stuff that he knows works well. There are ways of doing things, or fixtures and fittings that are cheaper but he refuses to use them because he doesn’t trust them. Honestly it’s well worth it.
We couldn’t be happier with the finished product. We’ve never had a house built before and at the end of the process we knew we’d got just what we wanted for good value.
After the house was finished there were inevitably little bugs to be sorted out. As soon as we called up about something, Peter dropped everything and was onto it, or got the relevant tradie up here to sort it out ASAP. The after sales service is great and to this day (2 yrs later) I know I can still text Peter for advice and he gladly gives it.
As already said, we feel blessed and thankful to have found Peter Jones and chosen him to build our house. We love the house – it “works” for us in all the ways we’d hoped and we’re still pinching ourselves that we live here. Honestly if we had to build again we’d be onto him again like a shot and I’d recommend him to anyone else.
