Ken Browne & Selene Nikora

Otago

As a professional couple with no building experience we have now designed and built 3 homes in the South Island - twice with different building companies and once with a private builder. In our experience, living in a house that makes you happy is dependent on having a realistic budget and choosing a good builder. You want a building company who listen, investigate options, give honest feedback and have the knowledge and experience to build your house to the best possible standard.

Having a project manager makes it much easier! There are so many details that you have to live with and toward the end (in our case Ken was overseas for the last 2 months) it's easy to give up and go with whatever the builder recommends. This time we wanted to ensure even small decisions were discussed with us. Nicky Fowler was usually available to see us at short notice or by phone (despite having other projects on the go). The building team worked tirelessly to ensure everything went to plan. We had investigated specific features we wanted incorporated and were pleased to find out
Nicky had also investigated our proposals, sought professional advice, gave valuable feedback and options to ensure we made informed choices and got the best quality our budget allowed (and usually trade discount). The stylish range of standard products Fowler offer are quality brands.

One of the first points of difference was that the plans were ours to price with other companies. Having spent so much time perfecting them we didn't want to go through this with each company.

The Masterbuild Guarantee and progress payments ensured we paid once the work was complete. We were welcome to visit the site (which we did on a daily basis). Receipts were available on request and business processes appeared transparent. All of which were important to us given we were building during a recession where 2 reputable companies we priced with closed and we had experienced 'unusual building practices' in the past.

We would recommend Dunedin K Fowler Homes. Their combined knowledge, experience, value for money and care was much appreciated.