Hey everyone!
Seeing as we have been told we will be starting to build next week I thought I might start a thread of our own. It has been a long and rocky road getting to where we are now. From initially being told (after picking all the colours, signing all the contracts) we couldn't build this home because the garage was set back too far, to working with H3nley on making non standard mods (thank you, thank you, thank you for finally agreeing to do it!), having to sign everything again etc. we have arrived at last at the best bit of the whole process- actually starting

Here's our floorplan:
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It's a Mink facade, which is like this but we are having face brick, no render.
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Boral Kurrajong bricks:
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Front doors like this (not that you can see them from the street )
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And a kitchen sort of like this (but splashback much greyer)
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Anyway, I swear on the life of my kitty that I will regularly update this thread, as others have been so kind to share their experiences with us

Love it, can't wait till you start your build!
Good luck!

Ahh was waiting for this thread! Good luck with your build and look forward to seeing the progress!

Great to see more people building with H3nley! Not that we're anywhere near building yet - but we've decided on a modified Barclay also in Doreen! Will be great to follow your progess!!

Best of Luck!!!

The Barclay is beautiful. How nice is the display one in Mernda??! I think a lot of the reason it looks so beautiful is that there are lots of windows in the living areas and it lets in the light perfectly. Great design.

Thanks for your kind wishes CinNy I go past your place every time I drive to my brother's house. It looks great

I heard this afternoon that our next door neighbour has signed contracts and ordering is to be done tomorrow, so that's the only thing stopping us from starting. (Henley wants to excavate us at the same time).

Good luck on your build.

We are also building the Voyag3r 383 but in Point Cook.

We have had our colour appointment, and now waiting for soil tests so we can go to tender.

Keep us posted on how you go.

Dave

Hey DL! It' so nice to (well virtually anyway) meet you
You are the first person we have met building the same home! Which facade/options have you picked? Hopefully ours turns out ok... As you can probably see, we had to mess around with the plan a bit. Fingers crossed it will still end up to be a nice home.
Good luck with your tender too. Looking forward to your thread!

Hey Felistopher,

There are a couple of Voyag3rs around where we are in point cook. But I have been keeping up to date with your posts on the variations you needed to make to meet estate guidlines... what a pain!!

I like your extended garage and the entry straight into the butlers pantry from the garage. Very nice. What are the dimensions of the gararge?

We have not had to go to such lengths yet, but early days... We chose the following options:
- grand alfresco;
- fifth bedroom option;
- study plus grand living and grand dining; and
- butlers pantry.

Since we added a few options, I am yet to see a proper house plan and site plan yet, but should get that at the tender/contract appointments.

We did pinch your idea about the extra linen closets near the bedrooms at the rear of the house, and have added that variation to ours (such a fantastic idea!! Place for toys and kids linen - brilliant). We also added an converted a WIR in one of the bedrooms into an additional linen in the laundry and then added another WIR to the bedroom just for the extra storage (on the fifth bedroom option). We also moved the location of the washine machine and trough to make room for the extra linen.

We changed our facade choice to the studio facade (part render) in the colour appointment. We chose the Boral Hawthorn bricks, they looked so nice on the house nearby that has them, that we did not want to render too much, but have to do some render for estate guidelines...

The only think that worries me about our design is there are two toilets, one right at the back near the kids rooms, and the other in the ensuite. It would be good if there was a way to add a powder room somewhere near the living areas in case we decide to start throwing parties....

Looking forward to seeing progress on our voyag3rs... Will start up a thread once we get moving.

DL

WOW I really like your plans - especially love the kids retreat with their bedrooms branching off from it, nice one!!

Thanks Caz! that's sweet of you.

Hey DL! We did a cheeky walk through a Voyager in the estate near us that had the fifth bedroom option and it looked/felt fabulous. I just dug out our other plans and found the garage is 6.82m wide and 6.6m deep (that's their 'double plus' garage option). I was so upset we had to change the plans at all because we both loved the Voyager 'as is' but the entry through the pantry helps me to see all the stuff arounds as a having a slightly positive outcome in the end
The other positive I can now see is that the space behind the garage can be used for tucking away water tank/s and the backyard can remain tank free with more space to play/entertain.

Your options sound wonderful- the grand living/dining just gives that bit of extra space without creating more separate rooms. If we could afford it, I'd have loved to do what you're doing!!
We thought about the toilet thing too to be honest; as we are both in our twenties, no kids as yet and like to have friends over for BBQs/entertaining etc (hence the grand alfresco!). But we came to the conclusion that it's not far at all for the guests to walk from alfresco straight through the sliding door into kids retreat and access the bathroom toilet that way. I think it mightbe a problem if you had the 'Home Theatre' option (which removes the 2nd sliding door from alfresco-kid's retreat) because you would have to walk the long way through the family area to the loo.

So excited for your build too Glad to have people to share the journey with!

Thats a good sized gararge! I am hoping to add this, but not sure that it will fit, or lot is 17m wide. Glad to hear you liked the 5th bedroom option. We have only 2 kids, and dont plan on anymore, but the extra room will be great, plus there is a bigger laundry.

We think the same about the toilet as well, but are insulating the internal walls around the bedrooms at the rear of the house just to be sure they are nice and quiet.

That space you have behind the gararge is great as well, perhaps you could get slimline tanks down the other side of the house, and free up that space for a nice outdoor spa for the two of you in the future (it would be nice and private!)

Caz is right about the kids retreat, we like that you can see it from the kitchen or the alfresco, so you can watch the kids whilst getting dinner ready or whilst enjoying a nice summer evening outside, should be quite functional.

Looking forward to hearing how well your build progresses in the near future... We wont start until later this year (or in Feb given the xmas break).

Good luck!

D-L you're a mind reader, I did actually already broach the spa/mini courtyard idea with my lovely other half... who shot it down in flames straight away with the comment 'No. Terrible!' (really imagine him spitting that 'T' out!) lol. I still think it would be a great use of the space and could so see me and my girlfriends out there for spa + champas . We will be having a slimline tank along the master bedroom side too, to water the front garden with. (We're car people, so lots of tank water is must)
Originally we had the triple garage option, which just fit on our 19m block... but as we've had to 'disconnect' the garage from the house and bring it forward Henl3y said we couldn't have the triple anymore- something about needing to support the disconnected slab properly being waaaay more expensive/retaining walls needed blah blah. So the triple was pruned off, much to other half's sadness. He'll get over it.

So glad we can share our Voyager journies

So on the weekend we trundled off to Beacon lighting and think we have picked what we would like in the master bedroom and WIR... but we'll sit on those choices for a couple of months to see if we still like them before making the purchases.
Tomorrow I'm making good use of my hols and doing the rest of the lighting legwork so that I don't have to drag dearest around to all of them. Thanks to this forum, I know where to go in my area- Creative Lighting (Eltham), Lighting Leaders (Epping), Home of Lights (Fairfield), Lighting World (Ringwood), Maroondah Lighting (Croydon). So hopefully by tomorrow I'll have a shortlist and will certainly be welcoming everyone's opinions

Glad to hear you get to something fun this week, please let us know how you go with the lighting stores, especially in Eltham. I had lighting on my to do list for this month, but now tripping all around Melbourne with two kids in tow is scary!

Good luck, and i hope you find what you are after
Em

Yay for starting a thread! Cant wait to follow your journey - please do update regularly Funny our estate guidelines differ... we had minimum set backs for the garage in MR... and yours was set back too far Look at the hoops these developers make us jump through!

Yeah I know right??! Out of all the estates in our area (MR, Laurimar, Eminence, The Ridge & C'sHill) ours is the ONLY one that has a stupid setback rule like that. All the others recognise that a garage set further back looks nicer and the street less crowded. Very bizarre.
I'll put up some light pics tomorrow and see what you think

Ohhh!! Nice to know about all these places. Lights is the next thing on my list so thanks for summarising!!! Look forward to seeing your selections!

Hi,

Long time reader, first time poster.
I have been reading these posts with interest lately and i thought it was time to actually contribute.
My partner and I have purchased a block in Cornell's Hill (Stage 2) and we have finally been informed that the block will title in 7 days.

We are signing our building contract Monday with Henley (Monterey 383) and were pretty anxious. We have been through a couple builders now particularly because we are on a significant slope but Henley have been fantastic and with a fair bit of convincing have agreed to build how we wanted on our block.

Just curious about your experiences with GEO (the design group particularly) and Henley?

Also congrats and good luck with your build....it's so exciting can't wait till we are at that stage

Yay Heff! Congrats on your Cornell's Hill purchase!!! Where abouts in Stage 2 are you? There is a Monterey going to built right next door to us on Cookes Rd, so you'll be able to follow that build too Both our Voyager and our neighbour's Monterey will be built simultaneously. If you want to know anything specific about GEO or Henley, fire away here or PM me. I'm happy to answer any questions you have! And thanks so much for introducing yourself. It's nice to meet (well sort of!) more people in our neighbourhood

Ok here's the lighting lowdown.... I wouldn't recommend making the trip to Maroondah or Croydon- not worth the drive for the range they have (and if you have kids in tow Emmise!). But Eltham, Epping and Fairfield are really good. Here's what we're thinking. Your input most welcome and appreciated.
Deciding between these two for above dining table: The one with the pretty cut outs has a matching table lamp, which is why it appeals to me a little more than the other. Not sure
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For either side of the garage door (external feature lights) we like em because they come in grey as opposed to black or staino
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I really love this lamp for the bedroom, but not sure how much it is as I found it online. I know it's quirky, but sometimes that's ok right?
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In the master bedroom we like this one from Beacon, and the matching 3 light one for inside the WIR
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My hot tip is- I've found that most of the lights at all the shops I visited are available at northernlighting.com.au and are heaps cheaper there. We are going to see if my brother (who is a sparky) can get them through his supplier, but if not, northern lighting looks like a goer.