Building with Hall & Hart Homes

Thanks for all of the advice and tips guys, very much appreciated. Thanks for sending through a sample of your plan adalon as it gave me a really good idea of what is required. I emailed HHH and they are happy for me to do a plan myself. So I'm going to give it a crack myself (what could possibly go wrong ) and if it is not what they are after or I go bonkers trying to do it I'll then get one of the suggested professionals to do it.

adalon, great to hear that you will be starting soon, hope it goes really smoothly and be sure to keep us updated.

Got our kitchen quote back today. We ended spending about $6500 over the included which covered upgrading all kitchen and three bathroom cabinetry to vinyl, 40mm stone already selected from 'create your own' package, build in bin drawers, 2 soft close pot drawers, 2 sets of drawers to all vanities, stone to all vanities already selected from 'create your own', extra large fixed mirror combo shaving cabinet to ensuite and overhead shelving to study nook. Pretty good value I thought.

Hi Everyone,
A new H&H home here. We paid our first $1000 for KDR yesterday for our tender and so far are pretty happy with the process. We are building a Elyse 38 with face brick no render (Classic or Traditional Façade-no confirm yet depends on final tender cost) in Sydney. It's been a great help so far reading through everyone's posts and seeing your Progress. Especially all step by step details with photos. Thank you!

seren1ty Thank you very much for all your great posts. I am going to build Elye 38 with face brick no render (Classic or Traditional Façade-no confirm yet depends on final tender cost) as well. Your semi-modified Classic façade is look so beautiful and the bricks are look so good. Could you please let me know, have you widen you front Porch/Entry from standard 180cm wide and upgrade the front entry door? Or they just all the standard design for Classic Façade which included in the base price? What's name of this brick you used? Is this brick included in premium inclusion range? If you don't mind, please let me know the $ cost for your semi-modified Classic façade? I am maybe not doing the render depends on cost. Thanks in advance, much appreciated your help!

Hey Tea Land,

Thank you for the wonderful feedback, we hoped the details would be useful to others!

We widened the position of the 2 front posts, so they are as wide as the front door wall, so they are now 1.77m apart. It makes the front porch/entry feel more open, and lets more light into the house via the front door. This, along with lowering the front porch roof to single level height, was no extra $$$ at the time.

We're very happy with the bricks, they are called PGH Choc Tan Velour. At the time it was a 3k upgrade, but their range may have changed in the 12 months since we selected ours.

The render to the porch area was 3.5k, and the render to the garage posts was 1.8k. The front door is a 1200 wide pivot door, and was no extra as it was selected from the Promotional Items list. The 2 extra twin windows between the garage and porch are an additional room, so the price of that will depend on how many extra sqm it adds to the house.

Hope it helps

Hi Tea Land,

Great to hear of another build and agree the advice on this thread is great. I have the brick list from CSR PHG that was given to me in February. The velour choc tan bricks are still an upgrade cost of $2,999 and are an exposure grade brick. Yay for the price not going up

Hi Seren1ty,
Thank you very much for your kind reply with all these useful information about build with H&H!
1) Just to confirm, it is your façade you chose is Classic or Traditional Façade, as I can see from your photo, the first floor are brick not cladding (as Classic should be used cladding as per H&H standard photo) see attached 2 photos from H&H website? I remember from your previous post, you mentioned your have selected the classic façade. How much $ have paid to change from Cladding to brick (1st floor facing)?
2) Re: Widened the position of the 2 front posts, so they are as wide as the front door wall, so they are now 1.77m apart. It makes the front porch/entry feel more open, and lets more light into the house via the front door. This, along with lowering the front porch roof to single level height
Did you request all these changes with John of sales in Homeworld or with Chris in first Tender Presentation? As we just paid the Tender fee yesterday to secure the base price before 1st of May 2% price rise as told by John.
3) If you don't mind, could you please let me know the cost and size of your - The 2 extra twin windows between the garage and porch are an additional room?
Thanks a lot for your great help!

Hi kjane,
Thank you very much for your welcome message and kind help with PHG bricks price details!
Have you got the brick list from CSR PHG visitor centre?
I have read through all this thread, you and seren1ty have provide so many useful information. They're very helpful.
I remember from reading this thread, you're also build with Elyse 38 Classic Façade right?
Do you know the measurement size of window (High & Wide) for the ground floor guest bedroom in the standard plan?
1200cm x 1800cm???
Do you have a floorplan with all windows and door size for Elyse 38 to share? If it is OK with you...
Many Thanks for your big help!

Glad it's useful, and congrats on getting in before the price rise!

1) My apologies, you are correct It was the Traditional facade that we modified, so top level bricks were standard.

2) We made some changes with John, and some with Chris. The widening of the front porch posts was at the Tender presentation.

3) The cost was grouped with other things aswell, so I'm not able to list the exact price of that piece unfortunately. The price would be roughly similar to adding the 3rd garage option. John or Chris will be able to give you a more accurate price then I could, especially as it was 12 months ago. That area with the twin windows could be garage space, or an internal room, up to you how you would use it most. Internal space may cost more as it would include floor coverings.

I got the Austral and CSR PGH brick lists from Sean and John at HHH, they are super helpful so should be able to email them out to you. I totally recommend visiting the brickyards as well. We found the bricks looked different to online and actually went in a totally different direction to what we were originally thinking in terms of brick selection. At the brickyard they can also give you a list of homes recently built with your shortlisted bricks so you can have a look which again is really worthwhile doing.

Yep, we are building the Elyse 38 but with lots of modifications so it actually has a floorplan more like the 42 now. We found it was cheaper to start with the 38 as a base and make modifications to add things in and make rooms larger than it was to start with the 42 and take things out if that makes sense.

The changes that we have made that would affect the front façade are: increasing the height of the garage door to 2400 ($450), increasing front door size to the 1,200 pivot door (chosen from package), increasing the atrium window ($80) and bedroom 4 window ($110) to as large as they could fit and changing the brick porch pillars to wooden posts,more like the porch of the Hamptons façade but with face brick on the base, ($1,200).

The size of the guest bedroom window is 2410 W x 1800H. This was standard for us. The standard size of pretty much all of the other windows I am not clear on as we increased the size of lots of them and added in windows as well. A good tip that I picked up from here is to put a window in the garage so then you don't have to put the lights on in the day etc.

Hi Seren1ty,
Many Thanks for your confirmation with all details! Much appreciated...
I am so impressive your colour selection, your Roof Tiles, window colour and door looks so matched with your brick - PGH Choc Tan Velour.Your selection made your new house very beautiful...
Could please let me know the name of Roof Tiles and the colour for windows?
I think, we will choice the same brick & roof tiles and window colour for our as well. Sorry about being a copy cat

We have received a list of site cost estimated from John for Elyse 38 Traditional Façade with Premium Inclusion
Package Price: $447,600 (Premium Inclusion) + Traditional Façade $4,000 + $4,999 ($30,000 Create your own Promotion Package)
Site Cost:
a. Step downs - P.A. $10,000
b. Drop edge beams (if required) $8,000
c. Import/Export Fill $0 - Nil
d. Screw/Piers $0 - Nil
e. BAS/BOS $0 - Nil
f. H Class Slab (if required) $5,500
g. Overhead Electrical Connection $4,000
h. Sewer Connection $3,500
I. Stormwater Connection $10,000
j. Marine Environment $0 - Nil
k. Traffic Control/Material Handling $10,000
l. BAL Bushfire Requirements $0 - Nil
m. High Salinity $2,250
n. Acoustics $0 - Nil
o. Tiger Tail $3,500

@Seren1ty
Kjane
Could you please share with me of your site cost experience (in the final contract) and any other additional cost/hidden cost not from this list? As we're on very tight budget, the site cost showed above total $57,650 is very huge amount for us.
Any tips or suggestion are welcome.

Again, Thanks for your kind help!

Hi kjane,
Thank you very much for your great suggestion!
We have gone to PGH Brick Yard today, and they gave us a H&H Upgrade list - good news is the Choc Tan Velour brick upgrade cost still same as $2,999. Very happy about it... The lady at the reception told us, the basic ranger brick price have been increase from 1st April 2018, but no for this one. After viewing all basic inclusive range bricks, we really don't like the quality and the colour of them.

Thank you!

Hi kjane,
Thanks a lot for your quick answer and a best tips for garage window (How much Cost$?if you know). Much appreciated...
Just to confirm, did you start with Elyse 38 base on Classic Façade (Included) or Traditional Façade ($4000)?
Did you know what's the standard height for the garage in Classic Façade the standard height for the garage in Traditional Façade?
Have you widened the position of the 2 front posts, so they are as wide as the front door wall 1.77m apart like seren1ty did?
@seren1ty Anyone know what's the standard wide for the position of the 2 front post for Classic Façade (Included) or Traditional Façade ($4000)?
Which stage are you in at the moment?
John have told us, we have 210 fixed tender days after accept final tender for KDR.
After that if there is a delay before final contract, H&H will charge $1,250 per month for extend tender.
Is this the same for you? I was quite worry about this charge.
I am looking forward to hear from you!
Many Thanks

Hi Seren1ty,
Two more questions:
1) Do you know what's the standard wide for the position of the 2 front post for your Traditional Façade before you made change?
2) Have you modified any windows size of your house like kjane did?
I would like to know, what’s the standard size of the guest bedroom (ground floor) window and all of the other bed room windows for traditional façade?
I am looking forward to hear from you!
Many Thanks for your kindness

Thanks for the kind feedback Tea Land, we're happy you may have found a colour scheme you like

The Roof tiles are Monier Atura, with flat A-Line capping, in the colour Barramundi. The gutters colour is Monument, and the Window and Render colour is called Surf Mist.

The site costs will be different for every block of land, so they are hard to compare to someone elses. Ours were in the same ballpark though.



1) Sorry I don't know the exact gap between the front posts on the standard 38, we requested the gap be widened very early on. Instead of 1.77m, standard may be closer to 1.3m. John should be able to tell you, or you could ask for the original plans for the 38.

2) Apart from the new twin windows (between porch and garage), which are both 0.7m wide, and the same height as the other lower-level windows on the existing front room, we did not modify any other facade windows.

Agree with Seren1ty that every site is different and council requirements different so it's really hard to compare site costs. Our site costs are quite a bit higher with extra costs for stormwater connection, driveway guttering, access for construction, area loading and extra for drop edge beam. In total our site costs are sitting around 80K but this is due to particular council requirements, location and land being on a slope. Our prices haven't changed much from the initial estimation though.

Garage window cost is $320 for a fairly large window, the cost will depend on how big you want to go.

Ours is a classic façade. In the classic façade the posts are the same width as the front door walls (on our plans anyway) with a width of 1690 and the pillars are 590 each in addition to that. Probably best to speak with John about exactly what you want and he will be able to give you accurate advice that suits your vision for the front façade.

Our plans are currently with CDC for review/approval. Same wording in our contract. I'm not concerned about this as I sought further clarity about this at the tender presentation meeting and feel comfortable.

Thanks a lot for your reply! kjane
Your information is very helpful for me.
Could you please clarify for me do you sign & accept the final tender (all amount fixed) first then go to CDC/DA for approval right? Once CDC or DA approved, then go to sign the contract. Is it correct?
I am a bit confuse with the step and procedure now, sorry to be a first time build.
Also, do you actually do the Landscape plan yourself or go to professional? I also like to save some money on this as well. Many Thanks for your kind help!