Knockdown and building Henley's Talise Q2 - We have keys!

Hi Chatz,

Its hard to be patient though isn't it?

We signed our contracts Mid Feb!! and was hoping they would start the end of Feb , but what with the variations, permits, demolition and Services getting cut off.. time just goes by very quickly.

Anyway , looking forward to some pipes sticking out the ground next week

we are in Wantirna South, not far from you atall.

Good Luck, hopefully i can figure out how to do these Blog things ..

Keep in touch

G

Ger1322,

Go to http://www.blogger.com, create an account and then create a new blog. It's no harder than posting to this forum.

You can then add your blog to the blog thread and to your signature via Control Panel->Profile->Edit Signature.

Chatz

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

G

Hey everyone!

Ger - so good to see yet another talise how exciting- we r all
building at the same time!

Talisefan - hi I hope everything runs smoothly for you. My advice is, get your colour appt date for as soon as you can, don't underestimate how ling it takes to get from colour stage to site start. I did, and now we r 3 months behind. Not henley's fault, just our own
and I definitely don't mind u using our dining extension idea .. I think it's really practical coz it makes the dining a bit more of a separate area don't u think? We also tried to add another alfresco glass stacker door to the dining wall, but was too expensive.

Chatz- end of may sounds very close! We r so anxious to get started and we hope they can stick to the plan of starting in the second week of may with our build.

Good morning, all!

Thanks, Trudy for good suggestion to finalise colour selection asap; much appreciated. I will be calling the sales consultant as soon the Easter break is over to rush things on.

Hurray I will definitely do the dining room extension now that you've okayed it! Did they charge you for this, Trudy? Do you mind letting me in on the cost of the stacker doors option in dining area, please? Thanks again in advance!

DH has quite convinced me to go timber laminate/bamboo flooring for whole house. He insists that cleaning will be a breeze compared to carpet-in-rooms option and also hygience/allergies should be factored in as two of my sons are allergies prone.

Toying with the idea of popping an outdoor spa in the deck...what do you all think? My main grouse is maintenance of spa

I have been scouring the internet re timber companies for quotes and exploring some spa retailers too. As Trudy says, don't underestimate the amount of time you need. I will be looking at moving out the earliest as I am not as lucky as Trudy (free rent; How I wished!)

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend everyone.

Mee2

Hi!

Yeah we r doing bamboo floors to main areas and carpet in rooms. It's gonna look awesome.
The dining extension costs roughly 600 and the extra stacker door - I honestly can't remember, I think it was more than 700.
The spa is an awesome idea by the way imagine a glass of bubbly in there on a fri night!

Xx

Our Colours were November !!

Gday Trudy, thanks for the welcome, it is really cool that all of us are with the same builder, i think were all first timers too.

We're not doing the Talise though Trudy!! , we really liked the Talise, however we preferred to use up more of the width of our block, we initially put the deposit on the Monterey, then changed our minds to an Esprit floorplan ( Cottesloe ) and "Clendonvaled it )

We always preferred this plan but there was no Display! We went back to it nearly a year later.
You start to visualise floorplans after a while.....

We have made alot of changes though, the Grand Alfresco being the big ticket item....

Are we all in the South East by the way?


G

Ger1322,

I like your plan, there are some similar attributes to the Talise like the open kitchen/dining/living areas.

I've just updated our blog with some nearmap satellite images over the past 6 months which we found interesting.

Chatz

Hi Chatz...awesome satelite pics! I loved the "before and after" thingy and your pool looks cool sitting there

Trudy, thanks for the quote on dining room extension cost. I am SO tempted by the timber stacking doors but another $700 is going to hurt again.

The spa idea is indeed fun but then again, cost and maintenance is quite a dampener on the champagne bottle that beckons to be enjoyed! Decisions, decisions.

Good choice of plans, G. I did consider the Cottlesloe but needed some extra rooms and thus ended with the Talise finally.

Looks like the four of us are in the south east; that's fantastic!

Cheers!

Mee2

Hey,


Ger, for some reason i thought you were building the talise???? im silly. have you made changes to the cottlesloe plan? its a great floorplan... very open, i like it and the open living area is very similar to the talise.

Talisefan - if you can afford the extra stacker go for it. i guess we decided not to as there are already so many windows in that open plan area and paying so much more for just a little more glass... just couldnt justify it. I am also thinking about all of the stuff we have to pay for after handover... its kinda scaring me a little. Just realised we are also having to do that massive wardrobe fitout post handover too. I've been tooling around with the wardrobe planner on the ikea website... its great!

we are building in south morang, apparantly they will be on site in 3 weeks. We went back and forth from m******* to henley and in the end, realised we got so much more for our $$$ with henley.

Chatz,

your blog pics are cool! cant believe your pool is already in now all you need is the house.

Yes, how I wished I had the money tree! I will probably not go with the extra stacker doors but opt for tall windows if cost is not too exhorbitant; I just love open spaces. Thanks too for the reality check on the wardrobes fitout in ensuite, that will surely hurt bad on pockets too

Will do a copycat on your idea and browse through fitting with Ikea too. Apologies, Trudy, soon you will see a mirror image of your house after mine is ready!!!

I have decided to take out the extra store room addition as I want to place a nice antique piece in that corner

By the way, have a check with the new H..... prices online. The price for the T..Q2 has been slashed 3ks; hope you can wrangle them to offer the new price to you. I am also going for a hard bargain and trying my luck with them offering the "$40,000 extras" without coughing out the $3990. Apparently, I read that some sales consultants do throw in this bit to seal the deal for them. Worth a try.

Cheers

Mee2

talisefan,

explain it to me.... how are you trying to get some money back? i will try and do the same thing

the window is a great option instead of the extra stacker door... i didnt think of that!

Trudy,

I saw online a few days ago that the price of the Talise Q2 has now been revised to $204,900 from the original price of $207,900 (here's the 3ks savings!). I haven't signed the building contract with them as yet so I am pretty sure I can enjoy the lower revised price. The next bit is a little trickier though. I was reading thru' some thread posted by people building with H..... and apparently they managed to get the $3990 knocked off (this is the amount we are to pay for the $40,000 upgrades?). I guess this is the sales consultant's carrot offering to seal the deal.

I am not sure how much success we will have with the $3990 but the revised price should be the easy part. Definitely worth a go, don't you think?

PD, Carlisle and M... are all knocking at my door to build with them; so I do have some bargaining power.

Hope you are good at arm wrestling!

Cheers

M2

Ahhhh OK now I know what you are talking about. I think you should go for it! I know I defintiely cant get this out of them because when we signed up (with the higher price), we actually got a few extras included adn these are now not offered with the new lower price. I saw someone from henley about it when the price came down and it worked out that our inclusions actually outweigh the $4K so better not to go down to the new price. Some of these inclusions were the solar panels and zoned heating... i cant remember the others. oh yes... and with the lowered price, they included laminate flooring. but since we are diong bamboo flooring, it wouldnt benefit us.

good luck with it though!

Trudy

Thanks in advance, Trudy!

Going to gym to beef up some muscles for arm wrestling session

Talk soon!

M2

I'll forgive you Trudy... , Thank you, We always loved the Cottesloe plan right from the start but hesitated in deciding as there were no displays, leap of faith and being able to visualise was the decider..l
The Talise was another fave.. but a bit too long for our block
Made a few changes, - our sales consultant called it Clendonvaled !! Bricks above the windows , high ceilings.. u know..
widened the garage, added an entry from the garage through the Study ( were using this part as a Mud room, you know for the Golf sticks, coats, shoes etc.. )
We also sacrificed space from the study to put in a much bigger Pantry
Couple of extra wall to the living room, a doorway from the entrance to Kitchen / family
Big ticket item was the Grand alfresco which was a structural change..

Same thoughts as us we laid down a deposit with the Big M, but changed to Henley.. more for the dollar + all the staff we have dealt with have been Great.

3 weeks isn't too far away, very exited for you.

G

Hi M2
We got offerred $3000 cosham upgrades + $1000 of the bottom line for using Waterstones.. we were tossing between H & M

Good luck
G

Hey,

yeah we got the same... 3 grand off the extras so that paid for our waterfall edge island bench with 40mm stone
we couldn't go through waterstone even though we wanted to. Our financial situation was too hard for them to work with coz I'm self employed. Banks hate ppl who r self employed!

Trudy