Arden Developments

Feb 01, 2018
4:43 pm

Keroppi

geminithinker

Yeh lots lol. Im up to 550k.
- garage extension
- increase width of study and add a BIR
- shower to powder
- rumpus to the side instead of end of house
- add alfresco
- increase master and wir
- square out ensuite
- combine 2 ensuites for the
- timber screen between rumpus and living

Then other stuff will be upgrade of floorboards, tiles, carpet, ducted refridge aircon, custom shelving and cabinetry for study and activity and living, home theatre probably with big picture people, will be getting our own oven and induction cooktop, pivot door, the corner sliding doors they have, door to theatre, about 50ish downlights, points for internet nbn and foxtel, upgrade stone benchtops and cabinetry

Probably also you need to check the dates you signed with Arden - cos now Vot 37 is dearer by around 40000 plus I think we had pretty good inclusions like 35 downlights, butlers pantry with glass splash back, Eva cooling, colourbond roof, plus $3000 colour room coupon to spend - signed in August 2016
Plus though also need to include price increase - I think we saw that there was a difference of about $5000 compared to those who signed 6 months earlier for the same stuff

Yea I think the Toulouse base price would have changed too but from how much I am unsure.

Used to be 375k less than a yea r ago

pEast

Feb 01, 2018
6:20 pm

The current Toulouse 43 - is for 396900

Keroppi

Feb 02, 2018
12:00 pm

pEast

The current Toulouse 43 - is for 396900

Wow.. automatically 20k gone.

lzboycn

Feb 02, 2018
5:12 pm

Keroppi

Things that helped me:
- browse on Houzz.com and Pinterest.
- go plenty of times to the display home and imagine how you would like your colours to look like.
- visit other builders' display houses and take a note of what you like, as the arden display might not have them (i took inspo from henley, carlisle, and metricon) and take plenty of photos
- go to bunnings and take samples of paint or colour swatches to mix and match
- go to austral bricks showroom (we went to richmond) to have a look at the actual brick colours that you want. Then ask them for some addreses where you live where those bricks have been used.
- go to ptf (thomastown) and have a look at the large samples of flooring available (you can ask your colour consultant for which their categories used as it differs from ptf.
- use other builder's design websites (like carlisle and henley - it's publicly available) and build a mock-up of your colour scheme based on what you've seen/liked.

- Going into the colour appointment, bring pictures of colour themes you want to emulate. They can help you pick the colours based on your theme. This will make it easier on the day.
- Think about your electricals and where you want stuff to go (data points, lights, pendants, wall lights/sconces, tv, phone points), and what you potentially want to do after handover that requires pre-wiring (video intercom, cctv, alarm, etc.). Go to IKEA for some inspiration (led strip lights, cabinet lights, drawer lights, etc.)

Good luck!

Building the Votivo43 - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88553

If you are going brick you can book a colour selection appointment with brickworks (we did 1 hour on Saturday at Richmond) and they help with selecting roof colour, Down pipes, gutters etc to suit your brick. I found doing that saved us at least an hour on colour selection day with Arden as we had it all written up already and basically just told the consultant.

Good luck.[/quote]
Thanks Keroppi. Didn't know we could book a a selection with Australbricks.[/quote]

We didn't know either but australbricks told us. As a bonus they also give you two espresso cups 😊 And if you do end up ordering bricks you get a coffee machine too, even if the order is via Arden. Not sure what coffee machine though as we haven't got to that stage yet.[/quote]

Dear Keroppi,
If we go with Hebel, shall we still need to make a appointment with brickworks? thanks.

lzboycn

Feb 02, 2018
5:21 pm

gopalc

folks , i got Hikvision cameras with Poe and chuango AW1 system and both are working beautifully, I think, i should have asked for more cat6 wiring around the house, but its all ok and covered from perimeter now. Going to put NEST indoor camera which will store in cloud with wide angle / two audio feature. Also put Hikvision indoor screen and intercom which make it possible to watch any of camera on screen or leave in live view. Good luck guys...

Hi, How many cameras you have put, four around your house? what is your mdels?

lzboycn

Feb 02, 2018
5:30 pm

Keroppi

Just went to electrical appointment today and was told that we cannot get our own installer in for alarm systems despite everyone's feedback here. The electrical consultant went and asked our CA, I think this is the same problem I have with our CA saying no to everything without checking. Any idea how to request for CA change? Who do we need to speak to?

Who is your clectrical consultant? I have been told the electrical consultant is actually from Fisher brothers, not Arden people at all, but I think this arrangement will be good and straight forward.

I was told by a friend from this forum we can add more electrical stuff later on, how is your experience? shall I discuss this part with the person from Fisher brothers during my colour selection?

geminithinker

Feb 03, 2018
8:36 pm

In case anyone is interested, there's a pretty cool free desktop webapp that is called homebyme that let's you draw up your plans from scratch. Not all the furnishes match what flooring etc we have but it is close enough and was kinda cool to have a virtual "walk through" to get a feel of the space of the plan since it is drawn to measure. Some screenshots below.

In ca

Ezza78

Feb 03, 2018
8:59 pm

That’s very cool. And there is your gigantic pantry 😆👍

Keroppi

Feb 03, 2018
9:07 pm

lzboycn

Keroppi

Things that helped me:
- browse on Houzz.com and Pinterest.
- go plenty of times to the display home and imagine how you would like your colours to look like.
- visit other builders' display houses and take a note of what you like, as the arden display might not have them (i took inspo from henley, carlisle, and metricon) and take plenty of photos
- go to bunnings and take samples of paint or colour swatches to mix and match
- go to austral bricks showroom (we went to richmond) to have a look at the actual brick colours that you want. Then ask them for some addreses where you live where those bricks have been used.
- go to ptf (thomastown) and have a look at the large samples of flooring available (you can ask your colour consultant for which their categories used as it differs from ptf.
- use other builder's design websites (like carlisle and henley - it's publicly available) and build a mock-up of your colour scheme based on what you've seen/liked.

- Going into the colour appointment, bring pictures of colour themes you want to emulate. They can help you pick the colours based on your theme. This will make it easier on the day.
- Think about your electricals and where you want stuff to go (data points, lights, pendants, wall lights/sconces, tv, phone points), and what you potentially want to do after handover that requires pre-wiring (video intercom, cctv, alarm, etc.). Go to IKEA for some inspiration (led strip lights, cabinet lights, drawer lights, etc.)

Good luck!

Building the Votivo43 - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88553

If you are going brick you can book a colour selection appointment with brickworks (we did 1 hour on Saturday at Richmond) and they help with selecting roof colour, Down pipes, gutters etc to suit your brick. I found doing that saved us at least an hour on colour selection day with Arden as we had it all written up already and basically just told the consultant.

Good luck.

Thanks Keroppi. Didn't know we could book a a selection with Australbricks.[/quote]

We didn't know either but australbricks told us. As a bonus they also give you two espresso cups 😊 And if you do end up ordering bricks you get a coffee machine too, even if the order is via Arden. Not sure what coffee machine though as we haven't got to that stage yet.[/quote]

Dear Keroppi,
If we go with Hebel, shall we still need to make a appointment with brickworks? thanks.[/quote]

No as brickworks is only for bricks.

Keroppi

Feb 03, 2018
9:09 pm

lzboycn

Keroppi

Just went to electrical appointment today and was told that we cannot get our own installer in for alarm systems despite everyone's feedback here. The electrical consultant went and asked our CA, I think this is the same problem I have with our CA saying no to everything without checking. Any idea how to request for CA change? Who do we need to speak to?

Who is your clectrical consultant? I have been told the electrical consultant is actually from Fisher brothers, not Arden people at all, but I think this arrangement will be good and straight forward.

I was told by a friend from this forum we can add more electrical stuff later on, how is your experience? shall I discuss this part with the person from Fisher brothers during my colour selection?

Oh I wasn't aware that the electrical consultant was someone from fishers brothers.

I was also told that we can add it things we miss later too but not sure as we haven't quite got to the build stage yet.

geminithinker

Feb 03, 2018
10:40 pm

Ezza78

That’s very cool. And there is your gigantic pantry

Yup not bad for a freebie app lol

Keroppi

Feb 04, 2018
4:39 pm

Jeeta23

pEast

Hi Jeeta

How about some photos of your balcony. Are you putting the driveway yourself. Also are you looking to concrete around the house.

There you go - they actually modified it last minute to have the rendered beam rise above the floor level. This is to stop rain/water running down the front of the balcony and leaving water stains.

The tiles for the balcony went in today.

Hoping for handover over the next 2-3 business days!!

The last few weeks have crawled.

Doing the drive way myself - have got it all lined up, just waiting for handover

Just curious, is that the carinda facade with extended width? How much if you don't mind me asking? It is the same sort of facade that we are thinking of.

_daz_

Feb 04, 2018
8:03 pm

geminithinker

In case anyone is interested, there's a pretty cool free desktop webapp that is called homebyme that let's you draw up your plans from scratch. Not all the furnishes match what flooring etc we have but it is close enough and was kinda cool to have a virtual "walk through" to get a feel of the space of the plan since it is drawn to measure. Some screenshots below.

In ca

I've been using sweet home 3D which is a windows desktop app to get an idea of how it will feel. We have modified a bit from the standard votivo floorplan so it was important to make sure it felt right.

Keroppi

Feb 05, 2018
12:14 pm

A colleague told me that he just got the builders standard front door then changed it afterwards himself. Did anyone do that with Arden? Haven't really looked into it myself so not quite sure how much you would be saving by doing that.

g33kerb0t

Feb 05, 2018
12:33 pm

Keroppi

A colleague told me that he just got the builders standard front door then changed it afterwards himself. Did anyone do that with Arden? Haven't really looked into it myself so not quite sure how much you would be saving by doing that.

It depends on what kind of door you want and the size. if you want a pivot door or taller door then you'll need to order the bigger doors and frames anyway. But if you're happy with just the standard door size then i suppose you can save a few bucks. Don't forget that some door types come unfinished, so you'll need to stain/paint them, and install new hardware before hanging. If you're paying someone else to do that then it may as well erode your savings.

Building the Votivo43 - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88553

Keroppi

Feb 05, 2018
12:48 pm

g33kerb0t

Keroppi

A colleague told me that he just got the builders standard front door then changed it afterwards himself. Did anyone do that with Arden? Haven't really looked into it myself so not quite sure how much you would be saving by doing that.

It depends on what kind of door you want and the size. if you want a pivot door or taller door then you'll need to order the bigger doors and frames anyway. But if you're happy with just the standard door size then i suppose you can save a few bucks. Don't forget that some door types come unfinished, so you'll need to stain/paint them, and install new hardware before hanging. If you're paying someone else to do that then it may as well erode your savings.

Building the Votivo43 - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88553

Thanks that is what i thought too, so couldn't quite understand how it could be worthwhile.

pEast

Feb 05, 2018
5:08 pm

Any idea about who clears the weeds once the build starts. Since no activity on site for 2 and half months - it looks like this

Further I noticed after the driveway was damaged having a thin crack running across one complete slab- has anybody had a similar problem

Manj

Feb 05, 2018
8:44 pm

Woohoo! Our dispensations have been approved

Ezza78

Feb 05, 2018
9:23 pm

That’s awesome. What had you applied for again?

pEast