Building an Aegean230 with Mainvue.

Yeah, its the main reason I chose to build rather than buy established. I needed a bed with ensuite downstairs for mother and enough bedrooms for my 5 boys. And then everyone wanted something added and it has become huge! This is our forever home and a long way from where we are now, so trying to make it our dream home. Have also put a fireplace in family room in between the two large window's by putting them out to the side and reducing their width slightly. The main living areas are facing north which is great, then the two large window's and other part of alfresco are east facing which is also great.

Here are sketches from our tender, first photo is front of house.

Yup, agree. Henley should call your house Spicegirl Q1. Im glad henley allows all these changes. Unlike Carlisle and Pd. Even the facade you can't do any tweak to make it your own.

Regarding our deposit, we haven't heard anything yet as we haven't mentioned it to our sales consultant, only to her assistant.

Is there an Aegean 230 display or did your consultant organise a walk through for you? We will be extending the first floor to make the rooms a bit bigger and all with WIR and also make the activity bigger. Plus we are extending the width of study,laundry and theatre and make the entry wider at the same time. Hope they won't overcharge though for all these changes.

What other house are you thinking? Have you looked at Illawara, colorado and montague from Carlisle? Also the emporio 430 from mainvue?

Yup, agree. Henley should call your house Spicegirl Q1. Im glad henley allows all these changes. Unlike Carlisle and Pd. Even the facade you can't do any tweak to make it your own.

Regarding our deposit, we haven't heard anything yet as we haven't mentioned it to our sales consultant, only to her assistant.

Is there an Aegean 230 display or did your consultant organise a walk through for you? We will be extending the first floor to make the rooms a bit bigger and all with WIR and also make the activity bigger. Plus we are extending the width of study,laundry and theatre and make the entry wider at the same time. Hope they won't overcharge though for all these changes.

What other house are you thinking? Have you looked at Illawara, colorado and montague from Carlisle? Also the emporio 430 from mainvue?

This is what we're thinking of doing. My husband drafted it up and we sent it to mainvue for approval and costing ? we made the rooms heaps bigger and the activity about 5.5m

Hi, here are our colour selections. We didn't upgrade much on the exterior due to all the structural and indoor upgrades.
Exterior:
Façade Broadway part render
Bricks Austral Ruby (Cat1)
Gutter, Meter Box, etc Monument
Feature Render on Porch pillar Namadji
Main Render Mole Grey
Front entry doors Double 720mm each, 2040mmH (Mole Grey colour), Corinthian PMAD111 (moon doors) (upgrade)
Garage Door Replaced with 4.2m wide Boutique stacking sliding glass doors (Monument)
Eaves Builders White

Internals:
Main floor tiles Ground floor (includes Entry & Butlers pantry) Rustico Marble Cool White Satin porcelain 300 x 600 (Cat5)
All bedrooms, and hallway on top floor Amstel (150) Laminate (Cat 2A)
Garage/Home office Ceramic tile (Cat1) Carrara Bianco Gloss 400 x 400

Stain on Timber windows, Alfreso and Stairs Rich Chocolate

Kitchen & Butlers Pantry Splashback Paua Shell ( extended behind rangehood)
Island Bench Styles - 40mm Caesarstone benchtop with Part 500mm deep laminated Nikpol upstand with waterfall edge
Ceasorstone Night Sky (Black)
Nikpol laminate Brown Orleans Oak
20mm Ceasorstone Butlers Pantry benchtop Night Sky (Black)
Cupboards - Butlers pantry & Kitchen Pumice

Kitchen Style up promo (free)
40mm benchtop rear and island
SMEG appliances
Pot drawers

Fireplace Jetmaster - Black firebox SL-550 TRS (With Flue rear) with 100mm steel surround and African Black stone finish to fireplace wall surround

Bathrooms with floor to ceiling wall tiles

Master Ensuite;
Wall tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Carrara Bianco Gloss 400 x 400
Floor tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Outback charcoal Matt 400 x 400
Stone benchtop (double vanity) Osprey
Cupboards with drawers Moose

Main bathroom;
Wall tile Ceramic tile (Cat2) Selene Dust Gloss 450 x 450
Floor tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Storm Taupe (Mocha) Matt 400 x 400
Stone benchtop (double vanity) Walnut
Cupboards with drawers New Antique White

Ensuite 2;
Wall tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Milano Latte Gloss 400 x 400
Floor tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Milano Nero Matt 400 x 400
Stone benchtop Linen
Cupboards Oyster Linea

Guest bathroom;
Wall tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Gloss stone 200 x 400
Floor tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Storm Taupe (Mocha) Matt 400 x 400
Stone benchtop Walnut
Skirt Panel Licorice Linea

Laundry;
Wall tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Gloss stone 200 x 400
Floor tile Ceramic tile (Cat1) Storm Taupe (Mocha) Matt 400 x 400
Stone benchtop Walnut
Overhead cupboards New Antique White
Underbench cupboards Licorice Linea

We also raised ceiling on 1st floor to align with ground floor to 2.57m, subfloor acoustic insulation, larger bath, upgraded toilet suites, evap cooling, zone heating, alarm, blinds and shutters.

Wall paint; Stowe White Dulux wash & wear upgrade
Skirting boards, etc : Lexicon half

Sorry been really busy with work lately. The 230 was one that was built recently in the south east. We travelled to craigieburn to see the Monaco and still, after seeing the 230 we love the design.

The owners let us look through the whole house and it was better than a display. Not full of upgrades but it felt more like a real home with what we would do.

The missus has a few non negotiables (feature stairs, WIP that has a window, 40mm benchtops with waterfall, balcony and free standing bath). Plus our block faces north with no neighbour to the west so all the main living areas must be on the West side.

We can't build the emporio as a friend has started building that design. We sent a request for cost on extending the stairs and double doors for the master.

The bigger upstairs will look great it will look similar to the 430 size with all the WIR. Hope it doesn't cost too much for the extension.

Thanks for the detailed colour selection Spice Girl.

Your kitchen will look amazing with the black feature it'll make the kitchen stand out and not boring. We decided with a rich chocolate colour for the cupboards and a dark colour for the ceasarstone. My parents were old school in there Henley home with white and cream throughout the whole house so definitely not going that way.

Can I ask was it expensive to go through Henley with the fireplace? We have spoken to an external company and got a quote and will look to match it up with mainvue.

Good idea with the acoustic insulation. Which I'm guessing is for the theatre. Did you negotiate with them for a few free inclusions or free upgrades or are they a straight no to negotiating.

Can't wait to follow your build thread.

Fireplace $9k dropped from $11k as it had no side recess and no hearth, to enable it to fit between two large windows of 1.8x1.5 each. Acoustic insulation is for floor between ground and top, plus home office walls which we will also use as theatre/music studio plus did bed 5 walls for my sons loud music at request of his brothers

We have the kitchen promo providing upgraded appliances to SMEG, pot drawers and 40mm bench rear and island. Also came with silk overheads but removed it as didn't want extra cost of matching silk on base cupboards. We spent $2k on the nikpol laminated breakfast bar similar to that in the Emperor Belle in Woodlea. And was saving cost to squeeze in the fireplace at last minute. We did get a double glazing promo of all windows except timber framed for $1922.

I didn't even try to negotiate for free or discounted upgrades, silly me for not even thinking about it. We did ask if we could provide our own tiles for them to put in home but was told no. We did get a good deal on the pricing matrix from Sales should our land get delayed, as guy at Tender was surprised. We had a great Sales Consultant.

What I can say re negotiating, I did need to push to get items reduced in cost due to not receiving full upgrade. Eg, I highlighted we were being charged $11k for a reduced fireplace upgrade, plus we were charged for full butlers pantry fit out when we have lost a third of it to put a door in to the new laundry, so had that cost reduced. Where i found discrepancies between tender and cosham pricing, i was honoured the cosham price,was told prices had increased since my cosham session. I was very happy they approved all our structural change requests.

We will look at putting a deposit next week with Mainvue. Looks like we've finally decided on the right house

Woohoo. Well done. Although I am biased

We are going there tomorrow to put a deposit as well. Just got an email from our sales consultant that mainvue will be increasing their base price on the 1st of oct. And also we got the quote for the first floor extension, 12k. I was hoping it would only be 10k. We'll try to negotiate tomorrow.

A fireplace sounds nice. That's good that they were able to bring the price down and honoured the quotes they gave on your browsing. They are good like that.

Can't wait to follow your build. We will also be biased towards your house. The 230 we saw, the owner said he negotiated a lot and refused to pay for items he thought were too much. At the end of the day of they want our business or their bonus they'll look after you.

Sorry guys I'm working interstate for 3 weeks so I'll be offline for a while good luck with your tenders and/or contracts exciting times ahead feel free to post whatever you want.

Sorry guys for jumping in - I too liked the A230 design for 12.5 front - visited the similar design in keys. But, then after 2 years of searching found a small builder in Berwick. Similar price to AG230 is Arden homes Votivo 37 and decided to go for it. Would have built AG230 but Arden just had better deal on the day. Building in East Estate and land title expected late June 17. The floor plans are same so would be interesting to watch your all builds

Don't apologise pEast everyone is welcome to post, the more the merrier.
Ardenwas an Option for us as they had a ton of inclusions. We wanted the staircase to stand out so didn't decide to go with Arden. It will be great to follow your build also. I haven't heard much about Arden so it will be interesting to hear your feedback.