Building the Vogue 40

Hi all,

We are building Carlisle's Vogue 40 and are absolutely in love with it.... http://www.carlislehomes.com.au/affinit ... vogue.html. The house is huge and has everything we need, including an oversized master with a spa and a balcony and generous storage. I will upload all details about the house in my next post after my tender appointment.

Our journey to this point has been tough.... Bought a park facing plot in Innisfail, Point Cook. Our land settled in Feb 09 and we ran into valuation troubles with Westpac resulting in last minute stress.

Thankfully we managed and have reached this stage. Now we realise there's 450mm worth of fill on our land and haven't been provided with a compaction report. Peet has assured us that the land has been compacted and we have ordered a DCP test. Hoping we are not presented with another shock at tender.

We have our tender appointment in the next couple of weeks. Stressing about a) site costs b) bank's valuation.

Does anyone have any updates on how bank's value double storey's? As in are valuations still coming in short or has the market recovered a bit? Thanks to the FHOG we are comfortable now, but as I've read in countless cases on this forum, anything could go wrong.

Cheer's to the next few weeks full of sleepless nights...

G

First Post! - so that I can get email notifications

Zero,

Are you taking the technika dishwasher provided by Carlisle? When we tried negotiating some freebies they threw us in the DW free. But then I did some research and heard that these DW's are crap and never work Was thinking of going back to Carlisle (luckily we have tender soon) and asking them what they are upto dumping us with ** appliances! Have you heard anything about this? See http://www.productreview.com.au/showite ... m_id=53125 for some reviews on the dishwasher

G

Just realised the link doesn't work! Anyways you should find it if you simply google technika dishwasher... the reviews are on product review.com.au

We didn't take the dishwasher, if they are giving it away I'd take it and sell it I guess

Vogue is a great design!

Have you had your colour selections yet? If so, how did it go??

Hi Guys,

Sorry for being absent this long - Have had a rough few months though I don't want to get into the details.

Anyways our colour selections are done (Yaaay) and our contract is all drawn up and signed (Yippee). Council approvals are through and Carlisle is ready to start building.

Unfortunately we still have a couple of things to sort out:

a) Our neighbours are proving troublesome regarding the fencework; and
b) The loan approval has still to come through..

The first point we are trying to sort out but I might need some advice in relation to point b.

Our bank caused us a lot of heartache when we settled our land... We somehow managed to scrape through... While we have initiated our construction loan approval process with our bank I want to explore the option of refinancing the land loan with another bank. We however paid a significant sum in mortgage insurance. Someone told me that as mortgage insurance is linked to the asset it can be transferred to another bank. My broker thinks otherwise. Does anyone know whether we can refinance and not lose the mortgage insurance? That's the only thing that can prevent us from going to another bank.

G

Hi Sarah,

We've decided to play safe and go with a neutral theme throughout the house Everything pretty much looks like chocolate and cream at the moment! Our colour consultant was H and she was a dear. Don't expect her to make a lot of suggestions but she will give her opinion like this is safe, it's popular, it's a hot trend etc etc.

We've made a few minor changes to the design viz. double doors to the entrance, bi-fold doors to the alfresco, doors to the rumpus and sliding mirrored robes to all bedrooms. Our site costs were reasonable too - they found some rock but isn't a huge deal.

G

Zero,

We tried negotiating another appliance instead of the DW. They refused point blank. So have decided to keep it.. If we don't like it we'll change it. Disappointed in Carlisle's inflexibility though.

G

As far as I know the mortgage insurance is not transferrable.

My advice would be to stick with your current bank if you can until the end of your early discharge period as well as they will hit you up for some exit fees - typically in the first 3 years...

When we refinanced years ago we got a percentage of mortgage insurance we had paid credited back. Give your bank a call and ask them what the procedure is.

G,

Sounds good! Playing it safe can work fine as you can add colour and character with furnishing / decorations etc. We have gone pretty safe also but intend to use reds / oranges to brighten things up a little

Let us know how you go with everything! Hopefully things get sorted with the bank. I am just so glad we had a fantastic Home Loan girl at the bank and have had no problems whatsoever *touch wood*... I know it's been a hassle for a lot of people on the forum.

When are you hoping to start building?

Hi,
I am new to this forum, I am too are building The Vogue. I didn't get offered a DW, how did you mange to get that? Carlisle is very quick once they start building, our slab was poured at the start of Jan 2010 and now our house is ready for plaster!

That's good news... I am not sure about the DW.. it depends on what package they offer I guess.. they keep changing their promotions but I think overall the benefit's about the same. Good luck with ur build. Our site scrape is scheduled for Wednesday.. Hope our build is as fast as yours .

G

Hi greatgenes, the Carlisle Vogue is a great design. Hope your issues re the mortgage insurance are all sorted soon ~ we are also with Westpac but have had no problems with them so far (although we are still finalising the contract!).

Best of luck with your build. Will be great to watch the process as you go along.

~ cheers, J

No problems with Westpac this time... Unbelievably smooth!!!

Look forward to the build on Wednesday