Building Henley Monaco Q1

After many months of reading through this site and taking on everyone's experiences, hints and tips we have finally settled on a plan, upgrades, colours etc. Today I signed our tender and now we wait for building contracts. This is our first time building so there was a lot to learn and take in.

Our land should title in June (fingers crossed) but all seems to be looking promising - many drivebys on a weekly basis haha.

I wanted to thank Donski (D&D's Henley Monaco) as they have built the same house we are going to be building so their posts have been wonderful.

My plan is to keep this updated as the journey continues. Would love to be of assistance to anyone else out there who may need it.

Congrats. Great news!

I've looked at that house plan before and really liked it, I'll be keeping an eye out for progress.

Congrats on your build - We are building the same house as well - I have been meaning to start a thread about it too... I will take the plunge shortly...

We too are waiting for our land to title - building in Mernda Villages. The land was due to title early April, however there have been some delays - where are you building?

Hi guys!
Yeah its a great floorplan. Loved the kids retreat and bedrooms down the back. Thats what sold us

We actually first saw this house at the Mernda display by accident. After settling on the plan we realised there was one closer to home at Point Cook haha.

Damatt we are building in Melton West at Peppermint Grove. I have all my fingers and toes crossed!!! Will keep you updated on that front. It will be great to share our experiences since we are building the same house Have you picked all your colours etc? You ready to go once the land titles?

We picked our colours ages ago - I think I have made about a billion changes since our first tender agreement was signed - We are finally pretty happy with what we have now... I don't have the final plans yet as after our contract signing I made some more changes and picked up on some of the stuff ups made on the drawings... but we are very excited and cannot wait for our house to be built... I will set up a blog shortly and will upload my plans and colour selections...

Have you got your final plans yet? Any major changes or ideas you care to share?

No we don't have our final plans yet either. We only just signed our tender last Friday and still waiting for contracts to come through. Up to 4 weeks the guy said.
You sound like me, I changed my mind heaps of times with colours and handles, bricks and windows etc etc.
Um one of the big things I changed was the height of the windows. As you know they were all floor length windows in the family, meals, living areas and for heating and cooling purposes we have brought them up to a standard 1400mm window. It will also enable us to utilise more wall space underneath if we wanted to put something under the window.
I changed my kitchen to look like the one in the Monaco Nouveau. I liked the openness around the bench as I wanted a Butlers pantry and if you remember the options for Q1 it would have closed the kitchen in.
Did you say you made changes after signing contracts? Doesn't that incur a $500 charge per change?
Did you make any changes to your plan as such?

Your changes sound pretty good - we didn't think about putting things under the windows - my concern about floor to ceiling windows were the kids falling through them - but I think if windows are under 600mm height they have to be 6mm thick so it makes it harder for kids to go through them...

With the changes after contract was signed it wasn't major - just added a cavity slider to master bedroom... Our admin made the mistake of behing honest with me and telling me that the $500 admin fee is actually only charged if you make changes after site start - not so much after final contracts are signed...

Some of our changes were - Lots to electrical - did luxury electric pack - added 9 downlights to Front Eaves, added more power points, alarm system, Cavity sliders for Kids retreat, Living area, Master Bedroom, Carpet to living area... +++ lots more - We are up to Tender agreement number 8... (a new tender for each change)...

Your changes sound pretty good - we didn't think about putting things under the windows - my concern about floor to ceiling windows were the kids falling through them - but I think if windows are under 600mm height they have to be 6mm thick so it makes it harder for kids to go through them...We were worried about the kids running into them and going through them also, my mum brought the "decoration" aspect to my attention after

With the changes after contract was signed it wasn't major - just added a cavity slider to master bedroom... Our admin made the mistake of behing honest with me and telling me that the $500 admin fee is actually only charged if you make changes after site start - not so much after final contracts are signed... Very handy to know! Will keep this one in mind in case anything else pops up

Some of our changes were - Lots to electrical - did luxury electric pack - added 9 downlights to Front Eaves, added more power points, alarm system, Cavity sliders for Kids retreat, Living area, Master Bedroom, Carpet to living area... +++ lots more - We are up to Tender agreement number 8... (a new tender for each change)...[/quote]We did the deluxe electrical package and then added extra power points and a few downlights here and there. Want to live in it for awhile first before deciding exactly where the rest of the downlights will go. We added alarm system also, cavity slider to kids also but double hinged doors to living adjacent to bedroom 2. I was tossing up between cavity slider or double doors..... added door to ensuite and double doors to hallway entry to kitchen. We did all of tender 1 and 2 in 4 hours and that seems to be all of it. Well, that is unless I pinch one of your ideas that I haven't thought of lol.
I also upgraded our feature doors throughout the house to match with the theme of the front door.

I forgot to mention - the living room we did double cavity slider at the centre of the wall... Our bedroom door is 1020mm cavity slider - not sure if allowed to ad links here... it is the Corinthian doors INF6G with translucent glass http://www.corinthian.com.au/Product/Show_63.aspx and a big handle...

Something else to consider - is a power point in the ceiling of the living room for future installation of home theatre...

We have now been told we are not allowed to make any changes without having to pay admin fee... we must have annoyed them to much...

Chanz would you mind letting me know how much they charged to put in the other kitchen/butlers pantry?

Hi Ari, they actually charged us less than the "Option booklet" to have a Butlers Pantry. I thought it would cost more to swap my kitchen to the Monaco Q1 Nouveau but was pleasantly surprised. Not to quote me exactly but it was approx $875 or so. Much less than the $1200 original butlers pantry quote on the options booklet. If you want this option, its worth asking as it doesn't seem anything is impossible with these builders

So yesterday I had a phone call from a NEW lady that has been appointed to my file. She could not tell me what happenend to the last one??!!
The conversation was basically an introduction and to book me for contract signing in JULY!! What the?!
I very quickly let her know I was not waiting till July, that it was suppose to be 4 weeks after signing tender and we are now at 3. Also a reminder about FHOG deadline on June 30th..... she amazingly fast tracked my appointment to June (whenever I wanted.) Great news is we should be signing first week of June and hopefully land will be titled or almost titled by then.
However she then informed me that its 6 weeks from contract signing or land titling (whichever happens last) before we can start building. The things they don't tell you upfront.....hmmmmmm!
On the upside, things are moving along again and with a little bit of assertiveness I have managed to get my way

WATCH THIS SPACE......

We had a similar experience - our contract signing date was a months after our Tender signing date - I also quoted the 4 week thing and was quickly shut down - "management have said we don't have to sign contracts to soon as your not set to title until April" Anyway - we finally got there...

We also had a call from our conveyancer telling us that Stockland have submitted the final Plan of Subdivision for approval - Meaning they have requested titles for our land - they say it will take 5 - 10 days until it titles and we then settle 14 days after it titles... Then we wait for Henley to start building... YAY!!!

Hi Chanz,

How is the progress of your henley monaco Q1?
I'm planning to build with henley as well (thinking between monaco Q1 or monaco nouveau Q1)...
Could you please upload/send me your modified floorplan? I'm really interested to see the how the addition of buttler's pantry in Monaco Q1 looks like.

mtz08