Ding's "Sorrento.2"

After spending some time lurking through lots of threads, the time has come to start our own.

We have been thinking of moving house for a while now, two teenage daughters and a wife into 1 bathroom does not go!
Looked at buying something decent in Golden Grove area, looked at buying something crap & renovating, and looked at buying something really crap & doing knock-down and re-build.
As it happens, was out & about one day and came across a new land release, “Parkwood”, which seemed to fit the bill – decent sized blocks, not too much of a slope. The thought of building something new in a new area was highly appealing, so here we are.
After looking at lots of display homes, and doing lots of research, settled on – The Sorrento Mk2.
Fiddled around with layout, signed PSA (deposit) November, contract April, should start June, and should be in by Xmas.
So here ‘tis;


Made Garage, HT, WIR, Beds 3 & 4, Family and Alfresco a bit bigger.
Added Cloak and Store, and increased Portico to cover HT windows (as it faces West)
Started with “Grande” spec. but after adding Stone to kitchen and upping some other bits, it was more cost effective to go with the “As Displayed” spec.

Currently going through selections at the moment, but some of the things we have settled on so far:
Roof – Austral Tiles Classic “Char Grey”
Bricks – PGH “Canyon” with Brighton Lite mortar with white/grey sand
Flooring – Carpet to beds & HT, Wood (or Bamboo) to rest
Kitchen – Caesarstone benches “Sh!take” or “Ocean Foam”, White cupboards in 2pack, lots of Pot drawers, Canopy range hood, wall oven near fridge
Family – In-built Rinnai Symmetry gas heater with TV recessed into niche above.
Store – to house Switchboard, rack for Data, TV splitter, Home theatre PC, Multi-room audio, Security, Fibre termination, little bit of Home Automation, Ducted Vacuum.

Many thanks to Sorrento, evelyng, Mclaren, RobbieC, wildorchid, Entertainer, dreamcometrue, Broom, shaesmum, Crow and HillsCass for sharing your building experiences on H1, and to all the other contributors who have posted their valuable information.

Let the ride begin!

Beautiful plans, Ding, can't wait to see how it goes!
The colours/choices sound great (I'm all about the pot drawers). I'm also building a Sorrento (but by SPH in WA)...
Will be following your thread

I just love the Sorrento mk2-such a grand house!! I look forward to hearing all about your build. Also Dingo I noticed that you signed the prelim contract (soil tests etc) in November but didn't sign the actual contract until April? Was the delay through the builder or is this a standard waiting time? I hope you havent already answered this question somewhere else. Thanks and goodluck with your build!

It's the standard delay. If you weren't changing anything from the standard plan, you still need to wait for Prelim Council approval, Encumbrancer approval (if building in an estate with Encumbrances) Soil tests and then Engineering to be done, when they come back OK, working drawings are done and final cost worked out so a contract can be drawn up.
It could be quicker than us, we made some changes to the original floor plan, and there was the Xmas break in there as well.

Before we signed PSA, they said the standard from PSA until handover is 12-14 months. 8 months paperwork, 6 months of construction. But because things are a bit slow ATM we are hoping construction may be quicker - our contract finish date is 24th Dec!!

Welcome The Sorrento is lovely! Hoping you have a smoothe building process

good one dingo, we are in the same development , What lot number are you guys?, We have done something similar with the plan including a store off the garage(i put a sink in mine to stop the missus complaining about dirty hands in the good sinks), and also have done a walk through pantry from garage. I was a bit unsure about this but came around it would be easier to bring the shopping in.


cheers troy

Your plans look fantastic Ding. Love the Sorrento. We are building with Dechellis too, and have chosen the same 2pac colour kitchen and essa stone bench from the sorrento. Hoping to have a similar start date to you.

Oh great another Dechellis build to watch ... hope you don't actually move in on Xmas Eve that would be too much excitement I think! Plans look great ... you've thought of everything ... good luck with your build will enjoy watching your progress.

i like the changes you have made to the plan

Thank you for your reply Dingo, I am so keen for our build to get started and am a little impatient!

Do you think you will move in right away (xmas eve day) if you get the chance? That will be an exciting xmas pressie!

Thanks everyone.
We are hoping that they get a crack on & we are finished in November. We don't mind moving near Xmas as that's when Wifey will be able to get time off work.

Went to the Dechellis displays at Aldinga & Blackwood over the weekend to get some ideas for bathroom/ensuite tiles.

Really like the ones in the McLaren


This is the style of heater we are going to put in our Family room, with a recessed TV above, and shelves either side.


Question for Mclaren: I was checking out your selections. Did you use the same tiles in your bath/ensuite as the display? If so, what is the Italia code? Are you happy with the Lineal Air-Con outlets?

I LOVE that bath Ding, when we saw it we both said 'WOW' straight away. Are you going to have that awesome tap? it just sets it off so nicely and is so stylish. I especially like that the bath is 'off the wall' and sits out slightly rather than having the edge of the bath up against of the wall. It makes the bath seems like it is more of a feature!

The TV above the heater will look awesome, wall mounted TVs also save so much space.

Yes, we are getting the tap & outlet, but the bath is a SPA!!-Yay!! Do like the 4-sided hob.
The recessed TV, apart from looking neater being flush, will help to keep it cooler. The one trouble is; I will make it for the 60" plasma, but if we change TV's down the track we may be restricted in sizes.

Hi Ding

We LOVE the bathroom in the McLaren . We have just done selections, and tried to pick the same colours, but the same brown is not available now . Italia ceramics advised us that the closest tile to the display home is called Harmony coco brown glazed porcelain. This is the colour we have chosen, so I hope it close!

Hope this helps......

Orchid we have chosen Harmony Coco Brown for our bathroom floor tile too. But we haven't gone for glazed as we thought it might be too slippery in the wet areas. Good choice

we thought about recessing the tv, but decided against it because the way tv's are going they are only going to get bigger.

Hi Dingo, we used similar tiles - I'll have to dig out the paperwork - Harmony Coco Brown rings a bell but I will confirm. The only problem I have with the tiles is they always look dirty - just stepping out of the shower door puts water on the tiles and you can see the marks. Easy enough to clean I suppose but if they were a lighter colour it wouldn't be so obvious I think it doesn't help that when we moved in there was silicone all over them for months which was eventually cleaned off as part of the '3 month maintenance" but it did put me off them.

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff440/Nicholl72/RIMG0224.jpg

We love the bath - we went for the larger size and we love it. Our mixer tap is on the wall near the door so the wall you look at is "clean" not like the show home pic.

We are very happy wth the linear slots - they look great and work well. We had a problem with the ceiling in the family room as the ceiling was obviously damaged and repaired badly when the slot was put in but that was fixed as part of the "3 month maintenance" even though we noticed it at PCI.

Let me know if you have anymore questions!

Cheers
Annette

Another Dechellis build ...Sorrento was my first choice when we were looking at D's display homes love the walk in pantry but what i love with the monaco is the big kitchen and lots of storage. good luck with your build. hope it goes smoothly

Yes, they're both so similar. We are going to add a sliding door cupboard to the study (which we made a bit bigger to suit) to give us some more storage, plus overheads in the laundry. Come to think of it, most times we made something bigger was to give us more storage!

hahaha, same with ours, probably because of our last house had next to none