The Monteray New Generation Hammond Park- Kitchen cabinetry?

Thought I'd start my own thread since I love following other peoples builds
I am building The Monteray by New Generation.
Some of our choice for colour etc:
Deep Ocean Colourbond roof
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Front door
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Bricks
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Settler profile garage door
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Frappe Essastone benchtop
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[url=http://s255.photobucket.com/user/flicface/media/stonecreations-kitchen.jpg.html:3qb8ri6q][img:3qb8ri6q]http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh123/flicface/stonecreations-kitchen.jpg[/img:3qb8ri6q][/url:3qb8ri6q]
Kitchen counters will be in Laminex Stipple Seal.
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Bathroom countertops will be in Formica Doe skin, and counters will be in Formica Charred Oak.
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Front render will be Colourbond surfmist, with the featre render in Colourbond Shale grey (aswell as the garage door and front door).
I was worried the surfmist will be too light but with the blue roof I think it will look nice (and can always repaint later if need be!)

Some pre-start variation we did:
Add conduits in lounge/dining/theatre and master for adding downlights and ceiling fans after hand over.
Changing cupboards in master ensuite to drawers (two end panels so it will be drawers, cupboard, cupboard, drawers).
Adding a pot drawer under the oven.
Adding gas point to alfresco for BBQ.
Upgrade to double towels rails.


We are doing the flooring ourselves with Carpet Court, all rooms except laundry, bathroom and bedrooms will have Karndean vinyl planks in Birch.
[url=http://s255.photobucket.com/user/flicface/media/VGW84T-Birch.jpg.html:3qb8ri6q][img:3qb8ri6q]http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh123/flicface/VGW84T-Birch.jpg[/img:3qb8ri6q][/url:3qb8ri6q]
The bedrooms will have a brown carpet.

18/11/2012 Decided to build our first house
23/11/2012 Draft of plans done, PPA signed
24/11/2012 Signed up for land, deposit paid
01/02/2013 Final contracts signed
07/03/2013 Pre-start with builder
20/03/2013 Settlement on land
22/03/2013 First version of pre-start variations received
15/04/2013 Amended pre-start variations received (fixed errors)
02/05/2013 Final working drawings received
06/05/2013 Amended addenda received (fixed errors)
06/05/2013 Plans sent to private certifier
22/05/2013 Fire assessment for our block ordered
14/06/2013 Builder confirmed we have received the building permit, scheduling started
28/06/2013 Received variation for bush fire requirements
05/07/2013 Sent signed BAL variation back to builder
09/07/2013 Plans updated for BAL variation, gone back to scheduling
10/07/2013 Received confirmation from construction that earthworks would start within 10 working days
03/08/2013 Went to visit the land and found a SLAB!
10/08/2013 Soakwells and other stormwater plumbing is in, some window frames delivered
17/08/2013 Bricks have been delivered, plus more window frames. Excess concrete from slab has been cleared from site.
29/08/2013 SS confirmed that the brickies have started to lay the bricks
09/09/2013 Brick work completed:)
11/09/2013 Site has been cleared of all brickwork rubbish
12/09/2013 Timber for roof frame delivered, cement and sand for render delivered
16/09/2013 Front external render completed
17/09/2013 Roof frame started
23/09/2013 Roof frame finished, fascias finished
27/09/2013 Batons on roof for colorbond finished, hardiflex in garage, alfresco and eves finished, electrical work finished
8/10/2013 Plumbing finished
9/10/2013 Colorbond and roof sarking started
12/10/2013 Colorbond finished!
18/10/2013 Grey float rendering finished inside the house, gyprock and cornices delivered
25/10/2013 Ceilings and cornices finished
30/10/2013 White float finished and windows started
4/11/2013 Windows are all in
5/11/2013 Doors started
6/11/2013 Lock up!
7/11/2013 Laundry trough and taps in, bath in, Kitchen cabinets delivered and half installed, shelves delivered, tiles delivered
8/11/2013 Kitchen cabinets finished installing, bathroom cabinets all in, stone benchtop for kitchen in, sinks and taps for bathrooms in, hot water system installed, white ant spray done around house
11/11/2013 Garage floor poured, kitchen sink installed
12/11/2013 Ceilings and walls have been painted, door frames all in and painted
13/11/2013 Tile meeting, tilers have done screeding and water proofing
19/11/2013 Aircon pre start
20/11/2013 Shelving finished to robes, pantry and linen
21/11/2013 Tiles finished
29/11/2013 Electrical finished, plumbing finished, paving delivered and driveway prepared, air con installed, insulation installed, oven and rangehood installed, air vents installed to toilets, toilets finished being installed
6/12/2013 Skylight installed, stovetop installed, first coat of painting to shelves and eaves done, paving finished, shower screens and mirrors in the bathrooms installed and sliding robe doors installed.
10/12/2013 Final painting done to all doors, shelving and eaves
13/12/2013 Fly screens installed
15/12/2013 Render painted
16/12/2013 Blinds installed and final clean done. Also PCI.
18/12/2013 Garage door installed.
18/12/2013 Key handover
30/12/2013 Painting started
31/12/2013 Brick letter box/planter box built
1/1/2014 Skirting started
6/1/2014 Flooring started
9/1/2014 Flooring and painting finished
11/1/2014 Moving in!!

Love what you did with the kitchen!!

I don't understand why a door isn't standard on laundries!!

Me either, like anyone wants to be able to hear the washing machine from the other end of the house!
My friends just built last year so when we were planning we went over and that was the number one thing they wished they had remembered to include.

Very Nice, not long now till you see some physical changes to the block!
I'm guessing you have kids as that activity room between the 3 bedrooms is such a good idea. The only change I would do personally is to change the door from the garage to the side yard into a wider roller door. That way you can stow stuff like lawnmowers or pool equipment (if you don't have a shed) Otherwise everything else looks good, specially the big alfresco!

Lovely choices

Thanks Mike. The backyard isn't really big enough for a pool, but the fiance wants to put a little shed in for garden equipment and lawnmower types of things. I think a narrow one next to the garage? Will wait and see what he does.
And no kids yet, not for a few years at least, but I imagine they will come along before we are able to move house so got to try and plan ahead.

Been waiting to hear back from the client administrator with all of our pre-start variations. it has been taking forever (had pre-start on 7 March) because we needed to get a quote for conduits so we can add ceiling fans and more lights after handover. Lucky for me though because I thought of extra changes to make and would of had to pay variation fees if we hadn't still been waiting.
We changed the fixed panel under the oven to be a pot drawer and changed two of the four panels in the ensuite cupboards to be drawers (never have enough drawers for my liking)

Got back our draft pre-start variations today.
The pot drawer under the oven is $255
Changing the ensuite counters to drawers on two of the four panels is $566 (this is the largest change we made and I think more expensive than it should be but oh well)
Conduits were only $275 (glad this was alot less than originally quoted!)
We got a credit back on leftover paving for the crossover and for downgrading our shower heads (the fiance didn't like the standard ones that came with our plan)
The gas point for our alfresco was only $100 (our sales rep is covering the balance since he made the mistake of forgetting to add it like 3 times)

All in all, pretty cheap so I am happy
Now to sign and go into scheduling!

You ensuite draws we're cheaper then we were quoted. They wanted to charge about $900 for two sets of three! It was one of the things that had to do! It was almost the same price as the kitchen pot draws just half the size!!

I struggle to see how changing cupboards to drawers can possibly cost an extra $900 (or $566 at that). It's just some drawer runners and some extra wood and labour.
But unforuntely it is one of those 'need to do now, can't do ourselves' things! The small changes are where builders make alot of their money after all!

I agree it seems the markups are the highest on the things we can't do ourselves later. Our kitchen upgrades wine over draws in the bathroom. Maybe the next house!

I think our microwave recess was about $500! Yes some more work but would have thought it actually involved less products!

Posting to follow your build

You could just click subscribe to topic instead Leanne.

Nice plan Felicity
I like your colours and selections

Nah cause I view posts on my mobile by selecting 'views my posts'. Brings up all topics I post in

Plus I like to let person know rather then stalk quietly :p :p

Good floorplan!

Haha thanks for your comments guys, it is good to know I'm not the only one that thinks things look nice. First home buyer= have no idea what I am doing!
Our microwave recess is built into the kitchen island, which I was worried about for one day when we have kids since it will be within their reach but am sure we can child lock it. But I definitely had to have a recess, do not like the idea of the microwave just sitting on the bench taking up all of the space. Will be adding more cupboards into the kitchen after handover, way cheaper to get cabinetmakers we know to do things rather than the builder.

I didn't even know you could subscribe, I have been doing the same as Leanne. Learn something new everyday

Wow, another The Monteray by New Generation on here. This is my version of the Monteray.


I like a few of the changes you have made with your plans and by the sound of things you have done very well negotiating.

Wow they are charging $334 for mine

They originally quoted $274 or something like that for it, but our sales rep was supposed to add it into the original contract and he told us it would be around $100 and that if he couldn't get it in he would pay for it, so I told that to our client administrator and so now we only have to pay $100, glad I told her because I actually didn't think they would make him pay for it! Good for us though
I LOVE your changes, really wish I had thought to do some of those, like extending the minor bedrooms and the changes to your master bedroom walk in robe and ensuite. Did you have to shrink a little off the alfresco? I had thought of that but my fiance was very adamant that he not lose any of his alfresco as the backyard is already pretty tiny. I would of loved to utilise more of the walk in robe space though, will have to work something out once we are in the house.

no loss of alfresco size. I extended bed 1, L'dry and bed 4, then added an eve to all that side of the house. There is dead space at the front of the ensuite and WIR, so made two different entries, put a door to the ensuite and remove the toilet out of the compartment. The ensuite size didn't change much but the WIR doubled in size.

I like what you have done with your WIP, works better than mine

Oh that's it, I tried something like you did but my fiance also insists on having the toilet in it's own little room so it didn't work out. He didn't ask for too many things so I just let him have it even though it didn't bother me.
I actually like your pantry, look easier to get to things than mine.
Looking at other peoples plans makes me want to changes things but it is too late now. Like extending Bed 1, Bed 4 and laundry. We were going to do this but I think our sales consultant recommended against it (I think he was just being lazy though).
How far along are you? Done pre-start? Gone into scheduling?

Looking good felicity! Hopefully smooth sailing from here on in!