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Hi Everyone
I've been a serial lurker for a couple of months now and came across the forum while googling 'Coral Homes Colours'. We've recently bought land at Jimboomba and settlement was last Thursday. We are first home buyers and I've quickly realised we are over our head on this lol.
The hardest part has been deciding on a house design that suits our needs. Ideally we wanted 4 bedrooms and 4 living areas. We looked at so many display homes and poured over all their brochures over and over again. DH found a Indigo home and tried to modify it. While I would have been happy with it, it just wasn't jelling with me IYKWIM?
We took the chance of driving the 2 hours up to Birtinya to have a look at a display home there and as soon as we walked through knew it was the home for us. So after a negotiation with the sc and her making a phone call we signed with Coral Homes. We decided on the Casuarina 32 with minor mods.
We had the soil and survey come back 2 weeks ago and we are just waiting on the costing's to come through. We were told 1 - 1 1/2 weeks and it's been 2 now. So DH is chasing it up to see if we can get them moving along a bit.
I'm trying to find out what their standard colour range is. From bricks to roof tiles, floor tiles, carpets etc... so I can get a head start on colour choices I like. I don't want to go to the selection appointment and have to make snap decisions on the day cause I have a habit of second guessing and changing my mind (woman's prerogative I say!). I quite like the Blue Rio bricks but not sure if they are standard or even if they are still available.
I would love to hear all your thoughts and if any one has a current up to date list of the standard choices I would be forever grateful
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Hopefully someone building with Coral will also reply but if the Coral sales guys can give you their list of suppliers, you'll find the suppliers will know what is in Coral's standard range.
We're building with Rawson and once we knew the the suppliers for bricks, tiles, roof tiles, carpets etc we just called the respective companies and they gave us the standard list and upgrade price lists for most items. The only things I couldn't get direct were the kitchen and electrical price upgrades but I'm sure someone on here can provide a relatively recent list.
Hi Porsche,
Nice to see another Coral Home thread. We are building the Longreach and have used Boral Blue Rio as our brick choice, which is defiantly not in the standard range. I do have the brick range for Coral somewhere around in my email if you PM me your email I can forward that on to you. I look forward to following your build.
Robbie55 - Thanks so much. I will endeavour to ask the sc for their suppliers. We are waiting on her to get back to us on a ETA of the costings so will be sure to ask!
Kameko- That would be awesome! I'll PM you
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We are building with Coral in northern NSW. Currently, we are waiting to come back from council and I have my colour appointment next week. Once you sign your contract, you will be given quite an extensive colour guide with their standard choices on it etc. From signing contract to my colour appointment, I have 3 and a half weeks...and in that time, I have one "open Day" at head office. So most of my research has been online
Good Luck!
Hi
KJ_PottsvilleMost of my research has been on line too haha. I'm actually hoping to go to the open day tomorrow so I can get an idea. We had our 'costings' come back on Sunday (3 weeks after getting soils and survey back). They came back quite a bit higher than we were expecting so we've had to cull some things. Mostly big ticket things like driveway, alfresco slab (which we can arrange ourselves much cheaper) and Portico etc... But we're upgrading things like solar power and brick choice (Boral Blue Rio with White mortar) plus little luxuries like under mount kitchen sink, microwave tower with appliance cupboard and bulkhead, budget provided of course which we've had to increase.
We have a list of 'please explain' questions too in regard to fee's and things as well.
Kameko - Did you go with the white mortar as well? I'm trying to get ideas on roof colour and guttering colours that go with the Blue Rio. We aren't getting colourbond roofing (even though DH wants it) so just the concrete tile it is for us.
I've been looking at the Caesar stone as well. Really liking the Nimbus but really don't want while cupboards. I have 4 kids and I don't want to be wiping their fingers off the cupboards lol. But then I don't want a dark kitchen either cause I have one here and it's a nightmare. I also quite like a new colour coming out early 2014 called Raw Concrete but thinking it will either cost extra or not be included or available. I was just looking at the 'Classico' range on the website and anything that has anything other than 'standard' chosen I'm not looking at cause I'll just get my hopes up. But I do really like Atlantic Salt.
Also looked through Beaumont Tiles as well to get some ideas. Have quite a few listed down so hopefully they have one or two in the standard range.
How long does it take from the 'costings' to the 'contract'? I'm assuming cause we are taking out some stuff in this first 'costing' that it will be another 3 weeks before we get an amended 'costings'.
We are building with Coral Homes too. Ours is the Casuarina 30 - it is so good to see that someone else is building that design and I can't wait to follow your progress
We are dealing with the Newcastle office, and our sales consultant told us that we can make an appointment at the colour selections showroom whenever we wanted (he gave us the phone number). It was really good for us to go and see what we could choose from before our final appointment. Don't expect too much help from the person in the showroom though, as it is not intended to be a thorough colour selection. We were disappointed at the lack of help, but she was really helpful if we had specific questions. We asked about the front & interior doors because they weren't on display.
After we paid our 5% deposit, Coral did send us heaps of paperwork which included where we could go to veiw bricks, laminex, roof tiles etc - if you would like that list, PM me with your email and I will try to get it to you (but keep in mind it varies with the inclusions package you have chosen - and they are always updating it, and the location of your build).
Hi Tyger-eye
I love the Casuarina! It was just the best design for us. So much room. We keep being told it's a big home for our first home haha. I look forward to your build
. I'm in QLD so will be dealing with the Nerang Office. Do they have a list of suppliers? I'm happy to do the leg work so I can get a head start. My 2 youngest are in day care Tuesday's & Wednesdays and the older two are in school so I have 2 free days to research.
Those are great tips on the showroom. I'll remember to not have high expectations lol. I really only want to know what 'standard' selections are as that's all we are going to look at (apart from the brick).
I'll shoot you a PM
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We are building with Coral Homes too. Ours is the Casuarina 30 - it is so good to see that someone else is building that design and I can't wait to follow your progress
We are dealing with the Newcastle office, and our sales consultant told us that we can make an appointment at the colour selections showroom whenever we wanted (he gave us the phone number). It was really good for us to go and see what we could choose from before our final appointment. Don't expect too much help from the person in the showroom though, as it is not intended to be a thorough colour selection. We were disappointed at the lack of help, but she was really helpful if we had specific questions. We asked about the front & interior doors because they weren't on display.
After we paid our 5% deposit, Coral did send us heaps of paperwork which included where we could go to veiw bricks, laminex, roof tiles etc - if you would like that list, PM me with your email and I will try to get it to you (but keep in mind it varies with the inclusions package you have chosen - and they are always updating it, and the location of your build).
I have sent it to your email
We too, have been told ours is a big house - and for just the two of us, I suppose it is. We'll just have to start filling it up with kids - lol
We are planing on building the Casuarina 30 in the Hunter as well with inspiration inclusion,we are in the early stages of buying the land & have just came to an agreement for the sale of the land.By far the best layout we have come across in practicability for us as in media room is separated from all the bed rooms,no bedrooms at the front of the house,main bedroom is separate from all the kids rooms & as we will be building it on 1.5 acres & setting the house on the southern end of the property the living rooms & alfresco are facing north looking over the rest of the property.
The only issue i have with the lay out is that bedroom 4's door has to be closed to access the wardrobe & plan on visiting them tomorrow to see what issues it would cause to have the wardrobes built on the toilet wall for bedroom 3 & the wall adjacent to bedroom 2 for bedroom 4.
Changes we have already decided on are to have the storage area in the garage removed to allow for bigger walk in wardrobe as we are building a separate garage & will not need it & to have the washing machine & sink placed on the opposite wall so it is not up against our bedhead as we have a bad habit of washing at night LOL & besides that makes sense to me to have the plumbing for the bathroom & laundry adjacent to each other & floor drainage in the laundry as this is not standard $150 extra
tyger-eye,we would defiantly appreciate if you could send us the paper work list to get a head start as well.
Hi Scruffo,
Good to see another Casuarina
Your changes sound pretty good - and very logical. I wish we had thought of moving the washing machine/plumbing to the other wall
The only structural changes that we made was to extend the two back bedrooms, Bed 3 & Bed 4, by 1m (which also gave us more wardrobe space) and we also made the garage & study 1m longer (extends towards the front of the block).
Send me a PM with your email, and I'll send you the paperwork
Tyger-eye Thanks
. I'll browse through. I went to the 'open day' yesterday and the girls were very helpful considering there were 4 or five other couples there. I've chosen our colours and I'm very very happy with them. I plan to go to Beaumont Tiles next week and start sussing out tiles. I have a couple in mind. I was going to go with a colour called "Tuft" for the walls but when she showed me the sample card it looked too green. So thinking a colour called "Light Rice" full strength would be more suitable.
Scruffo - I do washing at night too (2 in cloth nappies) so perhaps I'll do what you plan on doing in the laundry? All though we have the 4th bed room against our room. We are keeping our storage in the garage and actually extending it by removing the bath in the ensuite. We would never use the bathtub so no point having it there. It would just be something else I'd need to clean haha not my favourite chore. We are doing the 'indulgents' inclusions. They were all the things I'd want to up grade. I'm also very happy with the 'standard' fittings and we aren't going to upgrade any of those. We are getting under bench mounted kitchen sink and adding a microwave tower with appliance cupboard to the kitchen. I can see what you mean about the wardrobes in bed's 3 & 4 but if you moved bed 4's wardrobe would you lose floor space or would you just not have the wardrobe behind the door and have that as floor space? Does that make sense? Below is the mods we've made.
Floor Plans
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx22 ... 32Jpeg.jpgCarpet Called 'Walk" (Bottom only top one too grey)
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx22 ... Carpet.jpgKitchen Colours (Caesarstone 'Nimbus', Laminex 'Peruvian Clay')
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx22 ... olours.jpgBathroom Colours (Caesarstone 'Latte', Laminex 'Raw Linen')
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx22 ... hrooms.jpg
We have just about had our Causarina 30 completed, just waiting for handover
We made a few modifications to the basic design
redesigned en suite bathroom
rearranged Utility room
redesigned Patio
added more storage to garage
added more space to garage
widened from
The entire build process, plans etc has been blogged here
http://buildingwithcoralhomes.blogspot.com.au/
Changes we have already decided on are to have the washing machine & sink placed on the opposite wall so it is not up against our bedhead as we have a bad habit of washing at night LOL & besides that makes sense to me to have the plumbing for the bathroom & laundry adjacent to each other & floor drainage in the laundry as this is not standard $150 extra
Well Spotted, we made the exact same change for the exact reasons, but it wasn't until the final plans that we spotted this
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bnx634ud1rzp ... .30.02.jpg
As I've already stated, we are now at the end of our build time with Coral, frankly at the present moment I'm more than a little irritated with Coral, but that could be as much down to stress as it it to any major fault on Corals part...ask me if Id build with coral again and the answer would not be a resounding yes... more of an 'Id think about it'
At the end of the day, errors and mistakes happen, and for me the important thing is that every time an error has been identified it has been fixed, Coral also did some considerable last minute repairs on some vandalism we suffered, which again is a big plus in my book.
However.... here are a few of the lessons I've learnt and some of the problems we encountered
1) whoever your site supervisor is at the start, its highly probably he wont be your site supervisor at the end, I know of about 8 coral homes builds, and only 1 (including ours) had the same site supervisor throughout the process... MAKE SURE YOU DOCUMENT EVERYTHING AGREED WITH YOUR SS
2) Coral homes are not Toyota, they don't have the exact same builders building the exact same product every day, there is absolutely no guarantee of competency of quality, in any of the work done, and just because in place A they build house B to a perfect standard doesn't mean you will get the same end product.
3) Know your contract inclusions and plan details down to the last punctuation mark, know exactly what you expect and make sure that its clearly stated in the contract, and when any work is done make sure that its exactly to your expectations
4) if ANYTHING is slightly different to your expectations raise it with your SS IMMEDIATELY
5) Inspect daily, here are some of the issues we picked up, the big one would have been the missing drainage point, had that gone unnoticed and the slab got poured then god knows how it could have been solved!
Missing drainage for Pantry
Wrong Post used for porch
Incorrect Air conditioning specifications given to supplier
wrong Ceaserstone worktops used in Bathrooms
6) If you are planning on having work done by a third party then don't expect Coral to make it easy, in some cases I've found their policies to be downright obstructive!
7) Between frame and the dry lining going in consider things like shelving, wall mounted TVs and network cabling, for the sake of putting a couple of extra pieces of timber in the frame and drilling a few cable routing holes you can make life a lot easier in the future.
Because of the way coral do slabs and the termite protection requirements then if you are doing your own driveway make sure you use a contractor familiar with Coral homes slabs
Hi Guys,
We are also going to build a Coral home (Noosa 279 Designer). Tomorrow is the appointment to finalise and sign the tender, so we are little bit stressed about forgetting something important.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
We are actually building at Elderslie.
bgkdavis - Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sure I will come and refer to it a lot. My FIL is a builder by trade so between him and my perfectionist DH we should be able to resolve any issues to DH's satisfaction. My DH is like a dog with a bone and will fight to get things done to his satisfaction. I'm sure our SC is dreading signing us up he's been that much of a pest so far lol.
The only thing we will be having done by a 3rd party is our glass splash back and it won't be done until handover. The other thing we want done is extra electrical for fans in the bedrooms which we will need to organise while they do the electrical wiring so hopefully DH can sort that out. We plan on having the TV wall mounted in the main bedroom so I'll keep your tip in mind
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It's great to hear from people who have already built with Coral cause we can then try and avoid potential problems.
bgkdavis - Just had a look through your blog. The house looks terrific! I really like your internal doors. I think they are the ones we are going with. Cause it matches the front door and will keep it consistent throughout the house. We are swapping out the front window in the media room and replacing it with 2 identical windows to the family room. We will have our TV in-between those 2 windows. Is that the 'Designer' Façade? Cause we are just going the standard (Designer) façade. Would have liked the 'Elliot' portico but would much prefer to upgrade other things like solar power instead. It's great to know what it will look like in the standard façade. I just haven't been able to picture it. I'm so glad you were able to have the vandalism repaired. Where are the parents to these kids? Makes you wonder doesn't it? The other thing we have to be careful about is the positioning of the showerhead particularly in the ensuite cause DH is 6ft so it needs to be at a suitable height. I'm so glad you've posted your blog it has really given me a good idea of what ours will likely look like. We've ditched the sliding doors in the garage but I wonder if they will build shelves cause we don't want shelves. Must remember to tell DH so he can ask the question. Are you able to tell me if the dishwasher has an exposed element? Sorry to bombard you with all these question.
The designer facade should look like the one (last picture)below:
http://www.coralhomes.com.au/attachment ... re_WEB.pdfWe have chosen the designer facade with soffit level portico which should look like (1st picture):
http://www.coralhomes.com.au/house-desi ... Jul-10.pdf