Henley Monterey Belle Q2

Having looked at what seems like almost 30 different display homes from the various builders, we've finally decided to build with Henley Homes. The main attraction is the number of standard inclusions, 50 year structural guarantee and 1 year maintenance period. We choose the Monterey Belle Q2 because of the layout and the flexibility for further structural changes.

We've found this forum very handy spending a lot of time reading other people’s builds and have already picked up loads of great tips, especially those building/have built with Henley. This will be our first build, so any tips and suggestions would be very welcome.

Land: 576 sqm (16m x 36m)
We put a deposit down on some land in Clyde North back in December. We were told at the time it will title between Nov '16 and Jan '17 so we thought we'd have plenty of time to sell our current house. Six months later and our house has been sold (we're currently renting it). I popped into our land developer sales office for an update a couple of weeks ago and they told me they're hoping our land will now title in August '16. Initially I thought we'd sold our house too early, but with the new information I'm glad we did.

House: Monterey Belle Q2 (Broadway facade with part render) with the carpet (Cat. 1) and flooring (Cat. 1B Augusta laminate) promotion.
The land we bought dictated this particular version (16m frontage). The layout and space suits our lifestyle better as we didn't have much storage space and never had space for guests/visitors to stay.

We have decided on the following upgrades.
- Fixed site costs (I know, not really an upgrade, but wanted peace of mind)
- Kid's retreat option
- Grand Alfresco option
- Guest bedroom in-lieu of study
- Increase ceiling height from 2570mm to 2720mm
- Extend length of home by 1000mm (beds 2 & 3 extended by 500mm each)
- Flyscreens to all openable windows
- Double glazed windows
- Double 820mm cavity sliding doors to Theatre room
- 1020mm cavity sliding doors to entry and rear hallways
- Front timber windows
- Translucent glass internal doors to pantry and laundry
- 5 star zoned heating option
- Franke Queen undermount double bowl sink
- Laundry laminate benchtop/cabinet and overhead cupboards fit out
- 300mm x 580mm shower niches to ensuite and bathrooms
- Square set cornice to whole house
- Luxury electrical pack

We had our Cosham information session a couple of weeks ago. That was a real eye opener. We came away feeling completely overwhelmed , however, I must say we were quite pleasantly surprised with what you get for category 1 with Henley. We have our colour appointment in two weeks’ time. We've been looking in display homes and trying to work out what colours we want. I was hoping that they still had the concept boards (to give us a good idea - colours aren't my strength :: ) to help us with our choices but they stopped doing these about a year ago. They only do the external colour choice board now .

I will put up our colour thoughts in another post as we haven't quite decided and still have some time. What was also interesting at the visit was the other upgrade considerations. I now have a secondary list of things I'm considering. My only concern is what will happen at bank valuation time. I've tried to stick to mainly structural changes (see above) which I think the bank will accept(?).

Here's what I'm also considering:

- Both toilets upgraded to medium range
- Front door (INF5VG Corinthian infinity range)
- Offwhite mortar
- Sarking
- Category 2 underlay with category 1 carpet
- Move roof access hole to laundry (not sure if they charge for this)
- Privacy locks on powder room and ensuite toilet doors
- Extra data points for study and kids retreat
- Garage set down

I have also been giving consideration to having independent inspections (probably Darbecca) done for the following stages (is this overkill?)
- Pre slab pour
- Framing
- Pre plaster
- PCI

I think that's it for the moment. I would appreciate any feedback on any of the above or even some important things that I've completely overlooked!

Timeline:
- Deposits paid: 29.11.15 / 16.04.16
- Colour appointment: 30/05/16
- Tender appointment : 15/06/16
- Contract signed: 15/06/16
- Electrical appointment 14/07/16
- Unconditional finance approved 09/09/16
- Land settlement finalised 05/12/16
- Building permit issued 21/02/17
- Site cut started! 16/02/17
- Slab poured 07/02/17
- Frame and roof trusses complete

Not sure if Henley and Plantation share the same inclusions, but we are currently building the Sahara Belle Q3 and two whirly birds, garage set down and the privacy locks in powder rooms, bathrooms and ensuite were included. We wanted off white mortar too but I couldn't justify spending $2000+ on the upgrade especially since the front part of my house was going to be all render.

Hi Pirz, welcome to the forum
I'm building with MainVue (Henley). There are a few of us currently building with them. You have a long list of upgrades! It will be a lovely home.


viewtopic.php?t=81336 Building with MainVue...Modified Ivory 436...our journey

Four stages of inspection is highly recommended and is certainly not an overkill.

Hey Pirz looking forward to seeing you build also going with Henley, great choice upgrades sound good too, can't wait to see your colour selections!


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Thanks SG. Glad to see your build taking shape

Thanks JaneW. Looking forward to seeing your build start

So am I!!! Hahaha, thank you


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We've decided to scrap the 5th bedroom option as we lose about 450mm off the theatre room and 1400mm off the living area. We think we're going to turn the study into a bedroom instead.

Also got told by Henley that we get two whirlybirds with the colorbond roof.

We're also thinking of moving the hatch opening into the laundry. Not sure if they charge though

Colour appointment two weeks today. Have visited more Henley displays over the weekend for inspiration. Really want to get thecolour choice right 😨

If you don't need the study I agree that it's a better option for you to make it a bedroom. You don't want to lose space off your theatre and living, especially if the extra bedroom is a guest room that won't be used all the time.
We did the opposite and turned our 4th bedroom into a study because that's what worked for us.
Im curious...why do you want to move the hatch (manhole??) into the laundry?
It's so hard picking colours isn't it!! Trust your instincts and don't worry about what other people like...it's your house!!

Thanks.

The main reason for moving the manhole is purely aesthetics. We will have a nice long corridor and the ceiling would be broken up with it there. Moving to the laundry would 'hide' it

Totally get it now.
Ours in in the master walk in robe...very hidden. Hopefully they don't charge you for the move.


viewtopic.php?t=81336 Building with MainVue...Modified Ivory 436...our journey

Hello,
I cant wait to see your build progress,
we built the Monterey Belle Q2 as well and moved in about 3 months ago - i do have a long winded thread on here somewhere.
Just some points ive noticed since living in it is, the kitchen is quite dark with the doors on the theatre room. We have glass doors but when you put the cavity sliders on the opening is made a bit smaller, yours might be ok though as you will have light coming in from the kids retreat option. We really wanted that but as we extended bed 2 and 3 500mm like you are doing it just made the house too long for our block so we had to scrap it.
I would have loved to have had it though.
As for the man hole, they would not let us move ours, something about roof access and the pitch of the roof and position of the heater unit in the roof.. It will be interesting to see if they let you move it. We dont even notice it in the hall way to be honest. Our bad plaster and paintwork distracts the eye away from it anyway.

Hi there, congrats! i'm also building with Henley we have our colour appointment on 23 June i can't wait. Have you been given a price for any of your upgrades yet? we are still waiting to hear about lots of ours. In particular have you received a price for the ones below:

- Increase ceiling height from 2570mm to 2720mm
- Extend length of home by 1000mm (beds 2 & 3 extended by 500mm each)
- Double glazed windows
- Double 820mm cavity sliding doors to Theatre room
- Translucent glass internal doors to pantry and laundry
- 5 star zoned heating option
- Franke Queen undermount double bowl sink
- 300mm x 580mm shower niches to ensuite and bathrooms
- Square set cornice to whole house

Would love to know what $$$ they are, they are exactly what i'm looking at too!

Sorry for the delay in responding, been a busy time!

Hi jessicana10,

I watched your build as it was progressing and it gave us a few things to watch out for. I hope everything gets sorted out for you. I received a note from our admin and she stated that we could move our Manhole, as long as it's positioned in the ceiling as it is located in the space directly in front of the linen closet on the standard floor plan. I'm thinking of installing a SolarTube into the kitchen (somewhere) post handover, so thanks for the tip. I've been quoted roughly $1000 to do that.

Hi henleybuild, we haven't had our Tender appointment yet (in two weeks time) but our Sales person gave us pre-tender prices. I will list these below:

- Increase ceiling height from 2570mm to 2720mm : $6359
- Extend length of home by 1000mm (beds 2 & 3 extended by 500mm each) : $2825
- Double glazed windows : $1734
- Double 820mm cavity sliding doors to Theatre room : $1146 (went for 2 x clear glass doors)
- Translucent glass internal doors to pantry and laundry : $848
- 5 star zoned heating option : $1785
- Franke Queen undermount double bowl sink : $1295
- 300mm x 580mm shower niches to ensuite and bathrooms : 2 x $295
- Square set cornice to whole house : $1800


We had our colour appointment last Monday but have only just received our colour selections. There's so many to consider that I couldn't remember what we went for in the end, so didn't want to update with vague info. I must say that the whole experience was less stressful than I thought it would be and came away with a feeling that we are happy with all our choices, so a big thumbs up to Henley!

We actually went with category 1 choices for everything apart from the underlay (Cat 2. Super Green 10mm) and the cabinet handles (Category 2 - $6 a handle upgrade) so it will be interesting to see how it turns out! Below are a few of the main choices we made:

- Bricks : Mannagum
- Mortar : Rolled Off White
- Aluminium windows/Downpipes : Jasper
- Garage door : Slimline horizontal panels - Colorgrain Caoba
- Front door : Corinthian INF5VG - stained Rich Chocolate
- Roof/Whirlybird/Fascia : Colorbond - Monument
- Render : Russian Toffee
- Flooring : Timber Laminate Category 1B 8mm Augusta (Espresso Oak) / Carpet Category 1 Esperance (Hessian)

If anyone is interested, I can upload photos I took of our selections.

So now we wait until the Tender and Contract appointments in just under two weeks time!

I'm interested! I'd love to see your colours
I also read about Solar Tube on your post. I'm going to google it now. We have a couple of natural light issues too. It wasn't until the plaster went on that it became obvious..... Inexperienced first time builders!


viewtopic.php?t=81336 Building with MainVue...Modified Ivory 436...our journey

External colours:


We're trying to achieve this kind of look (single storey)with a few subtle changes:


This is our timber stain colour for all external/internal doors and timber windows. The image also shows the front door style we're going with:


Our kitchen colours will match this image:


Timber laminate and carpet colours: colours:


Bathroom colours:

Siting drawing done:



Tender appointment tomorrow

Sorry for bad image quality. Tapatalk scaled it down

Hey,

Do you know if the display home in clyde ceiling has upgraded or the 2570mm?