Building Marina Q1 with Henley - South East Melbourne

Hi all,

I'm building my first home with Henley (Marina Q1) in Cranbourne. My land is finally about to settle in 3 weeks and I was hoping you all could give me some tips on what to watch out for during the tender process.

I have a few friends already building with other builders and they seem to have extra costs added all over the place that their builders "forgot" to include. Having relatives that come from the building industry, some things don't sound right. I'm interested to see what others who have gone through the building process have to say.

Also, I've had my introduction session at Cosham and have started going through colours and upgrades. Is there anything that is a must have or anything that is not worth upgrading? I'm doing my floors after hand-over.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks
Sarah

Hi Sarah,

we have built with henley and are now working out our new build

It sounds like you havent had your colours yet? Or you have?

We went to cosham for a bit of a look and due to some of the upgrades we were going to add at least 12k onto it!! Thats not including your electrical appointment, what have you currently included on your quote?

Hi Stayxtrue,

Nice, are you building with Henley again?

No I haven't had my colours appointment yet, just the information session where they give you all the prices for your specific house and upgrade options. So far I've worked mine out around the 8k mark. Electrical I was getting done after handover also. I have a few electricians in the family.

Can I ask you, what sort of things are negotiable? I've done a bit of research and the water/recycled water charges are way over priced. Same with some council requirements. I'm being charged for things that the Casey council don't charge the builder for. Did you have to pay for re-establishment of survey pegs? My site costs have been fixed at 9k so that's not an issue.

Currently in my quote, I have:
- Extended the garage by 2m and added a roller door to the rear
- Added double doors to the theatre room
- Removed one sliding door and replaced with a window
- Moved manhole from WIR to laundry

I was lucky that I signed up when the style-up pack was on, so the kitchen is pretty much upgraded so no upgrades needed there apart from me wanting to add waterfall sides to the island bench.

Thanks
Sarah

Yep we are building with Henley again they offer the best value for money and dont look ugly!

Unfortuately a lot of builders will charge you these $$$'s and I dont think there is a way out of them. 9k for site costs is quite good, we paid 12.5k for our first house, however building a double this time so the site costs will be around the 6.5k mark

we too got the style up promotion it was too good not to pass up so we put down our deposit to ensure we didnt miss out on it!

a few things to add if you havent already are, gas points to the talfresco, water to behind the fridge, zoned heating (saves us so much money) and it was around the 1600 mark.

I would love a double but the budget doesn't permit!! What house design did you go with? Your right, Henley do have good designs and the inclusions for the price you can't go past it!! Awesome, the style-up package is great!! Have you started choosing your colours yet? Where are you building if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks for that! I've added the water taps for the fridge, but I don't have an alfresco with this design. Is zoned heating worth it on a 25sq home do you think? I hadn't thought about that. They just added double glazed windows to the quote. How'd you go with the 6 star energy rating? Did you have to do much to meet the rating?

Well we currently have a house in berwick waters and we built the Monaco q3 and we love it! Its a gerat house, but we are just looking more towards the future at the moment and I am sick of not having a back yaerd So we are selling it up and have bought a block up at high grove in clyde north

zoned heating si definitely worth it!! As we can just heat the living areas and no bedrooms! Our friends gas bills are normally 3-4 times higher then ours in a similar sized house, so it definitely does save you a lot of money.

We are building the Palace Lux Q1 and bought a bigger block this time as well!! So should be far better then what we currently live in! OUr neighbours are just far too close for my liking

So, a few months on and construction is ready to start now! Here's my colours for anyone interested. Carpet and tiles are being done after handover.

External colours


Internal colours

Those colours look great! Loving the mix of white and greys inside! Definitely a huge fan of those fresh look

Hi sarzaa, we will be building Henley Marina q1 as well soon enough in West. Wish you good luck for your construction process. Just wanted to check if you received free flooring offer? Also what essentials upgrades did you do? Or any changes?

Thanks stayxtrue! How's your build going?

Hi afterashok, congrats on your build and goodluck with the whole process. No I signed last year and got the kitchen upgrade promo.

I made a few changes but nothing too major. I extended my garage by 2m and added a roller door to the back. Living wise, I moved my manhole to the laundry, made all windows aluminum, removed the side sliding stacker doors and replaced with a big window (left the back sliding stacker doors), added double sliding cavity doors to the theatre room & a sliding cavity door to the ensuite. That's the structural side. I upgraded bits and pieces of the interior like bricks and tiles to wet areas but nothing too out there. How about yourself?

Thanks for getting back.

We have our second appointment tomorrow at Cosham centre. Have only decided few things so far by reading forums and stuff.

Water Tap behind fridge
Sliding warbrodes doors for rooms - Depend on pricing
Exhaust out of cooking -
Ranghood cupboard - Covered rangehood
Privacy locks Toilets, Master
Bathroom Heating Duct extra
satinlite glazing to bathroom and ensuite windows for privacy
upto ceieling hirght tiles in bathroom
down lights under kitchen cabinets
benchtop powder room - Small bechtop for soap and stuff
Sliding mirrored wardrobes
5 star heating upgrade
heating zoning - Depending on price
shower niches
Manhole from Master to laundry - everyone does that hehe
sliding door to ensuite

Did those structural changes cost you extra. Like windows instead of the side stacker door ?
Why would you change from timber to alumium.
sliding doors to theater umm - I am personally thinking not to have so i can even use theatre as lounge if needed.

Any must have that you think from interior perspective ?
How is your build progress going ? Any photos ?

Sorry to ask too many question. Just getting a idea.

Oh we haven't stared yet, our block is due to
Title around June so we will see what happens after that and how quick it all
Happens

No problems at all. Ask as many questions as you like. I know I did when I was doing all my documents.

Structural costs weren't too bad. My biggest cost was the extended 2m garage. All up that was about $8500. I changed the living area windows to aluminum because of the maintenance side of things and personally I love the black aluminum windows. Didn't want half wood, half aluminum like the display home. Also they told me you can't put a screen door/fly screen on the timber stacker doors because the way the tracks are. By changing to aluminum I got $406 credit and changing one sliding door to a big window $560 credit. I was originally told it may affect my 6 star energy rating but it didn't. My report came back fine and I got a full credit on the $3000 provision.

Your internal changes sound similar to mine. My upgrades were:

- Bricks cat 4
- Offwhite rolled mortar
- Move manhole to laundry
- Tri-lock to Front door
- Deadbolt to laundry door
- Deadbolt to internal access garage door
- 720mm Double cavity doors to theatre
Single 920mm cavity door to ensuite
- Lock to ensuite
- Double glaze windows to whole house
- Add heater duct to bathroom
- Add cabinets above fridge
- Induction cooktop
- 40mm waterfall island bench end
- silk finish to whole kitchen
- shower niche to ensuite
- shower niche to bathroom
- Cat 5 floor tiles to all wet areas
- Cat 5 wall tiles to all wet areas
- relocated external PowerPoint to rear of house
- added junction box to rear of house
- added junction box to back of garage (for lights later on)
- Water taps fridge space
- Laundry fitout

Just a tip, when your at cosham ask them for a cosham voucher. I did and they gave me a $2000 voucher! (They deduct it off your tender). No harm in trying

As for my build, they have installed the taps and I got the call today to say they were starting early next week. So here's hoping!

If you have any other questions just ask. I'm happy to help! Good luck for tomorrow

Hi stay true,

Our land gets titles in June too. You building Marina q1 aswell? What estate? We can share ideas here.

Thank you for details good to know. The cosham 2000 voucher ended. You must have got it before July last year. We got free flooring though. Timber laminate and parking.

Added more things today

5star heating 2000extra
Ensuite sliding glass door 500
Sliding mirror doors all bedrooms 1000
All Appliances upgraded to smeg 1000
At cosham I thought most of the standard covers everything.

Maybe I ll upgrade timber laminate for better color. And overlay under carpet.
Front door and trilock.
Very confused with colours will leave it for cosham people to help out.

How much did you get charged for double glazed? I think this eventually saved you 6 star energy money.
Does your house have alfresco?
Did you go timber laminate? Which?
Also did you upgrade facades at all.
Thank you

Good to hear about water. Exciting times starts for you.

Where are you building?

We are building in clyde north, however we are building the sahara 40 floor plan. We are about to pay our second depost next weekend to move from Sales to admin stage, thats when we will start to do things such as colours etc. However we have been to cosham so many damn times as we just cant decide our colours but we are starting to become quite happy with our choices so once we go to colours I will post this to my own thread which can be access via my signature

That's strange about the voucher. It wasn't a promotion as I got the "Style up kitchen promotion" plus the voucher. I read about the voucher on this forum from someone else the year prior.

Nice upgrades. Yeah I found most things in Cat 1 were great too. If your stuck with colours have a look on pininterest. So many different styles and looks. I took photos into my colour appointment and they matched everything pretty easily. I was out in 2.5hours lol. I definitely recommend taking the time out to look at bricks on finished houses though. They vary so much and can't be changed later on. Maybe send us some pics and we can help you? I know I searched google images and these forums for weeks!

Double glazing of the whole house came in at $900. It did help but was not the only factor. So many things make up the 6 star energy.

No, I didn't put the alfresco on it. I am having my undercover area designed away from the house as I plan to put a pool in at a later date.

As for flooring, I am doing them after handover. I have gone with Timber look porcelain tiles for main areas, hallways and carpet for bedrooms/theatre etc.

With the facade, I went with the Barkley. Its one of the free facades. I loved the corner big window to the master bedroom. What have you chosen?

I'm building in Cranbourne in the South East Suburbs They said they were starting tomorrow so fingers crossed. Typical the rain started yesterday and is expected till Wednesday lol

Very good to hear, Similar time for me as well, I am yet to make my second deposit as well. Just can decide between facades. I have only just visited once for Cosham. I think the girls there are nice and friendly and can help us out to choose colors as i have no clue at all. Lets see how we go. may have to start my own thread as well

Hi Sarz,

Extremely confused with the facades weather to spend more on facade or not. I have to get full front rendered so even on the cheapest Broadway i am paying 2200 for front render. I really dont like that facade very plain, Small porch no elevation.

My original quote was 230k on broadway and after some addictions from this weekend i am up to 138 now without color appointment or front landscape or driveway.

I wanted to check if facades are really worth it ? will it increase value of the house.
Also if the heating is worth upgrading to 5 start (Give Zoning/ future option for refrigerated cooling )
Cooling i am thinking of getting provision for split system in Living and master for $1000.

How much did you budgeted approx for your house. I just dont want to get too overboard. But want to get a nicer facade. The problem is i have to choose facade now and than colors.
I am still taking 5 grand ish for driveway and simple front landscape to begin with.

BTW i was given all this printouts for choosing different styles for ensuite setup bathroom setup. Kitchen setup and launcdry setup. Some of those alternatie looks nice as well. Did you choose any different ones that the default
I am going with the concealed rangehood for example.

Again good luck with you build keep posting new pics of progress and new findings with henley and overall.

when it comes to facades I do believe it does effect the value of your house. We Paid 7k for our henley Monaco q3 and it was some of the best money that we spent on the house! The house looks one of the best in the street and everyone makes comment about it.

the other thing to factor in is, facades cant be changed so think about changing the things you wont be able to do after. There are things you can do at a later date such as downlights etc. So it comes down to what you can afford and whats going to work best for you.

With our new house we are spending a lot of money to have a balcony because this just helps to give a greater presence of the house compared to a boring plain rendered finish.