Building a Carlisle Homes Radison 35 in Boronia (KDRB)

Hello friends,

The wifey and I have started the process to build with Carisle Homes and have chosen the awesome Radison 35 as our future family home.

It' still early days with settlement on the block happening on the 5 May 2017 and we need to demo the existing house and clear the block before building can commence but should be an interesting and I'm sure stressful venture.

Will update with more details as things progress.

Cheers, Chris.

Hey CJ,

Congrats for your progress on building Radison 35.

We are also thinking to go for this one from CH.

We are just investigating at this stage and haven't even asked for any quotes yet.

Just trying to look for a good plan and builder.

We have looked at almost all major builders amd Radison meets our requirements the best up till now.

If you have any advice for us if we go for Radison that would be much appreciated as we have no experience with home building whatsoever.

This is a knock down rebuild.

Many thanks in advance
Harpreet!

Hi Harpreet,

I'm currently at the frame stage, if there is anything I can do to assist please feel free to drop me a PM.

Cheers, Chris.

Thanks Chris,

The base price I see for Radison 35 is around 290k. I do understand it doesn't include site costs and other costs such as fencing driveway etc.

However in one of the other threads you mentioned that your actual build cost will be around 450k...is that still looking like it will reach 450, when you are at frame stage now?

Did you ask for many changes in the plan? Curious what kind of changes you asked for if any.

Cheers
Harpreet

Hi Harpreet,

My build came in to $399k in the end, additional to the base price and site costs which was about $62k I added/ did the following:

• Butlers pantry (got for free)
• Refrigerated A/C (got for free)
• Added frosting to front doors
• Cat 2 bricks
• Cat 2 roof tiles and ridge line
• 2.5m wide garage extension with 5.1m upgraded panel door
• NBN fibre kit
• Single phase surge protector
• Deluxe power pack & additional power points
• Door bell
• Fan to alfresco
• 1 x 4-way switch and 1x 3-way switch
• Cat 2 carpet
• Cat 3 underlay
• Roof sarking
• Double glazed windows
• Capped gas point for future BBQ
• 2x additional garden taps
• Raised bulk heads
• Double studs to three walls
• Sliding door for ensuite
• Walk in robe fit out as per display
• Ensuite/ power room/ bathroom tap upgrades
• Ensuite/ bathroom shower niche
• Kitchen island waterfalls (stone down sides)
• Premium entertainers stacker door
• Laundry bench extension with 1400mm opening with overhead cupboards
• Cat 2 draw handles

Additional to this I had to allow:

• $20k for demolition
• $10k for window furnishings
• $10k for driveway
• $1k alarm
• $2k for home network and CCTV
• $500 letter box

There is about $30k of other stuff like another shed out the back, home network, lights, washing line and so on plus I've allowed $20k for a full outdoor kitchen.

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Chris.

Thanks for a detailed response Chris.

That doesn't sound too bad at all.

Just one question on top of my head right now... Did you go with Carlisle for demolition as well or you went independent? What would you recommend based on your experience?

I have received a quote from one of the independent demolition companies for 17k.

Cheers!
Harpreet

Hi Harpreet,

Carlisle Home don't do demolition so you'll need to do this yourself, here is what I had to do post settle on my block:

Organise Asset Protection for the Demolition from council $160
Organise Tree Removal Permit from council $136 (This required an arborist report $957)
Abolish (not just disconnect) gas, power, electrical and phone services $66 (gas only)
Organise underground power $0 (This can be $0 and up to $10,000's depending on many factors)
Organise demolition of dwelling, garage and removal of all vegetation $19,000
- I used Diamond Earthmovers and they were excellent, give Claire a call 0404 497 971
Organise temp fencing for post demolition ($335)
- I used VTP and they were easy to deal with

You will also need to organise Asset Protection for the build of the new house, its a total con but not much you can do.

Hope this helps, Chris.

Thanks Chris for the reply - very informative. Three quick questions:

1. What is your fall of land? My block is about one meter fall and it's in the east of Melbourne. I hope I'll get a similar figure as yours at tender...

2. Did you get the free 14 kw ref AC as part of the big bonus sale? Atm, I'm looking to to pay ~$17k for a 17kw AC and I found it's extremely difficult to negotiate the price with Carlisle. Did you manage to get any discount at any stage?

3. How does CAT 2 Carpet and CAT 3 underlay feel? I'm thinking about CAT 3 for both carpet and underlay.

I'm looking to build the double storey Montague 44.

Thanks,
Craig

Hi Craig,

From front to bad its pretty flat and from left to right is about 300mm or so.

We bought an Afinity Range house and the Refrig A/C was around $3,999 from memory however we were able to negotiate and get it and the bulters pantry at no cost.

Sorry mate I can't tell you how the carpet feels as we are miles away from that point however I was told CAT 2 carpet with CAT 3 underlay will be a much better end result than CAT 3 carpet with CAT 2 underlay. We didn't go the CAT 3 carpet with CAT 3 underlay as we have a 2yr old and he's going to trash it plus we have plans for another.

Anything else feel free to give me a holla.

Cheers, Chris.

Many thanks Chris. I remember the butler's pantry is $1,999 in the big bonus sale, so you got a ~$6,000 discount - well done.

My quote (including $65k allowance for KDR site cost) is just below $500k and the sales guy could only waive the promotional $4,999 flooring cost for me and said Carlisle was not like other builders as the price was pretty firm. I'm not a greedy guy, but IMO the discount for a half million house is way too insignificant...

I'd probably wait until the contract stage and ask for a one off discount otherwise I wouldnt sign the paperwork...

Yeah there are new promotions going now so you can't really compare but I agree their discount is pretty poor.

Thanks for providing the detailed quotes. This is the first time I've ready about double stud walls and just did some quick Googling to read about it. What is the purpose of you putting these in for your house? Sound screening? Are you intending to put sound screen insulation in?

Hi Barry157,

I was told by the sales team the site supervisor WON'T put in additional studs so I can mount TVs and their studs are 600mm centres but I could options for 300mm centres. I'm mounting a 65" and 75" TV so I want it solid plus I'm a IT person and will be putting a 12RU rack in the garage for the Alarm, CCTV, NAS, WiFi Controller, Switch, NBN, UPS, etc. so I expect up to 50kgs in there and want more than two point of contact to secure so I felt it was $850 well spent ..... turns out my site manager would have played ball but doesn't matter, I can now put shelving, etc. up should I choose to

Cheers, Chris.

That makes sense. It depends so much on the SS. I'm doing a KDRB at the moment and my SS is excellent. He's a chippy by trade and he's happy to put in extra noggins for me personally. I too am planning to mount 2 x 75" TVs back to back so I got them (as a favour) to stick in some additional beam timber instead of noggins for the bracket.

Whereas I never saw my previous SS and getting him to cooperate would have been like getting blood out of a stone.

If your SS is easy going (including with you going on site by yourself) you should think about putting in extra HDMI and network patch cables into the wall so you don't have to worry about ugly conduits down the track. Unless of course, your sparky is already doing this for you.

My SS is great and he has given me the OK to go in and run all the cables I want which is a sh1t load of CAT6, HDMI, audio, etc. for all sorts of things.

Are you doing a KDRB with Carlisle Homes?

Hey Chris,

So we proceeded a little with our process and after actually looking at the display of Radison (Craigeburn), we think we might be okay with the 33 Sq version of it.. as we would rather have a little bigger garden at the back. (land is just 630). This gives us a tad bit smaller rear bedrooms and living area...

I got a high level quote from Carlisle yesterday, but am not sure at what stage you actually ask for a discount or ask them to throw in stuff..

Is it now or just before I sign the contract after going through the color selection process and all?

Thanks again for the help!

Hello!

We have a large block that's 21m x 50m so space wasn't an issue thus going to 35sqm and making the garage a bit wider ... we side have 1.8m down the dead side and 3.1m down the garage so plenty of room.

With regards to the cost you will need to screw down the price with the Sales person as once you have signed up you will have very little room to negotiate with your CLE or Client Liaison Executive and contract time is post Tender so no chance at all.

If you like PM or post here, me you quote and I'll give you some ideas/ tips on what to look at. Once you get to Tender stage you can question/ challenge a lot of things but some you just have to suck eggs on I'm afraid.

Cheers, Chris.

Here is the latest on my house:

• Site works done
• Plumbing in
• Slab down
• Frame up
• Gutters & facers on
• Roof tiles on
• Electrical, water & gas rough-in down
• Bricks and plater delivered and going on/ up this week