New Henley Electra build in Mernda/VIC

Hello All,

This new thread is to document the new Electra build which I am starting with Henley. Electra seems to be not as famous as the other Henley models, other than Cameron2608's thread it is difficult to get information. Hopefully my journey will also help others who may need this information in the future.

We have paid the deposit and the confirmed by paying the second retainer, so our admin account has been created and I now have access to the henley members site. The colors appointment is scheduled in mid May and the Tender appointment by end of June. I am looking at selling an apartment I have offshore to get the initial amount for the house, hopefully that happens soon else it will further delay this process.

A few extras we have added -

* Raised ceiling height to 2570mm
* Added a shower to the powder room downstairs
* Added all the five promotion packs (En-suite, bathroom, Kitchen, Garage, Laundry)
* Added under-stair storage
* Added one more sliding door to access alfresco from Dining
* Separate WC to bathroom
* Double glazing to all windows
* Aluminium fly-screens to all windows
* Added a door to study as I am planning to use it as a guest bedroom
* Heating upgrade with zones
* Evaporative cooling to First floor


Planning to do flooring & driveway separately, but haven't decided yet.

Hi Eskay,
As I said to Cameron2608, as someone considering the Electra, thank you for this post. Appreciate all the extra info we can get, given that its not on display.
Could I ask how much double glazing and the extra sliding door at the dining room was?
Thanks again 😊

Hi Silver,

Double glazing was $2.5K and the sliding door was $490. We loved the floor plan of the Electra and the spacious rooms; we are also thinking of upgrading the appliances to SMEG as I haven't read good reviews about Technika.

It also provides the biggest backyard among all the houses we considered. Are you considering any other plans along with Electra?

Thanks.

Yeah the wider but shorter FP - allowing maximum backyard, is one of the main reasons we like the Electra. Also like the Burbank Sullivan 364 (great alfresco!), but site costs were way above anyone elses (and we'd want too many changes/upgrades to suit us). Everything else we've seen is either too long or too narrow, or both (tried really hard to get a Metricon to work but they are all longer than we'd prefer).
Yeah we would definitely upgrade from the Technika, love my current induction cooktop and pyrolytic oven so might see if we can incorporate something similar if possible.
Thanks for the costings 😊

The Sullivan looks like a great plan. We looked for plans within $300K as that was the maximum limit of our budget for the base house, so no plans from Burbank made the cut. Happy to have found the Electra that met our expectations and budget too !

Happy to help - next is the colors appointment in May, pretty sure that my spouse will take care of that while remaining within budget

we are looking at this plan as well for the exact same reasons.
what does heat upgrade give you? zoning or more efficiency etc.?
we used Techinka before, average quality but not too bad. MW door pressing button stopped working after 3 years, DW very poor performance, 900mm upright cook not too bad at all, rangehood again average quality. You can always get your loved brand few years down the track. The reason is that you will notice when you take things out, builder won't give you full credit how much costed them to buy Technika. However when you upgrade, they will just add full cost of a new SMEG to you and keep the old unit for someone else. This is how they make money.

Hi bqian -The heating upgrade gives zones (seperate heating for the two floors). Yeah, we are just looking to see for the upgrade are cheaper as someone posted that it was $1K to upgrade the appliances from Technika to SMEG. If it comes too pricey, then we will live with Technika for a few years and then get something nicer.

The one thing I am a bit disappointed in Henley is the price for other facades, but it's something I am learning to overlook and just go with the default one.

What are the facade prices out of interest Eskay?
The credit on the Technika is never going to be as good as "full price" as they'd buy it in bulk.
Haven't heard about the 1k upgrade before.

Hi Silver,

Still waiting for the update from Henley on the cost for upgrading to SMEG, will make the decision once the Admin gets back.

I was interested in part-render of either Adele or Claire facades, however they cost about 5.5K. The one with the balcony (don't remember the name) is about 16.5K.

Marie facade costs about $2K extra so we didn't go for that as it is very similar to the default one.

Adele option 2 would be my pick but I guess brick needs to be upgraded at the same time to make it look better, another 2K minimum plus white mortar another 1k roughly. I always think first impression is worth to invest as structure is something can not be changed easily after handover.

I like the Claire better than Adele, but the cost is high compared to what other builders charge, so we have decided to stay with the default facade.

I've had a response for the cost of upgrading to SMEG, it costs 1K to 2K depending on the models selected to upgrade all 3 appliances - cooktop, rangehood and dishwasher. Does anyone here think it is a good upgrade?

The color session was completed with Henley yesterday.

We had it with Rachael Frost, who was really knowledgeable and helped us with all our questions.

We tried to be within the base range and not upgrade unless it was a functional necessity for all options. Following are the selections -

External -

Monument roof, Settlers Mannagum bricks, monument fascia etc., Jasper color for windows, Colorgrain Caoba for Garage front, monument for garage rear roller, Front door is rich chocolate, Main render is mudpack, Feature render is deep walnut

The kitchen colors are -

Wild Rice Caeserstone - standard 20 mm, Upgrade all items to SMEG - including a upright cooker, dishwasher and rangehood (& adding a SMEG microwave oven which was about $275), Upgraded to pot drawers, upgraded to have drawers above fridge, parchment color for Island and base benches, bronzeworks for overhead cabinet and fridge, and clear black splashback. We are considering adding a glass panel/window at the kitchen splashback spot as we liked it on the display homes, but it costs a little over $1K so it's still under review. Ignore the floor color as we are doing it outside Henley, but floor will be of a similar color.





For the ensuite and other bathrooms, we used the following as standard -

Jet Black Caeserstone, Stripple Hemp color cabinet, floating mirror, Radii shower & basin mixers, storm biege gloss tiles for the floor and amalfi gloss white for the walls. The floor tile will run up one wall of the shower on the ensuite which was a design we saw at a display home and liked. And, we've upgraded to add shower niches to all the showers.

Hi there, we are building the Electra. Can you please tell me what category your colour selections are from. Thank you

All our color & tile selection were cat1; we were able to match that with the display house colors we liked; I have to admit that I am pretty satisfied with the results And may I know where you are building the Electra?

Thanks heaps. We are building in Clyde North.

That's fantastic.

This is the display home kitchen we based our colors on, it used the same cat1 items including the caesarstone; except the overhead cupboard colors but we matched the nearest cat1 color for that too.

Yeah! That is going to look stunning

Hi Eskay, I was just wondering what are the five promotional packs you mentioned in your initial post? The ones for the ensuite, garage, laundry etc?

Thanks heaps