Building single storey Clarendon Kiet 25 in Brisbane

I am so thankful reading Clarendon related posts over past 3 months. We are young family would like to start a home with our little 8 month old boy and happy to buy a small land in Bald Hills about 17km away from Brisbane CBD. We went through 4 builders and ended up with Clarendon Homes as their floor plan and quotes suit out needs and budget better. Overall we are very happy with Clarendon Process and services.

Timeline:

02/03: First deposit $2000 to get site survey. We added cornerless stacker door, changing WIL to study nook, delete WIR in bed 2 and change Broom robe to Linen
28/03: Tender agreement received, there weren't much variation in the tender quote compared to the estimation except a $4500 PA for piering due to the influence of 2 small street gumtrees near the corner of our land. We signed the paperwork 10 days after and paid $1000 deposit
12/5: Contract received. I have to ring up the sale manager to bring my Building time down from 260 days to 146days as we only build a single storey house less than 30 squares and they advertised on their website that building time guarantee to be 18 weeks. Signed the paper work a week after and paid 5% less the deposit.
01/06: Tile appointment 1 day before, and Color and Electrical appointment happened on the same day at different locations.
22/06: All plans approved through developer, Council. Claredon has been fantastic in replying email, took me the most half of day to receive an answer.
18/07: Construction starts. Wooh woooh, finally after 5 months waiting.
31/07: Slab Poured.
10/08: Invoices for our first 2 stages which is Base and Frame Stage, the two invoices sent to me just a week apart.
20/09: Invoice for Enclosed Stage. Feeling so excited right now. I'm starting looking for quote for the post handover works.


Things we decided to do after handover to save cost, but hard to get loan for these:

- Flooring : we went with Quickstep Balance Vinyl for the whole house except wet area
- Electrical : We only stick with standard plan, extra power points, 2 way switches through the builder
- Ducted Air conditioner.
- Security and Fly screens.
- Blinds

Here is our electrical plan, I got advises from my boss who used to be an industrial electrician that I can have 1 single batten light point in every room, electrician can later go to the roof to do all of the downlights. Since this is a one storey house so there is no problem. Same as Ducted aircon. For extra Double power point, external light point we go with builder as there are more works involved after hand over. A trick to add extra power points later regardless internal or external is back to back with existing power points and this can be easily done by electrician.

Red figures are all extras, Blue ones are standards.

Good one.

What are the three reds? and another on kitchen island?

Hi immu999

Thank you. They are all extra double power points. The one at the kitchen island cost 100$ more than the other as they have to run conduit under the bench.

Color selections went smoothly, the consultant lady was really sick but she acknowledged that we had to take one day off work, so she attempted to be with us the whole time.

In the end, we only pay just over $800 for all the upgrades, guess we are one of a very few people who easily accept the standard options
Our upgrades were:

• Chrome waste for all bathrooms
• Round Basin for all bathrooms
• Different color for overhead cupboard including no handle
• Obscure glass in bathrooms
• Gainsborough trilock
• Upgrade Kitchen Splashback tiles

Kitchen has brownie tone since our flooring choice is Quick Step Vinyl Drift Oak Beige
Benchtop : Luna White Tops, Cupboards: White Mist, Overhead: Rocco Lini all in sheen finish
We chose Standard Beaumont Tiles which is Valencia White for all wet floors and wall (in different sizes though), which has grey thread texture, so our wet area color choices are in grey tone

Main Bathroom: Storm Top and Cavia Lini sheen finish
Ensuite: Luna White Top and Riga Salt Finegrain (I'd like to make ensuite bigger with all white color)



Roof: standard tile roof Magnum color
Gutter, Window frames: Monument
Facia and Letter Box: classic cream
Garrage: Terrain, in ranch style

All colors look a bit lighter and less red



Wall, Doors, Architraves, and Skirting are all in the same color Taubmans Marble Mist. Gloss finish for wood parts. This has Green and Earthy undertone which gives both warm and cool appearance. Hope it won't clash with our future interior choices


Beaumont Valencia White, new range, Gloss finish in the 200x400 Wall tiles. Love it. Much better than the popular Life Style Ice Grey IMO



Kitchen Splashback, Unite Hexetta White Satin Struc, on the left



PGH Brick Rice in standard mortar, in contrast with the brick, it looks so dark, but upgrade cost is $2000


Vinyl Flooring Quick Step Balance Click Drift Oak Beige, would hopefully save us time to install. Love the grooves between the planks which are not availble from most of other supplier. More pics here https://www.facebook.com/readsflooringw ... 3855033193

Nice colour selections tngo!


- B
A vue of the pines on the Gold Coast
forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=87210

Thanks @Bridgewitch, took me 11 times edit to learn that I should not resize the pics and not enter description in the Pictures while editting, thanks to my husband who is a web developer

HI There..your selection is awesome mate..especially the tiles and kitchen splash back..enjoy your new home.all the best..

Thanks Manpreet , did you still decide to settle at the estate ?

Site Scrapping last Tuesday, a week earlier than expected start date in my contract. was so happy.



Piers Down yesterday, total 9 of them, Clarendon required piering due to the two streets tree about 10m away , PA for $4500,
Waiting for the piering bill, hope I won't be shocked.

Oh wow.... you have started!!!


- B
A vue of the pines on the Gold Coast
forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=87210

Yes, We were lucky to buy the land when it was just registered a month before we found out the estate. I feel a lot for you, 5 months waiting for our building finalised was like forever. I still hope once your construction starts, everything will just go smoothly for you.

I thought, they already started your construction. Anyway, good luck:-D

Thanks Rgjain, all the best for your build too

Slab Poured, 2 weeks after commencement. Smoothest concrete I've ever seen LOL. The foundation looks huge, I can't even believe our house footprint only covers 51% of our land.

Anything I should double check at this stage ?

Hi tngo, I don't think you need to worry at this stage.

What a hectic time we had. I could not find a proper time to write an update. Change Job, some issues when living with parents (with initial thoughts to save money for house and give them time to be with my baby), although everything has resolved but my head was quite busy for a while. Despite of that, we still visit our place every week, it is amazing just see the house growing everyday like my baby growing. Frame were done just after Slab pour 1 week. Then another week for Roof, then billings were made for both stage ,whoops.

Bricks were done last week. What a feeling. The Brick color actually matches the facia so well, out of my fear that Classic Cream Colorbond would be too yellow. Initially I thought standard Mortar would made the exterial wall look cheap, but turn out it doesn't look too bad. Let's hope that when the brick clean and the mortar dry out a bit more to be lighter. the wall will look even nicer. Although, I still think I will do rendering for the front, to compensate the standard facade. Gosh, if I knew I got a better job, I wouldn't have hesitated to upgrade facade and mortar color.

I was quite happy with the fact that Clarendon has fencing for our construction. Not many builders around my estate actually has that apart from Plantantion Homes, Metricon (Not a proper fencing), some others I can't remember. However, for some reason they has left one part of the fencing not locked and we could get into...our house on weekends heheh.





I notice this hole and wonder if it needs any attention ?

Hey, Nice to see your post after long time. Its better to discuss with site manager.