Arden Homes - Votivo 43 - New home build

Hi All,

I've finally got the time to create my own build topic after months of following several builds and virtually meeting a lot of the good folk here on home1.

I'll keep this thread as up to date as I can and I hope this forum can help those who are building new homes.

First up - back story:
We are relatively new to Melbourne (and Australia in general) after having lived as expats in another country for a long time. We are now settled here and are looking to build our family's roots starting with owning our first home.
We bought a decent-sized land in the northwestern suburbs and it is expected to title at the end of the year, however, i'm not holding the developer to that as i've seen pretty much every estate and their grandmother has land titles delayed. I am hoping, realistically, that we'll be able to start our build after the summer break next year.

We've shopped around for almost a year - talking to a lot of builders and getting quotes from a few. We always wanted a double-storey house so that's where our search was focused on. We almost signed up with H for the Aegean (we were torn between that and the Sahara), but after several trips to several display centres, and talking to several of their sales consultants, it became apparent to us that they didn't have the flexibility we were looking for.

We found Arden homes just by chance, searching online after having exhausted all the big volume builders. We met our sales consultant CB and she was the best we ever met. From the get-go we loved Arden's transparency, flexibility, and the quality of their displays. We also loved the fact that they have a "what you see is what you get" transparency in their display homes - where inclusions are clearly shown and labeled, and upgrades are identified. They even give you a "live here" price to give you an idea of how much a home with the same upgrades as the display home would cost. Not all builders do that.

After settling with Arden, we chose our house model - it was either going to be the Beaumont, or the Votivo. Both look very similar, with the Beaumont having an open staircase. We went with the Votivo 43. And so it began.

Sales process:
- Our sales consultant CB walked us through the Beaumont (this was her display home) but she helped us with the Votivo. We did a few sketches, bounced a few ideas over a few face to face meetings.
- Finally we decided on what we wanted (sort of) and she helped us with a quote. Having visited a lot of builders, and having seen a few quotes, we pretty much knew what changes/upgrades we liked. What I liked about Arden is that even at quote stage, they can price up almost everything - yes I got a lot of the upgrades and even custom changes priced even without going through the colours appointment yet. This gave us a really really good idea of where the ballpark would be after we go through the whole process. It was so good in fact, that the only thing left to price after colours and electricals were the electrical upgrades, tiles, and minor stuff.
- Following quote we've done our colour browse - twice. They were kind enough to let us do a second colour browse because we fell short of time the first time around. (We underestimated how far we were from Berwick and we were late for the appointment!).
- During the colour browse, their interior designer C showed us around and pretty much helped us with our colour scheme. We had everything written down so when it's time for colours and electricals we could hit the ground running.
- Did the colours and electrical appointments last month and are now waiting for our tender appointment. I am not following up on purpose as we are not rushing, and I also don't want to rush. We have enough time. Enough time to change our minds and mentally torture ourselves which i'm sure everyone else is also going through in their first build.

I look forward to following your thread as we too are building the Votivo 43! Good luck.

Here are our floor plan sketches.

Ground floor changes:

- Convert Rumpus to Alfresco
- Increase garage width by 1.5m and add roller door at the back
- Shower to powder room customisation
- Move fridge space to left side of the kitchen (same side as the powder)
- Swap pantry and laundry
- Move laundry door to new laundry
- Remove included SMEG freestanding cooktop and replace with SMEG PGA96 cooktop and SMEG SA940CXA rangehood
- Add single wall oven tower (with space for stacked ovens) where the original fridge space was
- Modify kitchen drawers/cabinetry as per drawing
- Increase kitchen benchtop depth to 1.1m (was originally 900mm)
- Add window splashback to pantry and laundry
- Add single square sink in pantry
- Add base and overhead cabinetry in pantry
- Add built-in pantry to pantry (will be converted to pull-out later on)
- Add hafele euro cargo pull-out bin in kitchen
- Add stone benchtop in laundry - covering washing machine and dryer
- Add overhead cabinetry to laundry
- Add french type doors in study (could still change)
- Add sliding doors to home theater
- Bigger entertainer stacker doors to alfresco (may change to entertainer bi-parting if budget allows)




First Floor changes:

- Changed ensuite layout as per drawing
- Increased shower screen size in Bath
- Dual vanity in Bath
- Drawer tower inside WIR in all rooms

Hope the best for your build - we r building Votivo 37 with slight modications too -
We kept the ground floor layout as it is. Just moved rumpus in line with dining/living, added a shower at the back of laundry doing away with linen storage - shower being 900x1800. Added Alfresco
Added CSDs every where. The entrance door being a Pivot door.
We r hoping to start our build around August/Sept 17.

Csds?

Wow good luck. We also started with the votivo 37. We thought the 43 had a very wide hallway, but we wanted the rooms of the 37 to be a bit wider.
After much deliberation with the wife, we decided to go with the 43 instead of increasing room sizes on both floors on the 37.

I hope your titles don't get any more delayed.

does your new kitchen config still fit pots? And is one of the cupboards for sauce.

Yes it will still fit pots. The original sizes i think are too deep.

The tiny doors down the middle are for sauces. I will install pull out mini pantries later on.

Will be posting my kitchen storage plans and inspirations soon. Watch this space.

Very nice.
Yes we have 3 drawers for pots and a sauce drawer atm at our house too so considering changing to that. Have they given you a cost on this change?

Not yet. Will find out at tender. I believe it should be just a few hundred, even less, as you're not really adding new cabinets. At least that's what they said during colours.

Great plans. Love your master ensuite with a bath, looks great.

Thanks. Yeah we had to re-jig as that is actually a spa bath, so a bit wider than the standard bath.

Oh and just noticed your fridge space, very clever!!

I did forget to mention, we asked Arden to put floor wastes to all wet areas:
- ensuite and toilet area
- gf shower
- 1st floor bath
- 1st floor powder (toilet area)
- laundry

We couldn't understand why this is not "standard" with builders, particularly in VIC. We have a friend in Perth who had this in their house as standard. Read in other forums that they do this in other states too.

What happens if you are away and you got a pipe burst in these areas? Where would the water go?
Thankfully Arden does this kind of modification. Others don't.
This is one of the reasons that drove us away from H and the other major builders.

By the way, these didn't cost too much to add. Only a few hundred in total.

Oh I presumed this was standard!!! Jeepers!

Nope. This is one of the those things that you thought were common sense until you look at the display homes and find them missing.
We actually had to ask other builders if they could do this and why it isn't standard. I got different non satisfactory answers.

Seeing as I left a bath running and nearly overflowed the bathroom I better got onto this!

I did the same - was worried cos last time my kid pulled out the washing machine hose and had water all over. I asked for alfresco too during colour and at tender they quoted for 3 saying alfresco waste point is included but in contract found it missing. They said it is not standard for alfresco. Total cost for 4 waste points around $784 or 196 each.

Love your floor plan. All the best with your build!

Do you know how much it is to change laundry laminate top to stone?