Coral Homes Avoca 20 - Ripley QLD

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for quite a while reading everyone's build journeys and now that mine is about to get to the real action it's time I put it all up. Here's the timeline so far:

January 2016: Bought block of 372m2 at Providence estate in Ripley, awaiting registration and no access to the block yet.

May 2016: Land registered - now holding onto the block for a time to pay down extra on the loan and build an equity deposit for later construction.

August 2017: Sign contracts with Coral - below will be all the modifications I added but in this time it has gone to a home just for me to a home for my now partner and future step daughter (now 4).

December 2017: Bank contract finally sorted and builder starts plan approvals. After 4 ridiculous months of back and forth which includes 2 months of being fed bull about delays when my loan manager had let the contract sit in base approval stage without a simple copy of the contract which both I and the builder had sent her - with a new loan manager it still took 2 of the 4 months to finally seal the deal. This included me sending complaints to the consumer advocate due to lack of action, and also debating why my land was now valued 20k less than when I bought it (matching my rates quoted value) when land in the same estate is selling for 20k MORE despite my block having views of the valley on an elevated position. Very frustrating time and the bank wouldn't budge so although we know the final valuation will be much more, it didn't help us avoid mortgage insurance.

January 2018: Appointments for tiling and colours, builder has all approvals.

February 2018: Electrical completed yesterday, now just waiting for a start date!


We've gone past our contract start date and now owe Coral $750 per 28 days until construction start date, due at final payment. I will definitely be onto the bank to cover this as it was a delay of 4 months entirely due to their own internal problems. The sad thing is the first loan manager was great up until August, she was the only one who worked with me back in 2016 to get me my land and work out a plan to build myself a deposit. But onwards to the fun stuff!

Here is the floorplan:


I flipped this to suit my block as the zero boundary is on the right hand side, but otherwise left the plan alone. I love the layout and positioning of the master bedroom at the back of the house, and the ensuite with 2 sinks, enclosed toilet and massive bath and shower (I'm just over 6ft tall) were what sealed the deal for me. The double garage was initally a bonus for resale value but is now necessary with 2 cars! Here it is positioned on the block:






The block isn't super huge but there is a retaining wall along the back with a 2.26m drop and south/ southwest views of the Ripley valley. There is also a stormwater easement in the back corner (top left) where I plan to make a rainforest garden around it for cover.

Great floorplan and variations. All the best with your build watto82.

When I signed the contract back in August the Avoca 20 was being discontinued but Coral was happy to contract it for me, which was lucky as finding something I liked that suited the block was almost impossible without going to a more custom builder. I had no issue with that but preferred not to have to design one from scratch.

Contract included:

Mornington Facade in Narrow Lot - removed the standard windows for a regular double pane

Designer Package
- 1200mm front door - in Merbau
- 900mm european appliances - we removed the oven and rangehood to supply our own anyway
- 20mm caesarstone benchtops in kitchen, bathroom and laundry
- Upgrades to tapware
- Over head kitchen cupboards
- Wall hung vanities in bathrooms


Raised ceiling to 2550

Colorbond roof and frame

20mm kickboard to increase height of countertops - Coral refused to go higher than the standard height of our provided oven/cooktop

Display Home Package
- Added 10mm underlay and upgraded to Gold range carpets for bedrooms only
- Tiling to all other areas
- Extra high wall tiling in ensuite - all wall to I think 2100mm

Upgraded to off-white mortar for external bricks

Added 2 turbine roof ventilators

Additional insulation of 3.0 ceiling batts and 1.5 in walls - initally 2.5 in roof and sheeting only in walls

Changed master bedroom door to standard

Added 340 x 600 x 70 shower niche - now wish I had made it long enough to cover the width of the shower wall though

Kept timber slat screen for ensuite and added timber stain

Changed kitchen cupboards to sliding pot drawers where able

Changed sink to stainless steel double sink

Removed concrete alfresco and portico, and removed aggregate driveway - Will have timber decking to alfresco and portico, and white concrete driveway with path to front portico

Thanks chrinee

HELLO Fellow Providence (Future) Resident!

Your plans look really nice, I like the layout a lot. And yes double car garage is a necessity these days!

What section did you buy in? We bought our land in DEC 16, but luckily our land was already registered. Council still took 8 weeks to approve everything though

I like the look of your upgrades too, very nice choices. Have you got any photos of your colours? Would love to see them

I don't know if you've been out to Providence recently but Coral are building some new displays there now on Providence Parade.

I'm following along - I'm very excited to see someone else from Providence here! The only thread I could find when I joined was never completed.

Hi allblaqk, we bought in the Maguire section which looks like it still has the final upper street to be developed yet.

I'll be putting up way too many photos of our choices shortly, I've seen a number of Coral builds which has been really informative, but none others for our estate. Will definitely be having a read of your build

Cool can't wait We are also in macguires! Best section

These are our colour selections:



From left and clockwise:
- Black A&L aluminium windows and door frames
- Fascia in Surfmist
- Gutters in Gully
- Colorbond roof in Wallaby
- Garage in Seville style in I think either Jarrah or Merbau - $495 upgrade to next timber range
- Front door in dark chocolate stain
- White render to front left window section
- Rest of facade and rest of brick all in St George with off-white mortar

Colour scheme was to be similar to this I made up on the brick site:




For the kitchen and bathrooms:



From top:
- Back kitchen countertop - Night sky
- Island countertop Intense White (upgrade)
- Cupboards in Polar White in Natural Finish
- Main bathroom countertop in Dawn Grey in Velour Finish
- Main bathrrom cupboard in Polar White in Natural Finish
- Ensuite countertop in Intense White (upgrade - total around $700 for both kitchen and bathroom)
- Ensuite cupboards in Rock Maple in Natural Finish

In the kitchen we went for a black gloss subway tile with a white mortar, to get a look similar to this overall:



Upgraded to the shower on the right but in polished chrome for about $250:



Selected the 4- panel front door style with upgrade to translucent glass

Added wash'n'wear paint for an extra $200, and added a feature colour of Dulux organic for around $156 each along the kitchen/ lounge wall and across the back door wall, similar to this but with a slight purple/ dusk tone:



The rest of the walls were the standard White On White

Upgraded the towel racks from 600mm to 800mm for about $15 each

I think that was it we're just waiting to get a copy back for the variation but it came out at an extra $1900ish

This is a fantastic idea!

Love your colour choices, it seems to flow nicely inside and out.

Tiling and Electrical

Tiles for the main flooring:



Ensuite:




Main bathroom, skirting and floor in main toilet and laundry:



Backsplash with white grout:



And some of the inspo pics:








Electrical:

We had a $2500 allowance to kick us off and added another $3200. We will be providing fans for the lounge and master bed, and lighted fans to the front bedrooms. We'll also supply the 3 pendants in the kitchen, plus a pendant chandelier over the dining. Here's the electrical plan:



The kitchen pendants:



And pendant chandelier, which may change:



Our electrical was suprisingly less than we were expecting to spend. Most of the expense was upgrades for switches to the Saturn Horizon silver:



Otherwise we added more lights, and upgraded the main bathroom and ensuite exhausts

Oh I forgot the carpeting, it was Glacier Grey from the gold range, and all bedrooms have the 10mm underlay upgrade, looks similar to this:

Allblaqk I wonder if you're our next door neighbour? If so I bet you'll be relieved there's no empty block next door soon!
- Nevermind, I just read through your thread and it looks like we're behind and a bit further down from you!

Anyway here's our block at the moment:



We have put up some temporary fencing to try and deter people dumping rubbish, someone has dumped from a concrete truck down the length of our block leaving about a half tonne of it there! The fence won;t really physically stop anyone but the amount of crap dumped on our lot has been annoying. There were also two skip bins across the road yet people dump kids bikes etc here! Why it;s so hard to just go to the tip I don't know.

Now we're just waiting to get our variations back from the builder as well as a start date, and trying to sort out removal of all that concrete and dumped rebar beforehand.

I had a look at the master plan and you guys are just up the road from us a little. We are lot 673 (danbulla) so you aren't our empty block. Our next door have a sign up for bold anyway. Don't know when they will start though.

I really like all your choices. I think it will come together really nicely. We wanted those clipsal switches too but ended up getting some ones that are almost standard but have a LED ring on them.

Yes the block dumping is ridiculous. We have had a bit thrown into our skip, we have 3 old rims/tyres dumped out front too -_-

I bet you are excited for a start date!

Definitely excited!

After our electrical appointment yesterday we had to go back to the builder for information as we want LED strip lights under the overhanging cupboards on either side of the rangehood in the kitchen. To do two separate ones is looking at about $600 including a variation fee. Expensive but would look so nice.

Following, love avoca builds love your colour selection too.

some nice selections watto82 - look forward to your journey Looks like a nice outlook where you are.

Thanks vonsta76 and gr8ly, love following the other Avocas and seeing all the different choices made!

Really like your black glossy tiles with white grout. We are the opposite a white tile with a grey grout.

Yeah can't wait to see how it turns out, I was originally looking at white subway tile and white grout, but one of the few things my partner was keen on was the black and talked me around Now I think/ hope it'll look quite nice.

I love your selections for your build. We are too going to be building the Avoca 25 but in Beaudesert area, next year. But I am starting on the designing part already.
Can't wait to see your progression photos, will definitely be following your build.