Clarendon Homes | QLD | Modified Madison City 40

Hi Everyone,

After being inspired by so many posts on this forum, and spending hundreds upon hundreds of hours talking to different builders and looking at different plans, I have finally signed on to build a heavily modified Madison City 40 with Clarendon Homes.

The layout has been extended to be 505 m2 (55 sq), which should provide plenty of space

Construction Timeline

• Site Cut/Excavation - 3rd July
• Survey Setout for House- 4th July

I am looking forward to sharing the journey to completion with everyone

Floor Plans

Facade

I thought I would provide a little background on my journey to reach this point. I purchased the land back in 2015 and had started looking at the different options to build. Initially, I had gone down the custom home build path but quickly decided against that due costs and not being able to find a builder I could trust.

I then started visiting the different builders Stylemaster, Metricon etc and having been close to signing a contract a couple of times and then cancelling due to the unpleasent tactics of some of the consultants, I ended up visiting Clarendon homes and falling in love with the floor plans. The sales consultant has been amazing throughout this entire process and has provided amazing advise to reduce costs while still achieving my goals with the build.

After a couple of initially issues with the original colour consultant, I finally have everything selected and construction is getting ready to kick off. I've excluded the main floor tiling as I wasn't happy with the available selection and quoted prices. This will be done after handover. I've also opted not to have Clarendon build the alfresco area, instead opting to have a slab extension. This will allow me the freedom to design an outdoors area which not only compliments the house but the beautiful natural surroundings.

Wow! Nice plan and impressive extension. Didn't realise they would accommodate so much change. Was it hard to get them to that? And yes, Clarendon does have some nice floor plans.

But quick question, you can't appear to get into the house from the garage? Is this not a thing you would need/use?

Thanks TiredHalo. It wasn't too difficult to get them to agree to the changes. There were some initial issues but once we got through to the right person Clarendon agreed

With regards to the missing entry from the garage, I purposely didn't include it. Down the track I will be building a 3 car garage off to the side of the current garage and will convert the garage into a self-contained "apartment or something else.



I'll also be installing a pool down the track in cut out area of the slab extension as well. Similar to the following:

Nice! Your frontage must be nice and wide. On acreage?

I guess that is what a long time between land purchase and house design gives you, so much well-thought out with the little details. Sometimes makes me think should've taken a little more time on ours before signing. But nevermind, we are still super happy with what we are getting.

The land is around 4200m2 (3200m2 usable), so nice and big. I sometimes wish I had built earlier and not been so worried about getting all the little details right.

But then again even the best laid plans go awry somethings. There are a couple of things I wish I changed with the design (When I replaced the linen closet upstairs with the kitchentte I forgot to put the linen closet back in). My wife just keeps reminding me that instead of worrying about everything I should just look forward to the completed house.

Just got a call from my parents. Clarendon have started work on the site today. It appears they are doing the plumbing and electricial etc in preparation of pouring the slab in the coming days.

Exciting times

Very exciting! Will be watching on with interest🙂

Thanks KingTaco. Parents sent some pictures (Due to the way our block sits they could only take pictures from near our neighbours house.

Yay! Welcome to the clarendon family
You façade is awesome!

Thanks Rhetti. Unfortunately, the slab pour which was scheduled for this past Saturday (13th July) was postponed as once of the trucks weren't available until after 10am

Slab pour has been rescheduled for this coming Friday

We have a slab

Hi, Nice build. Is the slab extension outdoors? What will the surface finish be ?

Thanks GoneBuilding. You are correct, the slab extension is outdoors. I incorporated the original alfresco area into the family area to provide a open and free flowing space.

I’ve got a couple of ideas about what I want to do with the outdoors area but haven’t decided yet as I want to wait until the build is finished. I can then design something which compliments and balances the house and the natural surroundings.

I want the pool area which comes up to the house to look something like this

The material for the frame has been delivered to the site










They should start putting the frame up tomorrow.

This is a great post and I’m looking forward to updates. We are on a similar path as yours.

Considering Clarendon..

Can I ask a couple of questions?

How long did it take to finalise contract? I hear this can take 3-4 months.

Obviously, it would be cheeky to ask price, but can I ask if you were able to get it under $450k.

Do they do fixes contract?

How long do they estimate the build will take?

Thanks.

Hi Rebe. The contract took awhile to finalise but that was because the consultant we initially had at the colour selection kept saying things weren’t included etc when they were explicitly included. Despite me pointing things out etc. I had to escalate to the operations manager who was awesome. She worked with me to sort out the issues etc.

The build is going to cost around $650K due to all of the changes and upgrades. This doesn’t include the main floor tiling as I will be doing that post handover. I wasn’t happy with the selection offered by Beaumont Tiles.

I’m not sure what you mean by fixed contract, but everything is fixed. I will incur some additional site costs as there were a couple of issues due to the site preparation which I had done prior to engaging Clarendon (They had a hard time finding the plumbing connections).

The build should be completed by end of Feb 2020.

Funny enough, despite spending so much time and effort on this build, I won’t be living in the house once it’s complete. I’m building it to fulfil a promise I made to my mother years ago. I know it sounds a little strange but it’s something which is important to me and a milestone so to say. I’ll be handing the keys to my parents once this is complete.

Wow, thanks for that and amazing what you are doing for your parents! We've been doing our research, like most on this site, and had plans drawn up and given to custom builders and figures back were all above $650k. Mind you we are doing a basic level fitout and have built a previous residence (owner build) for $385k. Then we started down the volume builder path where (if no upgrades or changes) you could get a 5 bed home for $410-450k. Thats where we are now which is why i was asking the questions. We like Clarendon and StyleMaster who both seem reasonable. did you look at any other builders before decidingon clarendon?