Simonds Palisade Build Ripley QLD

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 11:09 am

Hi everyone, I'm new to this site but have spent hours reading other people's building forums and getting excited about my own.
It's only fair that I pass on my own experience for people to enjoy as well.

This has been a lengthy process and lots of time playing the waiting game but we are finally nearing the business end things.

I'll start off by going back to the beginning while we wait for the house to kick off.

July 2015 we picked up the courage to buy land off the plan at Simonds display, providence.
At the same time we locked in the palisade which would fit on our land nicely.
The deal was 18k off the palisade price plus move in package for 10k.
We only had enough money To pay the initial deposit which was 2k for house and 1k for land.

This resulted in a nervous drive home followed by a few strong drinks

kyliebsmith · Mar 26, 2016 11:25 am

Ha ha nice one. Hope your finance is sorted now though. Good luck on your new journey. Once they start it'll happen so quickly. We're building with simonds too but in northern GC

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 11:28 am

Land was Due to register in December/January which has now pushed back to March/April soo any week now.

We added a few extras on straight away which was 2700mm ceiling height right though and of course the 6 stacker door off the lounge dining.
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This is an original plan of palisade qld

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 11:44 am

We had to pay the deposit for to secure land in August ($4000)
We then found out that our garage must be on built to boundary Side, however we wanted the living facing north so had to do a front flip of garage/master bed.
somehow this took them 6 months to do whilst we had gallery day and everything completed.
This result changed the layout of entry and lounge which we had to compromise on since we were so used to seeing as above. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
This is the result they came up with... We did want the house offset to keep hallway in same location but at 10-15k structural change this was not possible for us and also was pushing boundary limits.
What we have decided on is either a computer corner or sitting area (shown on plan) with bed 2 pushed out to make a flush wall.
Wall tv in corner to provide viewing from sitting area kitchen, dining, etc.

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 12:03 pm

Our plan is to eventually build a pergola or patio out from 6 stacker door this will be a 8x4 (32m2) outdoor entertainment area.
we have provisions for natural gas and lighting out there to build a future bbq area.

Family room will be main media lounge room.
Other changes made are sound proofing to bed 4 wall, sliding door to pantry, swing door to ensuite, architrave to family room for future double doors, mirror sliders to all wardrobes, upgrade height to master bed door 2300mm, upgrade entry door to 2300mm feature door. Downlights throughout, shower niches, semi- frameless showers.
Kitchen- 20mm stone double waterfall island. Pot drawers, handle less overhead cupboards, under mount sink and gloss laminates.

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 12:13 pm

Gallery colour choices.
We have stuck to a mainly black and white theme with earthy colored bathrooms Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
This is the exterior look we are going for.

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Carpet, wall colour, cabinets and stone bench

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Exterior choices

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Shower niche, bathroom tile, main floor and splashback

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 12:20 pm

kyliebsmith

Ha ha nice one. Hope your finance is sorted now though. Good luck on your new journey. Once they start it'll happen so quickly. We're building with simonds too but in northern GC

HI Kylie, yes it's been a long time coming and excited for some progress now, finances are all good thanks luckily we've had almost a year to save getting delayed helped us get a few extras we wouldn't of been able to afford

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 12:37 pm

Currently we are waiting on final plans we are having a few problems getting the electrical plans right. Sometimes I'm not sure if they know what they're doing!
We tell crc to put DPP and tv/ data on one wall and they stick it on a completely different one. Haha worst was putting them on a wall on wrong side of the room and that wall no longer exists.
I told them to fix the structural plan first then worry about the electrical so we don't get these mess ups.
I'm pretty sure they weren't even checked before she's pushing me to sign them off.

TomCat · Mar 26, 2016 12:51 pm

Congratulations - the Palisade and Sierra (similar) are beautiful with their cathedral ceilings off side courtyard. We considered it but had same issue as you - wanted living space to North which meant moving garage and losing entry lounge space/flow. But you've done a good job with the design. We ended up with a two storey as we have a small block and wanted to conserve a bit more outdoor space for doggies.

Your comment about driving home nervous gave me a good laugh

love your colour choices too

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 1:10 pm

Hi tomcat the Sierra isn't offered in Queensland but the layout is much the same. We haven't got the cathedral ceiling option but it's 2700mm height right through with the 3m foyer entrance.
It wasn't till after the layout changed I realized that a full lounge would be cramped for room there and would cut off the easy flow to outside. All worked out for the best I think.

Haha driving home that sick gut feeling of what have we just done! No regrets now though, just hope for a smooth building process

kyliebsmith · Mar 26, 2016 3:10 pm

Who do you have? Maybe a newbe. The whole experience is frustrating but that's to be expected. Nothing has been enjoyable for me, other than to see the house go up. I freak out over everything. Our friends who tradesman have helped us not freak out like crazy people. I think our SS think we are crazy too, but it's basically because of our inexperience.

Nyssa+Lachlan · Mar 26, 2016 3:41 pm

You will get there in the end! We had them move the alfresco provision to the side on ours and I think we paid for another 8m ourselves and walled in the back theatre. For us it didn't make sense to have an alfresco out the back, we get much better use to the side. We hadn't seen a palisade in Queensland when we built so it was all up to trust!! But I love love love our house layout. Happy to answer any questions you might have too.

Marshall5858 · Mar 26, 2016 5:13 pm

Yay, I'm so excited to watch another Palisade Thread on here. We are just awaiting our finance approval at present but after that, I'm hoping things will move along a bit quicker. We have paid our deposits and signed off our draft drawings. I love your colour selections. Are you having tiles throughout your living area? We would love Porcelain but I loath grout getting mucky (which it would with our outdoorsy kids!) so are going with laminate.
Which stone have you chosen? It looks like one of the ones we are keen on but we're still deciding on our colour scheme throughout the house. Congratulations anyway, I'm excited for you

Building Simonds Palisade soon..

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 6:33 pm

kyliebsmith

Who do you have? Maybe a newbe. The whole experience is frustrating but that's to be expected. Nothing has been enjoyable for me, other than to see the house go up. I freak out over everything. Our friends who tradesman have helped us not freak out like crazy people. I think our SS think we are crazy too, but it's basically because of our inexperience. And the building industry are bonkers. Lol.

We have Chantelle she's alright but seems to struggle translating writing into plans or passing info on to others but we're getting there can't do a lot until land registers anyway.
I'm a cabinetmaker by trade but doing solid surface benchtops now so know a fair bit about what's going on.

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 6:41 pm

Nyssa+Lachlan

You will get there in the end! We had them move the alfresco provision to the side on ours and I think we paid for another 8m ourselves and walled in the back theatre. For us it didn't make sense to have an alfresco out the back, we get much better use to the side. We hadn't seen a palisade in Queensland when we built so it was all up to trust!! But I love love love our house layout. Happy to answer any questions you might have too.

Thanks Nyssa we have been through a lot of display homes for ideas and have used the flinders/lindeman to get a feel for similar layout.
We will use our rear Alfresco as a temporary one until the side is finished then turn it into something else. Glad you like the layout.
We are opposite a park and sports ground also a dog park so not worried about a big back yard

Leon_Laura · Mar 26, 2016 7:10 pm

Marshall5858

Yay, I'm so excited to watch another Palisade Thread on here. We are just awaiting our finance approval at present but after that, I'm hoping things will move along a bit quicker. We have paid our deposits and signed off our draft drawings. I love your colour selections. Are you having tiles throughout your living area? We would love Porcelain but I loath grout getting mucky (which it would with our outdoorsy kids!) so are going with laminate.
Which stone have you chosen? It looks like one of the ones we are keen on but we're still deciding on our colour scheme throughout the house. Congratulations anyway, I'm excited for you

Building Simonds Palisade soon..

Hey, palisades are rare up here so be good to promote it on here,lots of Pragues going up in my estate, I guess because it's one of the displays .

Our main floors are tiles "portifino shell shine" it was a minor upgrade like $400

We have chosen the standard range stone 20mm ice snow and added waterfall ends. Bathrooms are just laminate but similar match to kitchen. (I will upgrade to corian myself later on)

This is our stone colour from caeserstone website our cabinets are a lighter shade but gives an idea of colour scheme

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Marshall5858 · Mar 26, 2016 9:10 pm

Leon_Laura

Marshall5858

Yay, I'm so excited to watch another Palisade Thread on here. We are just awaiting our finance approval at present but after that, I'm hoping things will move along a bit quicker. We have paid our deposits and signed off our draft drawings. I love your colour selections. Are you having tiles throughout your living area? We would love Porcelain but I loath grout getting mucky (which it would with our outdoorsy kids!) so are going with laminate.
Which stone have you chosen? It looks like one of the ones we are keen on but we're still deciding on our colour scheme throughout the house. Congratulations anyway, I'm excited for you

Building Simonds Palisade soon..

Hey, palisades are rare up here so be good to promote it on here,lots of Pragues going up in my estate, I guess because it's one of the displays .

Our main floors are tiles "portifino shell shine" it was a minor upgrade like $400

We have chosen the standard range stone 20mm ice snow and added waterfall ends. Bathrooms are just laminate but similar match to kitchen. (I will upgrade to corian myself later on)

This is our stone colour from caeserstone website our cabinets are a lighter shade but gives an idea of colour scheme

. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Your colour choices are very similar to what we are considering. We've done a lot of the legwork prior to selections because we really don't want to be there for a whole day.
We're having the 20mm stone with waterfall ends too, bathrooms will be Laminate and probably butlers pantry too. We've had the most problems with choosing what to have in the Kitchen for a splashback. We really want Mirror but can't justify the cost at this time.

There is a Palisade show home here in S.A and its to die for but it's also quite deceptive when it comes to doing our own plans. In the show home, the family room had a large, full length window that goes into the corner and is on the other side but on the standard, it's one square window. We love the show home design so will be upgrading to that. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

This is what I am meaning, although this isn't from the Adelaide showhome

TomCat · Mar 26, 2016 9:31 pm

Love your cabinetry colour - what we did

kyliebsmith · Mar 26, 2016 11:02 pm

There's a couple of palisades in our street. When I first saw them I was like wow, I never got to see this option. But Simonds had only just come back to queensland and it wasn't an option. We have been with simonds for two years because of land issues. But we really love the prague. Palisade seems very popular

Leon_Laura · Mar 27, 2016 12:21 am

Haha we pretty much pre-planned our whole gallery tour.
We went in for a look one Saturday and settled on most colours and checked the upgrades list of all extras we wanted.
It Went very quickly only shock we had was electrical which I forgot to budget in 15 double power points and about 40 Downlights adds up...

Hmm splash-back you can always upgrade later, I think it would be a pain to clean with oil splatters, smudges,etc but they do look awesome.
Ours is a charcoal subway tile. Nothing amazing but was just part of the standard range.

Waterfall ends on your kitchen really make a big statement. I work in the kitchen industry so had to have them

will look great with dark panels on the back. We have also put a usb DPP in end of waterfall (pantry side) for phone chargers and stuff .

As for the family room... Display homes love to put big windows everywhere to allow lots of natural light in.
But we want it as a movie room so less light is better.