Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4581Jan 17, 2017 7:34 pm I hope we will be allowed to do those too. We're not after crazy changes. In the email sent though, it said that only 1 external and 1 interior colour scheme is allowed and there can't be any mixing between colour schemes ? Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4582Jan 17, 2017 7:36 pm LittleGreenTarneit I hope we will be allowed to do those too. We're not after crazy changes. In the email sent though, it said that only 1 external and 1 interior colour scheme is allowed and there can't be any mixing between colour schemes You should be fine ! I was surprised at how different the experience was compared to what the literature led me to believe it would be ! What house are you building ? Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4583Jan 17, 2017 7:45 pm Jamesa81 LittleGreenTarneit Hi Kossie, You were able to mix and match from the different colour schemes with Stacey? Would you mind if I ask when you had your prestart appointment? Do they have a guidebook for HBC consultants and on what they can or can't accommodate or it depends on consultants, their personality or disposition? It seems as if what is allowed for some aren't allowed for others. For the external colour scheme, we were told by the prestart consultant that we can't pick the 5 colour schemes that were already chosen by the other houses in our street and there is another one who will choose today. But HBC only has 6 external colour schemes, so what else is left for us to choose? We asked again but didn't get a reply. I think within reason anything is changeable! We chose the marble facade and changed a few colours around ! We went with the storm interior but found the laminate to be a bit too light so we were aloud to change to darker shade! Overall they were flexible but we didn't have any crazy changes ! Thats what we webt with. I love our colour scheme but i got white grout cause it comes with black and looks shyt. Love my kitchen ❤ Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4584Jan 18, 2017 9:16 am Hi guys, been following the thread for a while now, now I'm confused... you guys are saying that you had no choice in terms of interior or exterior themes, only changing one or two things, but still needing to use these themes? Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4585Jan 18, 2017 9:21 am Rather than selecting all of your product colours, carpet, paint etc. HBC creates packaged "themes" which you select from. I think the aim is for the homeowner to make no changes, to the theme they have selected. However people are reporting that they have been able to change one or two things to a different colour, carpet choice etc. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4586Jan 18, 2017 9:40 am well the thing that gets me, my pre start consultant told me, every option is up to me if I go for the $500 option to change things, he never said I have to choose a theme and change from there... Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4587Jan 18, 2017 9:46 am t_holt86 well the thing that gets me, my pre start consultant told me, every option is up to me if I go for the $500 option to change things, he never said I have to choose a theme and change from there... That's right. You can take one of two paths. 1. Select for from one of the 6 themes for interior and exterior colours (2 hour appointment) 2. Pay $500 have a 4 hour appointment and then sit down with massive books of colour swatches and pick each and every colour and texture you'd like. What some are finding is that there is a little bit of flexibility in the first option. i.e. We were able to change the front door colour, others have been able to change the carpet colour, someone else was able to change the timber floor colour. I think the common theme is that all of us who have made tweaks to the colour schemes have made one change. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4589Jan 18, 2017 10:37 pm aurora912 Has anyone widened their Garage and added a rear roller door? Anyone have any idea what it costs through Home buyers? Yep we are . We are building willow25. We extended it 1.4m as even though our block is 16m wide we have estate guidelines so needed 2m the other side haha. We can fit a 2m roller door at rear so enough for a car, hopefully enough for a car trailer also! I can't remember exactly how much but definitely reasonable for us - we said we'd pay around 10k and it came under that. Thinking maybe 7k or 8k? If you're from south east area go see Chris Lundie at Livingston estate in Cranbourne. He was amazing and doesn't push you at all but will give you all the info Building the willow25 in Pakenham, Vic ☺ Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4590Jan 18, 2017 11:42 pm We had our colours today with Bethany who was awesome! I memorized the themes and i think some have changed (not the ones we were looking at). We were thinking lava for external and it was nice but travertine won! Boyfriend got final choice as i loved both. We chose Mist for internal theme. We are from south east and went west side to see mist. We fell in love with it. But they did change bathroom cabinets to stone grey - same as kitchen base and different flooring. We actually emailed homebuyers before we even booked stating we wanted these 2 changes and asked if we needed the longer appointment to get our choices. They were happy to do this for us but no other changes as it would be pushing it which is fair enough. I also think it helped that they had these two changes in the display house and our flooring is still cat 1 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Building the willow25 in Pakenham, Vic ☺ Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4591Jan 19, 2017 9:42 am LittleGreenTarneit Hi Kossie, You were able to mix and match from the different colour schemes with Stacey? Would you mind if I ask when you had your prestart appointment? Do they have a guidebook for HBC consultants and on what they can or can't accommodate or it depends on consultants, their personality or disposition? It seems as if what is allowed for some aren't allowed for others. For the external colour scheme, we were told by the prestart consultant that we can't pick the 5 colour schemes that were already chosen by the other houses in our street and there is another one who will choose today. But HBC only has 6 external colour schemes, so what else is left for us to choose? We asked again but didn't get a reply. Hi LittleGreenTarneit Yes we were able to mix and match.We did our colour appointment in May 2015.I don't think they had a book at the time but things might have change since then Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4592Jan 19, 2017 3:55 pm Hi all, I'm waiting to begin building the grove 22, just waiting for land to title (it's taking forever, however any month now). I had my custom colour appointment mid 2016, but now i'm second guessing some choice. Just wondering how anyone has gone changing selection after signing the addenda and contracts? I assume there will be a variations fee? If anyone can provide any info about doing so, it would be fab Thanks Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4593Jan 19, 2017 8:24 pm Corgilover We had our colours today with Bethany who was awesome! I memorized the themes and i think some have changed (not the ones we were looking at). We were thinking lava for external and it was nice but travertine won! Boyfriend got final choice as i loved both. We chose Mist for internal theme. We are from south east and went west side to see mist. We fell in love with it. But they did change bathroom cabinets to stone grey - same as kitchen base and different flooring. We actually emailed homebuyers before we even booked stating we wanted these 2 changes and asked if we needed the longer appointment to get our choices. They were happy to do this for us but no other changes as it would be pushing it which is fair enough. I also think it helped that they had these two changes in the display house and our flooring is still cat 1 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Awesome, I have Bethany for my colours appointment in two weeks, did you felt rushed at all during the appointment? Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4594Jan 19, 2017 9:19 pm dissimulo Corgilover We had our colours today with Bethany who was awesome! I memorized the themes and i think some have changed (not the ones we were looking at). We were thinking lava for external and it was nice but travertine won! Boyfriend got final choice as i loved both. We chose Mist for internal theme. We are from south east and went west side to see mist. We fell in love with it. But they did change bathroom cabinets to stone grey - same as kitchen base and different flooring. We actually emailed homebuyers before we even booked stating we wanted these 2 changes and asked if we needed the longer appointment to get our choices. They were happy to do this for us but no other changes as it would be pushing it which is fair enough. I also think it helped that they had these two changes in the display house and our flooring is still cat 1 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Awesome, I have Bethany for my colours appointment in two weeks, did you felt rushed at all during the appointment? Did you choose the themes or custom? We had a good idea at what we wanted so made decisions quite quickly - bethany actually commented on how quick we were haha. but no, we never felt rushed. Make sure you study the book if going themes and go see it in person if possible. We were thinking one theme then in person bricks won us over so don't have your heart set completely haha. As they differ slightly. When she went to add the prices up we actually had time to walk around and think about upgrades (ended up getting the tap package). With us we had already upgraded a heap of things at the meeting with chris in display home - nearly all our kitchen haha . I made the mistake of walking past the glass splashback section. So many pretty colours . Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4595Jan 21, 2017 1:28 am I'm planning to just go with the themes, and perhaps swap over a timber flooring colour and that's it. How much did the tap package cost? There's so many upgrades I want to do but I think I'm gonna have to control myself haha. Does anyone have any suggestions on what's the most efficient and cost effective way to get downlights? HBC is quoting $105 per downlight in lieu of batten lights and $155 per extra downlight. Is it easier and cheaper to just get an electrician to supply and install the downlights? And if so, will I need HBc to do the wirings/switches or anything prior to getting the electrician in? I'm practically clueless regarding downlights so any suggestions would be awesome. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4596Jan 21, 2017 7:35 am dissimulo Does anyone have any suggestions on what's the most efficient and cost effective way to get downlights? HBC is quoting $105 per downlight in lieu of batten lights and $155 per extra downlight. Is it easier and cheaper to just get an electrician to supply and install the downlights? And if so, will I need HBc to do the wirings/switches or anything prior to getting the electrician in? I'm practically clueless regarding downlights so any suggestions would be awesome. I've spoken to some electricians about the lights, and from the info I have, as long as the downlights are LED then HBCs prices are actually pretty competitive, I've found its the same with the add-on AC for ducted, very comparable with having it done later. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4597Jan 21, 2017 8:12 am t_holt86 dissimulo Does anyone have any suggestions on what's the most efficient and cost effective way to get downlights? HBC is quoting $105 per downlight in lieu of batten lights and $155 per extra downlight. Is it easier and cheaper to just get an electrician to supply and install the downlights? And if so, will I need HBc to do the wirings/switches or anything prior to getting the electrician in? I'm practically clueless regarding downlights so any suggestions would be awesome. I've spoken to some electricians about the lights, and from the info I have, as long as the downlights are LED then HBCs prices are actually pretty competitive, I've found its the same with the add-on AC for ducted, very comparable with having it done later. Anything electrical is cheaper done post handover! Our electrician quoted us half of what HBC price per downlight! Around $60 per downlight so it'll be a huuuge saving if you want quite a few downlights We just moved our batten light to the corner of the room during the electical appt, so it can be replaced with a downlight later! Instead of trying to fix a hole in the middle of roof! As for ducted AC, our sales consultant suggested getting one installed post handover as there was quite a price difference ? Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4598Jan 21, 2017 11:59 pm dissimulo I'm planning to just go with the themes, and perhaps swap over a timber flooring colour and that's it. How much did the tap package cost? There's so many upgrades I want to do but I think I'm gonna have to control myself haha. Does anyone have any suggestions on what's the most efficient and cost effective way to get downlights? HBC is quoting $105 per downlight in lieu of batten lights and $155 per extra downlight. Is it easier and cheaper to just get an electrician to supply and install the downlights? And if so, will I need HBc to do the wirings/switches or anything prior to getting the electrician in? I'm practically clueless regarding downlights so any suggestions would be awesome. Tap package was around $360 i think - definitely under $400. They are more square and boxey so i preferred it. We just upgraded taps and electric stuff at this appointment - kitchen things, metal roof, garage extension, slab extension was done with the house sales guy . We got 2 downlights above kitchen and that's it. They're very nice but yes gets very expensive! We did put a few extra Powerpoints too - might be cheaper later on but i just said to boyfriend its less hassle this way! Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4599Jan 23, 2017 12:21 pm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bit of DIY out the front so we can park two cars on a bit easier. So glad we moved the letter box over more so we had the room. Looking forward to having our garden done by the developer will look great when done. Finally be half finished House - Jasper17 Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 4600Jan 23, 2017 8:51 pm LILPOM Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bit of DIY out the front so we can park two cars on a bit easier. So glad we moved the letter box over more so we had the room. Looking forward to having our garden done by the developer will look great when done. Finally be half finished House - Jasper17 We are building Jasper 17 too, Lilpom if you dont mind i would like to see more photos of your Jasper 17! Thank you. I havent, and i havent looked to much into it, but on face value its not the saviour its trying to make out to be. Shared equity in your home is never a good idea. The… 1 4259 Hi, have purchased a house with 2 single garage doors. The Centre pillar one side sits proud to the other. Can I change 2 doors into one. Please see picture. 0 7387 For reference, this is the Austlii reference. My take on this is, that they would be breaking the law denying access to a homeowner in Victoria, or their agent from having… 1 10217 |