Our Benham 33 journey

That's fine then! What you're suggesting is very much to my taste, I reckon it'll look great!

We're looking to pretty-much die in this house we're building ... ... and we're trying to minimise ongoing maintenance almost to the detriment of anything else, so it's going to be interesting when the time comes to choose finishes & facades etc. The Chifley has this stuff that looks like fibro all over it on the 1st floor, so changing that could be ... well, "interesting".

Forg - the fibro looking stuff that you are referring to is sycon cladding/matrix, basically the fancy non-toxic fibro. I am thinking that you can change it to bricks, but it will add a decent amount to the cost. I think dusseldorf has changed his facade to be all bricks and no cladding.



Thanks Forg!

Sixor - the islands are 900mm tall (same as a normal benchtop) and I think about 1200 wide. i measured the one in the Benham last weekend. If you are having a single skin of cupboards - just cupboards/drawers on the island you will be able to fit chairs on the back. If you have cupboards on the back as well (like it is shown in the Benham) there will not be room for sitting.

Double skin of cupboards (cupboards front and back of island)

 Like  ⋅  Add a comment  ⋅  Pin to Ideaboard  ⋅  Share

Single skin of cupboards

 Like  ⋅  Add a comment  ⋅  Pin to Ideaboard  ⋅  Share

Hi Jen,

Interesting to see you've got all the same photos of the Fernside that we do!

We're building a modified Fernside 38 in Canberra, and are about 5-8wks out from PCI.

Hmmm, ta.
Just having a squiz at the promo shots ... a bit hard to tell what's "standard", but there do appear to be more fibro bits on the Chifley according to the photos. I guess we'll just wait & see; we were actually kinda/sorta thinking of going with one of the balcony-including facades for shade reasons, and that probably reduces the fibro a bit by default.

Hey All,

And welcome to the new people who've been posting on this thread!

Haven't posted for a while as not much has happened at our end, though we're now expecting Final CDC plans this week. Walking through next steps with our CSO, we 'may' be looking at commencing build in mid September if all goes well. Hooray.

Is anyone using an independent certifier to review progress at each payment step to ensure Rawson have done everything? Or going on personal inspections?

Hi Sixor,

We haven't gone through internals yet but in our initial tender we requested that the island bench be extended (in terms of width). We extended ours to 1200mm wide and from memory the cost was around $850. We didn't get the additional cupboards because we want to be able to put stools underneath it.

Hope that helps!

Jo.

Thanks Jo!

Do you know what the width was previously before requesting it to be 1200mm? We measured the kitchen island at the Seaview on the weekend and it's 1200mm wide. You'd think that it would be 1200mm as standard and as per the display?

I'm not sure what the standard bench size is, I think around 900mm?

If you look at the plans they have on the internet, you can see how much the bench extends beyond the sink (which isn't much). Whereas on my plans it extends much further out because I have paid for the benchtop extension. And if you go to the display homes you will notice that there is a fair bit of room between the end of the sink and the end of the island bench.

You would assume that what is on display is standard but unfortunately that's not the case you need to check everything in the house against the upgrade list. I got caught out a few times assuming things were standard when they were not.

Smorgzzz - those extra cupboards underneath the island bench are an upgrade. On our upgrade list it says $3,720 for the additional row of cupboards and benchtop extension to the island bench (in 70mm caesarstone). We just extended the island bench to 1200mm (or was it 1100?) with no additional cupboards - i.e. an overhang - and it was an extra $850 (for 40mm caesarstone) - which I thought was a lot more reasonable! By the way it sounds like your house is powering along, yay

Oops sorry smorgzzz I misread your post, I thought you said it 'is' standard, my bad

Tarsha - fingers crossed they've gone to the certifiers.
Is the first week of August what they are telling you for sending plans or start date?

I MUST take photos of our place today, everyone keeps asking me!
I had a quick driveby last night at 6:30pm and could see they had progressed well. My husband estimates they'll be finished bricking up early next week.
I'm really hoping our build is as quick as TheRise's!

I had a quick walk through the new R display home in Canberra yesterday when I was down there for work. I did get some inspiration for my kitchen splashback or feature wall behind the bath in the ensuite (assuming they aren't too pricey!)
It's a lovely home.

I met our next door neighbour on Thursday afternoon, really lovely, they have kids and I think he was a bit disappointed when we said we had no children! I'm sure my dog could love to play though haha