I thought I would start a bit of a blog on the construction of our new home which commenced on 4/01/21.
We were planning to build our first home in the next 2 years, but when the government announced the Homebuilder Scheme, we decided to pull the trigger early.
We reached out to a Mortgage Broker and started looking into developments in SouthEast QLD. We decided on a Stockland development, because of the location, price, and future growth.
After that we started researching builders.
I was referred to a Hallmark agent by our Stockland sales agent so I sent an email to him explaining what we were looking for. (4 bedroom double garage bedroom 1 away from the front)
I then started doing research on other builders and reaching out to the ones with good reviews and appealing designs. Nobody got back to me.
Except Hallmark. The sales consultant from Hallmark got back to me within a day, he sent through a few designs that suited our needs and made an appointment to meet us. We have several family members who work for and with Hallmark as well as friends who've built through them and heard nothing but positive reviews, so we went for it.
We originally went with the Manly 186 because we don't need a big house and were happy to have a smaller floor plan. We made a few adjustments - flipped the bedroom 1 and media and added a linen cupboard to the study nook. The plan is below for reference.
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After a few months of thinking about it, we decided that the 186 had the dumbest floorpan imaginable... the study nook was an awkward dead space even with a cupboard installed, and the door to bed 4 is just strange.
The base price for the Manly 186 with Hallmarks Luma Luxury Price was $154950.
We ended up upgrading to the Manly 200. The floor plan makes so much more sense.
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We made a few changes, but this is the basic original floor plan. It makes a lot more sense and has a few features that really appealed to me.
The basic design cost was $159950. So $5000 more than the Manly 186 for 14m2 extra.
We then made our changes to the plan, and blew the cost out to an admittedly small amount.
I found it really hard to work out costings for these places, so I've added some pricing for the things we added below;
- Luma Luxury Upgrade (cabinetry to laundry, overheard cupboards to bulkhead, upgrade sink and tapware throughout, upgrade appliances to kitchen) $1999
bushfire requirements - $6440
earthworks- included and $500 for spoil removal
Colourbond Roof - $1100
Off white mortar - $1430
Mirror Reverse Bedroom 1 and Media - $399
Extend bed 1 under eave - $1268
Extend alfresco slab - $555
Cavity sliding door to ensuite - $520
1500x1370 walk in linen in study area - $1634 (we were credited 765 for removing the original linen cupboard)
Remove laminate pantry and extend bench and cabinetry - $56 (not even the salesman could understand why there was a pantry beside a walk in pantry… so we removed it)
600wx2100h broom cupboard to laundry - $690
Extend cabinetry and bench to 2250 long in laundry - $570
Victoria wall hung vanity in lieu of standard accent vanity - No cost
Shower niche to ensuite - $600
Upgrade tiling to wet areas - $500
Upgrade tap wear to gun metal - 545
Timber Laminate flooring and carpet - $6270
Fencing - $430
The most expensive thing we added was the Daikin ducted air conditioner. My partner is always hot and needs air conditioning in Summer, so we'd need a unit in the bedroom, media room, study and the living area. Rather than have 4 units, we opted for the ducted unit. We looked into sourcing it ourselves through a friend, but the cost was so close that it was easier to have Hallmark install it during the build. For a 12.5kW unit with 4 zones, it cost $11895.
Probably the biggest let down was the tiles selection. Hallmark use National Tiles. I have a family member who works at National Tiles and she explained that National Tiles actually select the tiles they include as standard, which unfortunately are basic and pretty ugly. The standard splash back tiles are glossy neutral colour subway tiles that look like they belong on the wall of a McDonald's bathroom, and the floor tiles are honesty just ugly. We ended up doing our selection with my family member, who is also an interior designer, so they made sure we found tiles that looked good, without breaking the bank. They only showed us tiles that would suit our colour scheme, and wouldn't let us near the expensive one, which I really appreciated. We ended up splashing out a little and getting a blue splash back in the laundry, and a textured grey in the kitchen.
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I'm pretty happy with how everything ties together.
I have to say, thanks to the delays on the banking end, the whole process was so drawn out. We were really lucky to have a fantastic sales agent through Stockland who happily held onto our land while we waited for pre-approval despite massive demand. He would have held it without a deposit for 5 weeks for us.
Hallmark were really good as well. As soon as the land contract was signed, Hallmark had us in starting the contract process.
I found that we were able to ask a lot of questions, and look at different ideas and make so many different changes to the plan and our sales consultant never complained and provided really good advice on each point we raised. The process was actually really easy and we're very happy with the final plan.
He also gave us pricing on anything and everything we could come up with. So there weren't any surprises and we could go away and think about what we wanted to do after each meeting.
I have to say that It took a really long time to get our contract back from Hallmark. We didn't delay at all, we knew what design we wanted and had made all the major decisions, we made and attended appointments within 3 days of being contacted by Hallmark and it still managed to take over 2 months from the deposit to the contract.
We were about 2 weeks off our pre-approval running out (they're only good for 3 months). So I had to ask our sales consultant to rush it for us. To their credit, they got it to us within two days after that.
Our land settled in mid December and Hallmark gave us a site start date of 4/1/21. Essentially the only delay was the Christmas period. It all happened crazy fast.
On the week beginning 4/1/21, they cut the site. It looked so good and we were really happy. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
On 13/01 our foundations were laid; which can't really be seen in the pictures... but they're there! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
The week of the 21/1 the underground drainage was completed.
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By 26/01 the slab was boxed up and ready to be poured.
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Slab was poured on 27/01. It poured rain that night, and has been raining/hot everyday since, which is apparently good for slabs to keep the drying even, so I suppose that's a positive.
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And nowww we're waiting on the frame to be built. We were told last week that he frame was going up this week, but it's been raining all week. The timber has been delivered, so I guess once the rain stops it will go up.
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We meet out site supervisor on Wednesday, so can finally have a few talks about fencing etc.
We've realised that the retaining wall that Stockland installed is now redundant. It was also pretty rubbish but it's way too short now.
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We measured the heights. The block retaining wall is about 320mm high. It's also set about 500mm inside the block on the side and the rear, so we're losing about 1m of yard space in the back corner with it as it is. Now the slab and block have been lifted to the point were the retaining wall needs to be 800mm high to be even with the patio slab. Theres currently a fall of nearly 500mm from the slab to the current retaining wall. We aren't interested in having a small sloped yard, so fingers crossed Hallmark are open to us building a new retaining wall before the put the fence up. We're thinking concrete sleepers on the boundary at the side and rear. Fingers crossed.