Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 06, 2009 10:13 am Hi all,
I've learned so much from reading the postings on this site, so thank you all for you contributions to this valuable knowledge base. My wife and I have found two plans that fit our needs fairly well. Our preferred option is with Henley (Aria VK3), however we would like to extend the master bedroom and alfresco to make them wider by a meter, and to build in the alfresco so that it is a room in the house. So far, our sales rep has said that Henley's do not allow variations to the plan, however, a number of people on this site have managed to do this. How have you gotten past the 'we do not vary' from the sales rep? Is M'con more open to changes? Has anyone else managed to get their builder to close in an alfresco or outside area? Cheers. Re: Variations on Henley plans 2Jan 06, 2009 10:20 am Henley will only make changes that are in their 'floorplan options'. I don't think you will have any luck widening your bedroom etc unless they have a 'grand master bedroom option'.
Metricon are definitely more flexible than Henley. Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Variations on Henley plans 3Jan 06, 2009 7:26 pm Well Henley in QLD have been great. They let us move walls and if they aren't load bearing there is no charge. Moving the WIR wall was going to be $250 a metre so it wasn't to expensive.
They have been really flexible. Our sales person has been great and said that if he says to Head Office that you wont sign unless they can do this then that usually convinces them I had to do this to get our own contractor's to install the ducted aircon and home theatre people during the build Re: Variations on Henley plans 4Jan 06, 2009 8:29 pm Both M3tricon and P0rter D@vis have been happy to entertain my proposed adjustments.
But I cannot make any recommendations on either beyond that as I have not built a house just yet! Re: Variations on Henley plans 5Jan 06, 2009 10:09 pm We're building with H3nl3y in Melbourne and they do not make any changes apart from the ones that they have as options, which we've chosen a few of. This was ok by us as the options they had were good for us anyway. Our house (the Cott3slo3) had the options (which we went with) of extending the ensuite (which in turn pushed out the master bedroom); moving the laundry door; extending the dining room; extending the rumpus room; and changing the bedrooms so that they were all together in the hallway rather than B4 coming off the living area. Building our dream H3nl3y home together House: Cott3sloe Modifications: Extended ensuite, grand dining, grand rumpus, Bedroom 4 option, two plus garage Frame done, roof tiles are on, brickes start this week! Re: Variations on Henley plans 6Jan 09, 2009 4:05 pm we never really asked if we could make any other changes to the house as the henley alternative plans covered our requirements really well.
we are building the carinya and we've added about 4.5 sq to the base plan. looking forward to starting today! cheers Re: Variations on Henley plans 7Jan 09, 2009 7:02 pm Hi,
We had to make quite a few changes to our plans due to council regulations (we are in a heritage area) and Henley did these without any drama or issue at all. Maybe it was because it was they were council regulations rather than just us deciding to make the changes. We are very very happy with the result. Good luck, Re: Variations on Henley plans 9Feb 06, 2009 9:20 am Thank you all for you replies. We have now had our 'tender' session following colour selection, and mostly we are very happy with H3nley to date. They allowed the increase in width but only up to 540 mm due to siting. We would have to get res dev dispensation to go wider. They also allowed a number of our other requests, including providing our own appliances in the kitchen. Given both of us enjoy our cooking, and we often spend more time together in the kitchen, during the week, than anywhere else, we are willing to put money here. We have long wanted, for example, an induction cooktop, (It will be interesting to see how this helps the asthmatics in our family.) and a rangehood with an externally mounted motor so that conversation is easy with it running. The amount credited for not going with the standard appliances must reflect tremendous buying power on H3nley's behalf!
Our biggest disappointment is that they have not agreed to enclose the alfresco, even though other companies do this, from what I've seen in this forum. We now have to deal with getting some quotes together and seeing if the loan can include this if done by another builder. If it can't, we are probably back to our other option. Fortunately, we are still able financially and emotionally, to walk away from H3nley if we run into problems. Having said that, the tender process went very well, and when we had questions that couldn't be answered, phone calls were made on the spot, and a number of people were brought in to answer questions which require specialised knowledge to answer. We would love to drive past some of H3nley's homes in the South Morang/ Mernda area to look at the construction work to help us decide what to do. If any of you are building in this area and are happy to PM me an address, that would be great! We've cruised around, but not yet seen any. We have spotted a couple by our still second choice builder, and have been able to watch the progress on them. Ozzroo, have you signed your contract yet? Mattydals, how is progress going on your house? Nexus, the plan we've chosen appears to be so new that they don't yet have drawings for all the details, such as the wall oven placement in the kitchen, with the only variations shown being to the master bedroom ensuite (enclosed toilet being one of our preferences) and bathroom, so you've been lucky that your choice has so many options! Glad that you're happy with the result. It's good to read other people's positive experiences, as well as learning what to watch out for. My partner doesn't complain about the amount of time I spent reading the forums at homeone! Re: Variations on Henley plans 10Feb 06, 2009 11:22 pm hi, we too are also building with henley have colour appt on wednesday... i live in south morang and the few henley places i have seen go up here are pretty much finished! It has been good living here to see what builders were building and how its been going.... 2nd build here we come in Whittlesea! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=92617 1st Build - Henley - Cooper in Doreen! (2009) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=17354 Re: Variations on Henley plans 11Feb 07, 2009 7:52 am Any builder that won't let you move walls around is shooting themselves in the foot. Haven't they heard that builders are going into liquidation! Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Variations on Henley plans 12Feb 09, 2009 8:33 am Our house is going well thanks.
We have a completed frame on our slab now (which didnt take long at all) I have been updating my blog, so you can see the timeline on there, but so far we have not had any issues and are very pleased with the service we are getting from both the office, and from our SS. I too am aware that other builders are in trouble (some of these are big names you would not expect too!). Be careful who you build with as we signed up with Marshall Baker before they went bust. Lucky we were warned that this would happen before spending any money. We have no fears with Henley as they are by far the biggest and financially sound. Re: Variations on Henley plans 13Feb 12, 2009 1:25 am CiNnY hi, we too are also building with henley have colour appt on wednesday... i live in south morang and the few henley places i have seen go up here are pretty much finished. I hope your colour appointment went well. It's good to hear that you've been able to track a few houses. I visited around South Morang on Saturday and looked through a few H3nley places that we found. The wind and heat were shocking, and at the last place we looked at, some cut metal was flying through the air. We also took the opportunity to visit their showrooms in Mernda and check how well the refrigerant air-conditioning was coping with the 46 Celsius heat. The single story buildings were around 27 Celsius inside, not bad, but I'll check the price of upgrading from the 17 kW units to the 20 kW units. Now that I know what was happening not all that far further out from Melbourne, worrying about the ability of air-conditioning seems somewhat obscene. Re: Variations on Henley plans 14Feb 12, 2009 1:31 am mattydals I too am aware that other builders are in trouble (some of these are big names you would not expect too!). Be careful who you build with as we signed up with Marshall Baker before they went bust. Lucky we were warned that this would happen before spending any money. We have no fears with Henley as they are by far the biggest and financially sound. That's reassuring to hear what you say about H3nley's financial position, as I have wondered, but it is so difficult to check. You were very lucky to have heard about Marshall Baker before you had committed money! It must be so upsetting and disappointing to have the house underway, and then have the builder in financial difficulty. I guess with the number of houses that will have to be rebuilt North of Melbourne, the local building industry will be doing okay for a while. Re: Variations on Henley plans 15Feb 12, 2009 9:52 am Fiffaro CiNnY hi, we too are also building with henley have colour appt on wednesday... i live in south morang and the few henley places i have seen go up here are pretty much finished. I hope your colour appointment went well. It's good to hear that you've been able to track a few houses. I visited around South Morang on Saturday and looked through a few H3nley places that we found. The wind and heat were shocking, and at the last place we looked at, some cut metal was flying through the air. We also took the opportunity to visit their showrooms in Mernda and check how well the refrigerant air-conditioning was coping with the 46 Celsius heat. The single story buildings were around 27 Celsius inside, not bad, but I'll check the price of upgrading from the 17 kW units to the 20 kW units. Now that I know what was happening not all that far further out from Melbourne, worrying about the ability of air-conditioning seems somewhat obscene. Colour appointment went very well all over in less than 2 hours... we had been there sunday for 2 hours aswell so i thought that was pretty good. We are going with evaporative cooling as that is what we have where i am now and have only had one day this summer it was too humid for the evap to work as well. It does seem ver obscene that we worry about air con when all these fires are on. i have seen first hand what is happening up there and it puts everything into perspective! 2nd build here we come in Whittlesea! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=92617 1st Build - Henley - Cooper in Doreen! (2009) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=17354 Re: Variations on Henley plans 17Feb 19, 2009 1:50 am Ari Dont the display houses have two aircons going? That's why they are so cool. Walk around the outside of a few and you will see two units. I think you only get one... Hi Ari, The display houses I measured the temperature in had a single condenser unit with twin fans, and I checked that the kW rating was the same as our builder recommended. I noticed that some of the 2 storey houses did have double units. We specified that the condenser units were not to be mounted on the walls, as the walls then act as giant soundboards. Not a good idea. Evaporative cooling is not really an option for me as I own a musical instrument which is sensitive to changes in humidity, and, also, I was concerned by the quantities of water that are used by evaporative coolers. I can't recall any of the display houses I've looked at having evaporative cooling. Am I wrong? Why would this be? It seems very clear to me that your contract states that a security account does NOT need to be established so the answer to the builder is NO. If in doubt find a contract… 1 8512 The fastest thing a builder will do is bank your cheque, those systems work perfectly with lightning speed, everything else is slow burn. Just the way it is. 1 8711 Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18473 |