Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 08, 2009 8:41 pm Ok after lurking here trying to soak up all the info floating around, dropping a couple of responses in (like I have any idea about anything yet ) I guess it is time to share the start of our journey;
We had no intentions of ever building & had been looking for sooooooooo long for the perfect house. We sort of accidentally decided to build - we were wandering around the Gold Coast we found the perfect block for us & everything else snowballed from there! We are settling on Thursday (finally!) on a terrific block in Pacific Pines and are 99.9% sure we are going to be putting C0rals Hamilton 252 on it asap. Neither of us have built before & we dont really know many who have built so our source of knowledge is limited so please get ready for many many questions So far we have bombarded the sales office staff with lots of changes/upgrades & additions to the standard Hamilton plan & I think we are almost there as far as knowing what we want. Back to the office next Friday to make the last few changes & we are into the next step - whatever that may be!! We have been through the Hamilton 252 on display on the Sunshine Coast & the one at Thornlands - it is so great to be able to take a walk through & see what we like & dislike! We called into a brick place on Saturday, just because we were passing - the good news is that my other half & I still seem to like the same things & have chosen a few favourites but we have no idea if they are in C0rals standard range or not - so much to still find out. We have a basic idea of what we want - brick & tile no render or colorbond roof, tiles & carpet not timber on floors & probably a browny color scheme.........lets see what we end up with as I am sure a 'browny' color scheme is going to turn into 3524872 variations of brown before we make a decision on one lol. Anyway, I look forward to sharing our journey & picking up lots of hints, tips & just great ideas along the way. Maybe one day I will have learned enough to pass some of it along too! Cheers Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 2Jun 08, 2009 9:07 pm hi OMG congrats on your pending land settlement! you will be sooo relieved to finally own that piece of aussie dirt! next congratulation is due on finding a builder and house that is right for you! just making that decision is so hard!! if you need any info re: corals standards bricks and laminate colours let us know, quite a few of us (including myself) have only recieved our finishes booklets in the last month or two and will have quite recent lists of some of the standard selections available... i have to have full render (stupid covenants ) but to be honest was very surprised at the number of bricks included in corals standard range - i think there was nearly 20 different bricks... also most of the standard laminates are in the beige & brown tones, so this will help you aswell - great to save on laminate upgrades if you can here's a pic of your plan (for those who aren't building a hamilton ) what changes have you made to the design and what extra have you added? we love info! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 3Jun 08, 2009 10:15 pm Thanks for the encouragement! Would love to find out what C0rals standards bricks and laminate colors are & where we go to choose them (haven't got to that stage with sales staff yet). Choosing the builder ended up being easier than we expected - we had been to quite a few & almost settled on a very very modified design of another builder before we found the Hamilton. We do lots of entertaining so it is perfect foe us. Our bloch is wide at front & narrows so the house is a perfect fit for the block(with a teeny front boundary relaxation), allowing room for a pool too. As for our changes - well I wish I had a working scanner - I will try & describe our changes until I can get the scanner running again (hopefully) We have; 1. Put a veranda on the front - 5x1.5m runs from garage across study & ends even with lounge wall 2. Removed the hall between study & family & extended the long wall all the way down to the study - removed garage/family wall & moved garage door to line up with rear wall of wir - this essentially moved that hallway space to the garage for storage 3. added a cavity slider between family & master 4. Shortened wir & created storage cupboard accessed from hallway 5. Closed off kitchen bench near meals area & put corner cupboard with door opening to meals area (for platters etc) 6. Squared off meals & put in huge slider instead of window 7. Added huge slider to games room & another to activity room (can run in from pool to loo hopefully) 8. Extended bedrooms 3 & 4 to eaves & moved windows to sides 9. Extended toilet & bathroom to eaves - put in deeper & longer bath 10. Under roof 5x4.5m alfresco with gas point for bbq 11. Put sky lights in laundry & wir 12.Put larger window into ensuite but also put in a 900mm wall under the window (bit of privacy & somewhere close to hang the loo paper ) I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of for now........... Cheers Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 4Jun 08, 2009 10:48 pm oooohhh, your design sounds nearly as modified as mine can't wait til you find a scanner!! coral uses PGH bricks - standard range according to my finshes booklet is as follows: Cafe Collection - Hamilton Resort Collection - Bamboo, wicker, thatch blend, old teak, rice, rattan, temple blend Designer Collection - Eucumbene, Holtham, perisher, bangalow blend Lifestyle collection - Bathhurst, grosvenor, lithgow, thredbo, kentia blend Presto collection - Presto Bianca, Presto brolio, presto holtham, presto perisher, presto rice, presto thredbo hope this helps p.s. i have no idea what the difference between a normal thredbo and a presto thredbo is going to check the pgh website now... 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 5Jun 08, 2009 10:56 pm oh yeah, standard laminates are laminex oyster linea, mushroom linea, pesto linea, licorice linea, calico, moleskin, raw linen, peruvian clay, alabaster, new antique white, platinum micro, stipple cocoa, stipple hemp, stipple seal and formica aurum and velveteen with the laminex samples you can order up to 25 free samples from the laminex website (they arrive in 2 -3 business days - really good service ) or you can check out the nearest display home to you with a colour room - coral has heaps of laminex and colourbond etc samples at the colour rooms...there are colour rooms at the displays at calamvale, coomera springs and kawana lakes up your way...they are open all weekend to the public... hope this helps too... 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 6Jun 08, 2009 11:00 pm ok - a presto brick seemsto be a double size brick... 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 8Jun 09, 2009 1:06 pm All those changes look fantastic OMG. We've made some similar changes, you can see our revised Hamilton plan and kitchen design in my thread, the link is in my sig. Quote: 8. Extended bedrooms 3 & 4 to eaves & moved windows to sides 9. Extended toilet & bathroom to eaves - put in deeper & longer bath I'd love to know how much Coral charged you for these changes and now i'm bummed we never thought of doing that LOL! Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 9Jun 09, 2009 2:00 pm Congrats on taking the plunge OMG. Buckle up & hold on tight is all I can say!! You can chose any laminex for you kitchen and bathroom vanity tops, but the list Jess has given you is all you can chose from for your bathroom cabinets. I'd get to one of the display homes with the colour rooms ASAP and start making some preliminary colour choices for things like your bricks, tiles, window frames, garage. You'll probably change you'our mind a million times over, but if you get started on the things which have limited flexibility, it will make chosing other things like paint, tiles and carpet much easier. Pacific Pines is lovely. Lucky you. Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 10Jun 09, 2009 5:50 pm omg jellylegs!!!! i completely missed that...so really i can look at any laminates for the kitchen and i thought i had chosen!!! 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 11Jun 09, 2009 6:28 pm Thanks for the details re Laminex - I was getting a bit worried already about choosing one of those colors for the kitchen benchtop! Will be heading to Coomera Springs color room Saturday to get a start on it - do we need to make an appointment or can we just rock up there? They have bricks etc there too hey (OMG feels like lambs to the slaughter here so much to learn lol) here I was thinking I was going to be driving all over the place for tiles, bricks etc etc. SO glad I found this forum so I can learn all this stuff from here...... As for our changes Rebekah, (luv what you did with the master & hallway btw) it (will) cost $2450 to extend the bedrooms & robes in those rooms & switch windows to the side and another $880 to extend the bathroom out - not sure how much yet to move toilet out to eaves - thats a recent thought that they havent priced yet. Our alfresco area at 5x4.5m is quoted at $11800 & front veranda 5mx 1.5m for $4350 both not including concrete - does that sound about right? Cheers Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 12Jun 09, 2009 8:22 pm hi omg - sorry for the ******* laminate info from what i know all the display home colour rooms are open all weekend to the public as the colour consultants only use the colour rooms for appointments during the week...alfresco quote sounds about right, i always worked it out at approx $500 pm2 and my 3 x 5 under roof alfresco came in at just over $7000, but it only has one brick pier - your's may need two? 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 13Jun 09, 2009 10:12 pm Building with Coral 2009 hi omg - sorry for the ******* laminate info from what i know all the display home colour rooms are open all weekend to the public as the colour consultants only use the colour rooms for appointments during the week...alfresco quote sounds about right, i always worked it out at approx $500 pm2 and my 3 x 5 under roof alfresco came in at just over $7000, but it only has one brick pier - your's may need two? No worries about the laminate confusion - it was more still more info than we knew this time yesterday so all good! Yeah we will need 2 piers as the area extends out 1m from the meals room wall. From what I have seen on here our pricing seems comparable.....the only real query I have at the moment is our site costs & realistically I believe we wont get a closer costing until the soil testing is done - it just concerns me that we have about .7m fall from front to back & estimate of $17k - is a big house tho & we will prob have piers put in for when the pool is dug as it will be pretty close to house. Cheers Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 14Jun 10, 2009 9:13 am Building with Coral 2009 omg jellylegs!!!! i completely missed that...so really i can look at any laminates for the kitchen and i thought i had chosen!!! Yes, that's right Jess! Don't quote me - but I'm pretty sure you can choose from ANY of the laminex range for your kitchen and for your bathroom benchtops. I know that the diamondgloss and silver are upgrades, but I'm pretty sure all the other standard laminex products are yours to choose from. We have the diamondgloss benchtop in the kitchen and that was about $100 for the upgrade. Friends of ours have it for their bathroom benchtops (which I don't recommend after living with it in the kitchen ) and that cost them $50 for the upgrade. You can also choose from the...what is it called...Wislonart(???) range - something like that. Or is it Formica? You'd need to check your colour list. The options are endless!! I also spoke recently to a couple who built with Coral a couple of years ago and they also thought they could only choose from that limited list. They're REALLY ticked off now because they're living with colours they wouldn't have picked if they new they had more options. It must be the way the list is presented - we double checked that to clarify what we could choose from, otherwise we would have done the same thing. OMG - Just ask your sales person for the colour selection list. Ours gave it to us very early on which was great. We photocopied it and scribbled all over ours while we changed our mind. The colour rooms are a great place to start, but they don't have the entire range of bricks and tiles there. We went out to PGH and had a good look through. You'll get to see entire walls of the bricks and you can place a tile sample with them to see how it looks. MUCH easier way to make a decision than looking at a couple of samples. I do recommend making the effort to go to the brick place, a Dulux colour place and all the tile places on the list! It's time consuming, but you'll possibly be looking at unfortunate colour choices for a hell of a lot longer if you don't put the effort in. Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 15Jun 11, 2009 7:04 am Update - settlement is scheduled for 4.15 today so fingers crossed please everyone that it goes smoothly. If all goes to plan, at 5.30 tonight we shall be sitting on our patch of dirt drinking the first glass ( first of many - have to christen the party house ) of champers to be opened at our house! Then tomorrow when the champers has worn off its off to PGH to have a good look around & pick up color sheet while we are out & about. Thanks for the tips guys Cheers Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 16Jun 11, 2009 10:49 pm Woohoo we settled the land today with no problems - except it was way too cold to crack open the champers after work tonight so it looks like a champagne brekkie! Cheers Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 17Jun 11, 2009 10:56 pm yay omg!!! it's soooo cold though 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 19Jun 12, 2009 7:33 pm Fantastic news congratulations You officially own some dirt Gosh yes, this cold weather is crazy. It was 4 degrees here at Oxenford this morning. Re: And so it begins - C0rals Hamilton 252 on the Gold Coast 20Jun 12, 2009 11:05 pm JellyLegs I know that the diamondgloss and silver are upgrades, but I'm pretty sure all the other standard laminex products are yours to choose from. We have the diamondgloss benchtop in the kitchen and that was about $100 for the upgrade. Friends of ours have it for their bathroom benchtops (which I don't recommend after living with it in the kitchen ) Jellylegs... I was going to go with the dimond gloss for the kitchen bench... would you recomend it ... any pros or cons thanks lwbjl http://buildingfraser251withcoral.blogspot.com/ Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 8 17170 So AFAIk the outcomes of the BAL ratings form part of a clause that allows them to pass these costs on to you. However the more relevant detail is how did it go from 19… 1 9103 I work with owner, he/she is my man on the ground and I instruct them when to visit the site and take photos and I have other tools in the bag. 4 15014 |