The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread

mqtutor,

I would definitely visit Boral & Austral bricks. It's much better to see the brick in a wall or large display than seeing a few bricks on a panel as they are at Spectra. Gives you more of an idea what it will look like. They were unable to tell us which categories the bricks were though. We selected our favourite with a back up and were pleasantly surprised when we got to Spectra & discovered our first choice was Cat 1. Our back up is Cat 5!

I found visiting the carpet showroom very helpful as well. They did know which Cat the carpets were. I would especially recommend this if you're going with the timber laminate flooring. Laying the carpet samples down next to the timber flooring was important to make sure they blend well. Our first choice of colour for carpet didn't look at all good next the blackbutt timber we wanted. Subtle colour differences can make a big difference. Then you can just write the colour down.

Colour selection can be a long process, it makes it easier if you've made some selections already before you get there. We also went to Beaumont tiles, although I found that less vital and it didn't make any difference - we ended up choosing our tiles from the Spectra samples, not what we'd seen at Beaumont. Still, it can give you ideas. There's so many to look at. They have a colour coding system on the price tags to let you know if it's in the standard range. Tiles don't have Categories as such - there's the standard range then outside standard. They do give you an idea by have a couple of colour codes, but really each tile has its own $ per sqm and Carlisle will work out a price once you've chosen. They can't tell you at Spectra what each tile costs, so I guess that may be one advantage of going to Beaumont.

I don't have a link for the carpet supplier - it's just a small factory showroom in Hallam. Details are in the booklet. When I said larger samples I didn't mean more colours, I just meant the physical size of the sample. It's easier to judge what something will look like when you have more area to look at.

Michael

We went with a category 1a Austral "Mushroom". Our colour consultant showed us that we could have the whole facade rendered for the same price as upgrading by a couple of brick categories - easy choice - the render looks fantastic! As far as quality difference, Austral categories are more expensive, but does that mean they're better?
We went with the glass splashback coz it looks brilliant and life's too short to scrub grout. Any spills wipe off the laminate cupboards easily, but I wouldn't go dunking them in bath water

Hi all

I'm thinking to downgrade the house design from T range to Essential range, is it possible? I've paid the inital deposit and colour selection is scheduled for next week Anyone has similar experience?

CBPH,

Great to hear! I found them to be pretty good, when we went to sign our contract we had a few variations also which they didn't charge us for. Have to agree with you on their helpful assistance, they've been great so far. Believe or not, but we've been given our PCI date of the 25th of November! So excited, our home has taken around 2 months to build, so quick I haven't been able to keep up. I think they really wanted to finish it before Xmas. Hopefully there aren't too many issues. We've arrange for a independent inspector to look over the property on the day of PCI also.

Keep you all posted!

2 months??? Bloody heck that is brilliant. I can only hope ours goes just as fast!!!