Browse Forums Building A New House Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3681Apr 12, 2013 10:09 pm Just saw the Move In Pack for the Essential Range http://www.carlislehomes.com.au/files/s ... n_Pack.pdf Has anyone seen this before and what the catch is? The fine prints says the fencing and landscaping will be offered as a rebate, it sounds like you choose a package from their landscaper, which can be like $20000 and you get some money back, so you ended up having to pay more than $7490? I understand landscaping is not cheap... Or am I reading it too much? Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3682Apr 15, 2013 1:16 pm K4neX Has anyone seen this before and what the catch is? The fine prints says the fencing and landscaping will be offered as a rebate, it sounds like you choose a package from their landscaper, which can be like $20000 and you get some money back, so you ended up having to pay more than $7490? I understand landscaping is not cheap... Or am I reading it too much? Our sale consultant offered us something similiar to this in February, (they were not advertising it at the time though). I would ask a sales consultant what the full terms and conditions are. It doesn't look like you have to choose one of their landscaping packages. But 3 things you should consider: - Would you be happy with the letter box, tv antenna, clotheline they offer? I for example do not like the wall clothesline in the pack. - How far back will your garage be set? The driveway they offer is for a max set back of 6m to the garage. For example our garage only needed to be set back 5m, but it was not until the contract signing that I found out that our neighbours had set theirs back further so we had to do the same. So our set back is now 6.2m. - With this package you are paying Carlisle $7490 as part of your contract price, (therefore as progress payments throughout the build). But they will not give you the $5000 (for landscaping & fences) until completion. So therefore you are paying more interest as you will have a higher loan, whilst they will be earning interest on your money. However the $2,490 part does seem like a good price, as I have heard driveways can be close to that much alone. Maybe get some driveway quotes first so you can compare? Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65498 Deposit 17/02/13 Contract 12/04 Slab 17/05 Roof 06/06 Bricks, Lockup and Fixing 04/07 PCI 22/08 Handover 29/08 Moved in 07/09! Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3683Apr 15, 2013 3:29 pm Ok so I forgot to update you guys on what colours we've selected. Exterior Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks - Truffle Roof Tiles - Barramundi Gutters & Fascia - Woodland Grey (Colour Bond) Timber Cladding - Charcoal Render 1 - Mud Pack Render 2 - Ploughed Earth Windows - Woodland Grey (Colour Bond) Garage Door & Down Pipes - Dune (Colour Bond) Interior Colours Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ L-R Perspex Doors - Black Carpet - Sweet Vanilla SDN Floor Boards - Spotted Gum Kitchen Ceasarstone - Urban Kitchen Cupboards - Polar White Laminex Gloss Wet Area Tiles Floor - Vibe Mocha Shower Wall tiles - Solutions Light Beige Laundry splash back - Gloss Biscuit Kitchen, Ensuite, Powder, Bathroom and Laundry - Licorice Linea Laminex Bathroom and Powder tops - Ospray Ceasarstone Vanity Wall tiles - Mosaic Zenith Let me know what you think. Building CH Ascot MK2 29 Contract - 3/5/13 Site Scrape - 16/9/13 Slab - 26/9/13 Framing - 30/9/13 Roof - 10/10/13 LockUp - 19/10/13 Fixing - 1/11/13 Painting - 11/11/13 Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3684Apr 16, 2013 1:53 pm Just found out that the Community Infrastructure Levy, that I naively thought the first owner of our land had paid, has in fact not been paid. And it is $900! Just another of the unexpected costs of building a home. Add that to the $1080 Asset Protection permit and I'm up for most of the Hubby's last pay check (Oh well at least $860 of the Permit is refundable). Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65498 Deposit 17/02/13 Contract 12/04 Slab 17/05 Roof 06/06 Bricks, Lockup and Fixing 04/07 PCI 22/08 Handover 29/08 Moved in 07/09! Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3685Apr 21, 2013 3:57 pm Quote: Hey there! I tried to add extra telephone point to my kitchen but was told, since my fibre optic pack includes 4 plates, I would have to upgrade my pack if I wanted more. So they don't offer extra add on single data points or telephone points etc. pretty lame if you ask me! They DO split it in half (half 2 tv cable points, half data/telephone), but if you want extras beyond the 4 you need to upgrade. The pack you must get is unfortunately dictated by the estate you buy your land in so there's not much we can do about that. I'm up over $3,000 for my pack :/ I'm going to upload pics of what the points and plates look like HD Thanks for the information about splitting the points. Do you remember if they added much extra charge or other limitations if you split them? Would be great to split the lounge TV/cable TV and place data/voice in the kitchen area. I'm also going to query (we we are in for tender) if the points are cat6/cat6a - as the photo from the display place is only old cat5e (hopefully just not updated). We also had no luck trying to get conduit in walls for post hand over cabling works. Still can't justify $4,000 (to myself!) for 4 data plates - could wire many cat6 points per room to the entire house for that, but a mandatory require of Carlisle and the head office has not been able to explain the very bloated cost of them. To contribute back what I've been checking out: (Based on a 33sq home [1 story], infinity range) Electrical/data - Surge protection at the fuse box - $360.00 - 20amp circuit/provision for reverse cycle AC - $372.00 - 5.1 pre wire (I believe it was 16g, left in the wall cavity - no face plates or termination) $575.00 - Slim line power/data points - ~$10 ea - whole house must be done; having the same in silver/chrome finish ~+$10ea Has anyone placed a provision for an AC or just run it off existing / had the installers do it at the time? Trying to weigh up cost/befit and experiences. What provisions have people had in place for refrigerated air con? Carlisle going rate for re-fridge is $16k+ (duct upgrade/zone) for 33sq house - happy to hear what others are exploring! Quote: Has anyone got pictures of what colours they have picked? Will upload ours soon / have it on the blog when I write up the colour selection post Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Colors: (Cat 1 - included in cost with Affinity range unless annotated) Front Door: Jarrah (Stained) (Upgrade - Estate Guidelines) Garage Door: Tuscan - Timber Grain (Upgrade - Estate Guidelines) Render: Self Destruct Cladding: Walnut Hull Roof (Colorbond): Paperbark Gutter: Paperbark Down pipe: Jasper Brick: Chestnut (Truffle Cat1a backup - upgrade) Aluminum Window/Stacker doors: Black Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Colors: (Cat 1 - included in cost with Affinity range unless annotated) Carpet: Ballard-Nylon Plush Carpet Underlay: Cat 3 - Super Premium Foam (Upgrade) Laminate flooring: Soft Greige Oak Cabinet doors & panels: Seductive Limba (Vertical grain) Shadow line: Lustrous Elm Perspex: Lucite Pearlescent Pearl (Black) Ceaserstone: White Shimmer Splash-back: Black More details on the blog if you wanted. Carlisle Homes ~ Winslow 33 http://jm-winslow33.blogspot.com.au/ 04/7 - Site cut 22/8 - Base 28/8 - Frame 02/9 - Roof 15/9 Plumbing & Electrical 7/10 - Lockup November - Complete Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3686Apr 25, 2013 9:35 am Hi there, I am a new member here and this is essentially my first port in the forum. I have been following this forum for a while now though to learn about new build process. We are looking at building vetra 43 from CH , and below is the quote that we got from the sales consultant. Hoping someone here could have a look at it and advice if they are being reasonable. We are building in melbourne north in laurimar estate. base price -280400 site costs - 18k (this is the biggest concern for us given that the block was quote for 8k and 10k before by others. It has 1.58m fill and 40cm slope from back to front as told by the sales consultant. council costs -3500 developer costs - 7500 - this includes garage extn by 1.3 m costing around 5500 shower in powder room - 3200 staircase variation - basically timber stairs instead of carpet and chrome railings - 4800 security system - 900 ducted vacuum - 1900 gas in alfresco - 530 , we thought this is excessive and their answer was because its a double story, can't believe they can just add 250 for this when there won't be much diff if its single or double story as far as gas piping is concerned. heating upgrade - 2500 and this is on top of their advertised std. heating costs , they say that its because we wanted to have zoning and that adds this much to upgrade the system. flooring and carpet - 13000 both cat 1 This has pushed our budget now to around 340k for the total build already and we are yet to do our colour and electricals. Can anybody help with a ball park figure for these upgrades if they were to be a conservative? We have budgeted around 2K here , but not sure if that's too less. Though we like the home, we are feeling like to step back and think again- believe they are quoting a lot, and not ready to negotiate or price match for anything at all. The other option for us is to check if there is any bigger home in T range , which will give us big home + we can use the 5500 for garage extension towards the upgrades from T range. This way at least we are paying it to get a bigger home I think. Any thoughts? Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3687Apr 25, 2013 9:51 am Vetra43 This has pushed our budget now to around 340k for the total build already and we are yet to do our colour and electricals. Can anybody help with a ball park figure for these upgrades if they were to be a conservative? We have budgeted around 2K here , but not sure if that's too less. Though we like the home, we are feeling like to step back and think again- believe they are quoting a lot, and not ready to negotiate or price match for anything at all. Hi and welcome to the forums! Are you talking about a 2K for Spectra? I hope not. The little things add up at spectra. We were told by our SC that you won't really spend much at Spectra. Haha Yeah right! How ever they are little luxuries. You can do without but TBH you'll most likely blow that budget right away. Brick colours are Standard and most people go to a Cat 1a from memory this is about $1K for a 30sq Single Storey, and Off white Mortar adds in about $800. So yeah i think put in a 10K budget for Spectra and you should be alright... Hope that helps! Building CH Ascot MK2 29 Contract - 3/5/13 Site Scrape - 16/9/13 Slab - 26/9/13 Framing - 30/9/13 Roof - 10/10/13 LockUp - 19/10/13 Fixing - 1/11/13 Painting - 11/11/13 Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3688Apr 25, 2013 9:57 am And yah, one more last thing, How much do you think we can save by going the option of post handover tiling? My quote sayd about 7500 for tiling (excluding wet areas), so if we get third party tilers to do job, what savings & problems can we expect ? Is it worth the hassle at all? Not sure how good their tiles are ceramic in cat1 range and if we can get better quality by going to external tilers. We were told that the tiling area could measure upto 90sq approximately. If anyone has done that already, please help with approx. cost per sq meter and what's the quality of tiles? Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3689Apr 25, 2013 10:16 am Xjohnno Are you talking about a 2K for Spectra? I hope not. The little things add up at spectra. We were told by our SC that you won't really spend much at Spectra. Haha Yeah right! How ever they are little luxuries. You can do without but TBH you'll most likely blow that budget right away. Brick colours are Standard and most people go to a Cat 1a from memory this is about $1K for a 30sq Single Storey, and Off white Mortar adds in about $800. So yeah i think put in a 10K budget for Spectra and you should be alright... Hope that helps! Thanks Xjohnno. Wow 10K? hmm, This is no where near our expectation. Will see what we can take out from our list. I guess this is high time for us to consider the other options if not with in CH. The fact that we love the home is the only factor holding us back so far. Not sure if CH and their inclusion list is really THAT great now that we keep adding things like this anyway. and the final figure and final inclusions match up with anyone out there. I could be wrong. May be you fine people here could answer me. Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3690Apr 25, 2013 6:53 pm Vetra43 Hi there, .... Any thoughts? Gone through the process recently, but first home buyer myself - here is my experience: Quote: base price -280400 site costs - 18k (this is the biggest concern for us given that the block was quote for 8k and 10k before by others. It has 1.58m fill and 40cm slope from back to front as told by the sales consultant. Carlisle does seem to be a bit on the higher cost of site costs at times. Retaining walls get costly fast and sometimes are even more costly if the developer has specific specifications/requires of the retaining walls (Cladding, specific materials, etc). You can try to ask for a further breakdown / ensure they are all valid / know what you are paying for. Quote: council costs -3500 developer costs - 7500 - this includes garage extn by 1.3 m costing around 5500 Make sure you check what the developer guidelines / costing is for (you have one part itemized). When we went through this, Carlisle had gone above and beyond guidelines / based on other houses they had built in the area. We went through the guidelines/covenants ourselves and had about ~$5,000 removed - case by case / investigate to see if there is anything that can be cutout. We also inquired generally about extending the garage by a meter (just for more space in there) and it was something around that mark too. Quote: heating upgrade - 2500 and this is on top of their advertised std. heating costs , they say that its because we wanted to have zoning and that adds this much to upgrade the system. It's what we have been told as well - you have to get 4/5 star heating to be able to get the zoned part installed. Quote: flooring and carpet - 13000 both cat 1 Just under 10k for our house - single story, Winslow 33. Quote: This has pushed our budget now to around 340k for the total build already and we are yet to do our colour and electricals. Can anybody help with a ball park figure for these upgrades if they were to be a conservative? We have budgeted around 2K here , but not sure if that's too less. Our quote included a 3k budget for electrical. It depends how fancy you want to go, but I would allow at least 1k for extra double power points / extra lights at least. We went into SPECTRA allow up to 10k of extra cost, will be cutting down what we don't want at tender (better to have it pre cost and to cut then to try and get lots of costing at tender). If you want some more ballpark costs of other things you may want - check out a few posts in this thread with costs / I have a few listed on my blog. I assume you have read the sticky in this forum 'Things you forget - summary page 27' - as that easily pushes up the total price, as you may want to include things you didn't think of. A few things that will cost (if wanted and just quickly off the top of my head): Premium underlay - Possibly 1-2k for a double story of that size? Locks on doors (other than a basic one on the front door) Quote: The other option for us is to check if there is any bigger home in T range , which will give us big home + we can use the 5500 for garage extension towards the upgrades from T range. This way at least we are paying it to get a bigger home I think. We would of loved (well I would of!) a double story but it was out of our reach. We were also happy with a different design in single story and knew there would be more costs than just the base price of the house (and we are trying to limit upgrades as well). Quote: I guess this is high time for us to consider the other options if not with in CH. The fact that we love the home is the only factor holding us back so far. Not sure if CH and their inclusion list is really THAT great now that we keep adding things like this anyway. I guess it depends what each persons expectation of the standard inclusions are - Carlisle is open about what is included on their site and when you ask at any sales/inquiry point they will tell you what is/is not included. Have you checked if your estate is NBN or what other connection costs may be? We are unfortunately stuck with 4k Carlisle package for 4 outlets in our house (voice/data/TV), tying into the NBN connection - I'm still ranting about that additional cost They are also in the business of supplying a per-designed home and variations require work / commission to be made. Basically we are getting things done that are critical to structure/costly afterwords - which it seems you are doing as well from what you have described. These also come with a bit of peace of mind that they are covered by fixing/limited warranty/done without knocking holes in the place or redoing what has been done. Hope you have some luck working out things Carlisle Homes ~ Winslow 33 http://jm-winslow33.blogspot.com.au/ 04/7 - Site cut 22/8 - Base 28/8 - Frame 02/9 - Roof 15/9 Plumbing & Electrical 7/10 - Lockup November - Complete Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3691Apr 26, 2013 11:42 am Thanks a lot Jason, Yah, site costs are high, they say, we don't need retaining walls, its just for cut and fill for that 40cm slope(usually they don't charge anything upto 30cm) and then the rest for piers, as they say... apparently this site has more fill , but still I dont believe that's how much it takes. I am still hopeful that they are just trying to be too generous, to avoid surprises and soil test may come back more positively. Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3692Apr 26, 2013 1:13 pm Vetra43 site costs - 18k (this is the biggest concern for us given that the block was quote for 8k and 10k before by others. It has 1.58m fill and 40cm slope from back to front as told by the sales consultant. Hi Vetra, We had a virtually flat block, with no fill, no rock and pretty good soil. Our site costs were $6000. We were quoted $8000, so pleasant outcome for us. However we were quoted about $10,000-$12,000 by other building companies, so I think a lot of the time they are just guessing. However, at Carlisle I did find they took the extra effort to give a more accurate quote. I think $18,000 might be reasonable, as 1.58m fill is a lot. Vetra43 developer costs - 7500 - this includes garage extn by 1.3 m costing around 5500 To be honest this may not be enough. If the garage is $5500 that only leaves $2000. We had to pay about $1500 for recycled water and $3500 for fibre optics. You might want to check if you need recycled water and whether your estate has fibre or the NBN, I don't think there are many new estates that don't have recycled water and either fibre or NBN. Also it might be worth comparing the difference in costing if there is a T-range house you like. As they have a promotion that will cover your flooring for under $10,000 for the whole house. I wouldn't get your flooring done after handover, as then there are no guarantees. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65498 Deposit 17/02/13 Contract 12/04 Slab 17/05 Roof 06/06 Bricks, Lockup and Fixing 04/07 PCI 22/08 Handover 29/08 Moved in 07/09! Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3693Apr 29, 2013 1:21 pm Hey all, Just a quick update regarding my site costs, finally Carlisle agreed to reduce the site costs by 1500 and made it fixed site costs, happy with this. Mostly by fixed site costs but not the price reduction basically. I am still working with them with few other changes to the plan, and hopefully if they could help me we are going to build a Vetra43. On a side note, there is a question for people who have extended their garage. Our current garage is being extended by almost 1.3 metres to fit the developer guidelines. Now we are not reallly sure whether we need to extend the garage door as well? Looks like the price quote for garage door extension does not include this. and we are not sure if it is worth spending money. If anybody of you have done that before, can you post the pictures, so I know how its going to look like? Thanks guys Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3694Apr 29, 2013 11:38 pm Vetra43 And yah, one more last thing, How much do you think we can save by going the option of post handover tiling? My quote sayd about 7500 for tiling (excluding wet areas), so if we get third party tilers to do job, what savings & problems can we expect ? Is it worth the hassle at all? Not sure how good their tiles are ceramic in cat1 range and if we can get better quality by going to external tilers. We were told that the tiling area could measure upto 90sq approximately. If anyone has done that already, please help with approx. cost per sq meter and what's the quality of tiles? Don't think anyone answered this q, but you cannot get tiling done by a third party. CH is required by law to ensure tiling in all wet areas is installed, otherwise they cannot obtain certificate of occupancy (or some other term, lol) and cannot hand the house over to you. Luckily the tiles offered in cat1 and 1a are pretty decent and nicer than most other builders. Go to Beaumont tiles and ask them to show you the standard Carlisle tiles. They have a silver sticker. Keep in mind porcelain tiles will cost more. HD Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3695Apr 30, 2013 11:42 am Vetra43 Hey all, Just a quick update regarding my site costs, finally Carlisle agreed to reduce the site costs by 1500 and made it fixed site costs, happy with this. Mostly by fixed site costs but not the price reduction basically. I am still working with them with few other changes to the plan, and hopefully if they could help me we are going to build a Vetra43. On a side note, there is a question for people who have extended their garage. Our current garage is being extended by almost 1.3 metres to fit the developer guidelines. Now we are not reallly sure whether we need to extend the garage door as well? Looks like the price quote for garage door extension does not include this. and we are not sure if it is worth spending money. If anybody of you have done that before, can you post the pictures, so I know how its going to look like? Thanks guys Hello, we've extended our garage by 1.5 meters and we didn't have to extend the garage door. We just had to specify which side we'll have it and then, as part of the Developer requirements, we had to add a window in the portion of the brick wall that accounted for the extension. Building Pagoda 31 MkII 28/11/11 - Tender 20/12/11 - Contract Signed 12/06/12 - Settlement Now on to never-ending post handover activities! Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3696May 02, 2013 7:19 am Hi all, Thanks for the responses, this forum is a real help for us. Now. Do we have any threads already that has CH upgrade costs like? I am seeing like their upgrade costs are higher most of the times when compared with PD on a diff thread here. For ex a normal 300x300x90 shower niche was quoted about 300 each for us. Does that sound normal? Just checking to see if there is any place where I can go and verify to get an idea of what general upgrade costs are like? Any help guys Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3697May 02, 2013 6:23 pm Vetra43 Hi all, Thanks for the responses, this forum is a real help for us. Now. Do we have any threads already that has CH upgrade costs like? I am seeing like their upgrade costs are higher most of the times when compared with PD on a diff thread here. For ex a normal 300x300x90 shower niche was quoted about 300 each for us. Does that sound normal? Just checking to see if there is any place where I can go and verify to get an idea of what general upgrade costs are like? Any help guys Yep, we were quoted $300 per shower niche too. We ended up getting 3. Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3698May 02, 2013 9:01 pm Vetra43 Hi all, Thanks for the responses, this forum is a real help for us. Now. Do we have any threads already that has CH upgrade costs like? I am seeing like their upgrade costs are higher most of the times when compared with PD on a diff thread here. For ex a normal 300x300x90 shower niche was quoted about 300 each for us. Does that sound normal? Just checking to see if there is any place where I can go and verify to get an idea of what general upgrade costs are like? Any help guys As above, $300. We decided not to get them - as its seemed costly for something small and only one fixed size - but a nice idea for the showers. They do have one on display at SPECTRA / some display homes. What sort of rough costs were you after? Can try to answer based on our visit / I have listed some general things on my blog to help out (and the process we have been through with Carlisle). Carlisle Homes ~ Winslow 33 http://jm-winslow33.blogspot.com.au/ 04/7 - Site cut 22/8 - Base 28/8 - Frame 02/9 - Roof 15/9 Plumbing & Electrical 7/10 - Lockup November - Complete Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3699May 04, 2013 7:06 pm We have officially signed our contract. Now the waiting game beings. We currently have a site start of late June. So from now till then the developers are to approve our plans if not this could be delayed even more . In the end we did go over our initial budget but I think the house is going to look fantastic! I'll keep you posted! or just follow my blog. Building CH Ascot MK2 29 Contract - 3/5/13 Site Scrape - 16/9/13 Slab - 26/9/13 Framing - 30/9/13 Roof - 10/10/13 LockUp - 19/10/13 Fixing - 1/11/13 Painting - 11/11/13 Re: The CARLISLE HOMES & SPECTRA General Information Thread 3700May 04, 2013 10:40 pm Hi All I had my colour browse today and i have to say i was very disapointed. i had been to spectra before signing up and they were so helpful. first off the lady who took our appointment was new/training. she show no sign of any interest in our build and just tried to rush through the whole thing. Any questions we asked, were I cannot comment or I do not know. not i'm new here, let me write that down and ill go check for you....... Probing for upgrade cost was like getting blood out of a stone. would not give approx even after many time i told her i would not hold Carlisle to this approx. probing for ideas, what's in fashion? what would be a good option? what the kitchen would look like? we got nothing and wasnt interested. Has anyone else expirianced this with Spectra? we sent a complaint to the CLE. 0 5027 We are at the stage on our build in Kilcoy, Queensland where we need to get our fencing installed but we cant get any contact details for our neighbours to give them… 0 6229 You should check your detail drawings, it may show downpipe within brick pier. 14 14191 |