Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 15, 2009 8:41 pm Hey guys,
Can't believe I found this forum. It looks like it will be a great forum for me to get any tips and hints when building our new home. We managed to secure a block of land near Forest Lake in QLD and have been busy finding our dream home to go on the land. Today we have finally made the decision to go with Plantation Homes and their Doulton range. Could anyone give me a few inside tips on what to do at the pre-contract stage, what to ask for, how much can we haggle the price etc? I plan to head down to Healthwood tomorrow and start negotiations. Anyone have past experiences down there? If all goes well on here I might start a blog like others have. Congrats to all those who got their homes (that I saw on here)! I can't wait to finally have a home that I am content with. Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks, Andrew. Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 2Oct 15, 2009 11:01 pm Welcome! not building with plantation but Hi! I know there are a few on here building with plantation - here is a few links to some plantation threads viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20588&p=332012#p332012 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18151 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=17382 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=11957&p=275138#p275138 and a blog - i beleive aqua (in north brissie) is also building a doulton http://aqua-blog-building.blogspot.com/ 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: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 3Oct 15, 2009 11:15 pm know what mods you considered? spa bath? bi-fold doors? ducted aircon? (you can get someone else to do that). internal changes? which options are you having included and will the be practical on your lot? we had the option of a deck near the master/tv area upstairs but that would have given us a wonderful view of nothing but roof tops and for $25k it ain't worth looking at monier. master to front or rear options? zero lotting the site? media room with cavity sliders? glass sliding doors to alfresco from media room? (poor acoustics if you have a HT set up). siting of water tank, hws and aircon ducting? smart planning now could save stress later. just some thoughts ’’Quondo Omni Flunkus Mortati ’’ If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Stila BK1 Build Thread The best place to talk about sport Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 4Oct 16, 2009 12:24 am Thanks for the heads-up Jess. Serge, you make some good points I never thought about, esp re the media room. The Doulton has sliding doors leading to the alfresco from the HT room. I guess it would be better to have timber bi-fold doors? Your idea of a cavity door is excellent as well as the media room is really part of the open plan living area (but for a small wall). We were given a preliminary quote of 17,500 for ducted air-con which got me thinking whether it would be cheaper (and easier) doing it after handover. I have the same thoughts about the driveway. We are also thinking of making some slight changes to the master bed ensuite as we were impressed with the ensuite design of the Metricon Newhaven and would like it similar to that. I also have difficulty understanding what the difference between bag and paint and rendering. The sales guy tried to explain it to me and I still had no idea. He said there's not much difference that one could tell.. just that rendering was far more expensive. Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 5Oct 16, 2009 7:59 am hi again re: render vs bag & paint, i think there is a big difference - with bag and paint you can still see the outline of every brick, whereas with render you get a smooth rendered finish 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: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 6Oct 16, 2009 9:14 am think about everything you may want to take out of contract and complete after handover, air con, concreting, main floor covers, carpet to name a few. Consider any changes you may want to make to the standard plan, drawers in kitchen, shelves in wardrobes, additional storing (we added a cupboard to the study), doors (to study or rumpus/HT - and hinged or cavity sliders), windows - if you want to change the awnings to sliders or double hung or something else, or change the size. Shower to powder room. THese are just some changes we have made so easy to rattle them off. Have fun! Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 7Oct 16, 2009 9:56 am andrewn re the media room. The Doulton has sliding doors leading to the alfresco from the HT room. I guess it would be better to have timber bi-fold doors? Your idea of a cavity door is excellent as well as the media room is really part of the open plan living area (but for a small wall). andrewn We were given a preliminary quote of 17,500 for ducted air-con which got me thinking whether it would be cheaper (and easier) doing it after handover. I have the same thoughts about the driveway. andrewn I also have difficulty understanding what the difference between bag and paint and rendering. The sales guy tried to explain it to me and I still had no idea. He said there's not much difference that one could tell.. just that rendering was far more expensive. here's a close up of a bagged finish Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and from a distance Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ ’’Quondo Omni Flunkus Mortati ’’ If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Stila BK1 Build Thread The best place to talk about sport Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 8Oct 16, 2009 4:15 pm Thanks for that. Obv it doesnt look as good as full render... The PH sales assistant assured us that their bag and paint is much better than some seen (eg serges example photo). The sales consultant wasn't in the office today so we won't find out the rough quote until tomorrow but at the moment, we are going with: DoutonQ1 Facade: Dalziel Flooring: Tiled (except for study and front living area plus first floor) Driveway: open stone Windows: timber ventian (which will we do after handover) Amendments: Alfresco and media room flip That's it for now. Looks pretty sketchy thus far. Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 9Oct 16, 2009 7:21 pm Plantation use Taubmans Moroka if my colours spec is anything to go by. ’’Quondo Omni Flunkus Mortati ’’ If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Stila BK1 Build Thread The best place to talk about sport Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 10Oct 17, 2009 9:06 pm We just got a quote from PH for the DoultonQ1. These are some of the specifics List Price: 263,400 H Slab: 9,029 Watertank: 6,990 Facade (full render): 45,150 Driveway: 6,500 Alfresco slab: 3,510 Tiles: 8,448 Carpet: 6,000 Electrical: 4,000 (provisional) Air con: 16,000 Quote total: 371,000 Birthday and zone discounts: 30,000 So the house at this stage is roughly 341,000. We have no idea what we can do by ourselves and save on cash. From knowledge I know that the watertank is well over-priced. We are also thinking of bag and paint instead of render but we have no idea how good PHs bag and paint is. This alone would save us many of thousands. Any tips would help. Many thanks. Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 13Oct 29, 2009 9:29 pm Nice house. Where in Forest Lake are you?? The Parkwood side or near the shopping centre? We are building the retreat which we first saw at the original Parkwood display villiage. Were going to buy land in Parkwood but decided on going for some acreage. Looking forward to watching your progress. We should have a site start in the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed) Building the Pl@ntation Retreat on 4009m2. All moved in!!!!!! Now for the real work https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20588&p=285640#p285640 Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 14Oct 29, 2009 9:43 pm Thanks! We are actually right across from Parkwood over at Doolandella. They have just released new land called "Forest Park". It is pretty quiet and secluded and the land is pretty flat which is why we decided to go with it. There are three stages of releases left so theres heaps of land to go if ppl want in! Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 15Oct 29, 2009 9:45 pm andrewn - DEFINITELY do the rendering yourself!!! we organised the same renderer and painter that Plantation used to come in (during the build as well) and do the rendering. It saved us over $25k! Our price was $36k for the facade with full rendering and doing it ourselves we only had to pay $11k for painting and rendering. If you've signed it I'd certainly try and get it changed Our Blog! http://cityplantation.blogspot.com | Building the Havana 485 with Plantation Homes (Henley) Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 16Oct 29, 2009 9:50 pm Gester Our price was $36k for the facade with full rendering and doing it ourselves we only had to pay $11k for painting and rendering. WOW. You are kidding right? How do we find out who they get to do the rendering? That's a huge profit margin that Plantation are making! What else can we do ourselves that will save us this kind of money? Unbelievable! Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 17Nov 06, 2009 12:52 pm Hi Andrew, we also bought into Forest Park, waiting for the registration, it's taking it's time. We went with Hallmark. We decided to do our own carpets and tiles. What we found out was they use builders range carpets which is a polyprop. Looks crap 6 months after it is laid. Went and haggled a bit with Andersons. Indooroopilly didn't bother price match so went hyperdome. Told them carpet call would cheaper and got $6 per sq/meter off the price Probably could get turfing, driveway, fencing and gardens cheaper as well. Would be nice to know who your neighbours are so can share the fencing. Saw a bag and paint house near my brother's in Mt Ommaney and it did not look bad so we are going with that for the time being. Rita Building with Hallmark modified Flair 201 / Ashton Settlement 6 Dec 09. Council Approval - 21 Jan 10. Start Date - 1 March 2010 Rain delayed. Site scraped - 12 March 2010 PCI - 7 June 2010 almost there Handover when cheque is ready...THURSDAY 10 June.. Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 18Nov 06, 2009 3:07 pm ritat we also bought into Forest Park, waiting for the registration, it's taking it's time. We went with Hallmark. Hi Rita. What lot are you on? We must be in the same area as you (stage 2) ritat We decided to do our own carpets and tiles. What we found out was they use builders range carpets which is a polyprop. Looks crap 6 months after it is laid. Went and haggled a bit with Andersons. Indooroopilly didn't bother price match so went hyperdome. Told them carpet call would cheaper and got $6 per sq/meter off the price Probably could get turfing, driveway, fencing and gardens cheaper as well. Would be nice to know who your neighbours are so can share the fencing. We went and had a look at carpets and tiles today and the "premium" tiles were less expensive than the standard tiles we would get in our quote. But we are still tossing between timber or tile. ritat Saw a bag and paint house near my brother's in Mt Ommaney and it did not look bad so we are going with that for the time being. Rita We are going to go with the full render. I think it adds to the value of the house once it is built. Hope to hear from you soon! Re: New Family Home - Forest Park - Plantation Homes 20Nov 06, 2009 3:57 pm We got lot 483. Stage 1 was almost sold out when we saw it in July. I thought cool I can move into my own house by Christmas..lucky if construction starts by then. We got the flair range from Hallmark and it does not include a lot of things. Floor covering was excluded. My husband is very taken with timber but I have a cheeky 9 month old who is learning to destroy everything in her path so we went with tiles. We would have gone with full render except the soil test came back H/E and our prelim quote was done on H. So the extra cost went to the slab. Was shocked at the cost of water tank then was told council says need extra 1500L on top of the 5000L requirement so we had to get 7900L. Do you know how big is your driveway and what kind it's going to be? Ours is approx 66 sq meters exposed aggregate and the quotes were much less than what you have been quoted. Rita Building with Hallmark modified Flair 201 / Ashton Settlement 6 Dec 09. Council Approval - 21 Jan 10. Start Date - 1 March 2010 Rain delayed. Site scraped - 12 March 2010 PCI - 7 June 2010 almost there Handover when cheque is ready...THURSDAY 10 June.. We are building a second dwelling and are currently selecting window and door frames. We want to blend into the forest and also bring out the stone work and the fake wood… 0 15933 Hi everyone, Newbie renovator here, after some advice for combining our family room in the picture and the alfresco and make a larger family room. There is a flush sill… 0 4890 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 23481 |