Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 14, 2009 11:14 am Well we finally signed our lives away!!!! We signed our building contract last week (with some changes to the LD clauses etc). We've got our appointment with Home options gallery on Thursday and i need some help from those of you who are experienced EB builders. We've included 20mm caesarstone in our contract price, but now want to upgrade to waterfall sides with a 40mm edge and maybe poly cupboard doors in the kitchen. My husband has given me a budget of $5k for kitchen modifications (not including tiling) - - Do you think ill get these changes in under $5k?????? Weve allowed for an extra $5k for tiling (D tiles is soooo expensive - - a $25/m premium for laying any tile larger than 250 x 400 and a $45/m premium for porcelain tiles - - - OUCH) We're going to stick with the standard lighting layout (and get some one in later) and we've allowed $2k for extra power points, gas points, tv points etc Is there anything that im forgetting?? Are my allowances realistic We're really excited but want to be prepared for HOG and dont want to be too surprised at the prices Re: Building with EB - - Hayman 28 (now 31) 2Dec 14, 2009 12:00 pm I think you'll probably just get through with those kitchen upgrades for $5k, although it largely depends on how big your kitchen is. I got my polyurethane cupboards/pantry cupboards/island panels for around $3500 and they wanted about $1300 for 40mm essastone waterfall. If you change anything in the kitchen, be prepared for a shock at HOK's prices. How did you get the 20mm caesarstone included in your contract? We were told to get it priced when we had our HOK appointment and subsequently included as a PCV. Electrical upgrades are about $49 for double power points, TV outlets were $57. Additional gas points was $129. Your $2k budget should easily cover these upgrades easily. My selections were done over 12 months ago, so I'm not sure if EB have increased prices since. You can really upgrade silly at HOG, so it's just really what your budget is and what's important to you. They'll be little things like having off-white mortar which is an upgraded item and you may not have thought of? Window frame colour outside the standard range is an upgrade, garage door panel colours, choice of bricks, roof tiles, additional paint/Moroka colours etc.... Hope that helps! Re: Building with EB - - Hayman 28 (now 31) 3Dec 14, 2009 1:19 pm No way, visiting HOG Kitchens is probably worse than going to prison! 40mm Essastone with waterfall edge in a Memphis 31 (so quite similar to your house) was quoted at around $9,500.00. I've got an independent quote at $4,000.00 so come handover, I will rip out the existing kitchen benchtop, and replace it. Even with the cost of a new sink, as well as the risk of damaging tiles we are way in front. I'd consider that as an option if you really want Essastone but at a realistic price. We still went with HOG Kitchens for 20mm Essastone in the ensuite and bathroom out of convenience. We could have saved around $750 extra going external. The rest of the cabinetry for the kitchen was still expensive, we stuck with standard laminex and it was still $7,000.00 - this included 2400mm cupboards, bulkheads, microwave tower, broom cupboard, additional drawers, 600mm cutlery drawer, overhead cupboards, bin, display shelf and laminex pantry doors. In the bathroom, adding drawers were $530 for 3 in lieu of the standard cupboard. Good luck with your kitchen appointment! Everything else, I thought was generally ok in price. The HOG colour consultant was very good and made some good suggestions. The electrical person was also very good, making really good suggestions on where to place lighting. Re: Building with EB - - Hayman 28 (now 31) 5Dec 20, 2009 10:18 am We got quoted $4500 for essastone kitchen benches without the waterfall edge, another $2500 for upgrading to the 900mm underbench oven with a pot drawer. I'm waiting on the price on the freestanding 900mm wide over and cooktop together, otherwise hideously expensive for just the oven alone compared to what I was quoted and I'm not 100% sure whether we should take those prices or go with the promo deal instead. We've chosen the 2 square and half price air con. So saving $5950 on air con or take the kitchen upgrade promo and save $5500. There is more bench space in the Memphis than the Hayman but the Hayman will have 2 waterfall edges so it will be more for the Hayman. Waterfall edges isn't included in the promo though. So you just need to get the price on adding waterfall edges. Re: Building with EB - - Hayman 28 (now 31) 6Dec 21, 2009 1:16 pm Ha Ha Ha Home Options Gallery was hilarious - - - It was an upgrade to get cream window frames Any who!!! Electrical we're under budget. But the frightening part is the kitchen quote. I have absolutely no idea how much thats going to cost - - - (and the kitchen guy wasnt very helpful) Weve made the pantry shelves 100mm deeper and put in a 2-way switch in the master bedroom next to the bed (YAY - - no more getting up to turn the light off) The cost for an integrated dishwasher was better than expected but no pull out kitchen tap or heated towel rail for me - - (im Soooooooo glad that i priced things before we went - - ill just switch things around later) No Poly cupboards for me either - - $4k for 9 doors and 4 drawers - - Wowsers!!!!! Weve asked for the kitchen bench to be squared off (rectangular) 40mm edge and waterfall with an undermount sink - - Ive agreed with Hubby that if the cost is ridiculous we'll get the bench squared off, go with the standard and change it later The other upgrade that made me laugh was paying to get 3 coats of paint - - ive never considered the undercoat as a coat - - but apparently it is. Ah well - - youve got to take it all with a grain of salt. Re: Building with EB - - Hayman 28 (now 31) 7Dec 21, 2009 1:29 pm Okay - - the finalised colours are Roof - - Sambucca Gutter & Fascia - - Woodland Gray Brick - - Chocolatto (we're not sold on this brick, but for the upgrade price we can render later) Garage/windows/downpipes - - Paperbark Eaves - - Mosaico Skirting/architraves - - Ashwood Internal walls - - Colonial (might be a bit dark in the bedrooms but we're going for it) Hard floors - - 400 x 400 white/cream with off-white grout Carpet - - Savino Patella Kitchen Cupboards - - Snowdrift Benchtop - - Crystal Salt Splashback/front of island bench - - 600x600 polished porcelain taupe tile with matching grout Bathroom/Ensuite/powder/laundry Floor - - 400 x 400 coffee coloured ceramic tile Walls - - 200 x 400 white gloss to ceiling Shower niche (400 high)- - creamy/latte stack stone Vanity doors - - Snowdrift Vanity tops - - New Ash dust Front door (drum roll please) Infinity 6G Pivot (Yep we're going for the Pivot) in Rich Walnut Ummmmm is there anything else?? We're going to do our own external deck etc Ive got some photos of the colour selections that ill post a bit later Re: Building with EB - - Hayman 28 (now 31) 8Jan 12, 2010 12:38 pm So a quick update Weve started to get our quotes back from our HOG visit. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA There has certainly been a bit of negotiation happening. Just by picking up their mistakes ive reduced our first PCV from EB by 40% - - theyre shockers And the dreaded kitchen quote............ hhhmmmmmm thats been interesting - - $7k to widen our benchtop from 800mm to 1100mm, add waterfall sides and 40mm edging. So far their excuse is that they will now need 3 slabs of stone instead of 2. Apparently HOG kitchens are back in the office from monday and will revisit our quote then. Ill certainly be getting on my high horse about the kitchen quote - - in the conversation i had with HOG last week i said lots of things like extortionate, ridiculous, rip off, twice the standard price, please revise the price, please revise the price, please revise the price. So waiting on the revised kitchen price and the tiling quote. We included the carpet and tiling in the EB contract because this house is an investment and we thought it would be easierfor us. But............. ive been really dissapointed with the selection at DL tiles and was floored by their premium for laying larger sized tiles. I went and look at World of Tiles and was amazed at the range of beautiful polished porcelain tiles that they had for $40/sq.m - - interestingly enough they said that any slab should have a screed laid before tiles are laid and they couldnt understand why a larger tile would cost more to lay than a smaller one. We're going to wait to see the wonder that is the tiling quote from DL and then maybe get WOT to do our tiling instead On the bright side EB have said that our plans should be submitted to council next week for approval - - YAAAA Hooooooo https://form.jotform.com/240284569218058 Please spare a moment to fill out this survey form for a project. You stand a chance to win a digital gift voucher. Legitimate… 0 2987 9 25178 This is one of the reasons I decided to go overseas for my double glazed windows. As the builder indicated, he's worked on many upmarket builds, these were the most well… 13 19632 |