Knockdown and building Henley's Talise Q2 - We have keys!

Last Monday we signed our contract with Henley after switching builders, 9 weeks after signing the quote. In January we had some hiccups (thread, blog) with another builder and decided to have another look at Henley.

Since we are off to a fresh start, we have started a new thread.

We have accepted that we will not see a display of this plan, it's the only Henley plan that does not have a display home anywhere. At least now we know we are not alone with a Talise recently built nearby and someone else (Hi Trudy) about to start theirs.

Now we are organising for the pool to be installed and finalising the bank loan, hoping for site start after Easter.

(Using tapatalk for the first time on my iPhone to post this...)

Chatz

We choose the Talise primarily because

• Separate zones for parents and kids, with a lounge (including fireplace) and study in parents zone
• Large open dining and family area
• Butlers pantry
• Corner-less alfresco by default

We adjusted the standard plan in these ways:

• We added a metre across the middle of the house, mainly to extend the dining room, but also the laundry and kids bathroom. By adding a heating vent to the laundry we hope there will be enough room to be able to leave the clothes racks in the laundry.
• We added a "powder room" outside the kids bathroom by replacing half the linen cupboard with another vanity. This will aloow our teenage daughter to spend hours doing her hair while teenage son spends hours in the shower.
• We selected the storage option which takes some space away from the dressing room.
• We removed the wall to the smaller bedroom to convert it into a kids retreat
• We changed the windows in the family to highlight windows so that TV unit and TV could go under them.
• We moved the wardrobe in bedroom 2 to the family room wall, rather than next to the window

The complete floor plan is:



And will sit on the block like this with a pool being installed just prior to site start:



As much as we would have liked to have a colourbond roof, it was just too expensive (Henley seem to charge a lot more for colourbond than other builders?). So we went with

• Grey-Blue tiles
  
• Ironstone gutters and fascia
• Boral Mocha bricks
  

Chatz

Hey chatz,

just wondering, were u able to put in landscape overhead cupboards in ur kitchen? I tried so many configurations but they wouldn't fit

Trudy

Trudy,

No, ours are portrait, never looks at landscape cupboards. We did put a bulkhead about the cupboards.
We wanted to avoid a corner cupboard, but there is not much you can do to avoid that with the Talise.

Chatz

Hi

yes the same thing happened with us... Couldn't avoid the dreaded corner cupboard, and put a bulkhead above the portrait overhead cupboards.
Also added soft close option to the entire kitchen.

Trudy

Trudy,

How much was the soft close option? We didn't even ask...

Chatz

Hi chatz

the soft close option was roughly $1,100 for the entire kitchen and this included all cupboards, pot drawers etc.

x

Welcome Chatz....It will be very exciting to see the Henley Talise in the flesh......We are almost at the end of our build....Lexington Q1....I dont think any build is smooth sailing, but overall we have had a good experience......We are hiring our own building inspector for handover inspection next Thursday, my partner is a chippy, but it will be intersting what they pick up....

Did your DW get the splashback colour she wanted....We asked 3 times b4 we got a yes....

argh! just got news from our supervisor that we wont start till may.... im getting so frustrated. we had our colour appointment in december!

has anyone else from henley had this issue?

Hi There!
I am going to build the Talise Q2 and hope to get the ball rolling when the land becomes titled in Oct/Nov at the Sandhurst Club. Very excited as it is my first home; hope I made the right choice! Would appreciate advice/help from anyone; Thanks!

Trudy, we still do not know when the house will start. At least we have a pool now, I updated the blog yesterday with the latest pics.

TaliseFan, what stage are you at with Henley? You can see the modifications we made to our plan above, Trudy also made some different changes to theirs.
We are all guessing as to what its going to look like in the end since none of us have seen it in the flesh.

Chatz

Hi there Chatz!

Thanks for the prompt reply. I am at stage zero actually, just going through the building options, costs, extras, basically from scratch! Provisional quote came to $260,000 and sales consultant says will have to add an extra 30k to shift in! Wow! This is going to rob me blind...

I am going for another meeting Wed and will keep you all posted on further financial damages along the way! Sigh, I started with a budget of 220k for the house and look where this is going.

Anyway, hope things are better for you, but I'm guessing you are even deeper in with your pool.

Keep in touch and I am so glad to hear from you.

Cheers!

Extras which I am paying for include:
1. Refrigerated Cooling-11k
2.Compulsory alarm link to Sandhurst security system-5k
3.Guest Bedroom with Bath Access in lieu Study Option-2.6k
4.Living-->Theatre-0.65k
5.Storage option-1.2k
6.Laundry option-1.3k
7.Laminate/Carpet to house-11k
8.Ducted vacuum-1.6k
9.Gas point to Alfresco-0.8k
10."New Season Celebrations" inclusions-4k
11. Re-establishment survey-0.85k
12.Miscellaneous...2k
13.Curtains/blinds-10k

The list will go on and on and on...

More to come Wed!

TaliseFan

And that's before you get to colour and electrical selections...at least with Henley you can drop by the selection centre any time and get an idea of what you might be up for in kitchen, bathroom, brick, tile, carpet upgrades.

The standard stuff is pretty good, but they will tempt you with upgrades that will quickly add up. For example, its a safe bet you will upgrade the bricks and carpet above category 1, but we thought the category 1 tiles and laminate was pretty good.

We went with evaporative cooling, a bit of a risk with the rising humidity recently but we like to have windows and doors open.

Chatz

Thanks for the tip, Chatz. Much appreciated. The laminate I chose was the 12mm and the carpet falls in category 3 which equates to something in the mid range. I am having a tough time considering laminating all areas instead of half/half. Perhaps your thoughts on this? My husband says that laminate will make my life a breeze when it comes to upkeeping the place but I still love carpets especially in the rooms. Stalemate on this at the moment!

I did consider evaporated cooling but I had the same concerns you touched on; so I thought I would bite the bullet and go for the refrigerated ones. Painful decision for the pockets here.

Btw, I LOVED your plans; practical and spacious. I have 3 boys, all grown up with the youngest 17 soon. Wished I had the land (and afford!!!) the luxury of a pool.

I will be scouting around for landscapers for quotes for driveway, landscape, timber decking for alfresco soon.

Wish me luck!

Talk again soon.

Cheers

TaliseFan

welcome talisefan

we just got word from henley they will start in the second week of may ... lets see if thy really does happen!

We stayed with cat 1 when it came to lots of things in the showroom... we upgraded the following:
bricks
mortar
island bench - 40 mm CS and waterfall edges
all doors
skirting boards
handles in kitchen
tapwear
double shower head in ensuite
theatre in lieu of living
extended dining room to be flush with butlers pantry and alfresco
luxury electrical.


Talisefan, why did henly say you would need another 30K when moving in? is this for all of the work you will need to do post-handover? i guess for us we will be doing a few things after handover such as bamboo flooring, plantation shutters, timber decking outside, paving or concreting for driveway and side walkway near laundry... i think thats all. That will cost us roughly 30K i think.... but lucky we are living rent free at the moment during the build so we can save save save.

Hi Trudy,

Thanks for reply.

I actually asked sales consultant that I wanted a realistic "shift-in" figure so that I know exactly where I stand with my finances. He estimated roughly another 30k based on the stuff you mentioned post-handover. Honestly though, I won't be surprised if I will end up coughing out another 20k remembering that I haven't walked thru' the Cosham interiors

Here are a few of the variations which I will quite definitely take up:
1. Add on the extra store room at the expanse of the WIR in master reducing in size
2. Having the guest room option which in turn will allow for powder room. I love this
3.Living>theatre
4.Laundry options upgrade

I like your choice of upgrades but I am mindful of costs overruns; still I am sure I will probably be tempted when I visit Coshams

When does your construction start? I don't expect to see the ball rolling until earliest Nov/Dec for mine! Oh, btw, I think extending the dining to be in line with the alfresco and butler's pantry is BRILLIANT! Hope you don't mind me copying your idea! Thanks heaps in advance.

I feel so excited for you and Chatz; really looking forward to how this adventure unfolds for all of us!

Mee2

G'day Trudy,

Henleys starting ours Next week..... with the drainer 28/4, followed by Concrete 9th - 12th/5 - Hopefully the weather holds up for both of us, fingers crossed and all the best..

I'll be keeping an eye on your build, were doing the same thing... at the same time...with the same company....how bout that??? ( were not living rent free though .. )

How have you found Henley so far?

Regards
G

Hi Chatz,

How was the Knockdown for you guys? ours was family home for 12 years

Looks like your not too far from Build Start, are all your drawings done? , any dates yet.

Nice to see other people building around the same time.. we must all compare notes!!!

Hi Ger1322,

We did not have any attachment to the house, we bought the land and didn't even look in the house to after settlement. We knew from the agent that if was 50 years old and still in original condition.

When we did look the renters had already moved out and the power had been cut, so we had to explore by the light of mobile phones. We made the right choice in demolishing the house.

We have signed the contract with Henley but are still waiting for permits, so no start date yet. Might be late May at this rate. We will be quite envious, watching the rest of you get started!

The start we have made is to put in the pool, I've got photos on our blog. Henley are doing another site survey to confirm the pool is where we said it would be.

We are in Mount Waverley, what suburb are you in?

Chatz