Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our build with Carter Grange 21Jul 30, 2012 9:13 am Thanks for your valuable advice tracey! We are looking at the metropol slightly modified. Did you have the downstairs dining and back lounge wall removed? Also wondering if you put doors on side family room opposite kitchen or left open? We were going to supply our own appliances but the credits back are hardly worth it. Thinking we might go with theirs and replace if we need to. Must check about the rangehood. We are trying to keep our upgrade costs down so we can afford a pool - any tips? Re: Our build with Carter Grange 22Jul 30, 2012 10:37 am Hi Moxie. When we were building they did not have the option of removing the wall between dining and lounge and we were quite happy having the rooms separated as I hate the tv blaring when I'm cooking. I prefer cooking to music! With hindsight, unless we put in that VERY expensive door, I still hear the tv...so I must say, I would now prefer to have the wall broken down and even perhaps turn that other lounge into a tv room with double doors that can close? Then I would put sliding or bi-fold doors out to the back. Again, with hindsight, I would go with their appliances and change when the need arises. WIth the rangehood, you cant use one of those silent ones with the external motor. (no matter what anyone tells you)...esp if it gets complicated an official schweigen installer was going to charge us $650 for installation and $750+ if he had to build an outside flue! I must say we had very few upgrades... their stuff is good quality...I think we only upgraded the kitchen tap when it comes to tapware. Do upgrade the laundry door lock. If you want me to go into detail, just let me know. I also upgraded the upstairs underlay to thickest possible to act as a bit of a sound barrier, and we went to wooden flooring downstairs (which we love), added in a window to both showers (in the ensuite shower it is very dark so if you dont add the windows put a light just at the entrance to the shower). I put the window so we can always leave ajar to prevent moisture and thus mildew.aaaaaargh I could go on an on....Are you happy with where the fridge space is? There are options to move the fridge into the kitchen if you want.... Tiles - I love our tiles, we just added a strip of feature tiles to all bathrooms, guest toilet so our tile upgrades came to the grand total of about $78 !! Whereabouts are you? If you want to come have a walkabout our place, I am happy to point out things. We're in Mordialloc. Re: Our build with Carter Grange 23Aug 21, 2012 10:54 am hi all, we have just put down a deposit with CG (after deposits with 2 other builders - oops), we are pretty excited. A bit nervous bc we are right at the top of our budget, but its ncie to read your posts and that you didnt need to go overboard with upgrades. With the other builders, we've had a lot more room to provide upgrades bc the base price was a lot cheaper, but i'm hoping that for the extra money we will get a better product and finish with CG. Thanks also for your 'things to consider'. its been really helpful so we can do as much as possible before contract, rather than making drastic changes later. If you've got anything else worth considering, please let me know Re: Our build with Carter Grange 24Aug 21, 2012 11:29 am I guess one other thing to consider is where your dirt bin is going to be. So maybe think about converting one cupboard to a pull out bin drawer? Also, to cut costs, i changed my kitchen cupboards from what I originally wanted ie a thin drawer and 2 pot drawers.... I regret that now. So much wasted space in these two deeeeep pot drawers, plus now I have to make space in the pantry for foil/plastic wrap etc. I also feel our kitchen sink is a bit too deep (but I am on the short side) I think I would prefer to change sinks to one that is shallower and has a lid or cover that we can use as a drainer. (but still undermount, LOVE undermount sink, much easier to clean.) With hindsight, I would put the fridge in the main kitchen. Where the fridge space currently is, make that one long benchtop with double sinks there, so pretty much a scullery and prep area and then in the kitchen, only have one single sink there. So all mess / pots etc can be out of sight. Re: Our build with Carter Grange 25Aug 21, 2012 11:20 pm TEAM_W hi all, we have just put down a deposit with CG (after deposits with 2 other builders - oops), we are pretty excited. A bit nervous bc we are right at the top of our budget, but its ncie to read your posts and that you didnt need to go overboard with upgrades. With the other builders, we've had a lot more room to provide upgrades bc the base price was a lot cheaper, but i'm hoping that for the extra money we will get a better product and finish with CG. Thanks also for your 'things to consider'. its been really helpful so we can do as much as possible before contract, rather than making drastic changes later. If you've got anything else worth considering, please let me know Hi Team_W, Which floor plan did you go with? And when do you start? Re: Our build with Carter Grange 26Aug 21, 2012 11:21 pm tracey em I guess one other thing to consider is where your dirt bin is going to be. So maybe think about converting one cupboard to a pull out bin drawer? Also, to cut costs, i changed my kitchen cupboards from what I originally wanted ie a thin drawer and 2 pot drawers.... I regret that now. So much wasted space in these two deeeeep pot drawers, plus now I have to make space in the pantry for foil/plastic wrap etc. I also feel our kitchen sink is a bit too deep (but I am on the short side) I think I would prefer to change sinks to one that is shallower and has a lid or cover that we can use as a drainer. (but still undermount, LOVE undermount sink, much easier to clean.) With hindsight, I would put the fridge in the main kitchen. Where the fridge space currently is, make that one long benchtop with double sinks there, so pretty much a scullery and prep area and then in the kitchen, only have one single sink there. So all mess / pots etc can be out of sight. Hi Tracey, Did you have to demolish before building? Re: Our build with Carter Grange 27Aug 22, 2012 10:36 am yes we did demolish our old house. We got about 4 or 5 quotes. They varied from $10 000 to $14000. Lower price for non credit card. Was very happy with the company we used as they did all the paperwork. I am sorry, I cant remember the company name. I will endeavour to find paperwork when I get home. Re: Our build with Carter Grange 30Aug 26, 2012 7:13 pm hi chop, sorry for delay. We used Ultimate demolition, in Dandenong (9792 9394), or Lisa McEwan at 0411 517279. Another thing, one company told me our cement sheets were asbestos and wanted to charge more. I knew they were not, so I took it to the council and they sent it for testing (they did not charge me) and gave me a letter which I could show to other demo companies. Re: Our build with Carter Grange 31Sep 03, 2012 9:32 am fernley TEAM_W hi all, we have just put down a deposit with CG (after deposits with 2 other builders - oops), we are pretty excited. A bit nervous bc we are right at the top of our budget, but its ncie to read your posts and that you didnt need to go overboard with upgrades. With the other builders, we've had a lot more room to provide upgrades bc the base price was a lot cheaper, but i'm hoping that for the extra money we will get a better product and finish with CG. Thanks also for your 'things to consider'. its been really helpful so we can do as much as possible before contract, rather than making drastic changes later. If you've got anything else worth considering, please let me know whoops, only just saw this! we are doing a custom build because our land is so narrow (12.5m) and we hope to start in nov.. the earlier the better! what about yourself? Re: Our build with Carter Grange 32Sep 21, 2012 3:48 pm TEAM_W whoops, only just saw this! we are doing a custom build because our land is so narrow (12.5m) and we hope to start in nov.. the earlier the better! what about yourself? We are also doing a custom build and are still in discussion.. Hoping to finalise the discussion soon so we can start our build.. Re: Our build with Carter Grange 33Sep 30, 2012 4:23 pm I wish I found this forum earlier. Anyway, I'm also building with CG and doing a totally custom design. I'm very pleased as cost was way cheaper than other custom builders. We have a small double storey and including our upgrades and site cost it still manage to come under $300K. Overall, I found CG to be way better than any other volume builder. Obviously these guys are not perfect but they are very good to deal with. I have just found out from a blog few weeks ago that CG has updated their contract specification (with reference to Ghunnar regarding CG's standards) and the updated one is apparently similar to the Australian standard etc.. I did mention this to my admin at CG and currently waiting for the updated one to be sent to me and signed, no hassles. I'm close to my site start which will be in the next week or so pending council permits. I agree with Tracey that it would have been good if the upgrades and other choices were readily available and already priced from the start so that it would be easier to decide and not continuously change something every week or so - but then again, changing something is never a hassle. It is a simply a matter of picking up the phone and letting my administrator know and its done. I was even able to upgrade to something that is not even in their list of upgrades. I chose a different door from a different company - done without any issues. With the new bushfire regulations: is anyone building with CG that has their house assessed as BAL LOW? Mine is but apparently CG needs to make my house meet the BAL 12.5 which entails me paying extra $5K for stuff like roof sarking, fireproofing garage door, etc.... Does anyone have the same experience? I like the extra stuff because I think it adds some benefits to the house but I'm very tight on my budget and hoping I could get rid of the extra $5K. Re: Our build with Carter Grange 36Nov 01, 2012 5:21 pm Glad to hear people are positive about CG -we are at the very early stages of comparing quotes from custom builders, and are considering CG, so appreciate all the experiences people are able to share. On the weekend we visited their display in Bentleigh, and the consultant advised us to drive past another recently completed place nearby. So we did, and the owners were in the front yard, and were very positive about their experience.... Re: Our build with Carter Grange 37Mar 02, 2013 8:29 pm We are about to start construction, and we have been very happy with our interaction with all CG staff. The contrast with another builder we dealt with couldn't be greater, H & MV had nice sale staff, H had good design staff - but H couldn't deliver a knock-down / build job. Carter Grange Radisson Carter Grange Custom Radisson 43 with rear balcony (see CG Build for details). We spent close to 2 years in a process with TA. It was horrible..... we got to tender, and the first cut was 50% over our budget which "they care such about meeting ". We… 18 27325 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17628 of course there are legal avenues. You've already mentioned it. Sue them. I find it odd that lawyers wouldnt be willing to take on the case, given CCT evidence and… 1 23787 |