Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 19, 2013 7:28 pm Hey Im after some information regarding costs of upgrading certain things. We are looking at building the killara 28, the land we initially looked at wasnt suitable as we werent left with much anywhere so our land price has gone up around 35k. This puts us having to extend our budget a little, we have room to but need to make sure it wont be done more. The upgrade costs we are mainly looking at are: -Upgrade cabinets and overhead cabinets -glass splash back -breakfast bar -floor to ceiling tiling in bathrooms -plumbing to a room (additional to existing) -alfresco cost -sliding wardrobe doors to bedroom -twin basin to ensuit -cavity doors (to close sections of house off) -sliding door instead of a window -ducted vacum -Ducted aircon -sarking Im really hoping its all not to much as we love the house layout. Thanks cp Re: Clarendon costs 2Apr 19, 2013 7:48 pm duct-ed vacuum and air-con I would get done yourself after handover as the builder will put 20%-30% Markup on it. Re: Clarendon costs 3Apr 19, 2013 10:46 pm Lourance duct-ed vacuum and air-con I would get done yourself after handover as the builder will put 20%-30% Markup on it. I was thinking this would be more difficult due to pipes running down the wall Re: Clarendon costs 4Apr 20, 2013 8:56 am Lourance duct-ed vacuum and air-con I would get done yourself after handover as the builder will put 20%-30% Markup on it. Hi Aussie, I agree with Lourance re: the above ^^. if you click on my blog (see in signature) i have a pretty good break down of prices throughout the various appointments so hopefully that will give you some idea as to costings. As Lourance mentioned Clarendon put at least a 20% mark up on anything (we asked them straight out at our tender meeting). Having things done post handover can be time consuming and a bit stressful after you get your keys but if you're on a budget it'll definitely help - you'll also get better quality products for a better price; one of the downsides to this though is that it won't be covered by clarendon's warranty. Hubby and I are doing A LOT post handover due to being first home buyers/builders.. We were organised enough to have third party quotes included in our bank loan too so it won't all be coming out of savings right as we go to move into the house. Hope this helps -Rubyam Re: Clarendon costs 5Apr 20, 2013 12:02 pm thank you your blog has shed some light on a few things. 600 to make the toilet seperate this was quite a suprise and something i was adamant of doing. One question is how many power points and lights were standard for you, i no it will be different but general idea. thanks chris Re: Clarendon costs 6Apr 20, 2013 2:44 pm Hi Chris, Yes Clarendon charge you SO MUCH if you make an changes to the standard plan; the cost is meant to cover the drafts person re-drawing the plans, making the adjustments and of course the profit they want. I think we had a double power point per room and a single power point for kitchen appliances included as standard; anything else on top of that was extra. Re: Clarendon costs 7Apr 20, 2013 6:36 pm Went out today and met with deb, sadly it's getting a bit high. Due to the slope on the block we looked at they will have to split the house, costing an extra 15k. To simply build is 240k and the block is 245k. From here not much will be upgraded due to budget. Re: Clarendon costs 9Apr 20, 2013 9:28 pm aussiefit8 Went out today and met with deb, sadly it's getting a bit high. Due to the slope on the block we looked at they will have to split the house, costing an extra 15k. To simply build is 240k and the block is 245k. From here not much will be upgraded due to budget. Chris, Are you building in the Illawarra? Did you meet with Deb at Brooks Reach display homes? Not sure if that's where you went but Deb was our sales person in Haywards bay back when we bought our land in 2011. Yes sloped blocks are a pain and super expensive to build on We were looking for land for nearly a year and we continually went back to Deb with pictures of lots we were looking at she would say yes/no if it was too sloped for our budget. Did she mention about the possibility of doing a 2 story place or coming up with other plans for you to suit the lot? Or were you really set on the killara 28? ssjmark Rubyam.. which bank did you go with that allowed all those 3rd party quotes? Hey Mark, We have really awesome mortgage brokers IPS Home Loans in the Illawarra and our bank is Bank West. Because we had driveway, aircon etc quotes from Clarendon in our initial tender and contract BW allowed us to provide 3rd party quotes as we advised them (and sent them our post contract variations) indicating our builder was not supplying those items. The only thing we were warned about was that if we got back a higher invoice than the quote provided initially we have to pay the difference out of our savings. No biggie though. -Rubyam Re: Clarendon costs 11Apr 23, 2013 8:40 am We wanted ducted air-con as well, but the builder was charging 30%.extra.. so we went out & got a quote for the exact same aircon & specs . Since the aircon was being done by their electricians, & we had extra stuff as well such as alarm etc ( which meant we were paying an extra $20K ) they desperately wanted our business & they matched the quote we got...we did the same thing with LED downlights, they wanted to charge us $150/light, we managed to get the globe & housing ( exact same one ) for $45 ea & their contractors charged us $35 to install....we had 65 of these lights throughout the house, so you can imagine the saving we made. Re: Clarendon costs 12Apr 23, 2013 9:31 am Hey rubyam Yeh sorry thought I wrote the block was in shell cove, so yeh deb from brooks reach. She is very helpful but there was 1.8m fall over the house so any single story house we had to split and double was extra again. I have since revisited the show homes 3 days in a row with different people to see our options. We are now highly leaning towards brooks reach. It puts us will within budget, we just hope they fix they access to it on time. Chris Re: Clarendon costs 13Apr 23, 2013 9:33 am Also thank you springtime, I could imagine them being a lil desperate for work. Re: Clarendon costs 14Apr 23, 2013 9:46 am aussiefit8 Hey rubyam Yeh sorry thought I wrote the block was in shell cove, so yeh deb from brooks reach. She is very helpful but there was 1.8m fall over the house so any single story house we had to split and double was extra again. I have since revisited the show homes 3 days in a row with different people to see our options. We are now highly leaning towards brooks reach. It puts us will within budget, we just hope they fix they access to it on time. Chris Hey Chris, Make sure you check out the Brooks Reach thread too There is such a community feel already, which is awesome! WHat do you mean by fixing the access to it? Do you mean the back area of horsley itself? I had a different experience than Springtime: Clarendon weren't really interested in price matching or even coming down in price. They have a lot of homes going up in Brooks Reach and Brooks Terrace so i know in the Illawarra area at least they don't need to be as friendly when dropping prices etc. Just my thoughts though; it certainly doesn't hurt to ask. -Rubyam Re: Clarendon costs 15Apr 23, 2013 11:45 am Well the road out to it, bong bong rd, occasionally is flooded and during peak hour of people leaving for work/school add another 20 minutes to get into dapto it's ridiculous. We house sat a house right next to the round about u turn off bong bong, during this time it was quicker to get to work in wollongong from albion park if it was durin the peak time. So they aren't to leanient down here? I was going to see if they would come closer to other builders inclusions. Chris Re: Clarendon costs 16Apr 23, 2013 11:58 am aussiefit8 So they aren't to leanient down here? I was going to see if they would come closer to other builders inclusions. Chris You can certainly ask Chris. We printed out every inclusion from other builders at the time back in 2011 and tried negotiating a few things. We were promised a few things during the initial 'sales' meeting with Deb but then when we got to the Tender process at Baulkham Hills it all went downhill from there; we didn't have any of these promises in writing .. and when Clarendon had to fix an error in the house design to suit the developers guidelines they tried to hit us up for the $3000 fee; obviously it was their fault so we refused to pay. They then decided to take any turf/landscaping from us that we had been told would be included (if you notice all the CH brochures say they include turf) so yeah; they fight mean at the tender process. At least that was our experience back in 2011. Deb was lovely though. A few items we asked about though were really misquoted (stone benchtops she said would be about $1500 - We're paying over $3200 for them!!!) just as an example. If you feel confident you can get them to price match or throw in a few items, go for it. We asked deb about this and she said to bring it up at our meeting.. as i said, that didn't go down well, but the person we had for our tender was horrible and there were so many errors and he had lost our file and was not prepared at all. Again, we were one of the first clarendon people to sign them on in Brooks Reach so I am sure a lot of these teething problems have been solved. in regards to the flooding the back of horsley isn't too bad; they are making another way into the area i think via avondale road; but there is always the back way out too that comes out near Kembla Grange, though sometimes water is an issue on the road after a big downpour. Just have to take it slow. In terms of living in the horsley/dapto area Brooks Reach is one of the safest as if there is flooding or emergencies the HammondCare nursing home area (and surrounds) is the point for emergency doctors/helicopters etc to be flown in. Re: Clarendon costs 17Apr 23, 2013 4:38 pm Oook so see what we can and make sure it's written in the tender. Thanks I know it's decent area it's just a real pain in the arse to go to and from. The road they plan will help greatly, but this is mainly a wollongong council project and I have no doubt will be well late. Re: Clarendon costs 18Apr 23, 2013 7:55 pm Also reading through am I correct in saying only 1 phone and tv point come as standard? Re: Clarendon costs 19Apr 24, 2013 7:54 am aussiefit8 Also reading through am I correct in saying only 1 phone and tv point come as standard? Hey Chris, That might be what the standard is today, i am not sure. We had two each when we were going through back in dec 11/Jan 12. Clarendon used to use Sentinel Alarms for electrical things, but now they use Your Home Consulting. When we had our YHC appointment we had already set our tv points etc with sentinel which was good as the consultant said normally you only get on of each, so that must be what's current? Depending on if you get any inclusions or special packages it might change. -Rubyam Re: Clarendon costs 20Apr 24, 2013 8:59 am Our house was finished last year , we were building with the now liquidated Westminster Homes. In our contract, there was only one TV point & one Phone point. We added an extra two TV points upstairs, & put in a cordless phone that has 3 handsets, so we ended up with 4 points for the phone. What we did change though was make all the power points double instead of single & in some rooms we had them in two places. If you can , try to have as many power points as you can afford, cos once the house is gyprocked, there is no going back. Oh, also, don't forget to have outdoor power points as well, they're really very handy to have. the stair balustrades? There is nothing special about these and I imagine literally every stair installer will be able to do this. 1 6710 The two 15mm holes are obviously not compliant. The Dept of Fair Trading would love to see this one! Do the gutters pool water after it stops raining? Although it's… 4 7843 I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13082 |