Sahara Q1 - happy ever after

Should allow $70-$100k for options which includes flooring, bricks, tile upgrade etc.
Will be closer to $100k if you opt for ducted cooling.
Allow another $30-$50k for post handover expenses and that is if you do the landscaping, otherwise professional landscaping will set you back this amount alone.

Hi Howser, how much is the increased ceiling? I assume it's both ground and 1st floor?

Well when we built our first house which was a single story we started off at 176900 and ended up to 217000 and we barely added a thing! We were very very conservative! The biggest killer are things like site costs, estate convenants and so on. For us the recycled water, site costs and NBN connection are around the 15k mark and thats not adding anything!

We were lucky to get the flooring promotion, but now we need to look at things such as driveways and so on which add a lot of cost!

We went 2700 downstairs, and 2500 upstairs. We kinda figured that you can chnages tiles / flooring in the futrue, but you cant raise the roof.

So base plus $100k, then site costs on top, plus another $40k for misc. Total we are looking at ~$530k. So much for $10k per sq!

Any experience with container houses here

We are in the same boat, doing all the structural changes as you can't change it later.

We are building the Sahara 40 and decided to have a balcony, but this could still be removed if it becomes too expensive!

If you can do majority of landscaping yourself then you will be far better off!

Just got a ballpark quote from Metricon - sales rep said base + $180 - $200k for upgrades....wowsers!

They are more we'll know for being a metric con!

Anybody here got the facade pricing list please? Trying to work out/fit in costings to my budget.

Also, I've got 14m width land, does Sahara 34/36 would be okay? I know Sahara 34/36 fits to 12.5m land, so hopefully there is no issue with having approximately 3m of extra frontage space.

All Saharas fit on a 14 metre wide block

Hi Stayxtrue,

You're correct, they all fit on a 14 m frontage. But what I mean is, if I go for either Sahara 31 or 34 both approximately ~11m wide, I will have about 3 metres of extra frontage space all on the one side (not garage side) or can I do 1 metre on one side and 2 on the other? I don't know.... I am a newbie to all of this, 3 weeks ago I don't even know what noggins are!

Facade pricing list anyone? TIA!

Nope, they don't let you do this. It's all about building envelop requirements from your local council and developers guidelines.

Our grand deck completed

It looks amazing mirz!! More pictures please

Wow Mirz your decking is stunning! Your place really looks grand.

Looks great mate, what's the timber? Merbau or Spotted Gum?

Thanks folks, it's merbau 140mm wide planks.

Hi Mirz,

Hope you are enjoying your new house!

I am planning to build with Henley (Electra 35) in Melbourne West.You mentioned that you were planning to do evaporative cooling post handover.Could you please let me know why you didn't went with the one provided by the builder? And which one did you installed later and how much did it cost you?

For us they have quoted $5531 for Brivis P36 (5 outlet) and only for first floor.


Thanks in advance.

That's very exciting time

We have brivis evaporative system installed. All ducts are upstairs. one larger duct is right above staircase to push cold air downstairs.

Both ducted heating and cooling can be operated from same network controller as both are from brivis.

We paid $4000 for our setup installed by brivis recommended local supplier/installer.

Thanks for the reply Mirz.Much appreciated.

I was just searching for options for evaporative cooling on web and found that people have very good reviews about Breezair. Did you checked the price for other supplier as well or you just went with Brivis because the heating unit is from Brivis and therefore it is easy/cheaper to install?

Looking forward to your reply.Have a good night!

There were couple of reasons:

1. Integration with network controllers both upstairs and downstairs.
2. Brivis was offering longer warranty.
3. cost was cheaper than breezair. Breezair was around $650 dearer without much advantage over brivis.