Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 04, 2015 9:13 am Hi all!
We've been spending a lot of time reading through peoples builds, and picking up so many tips from you all. We're about to start our first build soon, so any tips and feedback are welcome. We're currently going through the process of buying our block in Mandalay, Beveridge, just waiting on settlement, and have been going through prices with Henley to work out what extras we'll be needing for our Carmelle Q2. We've also been to our Cosham colours info session, and we were completely overwhelmed! At the moment, we'd love feedback on alarms and CCTV. Should we be doing CCTV with the alarm system? We're looking at the Hills NX8 alarm system provided by Henley at the moment. We also seen a plane fly over us one night we were visiting the block - so I assume we're on a flight path. Is there any way to find out how frequent planes will fly over? And if it's going to end up costing us much extra on upgrading insulation to block the sound of the planes out? The plane wasn't as noisy as we thought though, possibly because it was still at a decent altitude. Looking forward to hearing everyones feedback, we'll be keepin this thread up to date as we go, and as our excitement keeps building. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 2Apr 04, 2015 4:48 pm you can try this tool to find out more on expected air noise. but i don't think you would experience too much noise issue where you are building. http://melbourneairport.com.au/about-me ... -tool.html where we are building plane would be on 2400-2600 ft altitude. where you are building it would be 7100-7300 ft altitude Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 3Apr 04, 2015 7:24 pm Thanks mirz! That puts our minds at ease! Our sales consultant at Henley mentioned we may need to upgrade plaster, insulation, windows, the works if we were under a flight path.. it might not be something to worry about now Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 4Apr 06, 2015 9:39 pm Sales persons will sell hair brush to bald person too, lol. My suggestion, keep upgrades under control as sometimes bank can give you grief with valuation. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 5Apr 07, 2015 10:05 am Too true. I've read a few people having issues with valuation too. We're going back and trying to scrap as many upgrades as we can, and will aim to do the majority ourselves after hand over. Is there a general rule of thumb to keep in mind with upgrades? We're going to try aim to involve mainly upgrades that'll add structural value later down the track. Like raised doorway entries, etc. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 6Apr 09, 2015 12:00 am Structural upgrades are the best ones. They comes with builder's warranty too. IMO only, everyone has own taste Good Upgraded: Higher ceiling, eaves, wider garage, slightly larger family/living area, etc. Better to avoid upgrades: Super fancy facade $25k, wash n wear paint $3k, colorbond roof when not standard $5k, super fancy flooring $30k, super fancy stone bench tops $5k, etc. With Henley you can build pretty much whole house without going for to many upgrades. We found their range has descent variety to choose from. Banks don't count super fancy stuff towards house valuation. For example valuer will count ducted heating, but won't care you got basic model or top of the range with all bells and whistles. Smaller banks are more strict with valuation and specially when LMI is required. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 7Apr 19, 2015 3:54 pm Hi Snyde, We are really looking forward to your build thread! We havn't seen many threads with people building the Carmelle. We have also decided on the Carmelle Series (Lux Q2) in Mickleham. Unfortunately due to us going overseas for 2 months at the end of the year we are holding off until we come back on signing anything. Feels like it will be ages and ages away for us! Are you guys doing a house and land package with Henley? Hope all is well and best of luck with the start of our build! Exciting times! Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 8Apr 20, 2015 9:18 am mirz Structural upgrades are the best ones. They comes with builder's warranty too. IMO only, everyone has own taste Good Upgraded: Higher ceiling, eaves, wider garage, slightly larger family/living area, etc. Better to avoid upgrades: Super fancy facade $25k, wash n wear paint $3k, colorbond roof when not standard $5k, super fancy flooring $30k, super fancy stone bench tops $5k, etc. With Henley you can build pretty much whole house without going for to many upgrades. We found their range has descent variety to choose from. Banks don't count super fancy stuff towards house valuation. For example valuer will count ducted heating, but won't care you got basic model or top of the range with all bells and whistles. Smaller banks are more strict with valuation and specially when LMI is required. Thanks Mirz, Good to know in regards to the valuation side. That's what we're dreading in the future. We've scrapped probably 60% of original upgrades we wanted.. and still revising our list. There's the odd one or two fancy upgrades that we want, but aren't too expensive, majority of the rest are more or less structural. I'll update with a list of extra's we're leading to soon. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 9Apr 20, 2015 9:24 am SparkyM Hi Snyde, We are really looking forward to your build thread! We havn't seen many threads with people building the Carmelle. We have also decided on the Carmelle Series (Lux Q2) in Mickleham. Unfortunately due to us going overseas for 2 months at the end of the year we are holding off until we come back on signing anything. Feels like it will be ages and ages away for us! Are you guys doing a house and land package with Henley? Hope all is well and best of luck with the start of our build! Exciting times! Thanks Sparky! We were almost going to buy in Mickleham, it ended up down to The Woods and Merrifield.. but we didn't like merrifields sales rep's attitude much. A friend of ours got us a really good deal on the land we got from someone he knew. It'll come quick I bet! We're pushing signing out a little too until our land settles, but still trying to organise extras and pricings and all our research first so it speeds up the process later. We were going to do house and land, but it worked out better for us getting the land seperate. (But required our deposit to be bigger). Because we got the land cheap, we're hoping that when valuation comes to refinance with the house after land has settled, that valuators will value the land at what the going rate is rather than the price we got it, which will help cut majority of our mortgage insurance out. Been back and forth to Cosham Interiors twice now, have been speaking to flooring companies and blind companies and working out what we'll be doing after hand over too. Will give you a better update soon of our plans (with images). Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 10Apr 20, 2015 8:14 pm Yay another Carmelle! Building a modified Simonds Palisade in Brentwood Forest. View my build thread here: viewtopic.php?t=76776 Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 11Apr 21, 2015 7:42 am snyde Thanks Sparky! We were almost going to buy in Mickleham, it ended up down to The Woods and Merrifield.. but we didn't like merrifields sales rep's attitude much. A friend of ours got us a really good deal on the land we got from someone he knew. That is so funny you say that! We recently visited Merrifield sales office and felt like as soon as we mentioned we didn't want to buy land right there and then that day we were just wasting their time! Sales 101 training is definitely required! Our main interest is the woods at the moment but judging by the woods Facebook page (got to love social media - how did we ever survive without!!) residents are not happy at all! Failed promises on land titles and delays. They only open their sales office by appointment only! Also any of the estates on Donnybrook road wont have gas until later in 2015, so pretty happy we are waiting and see how things turn out! That is so great about your land! Valuation should be a lot less stressful for you when the times comes!! How exciting about Cosham - from reading on here I believe it can be quite a overwhelming experience, I reckon we will be visiting quite a few weekends when our time comes! Looking forward to following your build!! Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 12Apr 21, 2015 9:01 am Haha, we had found a decent block in the woods on realestate.com.au, a few days later it was gone, and the sales rep there was trying to sell the same block for over $10k more to us. Depending on where you're driving from, you'd be surprised how close Beveridge is too. It actually takes the same amount of time from the Beveridge exit to the Donnybrook bypass on hume highway (sometimes quicker), than it does from the Merrifield Sales office. I didn't believe it until a mate who lived in Beveridge asked me to time it. And the land's cheaper and bigger out there. The only downfall is you do have the Owner Corperation there too. Might be something to consider, because with 4 estates building on Donnybrook rd, it may end up a bit of a traffic jam in a few years until they sort the extra roads out. Yeah we've heard banks can undervalue the house a bit these days, so hoping if it happens, the land will balance it back out and work out in our favour now. Just take your time at Cosham, most the girls there are pretty helpful too. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 13Apr 21, 2015 9:09 am Here's a mockup I done of our kitchen in Photoshop to try visualise the colourscheme we want. (Original photo was off Henleys site) The splashback I think's going to be the hardest to match. It's hard to tell how they'll really look at Cosham due to their lighting, but want the splashback to match the top cupboards as best we can. We're most likely going to do the flooring after handover, really don't like the idea of laminate flooring, and not being able to repair them if scratched. Been getting some decent quotes on Spotted Gum solid timber, and will do the flooring myself (along with some mates who are chippies). We've gone over extras so many times and culled as much as we can, and are leading towards the following (this could change dramatically): Broadway facade with full render Raised doorway entry Raised master entry Ducted Vac with vac pan 40mm benchtops Fridge tap Dressing room sliding door Raised garage door Square Set Cornice Living to living Extra external tap Alarm Intercom Hot water system controller / thermostat Possibly extra downights under the kitchen cupboards Silk finish cupboards for the bottom, crystal gloss for the top After hand over will be the WIR fitout, decking, driveway and lanscaping, flooring, possible security doors and cctv. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 14Apr 21, 2015 10:07 am snyde Here's a mockup I done of our kitchen in Photoshop to try visualise the colourscheme we want. (Original photo was off Henleys site) The splashback I think's going to be the hardest to match. It's hard to tell how they'll really look at Cosham due to their lighting, but want the splashback to match the top cupboards as best we can. We're most likely going to do the flooring after handover, really don't like the idea of laminate flooring, and not being able to repair them if scratched. Been getting some decent quotes on Spotted Gum solid timber, and will do the flooring myself (along with some mates who are chippies). We've gone over extras so many times and culled as much as we can, and are leading towards the following (this could change dramatically): Broadway facade with full render Raised doorway entry Raised master entry Ducted Vac with vac pan 40mm benchtops Fridge tap Dressing room sliding door Raised garage door Square Set Cornice Living to living Extra external tap Alarm Intercom Hot water system controller / thermostat Possibly extra downights under the kitchen cupboards Silk finish cupboards for the bottom, crystal gloss for the top After hand over will be the WIR fitout, decking, driveway and lanscaping, flooring, possible security doors and cctv. That mockup looks awesome Building Monaco Q2 with Henley in Wollert Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 15Apr 21, 2015 11:15 am I really like that mock up. We picked fossil for our overheads and it looks like those overheads I think. Our bench top is ice snow and our splash back is gnu tan which I'm not too convinced on but the cosham girl put that together for us. I get so nervous about my colors - I want to change them sometimes and sometimes I think just leave It - we will see when the builds done if it goes together I guess Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 16Apr 21, 2015 12:55 pm Thanks Dreamz jessicana10 I really like that mock up. We picked fossil for our overheads and it looks like those overheads I think. Our bench top is ice snow and our splash back is gnu tan which I'm not too convinced on but the cosham girl put that together for us. I get so nervous about my colors - I want to change them sometimes and sometimes I think just leave It - we will see when the builds done if it goes together I guess We're also looking at getting ice snow, and I think fossil may the be cupboard colour too (not 100% sure on that though)! Yeah it's so overwhelming hey. We still haven't given our second deposit to Henley and signed the quote off yet.. they're getting pretty pushy for us to sign. Though we want to be 100% sure on everything first. It's not just a few thousand you're throwing away on a car, it's a lifetime decision. Think we're down to whether or not we stick with the Carmelle Q2, or go to the Carmelle Lux Q2 - it's just the additional repayments that worry me. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 17Apr 21, 2015 2:13 pm Mock up looks great! We were looking at the Carmelle also, it's a really nice plan. Looking forward to watching your build Jen (& Dave) Plantation Bronte, Ormeau Ridge, Gold Coast QLD 12/03/2015 - Commencement... 26/08/2015 - Handover! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76446 Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 18Apr 22, 2015 9:38 am Thanks Ilaeria Have many people done floors after hand over? Any tips, places to consider buying through, etc would be helpful. Seen different ways of laying the floorboards too, some just use an underlay a, some coat a moist barrier membrane to the conrcete, then plywood then the floorboards, unsure which way to go about it all yet and trying to get prices on everything ahead of time. Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 19Apr 22, 2015 8:48 pm That's a nice mockup. Your kitchen would look awesome. You are building not far from us Re: First home Melbourne - Henley Carmelle Q2 20Apr 22, 2015 8:57 pm Thanks Mirz! 'the good side of town, haha. Hi, If you give a set of criteria as to what means 'good' to you, it'll give others prompts to respond. We considered Henley early on but there were two factors that… 1 10440 It seems very clear to me that your contract states that a security account does NOT need to be established so the answer to the builder is NO. If in doubt find a contract… 1 8501 2 31332 |