Re: Henley Carmelle Lux Q2 - Post handover jobs continue

Thanks guys.

How far into the process are you Sabba?
You'll have to create a build thread too, would love to follow your journey too.

We're booked in for our colour appointment on the 11th of this month and tender/contract will be early September both in one day. Our land settles at the end of this month, so everything should line up nicely. Also planning our wedding which is end of Feb (Fun!), so fingers crossed we'll be close to handover by March/April.

Our Fixed site costs were up around $24k including all the OH&S, retaining walls and other bits & pieces. Mickleham is quite notorious for rocks, so it didn't really surprise us. We saved on bushfire requirements though. We're inside the 'safe zone' by about 4 properties, so quite lucky there.

We've also opted for the Broadway facade with Colorbond roof - still searching around for brick colours which I think will be the toughest decision.

Main upgrades at this stage are extended garage, Deluxe electrical pack (with more LEDs to be added later), Cat. 2 laminate Floorboards and carpet (but we may check out that place you mentioned in Sunshine). No doubt we'll be hit with a million other options at Tender so we're keeping it conservative at the moment.

I wouldn't be surprised if you were in by around Feb!
Some Henley homes are getting knocked up in 16 weeks... so just be prepared to delay it so it works around your wedding.

That's a score on the bush fire levy. We've also been hit with N3 rated winds (not sure if I mentioned that in the thread already now), which has added a few extra k onto our costs.

Def check out Western Distributors. You'll end up with the equivelant of Henleys cat 3 carpet with their cat 3 underlay for the same price as Henleys Cat 1 stuff. - def worth it if you can put the money aside.
They also give you further discounts when you get them to install it all too.

Little advice too - research all Henleys suppliers. What you see in Cosham isn't half of what you can get - as long as it's their supplier, you can get it.
Majority of their suppliers have all their products online, and you can view a showroom for the full range of tiles.

Also, find out all your extras from your sales consultant or admin, and don't feel bad if you're constantly contacting them.
We exhanged so many emails, constantly requesting information on upgrades and prices, and kept changing our minds.

Tender is really only to go through all the extras you've selected and just sign off on them... along with any extra charges required for energy ratings etc. They wont show you what's available or really offer you anything you haven't gone over already.

Yeah good advice about the suppliers. We found that after speaking with Austral bricks, they divulged some information about which bricks are in which Henley categories, which is something the Cosham customer service people were unable (unwilling) to do. Austral actually gave us a print out which listed each Henley category and the style of bricks they contain, so it will make life much easier when cross-referencing the prices.

I read somewhere that you can request a copy of the tender to be emailed or posted out so you can read through it before the actual tender date. So we'll be exploring that option (hopefully its true).

Have you guys gone for Colorbond and if so, did you add the sarking option? I've read a number of different opinions on whether sarking is worth it. I was leaning towards it, but now i'm thinking just get a second whirlybird and that should be more than enough to keep air from condensing.

Hi sabba yes you can request for the tender before actual tender day. It made it easier for us because we had our tender /contact on the same day. It took us the whole day for both. We did go for sarking under the colorbond roof. It also helps reduce noise other than prevent condensation. We actually requested for a second Whirly bird at contract but they removed it via a PCV coz my roof wasnt large enough to need a second one. Although if you research, you're supposed to have 1 every 50sqm of roof space. Vents in eaves is another one that we are going to do post handover because it's not standard here in oz.

Hey Sabba, just jumping in with the sarking - we had to have sarking in our place to meet our BAL requirements but we would have gone with it anyway. It's extra insulation and we have a dark roof (Monument) so in Queensland we figured it was worth it. We have 2 whirlybirds. I guess you're building in one of the southern states, so I'd recommend sarking for you too, just gives you a little bit more insulation (sorry for the hijack snyde )

Yep, we've opted for colourbond too. I have the same as Ilearia, we needed it to meet the bushfire requirements. Probably would have gotten it anyway I think.

I'd prob also recommend looking at upgrading insulation and double glazed windows with gas prices going to raise soon. If you haven't read mirz's thread yet, it's worth a read.

No worries for the hijack, more the merrier I say

Thanks for the input everyone... Definitely good info!
Snyde, we actually qualified for the (now not so special) double glazed promotion, so we have that covered. I've heard insulation upgrade isn't very expensive so we'll probably do that too.

Hi sabba, We are building in mickleham as well. Our land is in stage 8 which is settling this month too. Are you also building in merrifield estate?

Hey there.. We're building at Trillium. We had a look at Merrifield but the only available land wasn't titled yet, so we would have had to wait a few months to kick things off. Saw the plans for the whole Donnybrook/Kalkallo area and it looks great. Can't wait til it's finished!

Wowww... You are planning for landscaping already
We're on the verge of handover but landscaping is still no where on the cards... haha...
Goodluck with the forthcoming exciting phase

We have to come up with a drawing for landscape too but maybe not as nice as Snyde's hehe

Thanks!

Planning is all we've been doing.. we've got spreadsheets, prices, documents, secret pinterest galleries, photoshop files, the works. Just want to make sure we're prepared for most things.

We're trying to fight for our $5k front landscape grant. It's in our contract saying it's part of the purchase. Though they have new staff in the estate, saying we won't be getting the grant any more cause they're no longer doing it, and it'd be in the clause of the original contract (from the original owner of the land) stating that if the land is sold on, the grant isn't included... but we've got a copy of all the original contracts and it's not in there.

We know someone in there who said they'll be able to put it through for us though hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Hi Snyde

I just looked at our contract and there is a clause stating that if the purchaser sells the property, than the vendor is not obliged to do the landscaping (s27.5(b))

In saying that, we only signed our contract in May, so maybr they have included that clause to prevent people claiming it from here onwards.

If that's the case, make sure the sales staff know that, your contract is different to the current one being signed, and make sure you get the landscaping.

Your in a much earlier release, so maybe The new staff are not familiar with the previous contracts.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Millie, that does help - good to know!
After I checked our contract, I figured it was just a bluff.

I know a few people in the estate who bought privately and still got their grant too.. so trying to utilise that too.

How's the progress going on your place?

Well keep me posted, any help with landscaping is a bonus.

Our progress is still slow (which is what we want for now), really want to start building in January.

Our land settles on Monday, and Henley rang yesterday to organise colour, tender and contracts appointments, so will start doing them around October.

You mentioned upgraded windows due to wind, how much did that cost?

Will do.

It'll all come quicker than you think. Just don't be scared to redo things if you're unsure when the time comes. Can do colour and tender as many times as you want. And spend a bit of time looking up their suppliers products.

Windows and insulation was due to having to upgrade to a raft slab. Turns out raft slab reduces the energy efficiency, something to do with the cold slab underneath. That was $2,278.

The N3 Wind bracing in lieu of standard was $2,880. You may not end up with that being more central, our house backs onto the open land before the estate, so there's no wind barrier.

Thanks for the tips!

I imagine we might need window upgrade, we back on to the golf course and are building a double, so up stairs will be open to the elements. At least I know it's a possibility, prepare for the worst, hope for the best

Can't wait until you start your build, I'll be watching your progress!

Contract signing is in about a week, and we just got told that our Smeg oven needs to be on it's adjustable legs, otherwise if they build it on a plinth or kickboard like the original plan was, the oven would sit 107mm above the bench.

I pushed that back on them, to be told that "Reducing the kicker height to be approximately 35mm tall ILO our standard 142mm.
Unfortunately this is an option that is not offered by Henley."

Wtf? Fair enough some things "not offered by Henley" have legitimate warranty reasons behind them, but this? All they need to do is tell the cabinet makers to make the kickboard 35mm over the phone when they put in the order for the cabinetry.

The plan was to have the oven built in, so that when we lay the floors, it's all seemless up to the cabinetry. Rather than having to try maneuver a 900mm cooker out, lay the flooring, then try maneuver it back into position again. This has just turned into a massive pain in the ***.

What options have I got? Can they deliver and install the appliances after I've laid the flooring?

i can't see any reason why not they can deliver and install appliances after your flooring would be ready.

unfortunately, these things happen. i can feel your pain snyde.