Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 10, 2016 5:50 pm I have been a lurker of this forum for a while until I decided it's about time to create my own thread. We are getting a bit excited as this is going to be our first home. We currently live in regional VIC and my husband & I have been discussing about moving to Melbourne, nearby suburbs. Initially, we've been looking at the Epping area, visited the Eucalypt and Aurora Estates last year but we realised that the prices of land are too steep. Some friends invited us to look at Atherstone in Melton South. I was hesitant at first but eventually gave it a go as I really wanted to live around the North. I was probably a bit too excited that we paid a reservation fee for a block of land measuring 603 m2 the day we visited the sales office. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ ..and it's a corner lot which is my husband's preference as well from their Stage 1 openings. We paid for the deposit in November 2015 and signed the contracts. (Land was supposed to be titled May 2016 during those times). LendLease is a reputable developer so that's another plus and the land costs half of those similar block sizes in Epping & Wollert. We had a Meet & Greet Session in Atherstone for all land owners last June 5, 2016 and had the chance to put SOLD stickers in our block of land which is really exciting! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our land got titled in June 14 and we settled last June 25, 4 days after the birth of our second child. Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 2Aug 10, 2016 6:32 pm After paying the reservation in October 2015, we started to scout for possible builders of our new home. We visited different estates, travelled for hours to check specific display houses. We've been to almost every builder you could think of until we're only down to 4 contenders. #1 S-Eight by Eight Homes Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ #2 Dunes 33 by Porter Davis Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ #3 Atlantik MK4 by Carlisle Homes Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ #4 Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley Properties Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We paid the initial deposit to Eight Homes but refunded it later on. We were also comparing 4 different houses under Henley (Monterey Nouveau, Monterey Belle, Lexington Lux, Lexington Belle) and finally ended up with the Lexington Belle Q1. The deal: fixed site costs. Here's our timeline with Henley. Feb. 7 - Paid Initial Deposit Feb. 20 - Attended the Cosham Information Session and did a walk through at the Lexington Belle Q1 Display Home with our Sales Consultant Feb. 21 - Paid Final Deposit June 17 - Land Title June 25 - Land Settlement June 29 - Colour Selection Appointment July 29 - Tender & Contract Appointment August 8 - Paid the Tender & Contract Deposit You'll notice a big gap between Feb & June because I asked a little bit of time from my Building Admin, glad she's too nice to consider. It's just that I was in my 3rd trimester, working full time, have another school age child and Henley only does appointments on weekdays which doesn't suit us. It's also an advantage on our part since we had more time to save for blood money. lol! We are currently in the process of organising our finance and I'm still on maternity leave. Our next assignment will be our Electrical Appointment on September 5. Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 3Aug 10, 2016 10:40 pm Hello belle_v2g, we are almost neighbours..soon to be that is. I've been reading this forum with great interest and learning heaps, and thought it time to join in Congratulations on your growing family We have a lot in Belle Gardens estate in Melton South (16m x 35m) in Stage 8, awaiting for title at end of the year or early Jan. We too are building with Henley, if all goes well, currently awaiting for Colours appointment on 30/8 with Tender/Contract on 13/9 and Electrical on 18/10. We are building the Palace Lux Q1 5BR which displays in Craigieburn. We've made some structural changes to it to accommodate our large family, so will end up with 7 bedrooms, with 6th bedroom being Theatre and Laundry converted to include Ensuite, and Study converted to a Guest bedroom. The laundry has been relocated on the other side of the Butlers pantry and is almost double in length which provides the large laundry space we need, plus enables the rangehood to go into the roof. we've also extended the garage to be a Double plus and converted into Home office, plus extended the back of the house(both floors) by about 1.6m to line up with a Grand Alfresco size. Our budget is busting at the seams so using this time to save up as much as possible to get Cat 5 porcelain tiles in living areas and Cat2A timber flooring in bedrooms, and Hardwood timber stairs with handrail on both sides, plus raise the ceiling on 1st floor to be in line with Ground floor. Will read your posts with interest Would love to hear from anyone else who is building in Belle Gardens or with the Henley Palace Lux Q1 5BR. Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 4Aug 11, 2016 4:58 am Hi spice girl! That is awesome, we definitely are going to be neighbours. I'm glad we ended up in this area as it is a growing and strategic location to build a new home. Congratulations too n your lot at Belle Gardens. Your house is going to be massive yet beautiful with all those structural changes and style preferences. Are you ready for your colour selection appointment? I was so stressed during those days leading to our colour selection but the girls at Cosham have been really helpful and accommodating. I visited the showroom twice before our scheduled appointment but I always end up not knowing what I wanted. Haha! It's a good idea to visit different display homes but could be frustrating as upgrades could cost us arms and legs. Have you heard of Woodlea, the estate just before Atherstone? I heard Henley has 7 display homes there too, might be worth checking prior to your colours. By the way, here are the upgrades that we availed for our home: -belair facade with part render -additional eaves (corner treatment) -move in pack -butlers pantry option -alt. wir option -double spa to ensuite -colorbond boundary to brick wall -86mm step down to garage -cat 6 bricks -square set cornice to whole house -sound break wall batts and soundstop plasterboard to study -front entry door pivot infinity -translucent glass door to all internal doors except butlers (clear glass door) -double glazed windows -concealed canopy rangehood -silk finish overhead cupboards -island benchtop to 40mm -soft closed bin -kitchen sink & tap -additional cupboards to ensuite -toilet seats -shower niches x 2 -freestanding bath to bathroom -extended benchtop and cupboards to laundry -deco tiles to powder room & ensuite -cat 1B timber flooring inc. masters -luxury purple foam underlay for carpet -roller blinds -supreme electrical pack -cold water point for fridge tap -gas line to alfresco -hot & cold waterpoint and waste to alfresco. I'd be excited to know more about your Palace!!! Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 5Aug 11, 2016 8:25 am Great block size and a great floor plan! We have always been a fan of the Lexington! Look forward to seeing the progress of the build Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 6Aug 11, 2016 8:49 am stayxtrue Great block size and a great floor plan! We have always been a fan of the Lexington! Look forward to seeing the progress of the build Hi stayxtrue! Thank you. We loved the Lexington Belle the moment we saw its display in Williams Landing. We were just doing a tour at the Dunes 33--the house we are strongly leaning forward during that time then we decided to check the Henley homes. Hubby loved the displays instantly. Finally decided on them after 4-5 months of browsing I think. Which house are you building with Henley? Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 7Aug 11, 2016 12:23 pm We built the monaco, but its currently up for sale and we are going to be building a double this time around. This time we are going to be building the Palace Lux Q1 Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 8Aug 11, 2016 12:56 pm stayxtrue We built the monaco, but its currently up for sale and we are going to be building a double this time around. This time we are going to be building the Palace Lux Q1 Wow! You are building the same house as spice girl. How was your experience building with Henley the first time? I'm just reading some reviews and threads online and I'm getting scared lol! I ended up going back to our contracts and reading every single detail all over again. Where are you building this time around? Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 9Aug 11, 2016 1:12 pm Congrats Belle! Yes the Lexington Belle Q1 is a beautiful model indeed. Specially the one on display in William Landing. We are building the Carmelle Q1 (The display right next to the Lexington) in Manor Lakes. Our first pref was the lexington but required a wider lot. Anyway, congrats on the build, will be following your thread closely. Cheers Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 10Aug 11, 2016 4:15 pm mamba Congrats Belle! Yes the Lexington Belle Q1 is a beautiful model indeed. Specially the one on display in William Landing. We are building the Carmelle Q1 (The display right next to the Lexington) in Manor Lakes. Our first pref was the lexington but required a wider lot. Anyway, congrats on the build, will be following your thread closely. Cheers Hi mamba! Thank you. Congratulations on your build as well! Carmelle Q1 has a good floor plan! How are you going so far? Have you got a link to your thread that I can follow through? Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 11Aug 11, 2016 6:01 pm Thank you! We're still in early stages. Waiting for the land to title which we've been told will be sometime in October. Hopefully there are no delays. We have the color and tender appointments in the coming weeks so that should keep us occupied. Can't wait to start building. Will start a thread once the land settles. Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 12Aug 11, 2016 9:30 pm mamba Thank you! We're still in early stages. Waiting for the land to title which we've been told will be sometime in October. Hopefully there are no delays. We have the color and tender appointments in the coming weeks so that should keep us occupied. Can't wait to start building. Will start a thread once the land settles. That is going to be really exciting for you! Are you looking forward to your Colour Selection? Have you got any ideas in mind yet? I haven't shared my selections here but planning too soon. I don't seem to get contented with my choices lol I change my mind all the time. Wide variety of designs at Cosham, makes your head spin around. Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 13Aug 11, 2016 10:00 pm Hi belle_v2g, Yes Woodlea is where I first saw a Henley display home, and yes there are 7 of them. I visited Woodlea in April looking for Porter Davis and Carlisle, but by chance we stumbled across Henley first. Our original thought was a single storey and it was close to being the Lexington Belle like yours, but then we decided to take the full plunge and go for a double. I studied every floor plan available in the clendonvale collection to find a plan that would suit out family's needs. I was sooooo happy to find a home with 5 bedrooms upstairs enabling potential for more downstairs, plus I found a home with large size bedrooms. And yes, I have visited Cosham showroom....multiple times... It has had my head spinning at times It probably sounds silly, but I've actually typed up the Cosham form in Excel, and have entered all our selections so we don't miss anything at Colours or Tender. Will send my list of upgrades through separately Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 14Aug 11, 2016 10:04 pm I'm weeks away from starting my build with MainVue/Henley so I'll be following your thread closely too do u have pictures of your colours? Follow my build: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... 1#p1481141 Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 15Aug 11, 2016 10:21 pm spice girl Hi belle_v2g, Yes Woodlea is where I first saw a Henley display home, and yes there are 7 of them. I visited Woodlea in April looking for Porter Davis and Carlisle, but by chance we stumbled across Henley first. Our original thought was a single storey and it was close to being the Lexington Belle like yours, but then we decided to take the full plunge and go for a double. I studied every floor plan available in the clendonvale collection to find a plan that would suit out family's needs. I was sooooo happy to find a home with 5 bedrooms upstairs enabling potential for more downstairs, plus I found a home with large size bedrooms. And yes, I have visited Cosham showroom....multiple times... It has had my head spinning at times It probably sounds silly, but I've actually typed up the Cosham form in Excel, and have entered all our selections so we don't miss anything at Colours or Tender. Will send my list of upgrades through separately Hi spice girl, I haven't been to Woodlea yet but hoping to visit the display houses there some time. Although I should have done that before the colour appointment. Same here, we've been checking out Porter Davis and Carlisle. It was the husband who kept pushing for Henley. Floor plans, yes, Henley has the best floor plans too, you can tweak the structures based on your needs which is really good. You will have a huge house, that is so exciting!!! Have you been collecting photos for inspirations? You are so organised, I think it's good to know what you wanted to incorporate in the house or upgrade, that way you won't be wasting time contemplating, no rush decisions, no last minute changes (like me lol) I just wished I had more time between Tender & Contract so i could review every item properly and decide if i really like it or not. Too bad those two appointments were scheduled the same day. Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 16Aug 11, 2016 10:25 pm lish87 I'm weeks away from starting my build with MainVue/Henley so I'll be following your thread closely too do u have pictures of your colours? Hi lish87! I have photos of my selections but haven't posted them here just yet, but.. if you wanted to view them, for the meantime, you can check our home blog on instagram, my username is @thegallemitsfirsthome. Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 17Aug 11, 2016 10:41 pm I'm already following you, how funny Follow my build: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... 1#p1481141 Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 19Aug 11, 2016 11:20 pm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our house plans got approved by the developer!!! We were a bit worried about our building envelope because Lexington Belle's floor plan is wide and we have this substation at the back that we need to stay away from at a certain figure, thought we won't be allowed to build the garage to boundary otherwise we're forced to cut something off from several rooms just to fit the house in our block of land, but everything worked well for us! Yay to no further structural changes! Re: Our First Home - Lexington Belle Q1 by Henley in Atherst 20Aug 12, 2016 12:02 am belle_v2g spice girl Hi belle_v2g, Yes Woodlea is where I first saw a Henley display home, and yes there are 7 of them. I visited Woodlea in April looking for Porter Davis and Carlisle, but by chance we stumbled across Henley first. Our original thought was a single storey and it was close to being the Lexington Belle like yours, but then we decided to take the full plunge and go for a double. I studied every floor plan available in the clendonvale collection to find a plan that would suit out family's needs. I was sooooo happy to find a home with 5 bedrooms upstairs enabling potential for more downstairs, plus I found a home with large size bedrooms. And yes, I have visited Cosham showroom....multiple times... It has had my head spinning at times It probably sounds silly, but I've actually typed up the Cosham form in Excel, and have entered all our selections so we don't miss anything at Colours or Tender. Will send my list of upgrades through separately Hi spice girl, I haven't been to Woodlea yet but hoping to visit the display houses there some time. Although I should have done that before the colour appointment. Same here, we've been checking out Porter Davis and Carlisle. It was the husband who kept pushing for Henley. Floor plans, yes, Henley has the best floor plans too, you can tweak the structures based on your needs which is really good. You will have a huge house, that is so exciting!!! Have you been collecting photos for inspirations? You are so organised, I think it's good to know what you wanted to incorporate in the house or upgrade, that way you won't be wasting time contemplating, no rush decisions, no last minute changes (like me lol) I just wished I had more time between Tender & Contract so i could review every item properly and decide if i really like it or not. Too bad those two appointments were scheduled the same day. Hi , I was thinking of looking for land in Woodlea but it seemed too difficult with the ballot system and being in high demand, plus there weren't any schools in close proximity, due to being newly developed area. I then thought it would be Atherstone but we came across a lot in Belle gardens which would enable us to have a big backyard for a basketball hoop and concrete slab plus small playhouse for same cost as a smaller land in Atherstone, and then before I knew we had put a hold on it in May. Yes it has been great to have some time to think more about the upgrades, but at the same time a little crazy, as it provides opportunity to change minds, add more upgrades...lol We had Version "7" sales quotation finally signed in late June, then week later attended a Cosham info session in early July. It seems now like forever waiting for end of Aug for our Colours appointment. The moment of truth will be at tender though in Sep when the $$$$ start revealing themselves. Here are some of my upgrades: Bathrooms/Powder rooms: Additonal ensuite (in Bed 6) where laundry originally was, with shower size 1200 x 1100 , with cavity sliding door to Bed 6 Floor to ceiling wall tiles in both ensuites and main bathroom Cat 2 wall tile in main Bathroom Heated towel ladders in main bathroom and master ensuite All 4 toilets to be in the wall Powder room downstairs Cat 4 floor tile to be in line with front entry floor tile Removed toilet door in Master ensuite as space was too tight Cavity glass sliding door to master ensuite (aim to be tinted after handover) Considering translucent glass door to Master WIR to match ensuite door - budget will dictate - what do you think? Twin shower heads in all 3 showers Satinlite windows (hopefully this is included in base price) 300 x 580 Niches for all 3 showers Main bathroom & Master Ensuite to include drawers in cabinet Laundry: Relocated laundry to be behind Butlers pantry Access via butlers pantry (thereby losing 1/3 of pantry) Translucent glass cavity sliding door between butlers pantry and laundry Overhead cupboards with extended bench Laundry length extended to 5.3m to enable rangehood ducted into its roof Aluminium stacking glass sliding door 21-18 A window 21-05 Double linen cupboard Butlers pantry: Overhead cabinets Ceasorstone benchtop with cabinets Tiles and cabinet colours to be same as Laundry Understairs storage with cavity sliding door, access from Butlers pantry, Cat 1 tile same as butlers pantry Glass door entry from kitchen Garage entry door to pantry to open into Garage not pantry 2 bar aluminium towel rail Kitchen: Smeg Promo free upgrade to include : Smeg appliances Silk overhead cabinets 40mm stone bench to entire kitchen 2 sets of bank of 2 pot drawers Undermount kitchen sink (Franke SSX120) Non free upgrades: Replace microwave section underbench with 2 X 29l BINS SOFT CLOSE TO SUIT 450MM CABINET DOOR Extend Family room by 1.6m Extend Alfresco by 1.6m Extend Bed 4 & 5 by 1.6m Adding WIR to Bed 5, same WIR size as Bed 2 Extend WIR in Bed 3 & 4 to be same size as Bed 2 Raise Alfresco door height Convert Study to Guest suite with double BIRs with mirrored sliding doors (don't know cost of mirrored doors yet) Convert Theatre to Bed 6 with double BIRs Broadway Façade part rendered Raise ceilings on 1st floor to be in line with ground floor 2.57m Sound proof walls in some of the rooms - depending on cost Double glaze as many windows as possible -we hav a $5k provision in quote for energy assessment - would this be used to glaze windows? $4k to meet Bushfire regulations; flyscreens, roof sarking, whirlybird Fixed site costs for peace of mind Extend Garage width by 1.3m Convert garage to home office, insulated walls, aluminium glass stacking doors 4.2m wide, Cat 1 floor tile Double doors from entry to garage Cat 5 floor tile in open areas Cat 4 tile entry Cat 2A timber flooring upstairs and bedrooms downstairs We currently have the Infinity pivot door for front door but we're considering changing it to double doors so we can have security doors. This is all a wishlist - nothing definite until all costed up fully - so all may change Is there anything I should take out and can do after handover if needed? 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 10527 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27733 We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16288 |