Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 04, 2016 8:32 am Hi there we are about to get the carolina 302 from montgomery homes for our sloping block. We are still deciding on modifications etc and havent gone to tender, wanting to get as much info before hand! Can anyone give me their experiences with this company? And also anyone that has done this design? So far the service has been good rodney the sales guy has been answering my endless emails of questions. Re: Montgomery homes experience newcastle 2Oct 08, 2016 10:03 pm Hi, Currently finishing my plans with Montgomery. Building a single level house though. The one thing I would say just like any other building company is be prepared if your as fussy as me on what you would like in your house to pay extra on everything. We are going to colour selection and to pick our kitchen in just over a week. Then after that we do tile selection. It was much cheaper for us to pick a smaller house design and extend rooms/ length of house where we wanted it. Its nearly half the price of picking a bigger house per sq/m. So that's what we did. We did a lot of altering to throughout the house and changed a few walls, extended linen cupboards, picked a whole different main bedroom/ensuite/WIR layout and added it to our house, took out the extra vanity in the toilet. We also put 60cm down the house which was to fit our bedroom one layout we want which than made our Home Theatre, Laundry, kitchen and Dining room bigger too. We are also taking out our $25k cost and doing the main flooring, carpet, grass, alfresco tiling and driveway ourselves. Reason being I found the tile company was very expensive and for the tiles I like (and most of them in the store). It made our budget blow out by thousands. So I found a great local tile shop that is extremely well priced and is costing us so much less. upgrading to colour bond roof was just over $3k for us. Brick upgrades is quite a lot to if your on a tight budget. If you have any questions just ask! Re: Montgomery homes experience newcastle 3Oct 11, 2016 8:58 am Thanks for this info! Looking forward to following your build, we wont be going to tender untill early next year as we are renovating our retail stores and dont have the spare funds at the moment. So im using this time to thouroughly research every single detail so i am prepared. We have picked the carolina 302 split level. I am extending it out the back by 1 meter as i want a much bigger pantry and it will make the main bedroom bigger too! Its costing us around an extra 8 grand for that. I noticed your other posts, where did you find the other pricing info before you went to tender (ie: colourbond roof etc) I might goto earp brothers to have a look at their tiles (we are going to do our own flooring and carpet) I really want a country look so i want subway tiles of differing colours in the bathrooms and kitchen splash back. What happens if you choose a tile that is say $40 do you only pay the $7 difference from the $33 value tile that they provide? If we decided to get all the tiling done ourselve for the bathrooms, do they deduct that from the base price completely? We have a friend that is an amazing tiler so we could get him to do it and save a fair bit of money. Oh gosh i have so many questions and whilst the sales guy has been amazingly helpful i dont want to keep sending him random emails until we actually sit down to do our tender. Also do you know what the kitchens looklike for the basic inclusion and what the upgrade costs are? The display home at thornton has the most gorgeous kitchen and i would like it in white (it is bit of a classic country look) but im assuming that will be an upgrade? I would love a bigger deck for house but not sure if we can afford it although our land backs onto a nature reseve at cameron park ans has the most gorgeous views so would love to take advantage. My other issue is there isnt alot of storage cupboards throughout the house so that is something i will have to look at (maybe just lots of cupboards in the garage) Did you guys get any recessing done in any of your rooms? I would love it for the main living and cinema room. Once we get our pricing back from tender if we can afford it i would like to extend the house out a meter to the side aswell so we can have a bigger walk in wardrobe in the main bedroom. Thanks for your reply! Re: Montgomery homes experience newcastle 4Oct 12, 2016 10:32 am Hey again, Having that time I see it as a good thing to have time to plan out everything. Ours extension works out to be about $600/m2 but I know split level costs more. To get all my information I know so far I had to call, email and visit shops every spare moment I had. I do this everyday to be prepared. I don't think we get enough information from our building company it's like they expect us to know how much for example a colour bond roof is or upgrade on Ceaser Stone. But you do find out these things after your tender comes back and then you can add/minus things anyway. With our budget I need to get pricing before it gets added to my tender so I don't go over by a lot and then have to cut back. That means I have to research and get answers myself which is hard. I think going to Earp Bros is worth the trip all prices are on the tiles and you will learn quickly if your like me that most tiles you like are all extra cost. We are doing tiles, carpet, alfresco slab, patio tiling, driveway, grass ourselves too. I think it will work out about the same price but that's with getting 600x600 tiles and the carpet I want. So I guess in the end it is cheaper as the main flooring tiles at Earp Bros I liked that were 45x45 were about $75 per/m2 ($42 per/m2 over allowance) and $8.50extra per/m2 to lay as they are rectified tiles. Yes you just pay the difference in the tile cost. We talked to Paul Wilson on the day when we went to the Newcastle Store and he was very helpful. They had a good range of subway tiles in all colours and a few unique sizes that I liked as well. I got told you can't do the wet areas yourself. As I asked to do the laundry so I could use the same floor tiles I am using in the main flooring area and they told us we can't. You need to get the house signed off at the end and the wet areas need to be done by Montgomery to be able to do that. You could check but I would want the warranty side of things for the house so I won't be doing that unfortuetley. Though they are very lenient with other things. They have taken out a few things for us to do ourselves after handover. To be able to get what we want and not with the added 30% they put on things. Remember also you want to upgrade your tiles in the bathroom so they are all the same height on each walls, plus niches if you want them. The price of my niches are bathroom - $342 and Ensuite - $479 (a bit bigger). We will only do our ensuite all the same height as we are running out of money haha. Our colourbond roof was $3726 extra (yours will be more because it's a bigger house). Our Alfresco was a fair bit extra to extend the roof but I think it is worth it. I send our sales person Jason emails everyday. It's their job don't be afraid to ask. Where are you building at? If you have any questions I am happy to answer them if I know them. I have spent every spare hour working on pricing and things for our house. It's very time consuming. I am not a person that just says 'yes I want this' before I know the pricing so I have had to do a lot of enquiries myself and with the help of my partner and mum (life saver). With the bathroom side of things Eagles Plumbing Plus were great help for us. I just went in to the Gosford NSW Store and saw Lauren and she gave me pricing for how much our vanities and brochures to take home to look at on taps/mixers. Then I picked out the new vanities I wantedand she gave me a new quote. Once I have decided I definitely want them I let them know and they email the quote to Montgomery Homes and the difference in price between the vanities is added to our tender. Our upgrade on our ensuite 1200 vanity was about $165. We changed vanity brands to Australia Blue and I am so happy with it. It was less then I thought it would be which is even better. We are going to do the taps ourselves and put them in after hand over. Montgomery don't mind us doing that. Same goes for all the WIR/Linen we took all shelving out as I didn't like it and are doing it once we move in. When I went to sign my first tender we actually met at the colour studio and Jason gave us a quick run down on it all. We did this because it was easier to meet there after work on the Coast but also because I was worried I would go over budget right away so he met us there to look at everything. Our sheen kitchen cupboards are about $350 extra from memory. Our pull out range hood was a bit extra too and we get Ceaser Stone in our house as a promotion at the moment. There is not a lot to pick from so I still have to upgrade that and the ones I like are $400-$600 extra for the kitchen bench. Everything in the display homes I found was an upgrade, nearly every little thing haha. I loved the bench top in one of the displays I think it was the Caraolina, the one your talking about to. I rang Alicia from Valley Kitchens and she gave me the name of the front stone (the back bench is a different stone) and it was around $4k upgrade for one I liked there and the other $400 (you can guess which one I'll be choosing). She is really helpful to and is happy to answer your questions before your kitchen appointment. Just make sure your kitchen appointment is at Valley Kitchens and not the colour Studio as she told us there is another brand of stone there you can look at as well. When we went to look at the tiles in Newcastle we went to Valley Kitchens which is about a block away from tile store if that helps you. Though it was the long weekend so it was closed that Saturday but we looked in and it has displays of a few kitchen styles in there and lots of samples and colours on the wall to look at which is great. I can't wait to go for our kitchen appointment! I am worried though we will break the budget in our butlers pantry though. Also this may help but I saw a few windows I wanted to change to and so I emailed Jason at Montgomery Homes, with the house name and what room it was in and he gave me the codes for the windows which was so much easier then guessing. Also some windows are custom made and aren't in the Wideline brochure that's all. He also did this with the tiles we liked in one ensuite in a display in Thorton, which were all an upgrade. I found it helpful to take lots of photos in the display homes as it's so overwhelming choosing everything. At least then you have them to look back at for reference. Some people just look at their first plan and just 'ok' it how it is but I wanted certain windows and I moved a few walls and changed a few things so mine was more time consuming and I had to really plan everything (and I am still planning every night after work/ on weekends nearly all day). Everything takes a lot of time if you want everything to be perfect like me! The garage in this house is longer then our last one we were going to build. So we will build storage eventually all the way along the back of the garage. If your creative like me I got my house plan and photoshoped it all and moved walls ect. I tried to make one of the linen cupboards a WIL for extra room ect. I took the room out of the toilet as we don't want a vanity in the toilet room anyway. Go on pinterest or all house brand websites and research it has helped me a lot. Moving walls ect really didn't cost too much seen as it's helping you get the perfect home. I can't see your plans online as you can't see split level so I can't suggest anything but get creative and do some drawings and see if you can put some more storage in if you need it. I made our WIP bigger and made it a butlers pantry as the plan we liked second had one. We also loved a bedroom 1 layout from the second plan we liked to we fitted it into the plan we loved the most and now it's literally our dream home! I am so excited to see it all come together. I have a recces in the living room that looks onto the backyard but I am taking it our and just having a bulk head instead. If you look online at the display in Thorton called the Huntlee Kirra ours will now look more like that style compared to Thorton Newport front TV room which is how it is on our plans already. That Newport recess is too small and in my opinion is use less and doesn't look that great. Though this is just my opinion and taste others may love it. In our Home theatre/ Cinema room we aren't having one as we have planned the styling in this room already and it wasn't needed for what we want to achieve later down the track when we buy furniture for that room. When we extended the house out the side we then need a slim line water tank that cost us extra so keep in mind that if you don't have a lot of space left for your frontage space like me (sides of house). Hope this all helps Re: Montgomery homes experience newcastle 5Oct 12, 2016 10:46 pm Hey rochelle, Thanks so much this information is so so helpful! I went out to the display home again today and had a look a a few other companies ones (mojo, coral) and even with all mojos amazing upgrades im still so in love with the carolina design! You have done heaps of what i want to do. I have extended out the back so i can increase the size of the pantry by a meter so it can be a butlers pantry too, this means i have been able to increase the size of the walk in wardrobe, and also downstairs in the laundry WIL and i am getting rid of the study nook under the stairs and turning it into a WIL, they really havent put hardly any storage options in. I would love to do the same in the garage with the cupboards but that will have to come heaps later. What does your butler pantry look like. Are you getting a single sink? I was thinking single and deep. For the main kitchen sink i want their sink (the white country barn sink) they are sooo expensive but that will have to be a splurge. I think i will do what you do and get all the pricing and info from all the companies even before i goto tender so i know exactly what i am in for and then what i can splurge on in tender (extra air con vents etc) Apparently our deck will be like 40g or if we go timber it is 20g not sure if we can have timber tho as we are BAL 12.5 so we will see.. Do you know where they get their aluminum/wooden stacker, slider etc door from i wouldnt mind pricing these aswell. Trying to find a wholesale hardwood floor supplier as i would love hardwood floors throuought. I will post my floor plan for you to see Re: Montgomery homes experience newcastle 7Oct 13, 2016 9:27 am Your plan looks amazing! Yes I would get rid of the nook seen as you have a study and make it a Linen Cupboard. Good thinking. Same reason I picked Montgomery Homes just because I loved two of their plans and I was able to merge them into my dream house plan. I thought there build quality was pretty good compared to others as well. With my butlers pantry it won't be as big as yours. I am now thinking I won't have a small sink mine will be used more for toaster, kettle and juicer ect. To have them out but where no one can see them. I want 3 cupboards underneath and I'm thinking two oak shelves above the cupboard to display my nice canisters, recipe books ect. I was thinking of putting my microwave in there too. Your main kitchen sink sounds amazing I have seen it in the display, the one you want! Sounds perfect with your kitchen theme. With the windows go onto Wideline Windows. Download Aluminum Windows and Doors - Technical Guide. I am getting the 2/3 stacker door and it's code ASSD2136 (3636X 2150). Bi-Fold doors and all window types are in the brochure too. Then I just picked what ones I liked and wanted to change, Then picked the size and emailed them. Those prices just give you an idea of upgrade but if you know what windows you want to change before you do your tender tell them and it will be in the first tender. I waited until my first plan came back and in the process of picking them still (I'm undecided on a few). I got my first tender before I went to the solicitor and signed so I knew what I was up to so far with all the wall, house extension and alfresco extension included. We are doing our deck for alfreco after we move in. My partner, brother and dad will do it one weekend. I actually don't mind those clip together new look floor board type things that are out. Very cheap and we just got them at work and I think they look great. We are going 600 x 600 tiles from a local tile shop on the Central Coast. Re: Montgomery homes experience newcastle 8Oct 13, 2016 11:13 pm I forgot to reply and say we are building at cameron park, some how lucked out and randomly found a gorgeous block that backs onto nature reserve, its slightly downhill sloping from the road so the house will have lovely views. Where are you building? What plans did you combine? I havent decided on a sink 100% yet for the pantry i like the idea of being able to have all my appliances out and ready to use but not in the way, but i thought the sink might be useful for rinsing etc, but to be honest i would just be happy with a pantry that looks pretty. Is montgomery doing the cupboards in yours? I was mayb going to try and find a cheap custom flat pack builder im not sure, or if their kitchen people can do a super cheap shelving/counter and open drawer system, and i would probably just have a laminex counter matching all the cupboards/ shelving to save money. Gosh i just have so many questions for you. Was there much of a difference in price for upgrading the sliding doors? Great idea for your deck! We will do the same on the ground floor afresco, i have a friend that can pour me a concrete slab, but no way around the upstairs deck other then the tiling. Did you increase the height of your ceilings? I went into mojo homes and they have 2700 ceilings and they where amazing! I would love them for the top floor to help maxmise the views but im not sure how much extra they charge, and it would be a matter of convincing the fiance as he was happy with the height of the ceilings at the carolina display home. When do you think your build will start? Have you enjoyed the process? Hi, I am wondering if anyone has built with Montgomery in the last few years on the Northern Beaches? I don't see the see them around, as I would love to ask how happy… 0 3190 11 41636 3 48371 |