Our First Home Build with Commodore Homes in Seville Grove!

Oh my lord, those marble look floor tiles are to die for :x]:x]

Thank you! Have to admit that was my partner's choice haha
We were looking for white floor tiles but Crosby only had light greys.. so he found this one and I just loved the look of that with the wall tile

Can't wait to see it all together now!

Did you do your tile selections as yet?

He's got a good eye! It will tie in all together really well


Long story short, I went back to Crosby Tiles after the issue with the other stone supplier. They told me that the black in the Essastone was a standard for our builder and gave me a sample to take to Pre-start so I was like woo . Got home and flipped the sample over and it says it's a gloss finish. I believe gloss is an extra charge which the ladies at Crosby did not advise. They said it was standard. So confusing! So my partner pretty much caved and said if it is an extra charge we will add it into our loan.

Last thing left is carpets & the timber laminate flooring which I will have to take time off work to do next week since Carpet Call in Osborne Park is not open on a Saturday :/

Seems odd that they wouldn't be open on the weekend. According to their website they are open Saturday and Sunday, as well as later on a Thursday...

https://www.carpetcall.com.au/find-a-st ... orne-park/

Whoops, was having a blonde moment and looking at the Stirling centre page. Thanks BoB

Lucky I called Osborne Park to confirm as I have to go to the Stirling store to select our flooring which isn't open on the weekends Don't know why our sales guy told us to go to Osborne Park then...

That's annoying! Still puzzles me how they choose not to open that store on the weekend. You'd think most people would choose to go on the weekend.

Oh sorry didn't see this one!

I don't think that would be an extra charge for gloss for essastone. I think it's just based on the one you choose and what group it is! But yea check with your builder..

Yea I'm still tossing up my flooring and carpet selections - thank goodness we don't have to select them now haha

Good luck for Prestart today Natasha! Enjoy yourself

So we had our prestart on Friday
I have to admit we did go over our set budget but it worked out in the end!

We started the day with some really good news that our site costs have come in under budget, giving us a 9.5k credit! We already had a 6k prestart allowance so we decided at the start that the 9.5k we would use for carpets, flooring, window treatments etc after handover..
Our strategy was to get everything that we wanted costed up and we'd start cutting back from there. The estimator got back to us that day and our bill came to over 13k! This wasn't even including the electrical and smart wiring..

Thankfully the OH helped me curb my spending haha and we brought it down to $5,335, $3,331 for electrical and $1011 for smart wiring.
Total prestart costs = $9,677
So now the 6k will be used for after handover haha

Breakdown of our costs:

- Delete soap holder from bathroom & ensuite -$36
- Bathroom floor tile to shower hob in lieu of wall tile $95
- Ensuite floor tile to shower hob in lieu of wall tile $110
- Silver corner angle to top of all kitchen wall tiling $196
- Gloss cupboards throughout house $396
- Upgrade front door lock $136
- Upgrade front door and add translucent glazing $594
- Upgrade stove cooktop $160
- Undermount double bowl sink $832
- Kitchen gooseneck sink mixer $66
- Square bathroom inset sink $72
- 2 x square ensuite inset sinks $144
- Upgrade bath tub $35
- Laundry gooseneck sink mixer $66
- Bathroom shower head $5
- Ensuite shower heads $10
- Upgrade towel rail to bathroom $2
- Reconfigure shelves in laundry to include broom cupboard $12
- Shelf & rail to Bed 2, 3 & 4 $280
- Increase kitchen wall tiling to rangehood height throughout $373
- Pull-out bin draw in kitchen $413
- Pot drawer under oven $146
- Delete towel rail in ensuite -$30
- Extend vanity, tiling & mirror to ensuite with nib wall $805
- Mitred tiling throughout $350
- Privacy lock to master $5
- Silver corner angle to top of scullery wall tiling $98

Electrical:

- Added 17 LED downlights $115 each
- Heat lamp to ensuite & bathroom $97 each
- 2 way switch to entrance hallway
- Dimmer to theatre
- 26 double powerpoints throughout house
- 4 external render lights
- Junction box for kitchen pendant lights
There is a few other little things but can't remember them off the top of my head..
We also got a free upgrade of our light switches & powerpoints etc! Will post pics soon.

Smart Wiring:

I remember that we got a promo for this smart wiring starter pack.. normally it's around 2k but we got it for $499? All up we spent $1011 for an alarm conduit, wall mounted TV provisions, 3 data points and 2 tv points.. Hubby got very excited about ceiling speakers but we are going to do these after handover once the accounts have settled haha

All in all, it went well even though we went over budget, but that was mostly because we chose to get our downlights done by the builder instead of after handover. I was really impressed with the quality of the downlights so I'm glad we chose this! Plus one less thing to do after handover and we get builders warranty too

Pics of our selections to come soon!

Great news on the site costs coming in under, do you mind PM'ing me roughly what they were? Did they give you a rough time to slab down also? Looking forward to seeing photos 😊

PM'ed you

They said worst case scenario is 2 months for slab down.. 3 weeks in drafting for final plans, 1 week for building license approval and 4 weeks in scheduling. But they're quite certain it will definitely not take that long!

Good news about the site works! We had the same news at our prestart Friday too! Looking forward to seeing the pictures

Pictures as promised!

Bricks - Loongana Limestone



Roof Tiles - Harmony Habitat Collection in Flint



Main Render: Colorbond Shale Grey
Feature Render: Colorbond Windspray
Garage Door: Colorbond Surfmist
Window & Door Frames: Pearl White



Main Pavers - Brikmakers Vistapave in Tundra



Paver Border - Brikmakers Vistapave in Storm Cloud



Front Door:





Switches - the bottom was the standard and the top ones are our free upgrade



Rangehood:



Cooktop:



Oven:



Kitchen sink:



Kitchen & laundry sink mixers:




Ensuite & bathroom sinks:



Ensuite & bathroom mixers:



Bath tub mixer:



Ensuite & bathroom shower head:



Ensuite & shower tap mixer:



Internal door handles:



Sorry for such large pics!

In the end, we didn't upgrade the internal doors they were charging us over 1500 to do them all and I couldn't justify the cost.. Might do this after handover once everything else is done!
Also things like cupboards over the fridge was $610, seal all brickpaving was $690 and glass kote doors to minor bedrooms and linen was around 4k. I'm trying to remember what else we cut out but that day was such a blur..
We knew all of that stuff would be quite expensive though so not an issue that we had to cut them..

Really quite happy with how Commodore has been so far though.. They've been really fast in getting things done and the service and quality of products has been really great. Fingers crossed this is the same for the build!

Some good selections there!

Thanks Bob
I can't wait to see all of it come together..

Fingers crossed our build is as fast as yours!

Love your selections Natasha, especially that front door & the handle. Wish we upgraded ours now Rangehood is pretty luxe aswell!

Thanks jad33mily!
Just scoped out your selections too! Our render selections are quite similar except we went with a darker roof and lighter garage door
Can't wait to see it all come together..

Fingers crossed our slabs go down soon!

So we had settlement yesterday!

Nothing much else to update..

I did contact our prestart consultant to cancel the bin drawer though.. No variation charge and a $413 credit back! Was quite happy with this.
Realised when we were going through our plans that having a bin recess would lose out on a cupboard where I wanted to put all of the dinnerware, cups, etc so the OH said he'll pick up one just from Bunnings which we can use under the sink

We're nearing the 3 weeks since prestart, so should be receiving our final plans soon.. In the meantime, our building permit has been approved! So once we've signed off on the plans, its about one more month till slab down (fingers crossed)!

I have to say this part of the process has been my least favourite - I hate waiting!

You'll have a tap popping up on the block before you know it and then it's all systems go