Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 21Jul 04, 2017 8:12 am I went through that same thought process about whether or not to have a 4 bedroom in the house. I decided not to and went to having a nice big ensuite, wir, master suite and adding a butlers pantry and having good indoor outdoor flow at the north-west end of the house. There is only ever going to be two of us for the house and if people wanted a fourth bedroom they could use the front living area could easily be used as fourth bedroom, second living area or study. It all comes down to your budget and where to draw the line. Every plan with have its pros and cons. The probably one con in the plan that we have committed to is that it has a long corridor. I guess that was the price I paid for adding in the butlers and bigger master ensuite area. I guess its a trade off in the end. And I decided that the house is for us to live in the first instance. The one house plan I really really love of Metricon was the Botanica. But it was really going to stretch us and it would be the bare bones and not much wiggle room for upgrades. But I think its their best single storey plan IMHO. http://www.metricon.com.au/new-home-des ... MJOeRfr.97 Regards Sarah Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 22Jul 04, 2017 10:26 am Ooh, Botanica is nice, very fancy!! D I like things like his and hers robes, laundries that connect to kitchen/garage. I'm never quite sure about the backdoor coming from the living room. One because in the middle of winter, everytime the dog wanted to go outside it would be freezingggg.. and also I would get sick of people having to walk between me and the TV to go outside, like kids and stuff. Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 23Jul 05, 2017 10:27 am Thank you for all the feedback guys! It's really helpful getting some different perspectives and comments on what to consider. I hadn't even thought about the prospect of having people walk inbetween me and the TV on the way outdoors, that would drive me nuts. I think we've pretty much ruled out Metricon as being out of our price range as far as getting all the features we'd like, which is unfortunate as they were who we always said we wanted to go with after our first build because we absolutely love a few of their designs...but that's how the cookie is crumbling right now. I keep coming back to the Simonds Prague plan that we had modified, but that darn master suite is doing my head in. I can't figure out how to make it work better. I felt 'at home' in the display home but then seeing that build in progress it just all felt small. The sales consultant reassured us that it's the same size as the display but I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. (I know there are tricks like higher tiling, lighting, clever decor etc but I can visualize pretty well and it just wasn't working for me so now I'm freaking out about that a bit.) I think we're going to have to do the whole rounds of displays again. Again. And maybe again. We were chatting the other day about how last time we literally just fell in love with the house design whilst walking through, and decided 'this is it' and bam it all worked out. This time we're agonizing over it to make sure we get it right and it's becoming incredibly stressful. We have to keep reminding ourselves that there are going to be some unavoidable items we'll have to compromise, which is hard to do when its all so exciting haha. At least we have time whilst the land settles though, so that buys us a bit of breathing space thankfully. - Kayla Kenny & Kayla - Adelaide Follow our build on Instagram First build 2013 - Finished and sold Second build 2018 - Underway Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 24Jul 05, 2017 10:47 am Don't rush Better to get it right, but you'll definitely have to compromise somewhere. When it stops being fun take a minute to clear your head. And if you didn't love the Prague, don't go with it until you've checked your other options XD There are two types of people in the world, satisificers and maximisers, once a satisificer finds what they are looking for, they go for it.. once a maximiser finds what they are looking for, they keep looking in case there's something better. The second one is definitely more stressful!! That's me, even after signing contracts I still kept looking at designs. Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 25Jul 05, 2017 11:04 am aloenyx Don't rush Better to get it right, but you'll definitely have to compromise somewhere. When it stops being fun take a minute to clear your head. And if you didn't love the Prague, don't go with it until you've checked your other options XD There are two types of people in the world, satisificers and maximisers, once a satisificer finds what they are looking for, they go for it.. once a maximiser finds what they are looking for, they keep looking in case there's something better. The second one is definitely more stressful!! That's me, even after signing contracts I still kept looking at designs. We are definitely maximisers! Kenny is still looking at blocks, just in case!!!! Kenny & Kayla - Adelaide Follow our build on Instagram First build 2013 - Finished and sold Second build 2018 - Underway Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 26Jul 05, 2017 12:24 pm kaykens aloenyx Don't rush Better to get it right, but you'll definitely have to compromise somewhere. When it stops being fun take a minute to clear your head. And if you didn't love the Prague, don't go with it until you've checked your other options XD There are two types of people in the world, satisificers and maximisers, once a satisificer finds what they are looking for, they go for it.. once a maximiser finds what they are looking for, they keep looking in case there's something better. The second one is definitely more stressful!! That's me, even after signing contracts I still kept looking at designs. We are definitely maximisers! Kenny is still looking at blocks, just in case!!!! Haha!! Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 27Jul 05, 2017 8:25 pm Hi! We are currently building the Prague through simonds but we have altered quite a bit of it. We are really happy with the layout and we walked through the display one in Blakes crossing and loved it but of course me being a girl needed my his and hers and another couple rooms so I got my way with the Mr haha. Here's our modified floorplan 😊 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 28Jul 06, 2017 1:56 pm gemm01 Hi! We are currently building the Prague through simonds but we have altered quite a bit of it. We are really happy with the layout and we walked through the display one in Blakes crossing and loved it but of course me being a girl needed my his and hers and another couple rooms so I got my way with the Mr haha. Here's our modified floorplan 😊 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hey! That's pretty much exactly what we had in mind and discussed with the sales consultant. The walk through robe and double vanity is what I asked for (wasnt included in the drawings on our first page posts of the floorplans) but the rest of it is almost identical to what we requested. I think the only difference is we were going to close the second lounge room off and do cavity slider doors. Would you mind doing me a favour and sending us through your drawings so I can see dimensions etc to compare with what we received? I still love this house and want to try as best we can to make it work. Kenny & Kayla - Adelaide Follow our build on Instagram First build 2013 - Finished and sold Second build 2018 - Underway Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 29Jul 06, 2017 2:04 pm Its not a bad plan, few little spots I'd think about changing are: - Space between shower and lounge room, I'd stretch the shower out and make that wall flat. Also agree I would put sliding doors on that room myself. -The door to the master bedroom... wonder if it would be big enough to move the door forward and have the WIR the full width of the space, that WIR looks kind of small. - I'd put a door to the ensuite, keep steam out of your clothes and privacy from the front of the house - That space between bed 3, linen and kitchen, I would just make that wall straight and have more robe/linen space?? Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 30Jul 06, 2017 2:20 pm aloenyx Its not a bad plan, few little spots I'd think about changing are: - Space between shower and lounge room, I'd stretch the shower out and make that wall flat. Also agree I would put sliding doors on that room myself. -The door to the master bedroom... wonder if it would be big enough to move the door forward and have the WIR the full width of the space, that WIR looks kind of small. - I'd put a door to the ensuite, keep steam out of your clothes and privacy from the front of the house - That space between bed 3, linen and kitchen, I would just make that wall straight and have more robe/linen space?? Hey Aloenyx! We asked about the space in the ensuite with the shower and we were told we couldn't do that as that wall is where the toilet roll holder has to go. Otherwise we would've made the ensuite bigger. My partner wants it as a home theatre so he wanted the wall in the middle and entrances on both sides. We actually measured out the length of the walk through robe and it's actually quite big which is good! As for the door for the ensuite we couldn't have a cavity slider for a reason I can't remember and there was a reason we chose not to have a door. Think it was along the lines of we couldn't have it opening into the ensuite as of how it's set up it's not wide enough and we didn't want to block off the walk through having it open the other way. We have the privacy lock on the main bedroom door though! Haha We want to put a buffet in that space where the gap in near bed 3 and the kitchen so we chose to leave that 😊😊 Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 31Jul 06, 2017 3:31 pm We toyed with the master bedroom door and it was taking too much space out of the wall opposite the bed for us personally, so if you wanted a table or cupboard opposite it'd be off center and that would do my head in. That's also the reason I wanted the walk through robe, it allows the door to not swing open and block the wardrobe opening. I remember being told we couldnt fit a cavity slider in the bathroom doorway but could do it on the wardrobe? So you'd end up blocking the wardrobe and the ensuite off together. And for the loungeroom Kenny wants it to be a possible theatre room too, probably with our gaming equipment too so it'd be nice to be able to close it off although I do like that walkaround/double opening design too! - Kayla Kenny & Kayla - Adelaide Follow our build on Instagram First build 2013 - Finished and sold Second build 2018 - Underway Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 33Jul 06, 2017 7:12 pm Which Simonds sales person have you been speaking to? Just for curiosities sake - we've actually talked with three of them due to travelling around and random query times. I for one will say their prices seem quite reasonable and their communication time is great (if you want it frequently) and also great (if you ask just to get told the most important times/things happening). Their standard inclusions are kind of fabulous compared to other builders we spoke to - had the right kind of ovens and rangehoods, and inclusions and such. It was really lovely going through their display homes and that usually one has "standard" fixtures and fittings, and one has the "upgrade to the max" options. We found it really great walking through both with the sales people initially asking generalist pricing/upgrade questions. Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 34Jul 06, 2017 7:51 pm We spoke to Nathan from the Blake's Crossing display homes and he was great! I love how their standard inclusions have the 5 burner stove top and big oven, that was something that made me happy! We did upgrade quite a bit like floor to ceiling tiles, the fancy bulkhead in the entrance, big 3 stacker door at the back and heaps of other little things. I'm really happy with our choices and now our slab should be getting laid in a few weeks and then it's just the waiting game! 😁 Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 35Jul 06, 2017 7:56 pm gemm01 We spoke to Nathan from the Blake's Crossing display homes and he was great! I love how their standard inclusions have the 5 burner stove top and big oven, that was something that made me happy! We did upgrade quite a bit like floor to ceiling tiles, the fancy bulkhead in the entrance, big 3 stacker door at the back and heaps of other little things. I'm really happy with our choices and now our slab should be getting laid in a few weeks and then it's just the waiting game! 😁 We're practically at the same spot - slab in a few weeks it seems! We talked to both Cahill and Jaime and then some other girl. Cahill ended up being our sales person though. I'd heard great things about Nathan! We ended up doing the floor to ceiling tiles and the butlers pantry (my splurge) and a big entrance pivot door and 4-stacker back doors (his splurge) among other things. Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 36Jul 06, 2017 8:34 pm JM1911A1 gemm01 We spoke to Nathan from the Blake's Crossing display homes and he was great! I love how their standard inclusions have the 5 burner stove top and big oven, that was something that made me happy! We did upgrade quite a bit like floor to ceiling tiles, the fancy bulkhead in the entrance, big 3 stacker door at the back and heaps of other little things. I'm really happy with our choices and now our slab should be getting laid in a few weeks and then it's just the waiting game! 😁 We're practically at the same spot - slab in a few weeks it seems! We talked to both Cahill and Jaime and then some other girl. Cahill ended up being our sales person though. I'd heard great things about Nathan! We ended up doing the floor to ceiling tiles and the butlers pantry (my splurge) and a big entrance pivot door and 4-stacker back doors (his splurge) among other things. Yeah Nathan was really good and got us managers discount and a bit more to spend at gallery because our footings price sky rocketed unfortunately so that was really good of him! I was going to do the butler's pantry but I don't think I'd use it that much and I love all the shelving that's in the standard design as I can also fit appliances in there instead of crowding the cupboard space. My partner wanted the 4 stacker doors but our energy rating came back and it would've cost us a fortune to get that so we had to sacrifice that for the big 3 stacker but we are still happy Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 37Jul 07, 2017 9:10 am We are currently dealing with Cahill in Gawler and he's been fantastic, very accommodating. He's been very straight forward which has been refreshing. I'm glad to hear that the standard included selections are good, that's the number one thing I've been panicking about thanks to our previous experience. The only thing we've noticed is a few of the items (such as stone) seem to be quite expensive compared to other builders, though from what we understand a lot of that is to do with the supplier relationship. Do either of you have any photos that you took inside the selection centre? I know they're opening their new one soon but it'd be nice to have a little nosey. - Kayla Kenny & Kayla - Adelaide Follow our build on Instagram First build 2013 - Finished and sold Second build 2018 - Underway Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 38Jul 07, 2017 9:38 am kaykens We are currently dealing with Cahill in Gawler and he's been fantastic, very accommodating. He's been very straight forward which has been refreshing. I'm glad to hear that the standard included selections are good, that's the number one thing I've been panicking about thanks to our previous experience. The only thing we've noticed is a few of the items (such as stone) seem to be quite expensive compared to other builders, though from what we understand a lot of that is to do with the supplier relationship. Do either of you have any photos that you took inside the selection centre? I know they're opening their new one soon but it'd be nice to have a little nosey. - Kayla Unfortunately I didn't take any photos, I was too busy looking at all the upgrades and getting told no by my partner 😂 Our selections were in a room though and we only went down stairs to look at basins and toilets and shower heads. They didn't have much range at all as they were renovating. But she had brochures for everything so even though we couldn't visually see it, the brochure gave us a good idea. Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 39Jul 07, 2017 9:48 am I've got a fellow of my selections photos on my thread though I didn't take any of the overall area. I'll do a bit of a google for you!
Cahill is fantastic, he was our sales person and was extremely patient (my OH is a very slow decision maker). Also, we found certain elements in their upgrades were priced very differently than other builders - ie: cost for our pivot door or extra tiles or extra doorways etc was strange compared to others. (We've got a massive double shower with shower seat and ceiling mounted rainwater head for under 2k, where I've seen comparisons of double that.) Also if you're thinking solar at all - their quote (and their sole supplier is lovely) came in 3-4k under others we spoke to for a better system, and their air-con came in drastically cheaper for the size we want too. Cahill was fantastic and when we got to gallery selections, the woman there knew already exactly what things we liked from what we'd talked to him about previously! Re: Building again in Adelaide - Send help! 40Jul 07, 2017 9:49 am gemm01 Hey Aloenyx! We asked about the space in the ensuite with the shower and we were told we couldn't do that as that wall is where the toilet roll holder has to go. Otherwise we would've made the ensuite bigger. I would have asked if that small section of wall could be done as a nib wall sticking out for toilet roll but with shower behind it still thus making that wall in the home theater area flat. or just use it for shelving for Movies etc with a curtain or similar over it to hide it - and maybe one on the wall on the opposite side to balance it Hi, Apologies - I know there is plenty out there on this but struggling to put together the puzzle. We're planning our garage/external laundry to master bedroom and… 0 11118 Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? Study books - does anyone really use them these days? Large storage closet would be more functional. 2 6886 Ask the council if there is a chance of getting build over easement exemption. Sometimes easements are unused and 24cm is not all that much. Good luck. And yes any builder… 2 13773 |