Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 13, 2018 10:31 pm Hey guys, Have been looking at this website a fair bit lately and figured I’d share our current build as well. My girlfriend and I are currently in the process of building a Grange 29 with Coral homes in the Newcastle area. As it stands, we’ve just finished our colour selections and are awaiting our electrical appointment and approval from council. This is going to be a relatively long post so I’ll break it down in to a few sections. We chose Coral homes after about a month of searching around display homes and getting some ideas of designs and sizes (as well as a few discussions with the bank as to what was affordable). We initially liked the layout and size of the Santorini 26, except for a small few things such as laundry position and ensuite size. After some discussion with the staff at the display home and many hours spent looking through design books, we came to love the Grange 29 in ensuite layout B (WC and bathroom positions swapped). Having never seen a Grange in the flesh, we drove to Port Macquarie to view the Grange 26 they have there, which has the same IT Hub/Ensuite layout as the 29 we wanted and got to experience the size and layout first hand – and we were hooked. Before we got an initial tender letter, we made a few minor selections/changes/additions. Given our location in a new estate, our consultant said that they could do it as a package despite having purchased our land separately which was good. - St Kilda Façade (also had the façade extended slightly for location requirements) $6500 (plus $1200 for the wider façade) - Free standing bath in ensuite (required the wall to be moved slightly to accommodate the slightly larger bath length) $360 - Recess in the ensuite shower $460 - Added an extra window to the master bedroom (3 instead of 2 – 2 just looked odd to us) $290 - Extra 10cm to the island benchtop overhang $220 - Flyscreens throughout $1350 - Had the pillar removed and installed a corner stacker door in family room $4500 - Aircon – Daikin 14kw Ducted air throughout $11,500 - Fridge water plumbing $225 - 40mm island bench $560 - Blinds throughout $320 Promo’s we included (in the August/September 2017 timeframe) - Tiling & Carpet throughout - Caesarstone benchtops & overhead cupboards - 90cm freestanding cooker/rangehood - Ensuite upgrade (caesarstone benchtop, higher wall tiling, european basins) - 2.55m ceilings throughout - 1.2m wide front door - Caesarstone to laundry - Colourbond roofing and steel frame (instead of tiles and wood) - A $1500 credit for MyChoice selections since we initially requested the tender in August) Our tender took about 5 weeks to come back after our initial appointment. We made a couple of small modifications (they are listed above, mainly the 3 windows instead of 2, and there was a slight error in elevation as well), which required the plans to be re-done slightly. A copy of our plan and façade is below. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ From there, we had a good time playing back and forth with the bank which held us up for about 4-5 weeks (probably the most frustrating experience of this process I hope). Within a week of signing the contract we were contacted by our pre-site customer service consultant up in the Queensland Office who explained the process from there. Shortly after we got the call from Beaumont tiles for the tile selection process. Tiles A small disclaimer to begin with, my girlfriend and I went in to the tile selection process blind as to the colour appointment side of things. We did our tiles in early December and did our colours a month later (Beaumont tiles contacted us before we had put the deposit down, whereas the colour selection didn’t happen until afterwards). When we did our tiles, we had only a few ideas in mind, and didn’t factor in the colours of the walls/benchtop/laminates at all. Having said all that, we were happy with the colours we did pick. We originally wanted 600x600 tiles but at an extra $2000-$3000 we decided 450x450 was big enough for our main tile. We picked the Belga Grey 450x450 for the main areas (light grey on plan) Belga Charcoal 300x300 for the wet area floors (dark grey on plan) Cruze Grey gloss 300x600 for the bathroom walls layed horizontally Vast Black Gloss 300x600 for the splashback layed horiztonally, with their blackest grout as well. Since the cruze grey and vast black tiles were outside of the standard selections, we did have to pay ~$1200 extra which we were happy with. Here’s our tiles and the the layout on our plan. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our only gripe with the tile selection was that we didn’t get asked about what tiles we wanted to sit where on the built-in bathtub, and now where not 100% certain how that’s going to look. When we finally got financial approval just before Christmas, we paid the rest of the deposit and finally got the plans sent to council. Hopefully that doesn’t take too long, can’t wait to get in to the house. Next was the colour selection process. My girlfriend and I spent a few weeks prior looking up all the inclusions that we had from the brochure we were sent, trying to find decent colour schemes for the kitchen, bathroom and facades using a bunch of online visualisers. The best ones we found ironically came from the suppliers for our build – Austral bricks’ ivisualise for the exterior and Caesarstone’s visualiser for the kitchen. Caesarstones visualiser was good for the bathroom too, except you couldn’t change the floor tiles. Colour Selection The colour selection was a big process. It took us 3.5 hours and we thought we had a decent idea on what we wanted. Our interior designer was a big help during this. We took in a few samples and ideas and she told us what would work and what wouldn’t, and helped us narrow down things significantly. Our planned budget for the colour selection was $3000 ($4500, given we had the $1500 discount for the colour selection from when we signed). We got an overall estimate from the interior designer, but the final costing will come from head office in roughly 2-3 weeks. Externals Bricks – Austral Wilderness Blackbutt in off white mortar - $825 Painted render – Dulux Unforgettable (pointing at) Colourbond roof – Night sky (Darkest colourbond) Gutter – Night sky Fascia – Wallaby (2nd colourbond) Eaves – Surfmist (3rd colourbond) Panel lift Garage – Wallaby, in the Seville profile Window frames – Black (essentially the same as night sky, dark swatch on brick) Front door – XS24, a 1.2m wide door with 4 glazed glass horizontal panels far left (glazing $70) Entry frame – Dulux Rich Chocolate, above brick Downpipes – Dulux Unforgettable Water tank – Monument (swatch bottom right of brick) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Internals Ceilings – Flat white Walls – Bleaches half Wash & Wear paint promo - $199, may not get this included yet Doors/frames – Whitsunday Island Feature colour – The You Yangs - still undecided exactly what walls we will do this for, since it’s $154 per wall for a feature wall. We’re currently planning on 4 walls in the family/dining room, 1 in the master bed, and 4 walls in the media room to be done for $1386 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Carpet – Cordova Forge with no added underlay $1600 (Was in the silver range, was the lowest quality carpet that we were happy with. Bronze carpets were $800, and the underlay upgrade was $400 for our carpet areas Blinds – Zen Metalcon – Went up to the next level in blind colour, but also got blinds removed in the bathroom and ensuite WC since they will be glazed windows, which should mean there is no change in cost. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Stacker door frames – black (essentially night sky) Mirrored robes - $150 for 6 full robe doors (2 in Bed 2, 3 & 4) Kitchen Benchtop – Organic white (20mm thickness) Island bench – Organic white (40mm thickness) - $750 (40mm was purchased in the initial selection process, $750 is for the upgraded bench colour from the standard range) Lower cabinetry – Burnished wood - $250 for a non-flint colour Upper cabinetry – Ghostgum white – another $250 for a secondary Laminex colour All of our handles were from the standard range, which we actually thought looked nicer than the higher ranges. Things like our sink and tapware also had decent ranges to pick from. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ensuite Benchtop – White shimmer - $100 since it was above the standard range Cabinetry – Flint Battalion Shower – Caroma Quatro rail shower, we also had a waterfall head added at the centre for $650 with a diverter between the two Bath – Posh Solus 1780mm free standing bath Semi frameless shower frame – promotion Toilet – Caroma Luna Wall – Coral’s standard toilet Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bathroom Same as ensuite except - No waterfall showerhead - No recess - Inbuilt bathtub Laundry Benchtop – White shimmer – Supposedly at no extra charge since we should have plenty of leftover stone from our bathroom cuts. Cabinetry – Flint battalion Air con upgrade We were offered an upgrade to our airconditioner ‘My Air’, which was $1950. It added a tablet, the ability to set multiple temperatures throughout, an additional zone and a few other smart technological things. We’re not 100% sure if we will do this though. Total estimated cost of our colour appointment was $8800. We’re waiting to see how much our electrical appointment is before we decide whether to cull anything from the list. First things to go will be the aircon upgrade, and then start chipping away at feature walls. We have our electrical appointment in just over two weeks in Sydney. Our plan at the moment is downlights in the main areas (family, living, kitchen, hallway, alfresco) as well as master bed/ensuite and media room depending on cost, with standard lights for the remainder of rooms and an assortment of double powerpoints at important places. Currently have no interest in ceiling fans but might look at wiring to bedroom 2/3/4 if it’s not too expensive. If you’ve got this far, thanks for reading! Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 2Jan 14, 2018 11:20 am Hi! We have very similar internal choices. We picked the Belga Grey for main floor and the Charcoal for the bathrooms but are continuing the Charcoal up one feature wall in each bathroom, the rest being a basic white tile. We did not want to upgrade the stone bench colours because I thought it was a total rip off, so I picked that before the tiles and chose the Urban (greyish colour), then polar white for the cabinetry. We were torn on upgrading the bathroom benches because not as much thought went into it prior, but we ended up sticking to the basic white speckly one for cost, using the Battalion one in your selections on the bathroom cabinetry. We just had our colour selection and spent about $3000 but we did upgrade a lot prior in the contract. Our aircon upgrade was much cheaper than Syd prices but the consultant said for some unknown it is just cheaper in QLD.. Like a lot of things are I guess (We did our consult in Syd but are moving to Tweed so pricing under Coral QLD). Our electrical was basic, but my dad is a sparky so our purchases were mostly limited to downlights downstairs because they are hard to get to after handover. Even so, I used up all the included battens because you can just swap them after handover. I even put battens where my pendants will go in the kitchen. Good luck for the build Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 3Jan 14, 2018 6:38 pm Hey Mooboog and SKND10 . Glad to see somebody who picked our design too. First of all best of luck with ur builds. Did both of ur land register yet or near registration? What's the estimated build completion time frame given to you guys? We are building in outer Sydney area - first home. Coral is not a well known or a very established builder here in Sydney are I believe, but with the land price (525m2) , we had to exclude all the top ones here like Metricon, MDJ etc ( we needed bit room for our upgrade and changes planned). So if anyone who finished their build or near finish line from Sydney or even NSW here could tell me how was their experience with Coralhomes. I have read few negative experience with them on review sites. They are cheaper here compared to other top tier builders (reason why we are planning to go with them) - cheaper means, are they building with cheaper material compared to Metricon / McDonald Jones/ Clarendon etc ? Sorry for my dump question... I know, online reviews may not be genuine. Share ur views please. I have been told some one here in Sydney, their experience was 'slowing down after contract stage'... Thanks Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 4Jan 15, 2018 2:16 pm Welcome to the forum, your colours are beautiful, and i'm looking forward to watching your build The Belga Grey seems to be a popular choice, we are planning to chose that at our appointment next week. thanks for listing the extra cost for the larger version of it, i think my partner and I will probably be sticking with the 450x450 now haha Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 5Jan 15, 2018 3:24 pm Thanks guys, hopefully it all goes smoothly. SKND10 We loved the Nuvo range of benchtops from Caesarstone but they were the top range one and would've cost a lot more. Only reason we went the range we did was because we weren't a fan of the specks in the benchtop and rathered the swirly look. Guess that's how they get you though, the nicer looking the more expensive. s-X-s Our land was registered about 6 months ago just as we were in the process of buying it. For now we just need council approval and the electrical appointment and then we should receive a start date. I've been told it would typically take somewhere near 16 weeks. Hopefully with our build timeframe beginning somewhere in March (hopefully) we won't have too many if any delays in that process. I had read the same thing from some reviews with Coral on a couple of sites, but everyone we've dealt with so far has been really helpful. Our contract was signed in early November and the head office staff we've been dealing with have been really helpful and explained things well. I compared reviews to another couple of builders who we were looking at and they were all pretty much similar stories to be honest. I'll keep this thread updated with our experiences as we go. CC7 Yeah it made the decision easy for us on the day that's for sure. Our Beaumont tiles consultant said it was to do with the foundation for the tiles, to make sure it is flat enough that there is no lifting or cracking of tiles which isn't an issue for the slightly smaller ones apparently. Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 6Jan 30, 2018 6:42 pm Had our electrical appointment today down in Sydney. We went a little bit over our budget, ending up spending $6300 in total. Biggest unexpected thing was a misunderstanding on our behalf. We had 23 fittings included – it turns out that the 23 light fittings are just bayonet lights, without a cover or anything fancy. Anyway, we were happy in the end. Hopefully this will be the last thing we have to make a decision on! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 7Jan 30, 2018 7:25 pm We had ours yesterday, we knew they were batten as standards - we kept 4 of them, did 3 out 4 bedroom/media rooms as just labour for a fan/light combo supplied by us instead of downlights to try and keep costs down (we needed fans) and we still went over 1800 hahaha, there's just no getting around electrical prices. We did buy the pillar lights through them them though, and we got 3 usb power points so that bumps the price up a little we just hope our kitchen/dining/living area will have enough lighting Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 8Jan 30, 2018 7:28 pm Oh and i agree about hoping its the last decision for the build!! We were half second guessing our main floor tile last night and this morning, and were thinking of changing it but i'm so over it all ahaha, so we are sticking to what we picked and hope it all works out and i hope Coral at least supply a BULB for the battens hahaha, the girl who looked after us said they didn't used to but isn't sure now. surely they would Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 9Feb 09, 2018 1:22 pm Bit worried that we will go over our Electrical budget. We have allowed $6000, but it doesn't look like it goes very far. Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 10Feb 09, 2018 4:46 pm bestspecials Bit worried that we will go over our Electrical budget. We have allowed $6000, but it doesn't look like it goes very far. It really doesn't. Downlight were our biggest culprit. At $115 a piece it doesn't take long for the cost to rise. Don't forget to factor things in like exhaust fans too, our home only had one included despite having 2 x bathrooms and an isolated toilet, so we needed an extra two. Additonal powerpoints were also just over $60 a piece too (for twin socket). It may not seem like much but it all slowly adds up Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 11Feb 10, 2018 10:17 am Mooboog bestspecials Bit worried that we will go over our Electrical budget. We have allowed $6000, but it doesn't look like it goes very far. It really doesn't. Downlight were our biggest culprit. At $115 a piece it doesn't take long for the cost to rise. Don't forget to factor things in like exhaust fans too, our home only had one included despite having 2 x bathrooms and an isolated toilet, so we needed an extra two. Additonal powerpoints were also just over $60 a piece too (for twin socket). It may not seem like much but it all slowly adds up We don't have any exhaust fans included as our bathrooms have external windows (that is what the Sales Consultant said was the factor of whether one was included or not). We plan on having one in each bathroom, but was also thinking that it could be cheaper to do an Exhaust/Light/Fan combo rather than 1 Exhaust fan and 1 downlight per bathroom. I think we are planning on switching out all the batten lights for downlights as well. May as well get it all done at the same time. I don't know??? Do you mind sharing your Electrical quote from Clipsal. Will give me a good indication of current prices. Our Electrical appointment is on 7 March. Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 12Feb 10, 2018 10:46 am bestspecials Mooboog bestspecials Bit worried that we will go over our Electrical budget. We have allowed $6000, but it doesn't look like it goes very far. It really doesn't. Downlight were our biggest culprit. At $115 a piece it doesn't take long for the cost to rise. Don't forget to factor things in like exhaust fans too, our home only had one included despite having 2 x bathrooms and an isolated toilet, so we needed an extra two. Additonal powerpoints were also just over $60 a piece too (for twin socket). It may not seem like much but it all slowly adds up We don't have any exhaust fans included as our bathrooms have external windows (that is what the Sales Consultant said was the factor of whether one was included or not). We plan on having one in each bathroom, but was also thinking that it could be cheaper to do an Exhaust/Light/Fan combo rather than 1 Exhaust fan and 1 downlight per bathroom. I think we are planning on switching out all the batten lights for downlights as well. May as well get it all done at the same time. I don't know??? Do you mind sharing your Electrical quote from Clipsal. Will give me a good indication of current prices. Our Electrical appointment is on 7 March. Check your PM's Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 14Mar 12, 2018 4:32 pm bestspecials So, when do you start building? Hopefully within the next few weeks. Just waiting on council approval, which is unfortunately taking longer than normal since our case manager went on leave recently Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 15Mar 14, 2018 2:20 pm This is a great thread, very informative - thanks. Getting close to also building a Grange 29, still negotiating and riding-out the admin bubble. I have a question regarding the blinds: "- Blinds throughout $320" This is exceptional value. When/how was this organised and how many windows were included? Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 16Mar 14, 2018 5:00 pm mpricecs This is a great thread, very informative - thanks. Getting close to also building a Grange 29, still negotiating and riding-out the admin bubble. I have a question regarding the blinds: "- Blinds throughout $320" This is exceptional value. When/how was this organised and how many windows were included? You're right, it is exceptional, it's almost too good to be true. We already had blinds included in our package in the tender letter - the $320 was an addition for a higher quality of blind it seems. So I'm not sure what the total cost for blinds is unfortunately. Sorry for the confusion Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 17Mar 14, 2018 5:39 pm Mooboog mpricecs This is a great thread, very informative - thanks. Getting close to also building a Grange 29, still negotiating and riding-out the admin bubble. I have a question regarding the blinds: "- Blinds throughout $320" This is exceptional value. When/how was this organised and how many windows were included? You're right, it is exceptional, it's almost too good to be true. We already had blinds included in our package in the tender letter - the $320 was an addition for a higher quality of blind it seems. So I'm not sure what the total cost for blinds is unfortunately. Sorry for the confusion Thanks. Looking forward to watching your build. Will be starting a thread of our own soon! Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 18Apr 17, 2018 12:19 pm So, how is the build going. We got our slab done yesterday. Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 19May 11, 2018 3:40 pm bestspecials So, how is the build going. We got our slab done yesterday. We've run in to some admin snags that are taking a bit longer to work out than planned. Nothing to do with Coral though, it's all bank related. Should get the go ahead in the next week or so. Congrats on getting your slab down. I can't wait to get ours started. Re: Coral Homes Grange 29 - Newcastle Area 20Jun 11, 2018 10:18 am Today is the official start date! However it's a public holiday in NSW (not QLD where the head office is), so we're doing a meeting with the building supervisor tomorrow. Excited either way. We spent close to 2 years in a process with TA. It was horrible..... we got to tender, and the first cut was 50% over our budget which "they care such about meeting ". We… 18 27740 CDC Housing Code 3 When to apply Floor Area external face of wall vs Gross Floor Area internal face of wall. Reading thru CDC Housing Code 3, lets take a lot 915sqm.… 0 16956 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 14578 |