Coral Homes Modified Manhattan 23 in Brookhaven Estate

Hi everyone,

We are first time home owners building a modified Manhattan 23 with Coral Homes in Brookhaven Estate. This forum has been so helpful to us so we thought we’d share our journey to hopefully help someone else!


We removed the media room and extended our master bedroom and outdoor patio because it suited our lifestyle better. We’ve got designer inclusions and are doing the following upgrades:

- Colourbond Roof $3000
- Street Appeal 1200mm door $500
- Caesar stone bench tops in the kitchen, ensuite and main bathroom $1600
- Timber look flooring and carpet promo $1000
- Semi frameless shower screens $400
- Upgraded appliances to 900mm $1000
- Enclosed Range hood $1000
- High Ceilings $2000
- Pillar less stacker doors in the living area $3,224
- Shower recess the width of the shower in both the ensuite and main bathroom $778

We also have a BAL rating 12.5 which added about $10,000 onto the cost for steel frames and steel security screens, etc.

After meeting with the bank today it’s safe to say we are feeling very overwhelmed! We are writing this fueled by celebratory prosecco so I apologize for any mistakes!

Our current timeline:
Decided on the Manhattan 23: February 2018
Paid holding deposit for land: April 2018
Signed an estimate contract and paid $1750 to Coral: April 2018
Received Tender from Coral: June 2018
Submitted and approved variation Contract: June 2018
Received unconditional Approval: June 2018
Land deposit due: 17 July 2018


We have been to the show room countless times so that when it comes to our appointment it shouldn’t take too long. So far we want grey on the walls, either flooded gum or endless dusk. For the flooring, we are upgrading to Wood Effects in Aspen Brown and adding it to the master bedroom and bedroom 3 (which will also have a sliding door as it will be for our baby Gustaf - an aussie Bulldog).

We really wanted to upgrade to the black tapware but are starting to think we might slowly upgrade it as we go. We’re thinking “Ice Snow” caesar Stone throughout, I would love to upgrade to something less speckly but that might need to be the next house! Also wanting to do a dark grey or charcoal cabinetry on the kitchen island with white cabinetry above.

For the wet areas we are looking at the Promenade tile in Ash from National Tiles, and herringbone as a splash back in the laundry and kitchen.

first of all congratulations claire+leo, you're in for an exciting ride that's full of anxiety. Absolutely love your selections - quite similar to what we are doing with the wood, whites and greys. And that master bedroom is amazing! I'm sure you'll be in your new home in new time. Coral builds are extremelyyyyy fast!

we wanted black taps too, but thought the same thing. It should be something you'll be able to do yourself down the track. just look at upgrading things that will be too hard to change later on - ceiling height, flooring, stone etc. Look forward to your progress

Thanks gr8ly! Yes we’ve got very similar taste by the looks of it. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do, we know we will need to upgrade some things down the track but as long as the structure of it is down we’re happy. I’m hoping the build goes fast! We’re a little bit nervous about paying rent and the mortgage so the faster we are in the better!

you definitely will be. We are officially over contract however hoping we'll be in the next couple of months.

paying rent and mortgage is not ideal. We are living like peasants at the moment.

Hey Claire+Leo,
Found your thread! Everything looks great! Our kitchen/living/dining is really similar

Also how cute is your pups name! Maybe we will see you guys with our pup at the park in the future!

Also not sure if you know but Frasers has created a closed Facebook group you can join to ask all those questions you were talking about, like landscaping etc! It’s called “Brookhaven Residents Group”

Sorry for the delayed response! It’s been a bit of a hectic week! Thank you for that, I think we gain access to that once we’ve paid our 5% deposit which should hopefully be next week. And thank you, Gustaf is the biggest sook so I’m sure we’ll see you and then he’ll run away 🙈

We went down to the show room on the weekend just to get an idea of a few things. I really want a white kitchen sink with a black Mondella Maestro tap but we found out you can’t owner supply anything so now we’re trying to find a sink that will roughly be the same size as the one I want so it will be easy to swap out down the track.

It also gave us a chance to look at our choices once again 🙈 we keep changing our minds on the internal paint and external render. We also decided that as it’s a little out of the budget to change all the tapware to Black, we are going to do just the ensuite and install a rain shower head in lieu of a rail shower so that when we find one we like we simply can just have it added rather than swapping it out down the track.

Ahh how cute is Gustaf?!

Great floorplan too!

Thank you! So is yours, I’m loving following along with you build. And my goodness doesn’t he know it 🙄

Just saw your thread. We ended up doing Ice Snow for the kitchen benchtops with Burnished Wood for the base cabinets and White Silk for the overheads. It has turned out really well. I thought I wanted a whiter benchtop but the ice snow really goes well with the other tones.

Cool idea for colours
Hope all goes well with the build