Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 10, 2019 9:54 pm Hi All, This forum has been a wealth of knowledge and i thought i would start a thread in relation to Rawson's Chifley 40 that i am thinking of building. We bought our registered land at oran park's larkham street last month ( still quite early stage on the whole build process). It is a 586sq block and we fell in love with the Chifley 40 on display at Homeworld Emerald hills. We did a couple of major structural changes to the Chifley 40 on the ground floor and have been told it is more like a 44 square now instead of the 40 and it did turn out to be expensive for. Plans shown below: Draft PlanLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ SitingLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We got our tender from Rawson only and wanted some inputs from you guys ( all of those who are building with Rawson, any other builders, any one particularly building the chifley) to help me and my wife out a bit with the process. So the Pricing that i am standing at currently is as below: 1. Chifley 40 Standard ( Metro Facade) with 5th Bed : $488k 2. Site cost: $37k ( The geo tech survey came us our land having deep fils and soft soil and they have added a $10k pa. What is funny is Metricon when they got the Geo tech reports and contours said could fix our site costs at $20k. I am wondering why there is such a large difference in site cost across two competitors. Tried telling rawson but dint shake at all. Any thoughts on this? 3. Unwrap 70k promotion: $10k 4. Additional buttlers pantry and island increased to 1200mm: $8k ( seems really high considering the area and space of butlers pantry that we are doing if you look at the second stove area in the plan). any thoughts on this? 5. Extension costs: $30k ( including second alfresco, still quite expensive for the internal extensions that we made for getting 5th bed in and the two additional areas on either sides of the alfresco. 6. Floor to ceiling tiling on all 4 bathrooms: $8k 7. Front rendering: $9k 8. TImber post near the stiars: 8k ( due to requiring additional steel beams for support as we are removing the wall) 9. Alfresco tiling: $4k 10. Stacker doors: $2k 11. Square set junciton to both floors: $4k 12. Alarm system and entrace plasterbaord as seen on the chifley display : $4k Provisional allowances: $24k: Staircase $25k: fireplace $6k Tiles $6k electrical $2k Window Total : $667k What i need help with is below: 1. I will not end up using my PA on the staircase and fireplace as we will be opting for something much cheaper than that on display so we will have almost 50% pa remaining on that. 2. I am aware that tile direct standard tiles dont provide much options so if we were to upgrade to some nice 600*600 tiles for the ground floor how much should that cost. I feel that the tiling PA has been bit undercooked. 3. I did try to consider the Chilfey 43 so cut down on the cost of the extensions but with my requirements the price works out to be the same. What are your thoughts? 4. Is $6k electrical pa enough. How has peoples experience been with rawson overall? Our sales consultant has been amazing but given the total costs we juts wanted to make sure that everything in the tender made sense especially the stark difference in site cost with What metricon had promised v rawson. Looking at accept the tender but wanted to get these things squared off first. Thanks guys, Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 2Mar 11, 2019 5:56 am Hey eshan We went through the whole preconstruction process with rawson. Decided when we got the contract we were not happy with the terms so walked away. As far as costing goes builders tend to break the costs up differently so when looking at tenders it’s like comparing apples to oranges. So be careful. Site costs might include slightly different items. Rawson seem to start at a lower base and then for all the high end add ons the prices jump more that some other builders (floor to ceiling tiles, mix of 2 colours in kitchen, waterfalls etc) As far as provisional cost on electrical it depends on what you want, I think there base electrical plan is one PowerPoint in each room and a dozen down lights, batten everywhere else. Ours tripled the provisional allowance. I can probably track down the cost per item for you so you can work it out on your needs. Most of Rawsons provisional allowances once quoted went up. (demolition, stairs, electrical) some because they are so low to start with others because of the selections we made. Most builders display homes are generally up speced by about $200k from the base price. You then fall in love with the display home and want all the lovely add ons. Good luck with your build. Get a copy of the contract now before you spend a bunch of money. Try and get through the pre-construction process as quickly as possible to start the build as you will be charged a monthly ‘fee’ to keep the tender price as it is if you don’t start the build process within an allotted time. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 3Mar 11, 2019 8:09 am A few comments, not Rawson related. There is no access to a powder room on the ground floor without either going into bed 5, or into the office, for a house with 4.5 bathrooms you would expect at least one to be easily accessible. The alfresco out the back, is fairly useless space, 2m wide wont allow for great furniture placement and the side one will allow a table and that’s all, I’d make one of the alfresco larger to make it more useful. I’d say the costing for the butlers is very low, assuming the whole area has been added on, make sure that it includes stone and not laminate. I agree tiling estimate is very low, 600x600 rectified edge tiles laid on a screed bed, with minimal grout lines cost a lot more, go out to th tile supplier and see what they offer, they should be able to give you an indication of upgrade costs. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 4Mar 11, 2019 10:10 am I agree with Gogo about the ground floor powder room. The powder room in the office ruins the dimensions of the room and will make the whole room feel unpleasant. I would suggest moving this powder room to be accessible from the main hallway. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 5Mar 11, 2019 12:39 pm re $70k offer and tile allowance. It can only be used at the tiles direct appointment, so if you've paid for everything in the tender, it cant be used against those. So your only choice would be upgrade tiles. So I'd suggest taking out either the alfresco or porch or bathroom wall costs and using it during your appointment.
You can already go into Tiles Direct and see whats on offer and whether you want to upgrade or not. Just be aware that the Rawson cost now and the TD cost might be different. Even Rawson costs now can be different to later. Try and get the staircase in the tender. Check these forums for huge cost changes for the stairs. If its the same as the display home and it's costed there, get that locked in. Your slab and house design plans appear different around the back? Also think about sounds proofing the floors or anticon under a colorbond roof etc. brick upgrades? Do you have the large a/c already? Agree on having a downstairs toilet separate. Do you want to flip the house to have bedrooms on the east side, garage on the west near the street corner? edit: I see your corner profile means no driveway there. You can lock in some reduced rate monthly fees if you think you'll go over the 6 months from contract to build time frame. If you don't use them they are credited back. You may be cheaper going with a 43 with known costs than the 40 with the PAs. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 6Mar 11, 2019 12:47 pm Were building with rawsons (Balmoral 38 MK1) and managed to keep costs relatively sane considering we've got a heap of upgrades. Electrical, personal preference with what you want done? I've gone for downlight provisions everywhere, ceiling fan provisions on all the bedrooms 2-3 PP's per bedroom, additional PP's in garage living areas etc etc Then theres outdoor lighting, I've got a host of wall light provisions, IR sensor provision, tv,data outlets in bedrooms living areas and I this was just under $10k. It will still be $5-7K worth after handover, utilising my trade contracts with gear supplied at wholesaler cost price. Initially the plan was to do a lot of the electrical after handover, but due to the sloping roof design of the house and with A/C ducts in the ceiling there would have be little to no room to do this. Therfore were restricted to paying for rawsons exorbitant electrical prices, but minimised this with getting provisions put in.. With tiles we managed to keep it simple and use tiles from the standard range largely and just use a few feature wall type tiles outside of the standard range. We spent a lot of time with tile reviews and went to TD at least 5-6 times before settling on our final selection (each time we went we found a new tile we liked, and new tiles do get released) We went with carpeted stairs, and removed the glass and voids and got a lot of $ back by doing this. I'll admit the $30k staircases are impressive but they're noisy and could be unsafe if you have toddlers. We've found since we've modified the standard floorplan so much that rawsons have mistakenly made a few errors on quite a few things. This can be a headache for both parties, so if you feel you can get away with the standard floorplan in the chifley 43 I'd advise to go that option, in terms of pricing v's which one to go for its very difficult to tell (we were looking at doing a similar thing with making a balmoral 34 bigger, but in the end decided to go for the 38 as a base as it included additional extras standard such as larger ducted air etc) Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 7Mar 11, 2019 5:21 pm Melos Hey eshan We went through the whole preconstruction process with rawson. Decided when we got the contract we were not happy with the terms so walked away. As far as costing goes builders tend to break the costs up differently so when looking at tenders it’s like comparing apples to oranges. So be careful. Site costs might include slightly different items. Rawson seem to start at a lower base and then for all the high end add ons the prices jump more that some other builders (floor to ceiling tiles, mix of 2 colours in kitchen, waterfalls etc) As far as provisional cost on electrical it depends on what you want, I think there base electrical plan is one PowerPoint in each room and a dozen down lights, batten everywhere else. Ours tripled the provisional allowance. I can probably track down the cost per item for you so you can work it out on your needs. Most of Rawsons provisional allowances once quoted went up. (demolition, stairs, electrical) some because they are so low to start with others because of the selections we made. Most builders display homes are generally up speced by about $200k from the base price. You then fall in love with the display home and want all the lovely add ons. Good luck with your build. Get a copy of the contract now before you spend a bunch of money. Try and get through the pre-construction process as quickly as possible to start the build as you will be charged a monthly ‘fee’ to keep the tender price as it is if you don’t start the build process within an allotted time. Thanks a lot Melos. Did you end up going into the tiles appointment, internal appointments? I am worried that the tiles are going to be an expensive upgrade. Yes trying to get to construction as soon as possible but making sure we arent being ripped off. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 8Mar 11, 2019 5:23 pm gogo65 A few comments, not Rawson related. There is no access to a powder room on the ground floor without either going into bed 5, or into the office, for a house with 4.5 bathrooms you would expect at least one to be easily accessible. The alfresco out the back, is fairly useless space, 2m wide wont allow for great furniture placement and the side one will allow a table and that’s all, I’d make one of the alfresco larger to make it more useful. I’d say the costing for the butlers is very low, assuming the whole area has been added on, make sure that it includes stone and not laminate. I agree tiling estimate is very low, 600x600 rectified edge tiles laid on a screed bed, with minimal grout lines cost a lot more, go out to th tile supplier and see what they offer, they should be able to give you an indication of upgrade costs. Great notes. We actually have gotten rid of the powder room from that room and made an access to the bed 5 ensuite from the outside so its no longer an ensuite but basically a powder room there with a shower. As for the alfresco, it is 4.2m wide though, the current display width is 5m we changed that to 4.2m. You recon that is too small? Well the cooktop run and all is not in that price. The butlers price i have quoted is simply for the area on the lefthand upper side of the house where you see the second cooktop and it is a very small area and its not stone its laminate. we are trying to push for stone. I am aware that the tile shop is not very upfront with their costing but will try to go in next week Thanks a lot Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 9Mar 11, 2019 5:24 pm amilelka I agree with Gogo about the ground floor powder room. The powder room in the office ruins the dimensions of the room and will make the whole room feel unpleasant. I would suggest moving this powder room to be accessible from the main hallway. Have taken the powder out now and made the bed 5 ensuite into powder with shower. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 10Mar 11, 2019 5:35 pm DR-JEKL Were building with rawsons (Balmoral 38 MK1) and managed to keep costs relatively sane considering we've got a heap of upgrades. Electrical, personal preference with what you want done? I've gone for downlight provisions everywhere, ceiling fan provisions on all the bedrooms 2-3 PP's per bedroom, additional PP's in garage living areas etc etc Then theres outdoor lighting, I've got a host of wall light provisions, IR sensor provision, tv,data outlets in bedrooms living areas and I this was just under $10k. It will still be $5-7K worth after handover, utilising my trade contracts with gear supplied at wholesaler cost price. Initially the plan was to do a lot of the electrical after handover, but due to the sloping roof design of the house and with A/C ducts in the ceiling there would have be little to no room to do this. Therfore were restricted to paying for rawsons exorbitant electrical prices, but minimised this with getting provisions put in.. With tiles we managed to keep it simple and use tiles from the standard range largely and just use a few feature wall type tiles outside of the standard range. We spent a lot of time with tile reviews and went to TD at least 5-6 times before settling on our final selection (each time we went we found a new tile we liked, and new tiles do get released) We went with carpeted stairs, and removed the glass and voids and got a lot of $ back by doing this. I'll admit the $30k staircases are impressive but they're noisy and could be unsafe if you have toddlers. We've found since we've modified the standard floorplan so much that rawsons have mistakenly made a few errors on quite a few things. This can be a headache for both parties, so if you feel you can get away with the standard floorplan in the chifley 43 I'd advise to go that option, in terms of pricing v's which one to go for its very difficult to tell (we were looking at doing a similar thing with making a balmoral 34 bigger, but in the end decided to go for the 38 as a base as it included additional extras standard such as larger ducted air etc) Awesome insights. We tried working with the 43 but it is quite different in terms of the kitchen layout and all bedrooms are upstairs. There is a chance of our parents living there and given their age, we wanted to have one bedroom downstairs. Also, 43 first floor is large so we needed cutting down slightly for Council requirements to be met on first floor space ratio. The electrical spend seems great considering the additions you have done. I will have similar requirements with downlights, ceiling fans, powerpoints, data points and outdoor lighting provisions so great to know your costing. When you mention errors from rawson, what sort of errors have they made? have you commenced building already? Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 11Mar 11, 2019 5:38 pm luxbuild re $70k offer and tile allowance. It can only be used at the tiles direct appointment, so if you've paid for everything in the tender, it cant be used against those. So your only choice would be upgrade tiles. So I'd suggest taking out either the alfresco or porch or bathroom wall costs and using it during your appointment. You can already go into Tiles Direct and see whats on offer and whether you want to upgrade or not. Just be aware that the Rawson cost now and the TD cost might be different. Even Rawson costs now can be different to later. Try and get the staircase in the tender. Check these forums for huge cost changes for the stairs. If its the same as the display home and it's costed there, get that locked in. Your slab and house design plans appear different around the back? Also think about sounds proofing the floors or anticon under a colorbond roof etc. brick upgrades? Do you have the large a/c already? Agree on having a downstairs toilet separate. Do you want to flip the house to have bedrooms on the east side, garage on the west near the street corner? edit: I see your corner profile means no driveway there. You can lock in some reduced rate monthly fees if you think you'll go over the 6 months from contract to build time frame. If you don't use them they are credited back. You may be cheaper going with a 43 with known costs than the 40 with the PAs. Great to know. Will get 4k worth tile upgrades out of the tender then. With the staircase, current staircase is $32k and we are confident we will not spend that much and will def go laminate on the stairs. So our consultant have asked us to take this as pa and fix on internals. You recon i should push for this to become a tender item? The siting is being redone as we changed after that siting was done. I still think we will be within the 6 months time frame but lets see. Are you building with rawson as well? Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 12Mar 11, 2019 8:22 pm eshan Melos Hey eshan We went through the whole preconstruction process with rawson. Decided when we got the contract we were not happy with the terms so walked away. As far as costing goes builders tend to break the costs up differently so when looking at tenders it’s like comparing apples to oranges. So be careful. Site costs might include slightly different items. Rawson seem to start at a lower base and then for all the high end add ons the prices jump more that some other builders (floor to ceiling tiles, mix of 2 colours in kitchen, waterfalls etc) As far as provisional cost on electrical it depends on what you want, I think there base electrical plan is one PowerPoint in each room and a dozen down lights, batten everywhere else. Ours tripled the provisional allowance. I can probably track down the cost per item for you so you can work it out on your needs. Most of Rawsons provisional allowances once quoted went up. (demolition, stairs, electrical) some because they are so low to start with others because of the selections we made. Most builders display homes are generally up speced by about $200k from the base price. You then fall in love with the display home and want all the lovely add ons. Good luck with your build. Get a copy of the contract now before you spend a bunch of money. Try and get through the pre-construction process as quickly as possible to start the build as you will be charged a monthly ‘fee’ to keep the tender price as it is if you don’t start the build process within an allotted time. Thanks a lot Melos. Did you end up going into the tiles appointment, internal appointments? I am worried that the tiles are going to be an expensive upgrade. Yes trying to get to construction as soon as possible but making sure we arent being ripped off. We did do the tile appointment, we actually went to the show room before the appointment to give us an idea of what was available in the range. We increased the the quote by just under $4k this was just for the following: En-suite, bathroom, seperate loo, small water closet, laundry. More than half of it was for upgraded water wastes and coloured grout Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We didn’t tile the alfresco and we had floorboards selected separately for the main living areas. Our electricals came to $15k. That includes an alarm system and upgraded Switches. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 13Mar 11, 2019 10:01 pm Melos eshan Melos Hey eshan We went through the whole preconstruction process with rawson. Decided when we got the contract we were not happy with the terms so walked away. As far as costing goes builders tend to break the costs up differently so when looking at tenders it’s like comparing apples to oranges. So be careful. Site costs might include slightly different items. Rawson seem to start at a lower base and then for all the high end add ons the prices jump more that some other builders (floor to ceiling tiles, mix of 2 colours in kitchen, waterfalls etc) As far as provisional cost on electrical it depends on what you want, I think there base electrical plan is one PowerPoint in each room and a dozen down lights, batten everywhere else. Ours tripled the provisional allowance. I can probably track down the cost per item for you so you can work it out on your needs. Most of Rawsons provisional allowances once quoted went up. (demolition, stairs, electrical) some because they are so low to start with others because of the selections we made. Most builders display homes are generally up speced by about $200k from the base price. You then fall in love with the display home and want all the lovely add ons. Good luck with your build. Get a copy of the contract now before you spend a bunch of money. Try and get through the pre-construction process as quickly as possible to start the build as you will be charged a monthly ‘fee’ to keep the tender price as it is if you don’t start the build process within an allotted time. Thanks a lot Melos. Did you end up going into the tiles appointment, internal appointments? I am worried that the tiles are going to be an expensive upgrade. Yes trying to get to construction as soon as possible but making sure we arent being ripped off. We did do the tile appointment, we actually went to the show room before the appointment to give us an idea of what was available in the range. We increased the the quote by just under $4k this was just for the following: En-suite, bathroom, seperate loo, small water closet, laundry. More than half of it was for upgraded water wastes and coloured grout Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We didn’t tile the alfresco and we had floorboards selected separately for the main living areas. Our electricals came to $15k. That includes an alarm system and upgraded Switches. I know that tender acceptance is 3k. do we get all of the appointments before paying the 10k for plan presentation which means effectively the cost is 3k and the site cost of $900. In the event i were to be highly over my budget at the end of all the selections this is helpful to know. Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 14Mar 11, 2019 10:14 pm eshan Melos eshan [quote="Melos"]Hey eshan We went through the whole preconstruction process with rawson. Decided when we got the contract we were not happy with the terms so walked away. As far as costing goes builders tend to break the costs up differently so when looking at tenders it’s like comparing apples to oranges. So be careful. Site costs might include slightly different items. Rawson seem to start at a lower base and then for all the high end add ons the prices jump more that some other builders (floor to ceiling tiles, mix of 2 colours in kitchen, waterfalls etc) As far as provisional cost on electrical it depends on what you want, I think there base electrical plan is one PowerPoint in each room and a dozen down lights, batten everywhere else. Ours tripled the provisional allowance. I can probably track down the cost per item for you so you can work it out on your needs. Most of Rawsons provisional allowances once quoted went up. (demolition, stairs, electrical) some because they are so low to start with others because of the selections we made. Most builders display homes are generally up speced by about $200k from the base price. You then fall in love with the display home and want all the lovely add ons. Good luck with your build. Get a copy of the contract now before you spend a bunch of money. Try and get through the pre-construction process as quickly as possible to start the build as you will be charged a monthly ‘fee’ to keep the tender price as it is if you don’t start the build process within an allotted time. Thanks a lot Melos. Did you end up going into the tiles appointment, internal appointments? I am worried that the tiles are going to be an expensive upgrade. Yes trying to get to construction as soon as possible but making sure we arent being ripped off. We did do the tile appointment, we actually went to the show room before the appointment to give us an idea of what was available in the range. We increased the the quote by just under $4k this was just for the following: En-suite, bathroom, seperate loo, small water closet, laundry. More than half of it was for upgraded water wastes and coloured grout Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We didn’t tile the alfresco and we had floorboards selected separately for the main living areas. Our electricals came to $15k. That includes an alarm system and upgraded Switches. I know that tender acceptance is 3k. do we get all of the appointments before paying the 10k for plan presentation which means effectively the cost is 3k and the site cost of $900. In the event i were to be highly over my budget at the end of all the selections this is helpful to know.[/quote] There process is very structured. You don’t have the other appointments until after you have accepted the tender. Work out what your budget is and make a prioritised list of upgrades. Some things can be done after hand over if your budget doesn’t allow. Other things you might just leave out all together. I have a full breakdown of all the electrical items. This could get you a pretty close estimate for electricals. When you go for your tender presentation appointment at grad office go into the show room and have a look at all the standard options and colours (carpets, benchtops, cupboards) etc. if you pick from the standard range it will keep your costs down. You can upgrade but it will cost you. Reach out if you have any questions Re: Building Chifley 40 with Rawson 15Jan 08, 2020 9:14 am Hello Melo, Would you mind sharing the detail electrical breakup of yours. I am building seaview 36 with Rawson and have tender presentation on 20th Jan with Rawson at their office. Your list might help me to decide how much provision I should put in for electricals. Thanks Vivek https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=97643&p=1862135#pImg1203048 Vin Just started the Build process for Chifley 42 with Rawson homes, will keep you all posted with the Build progress. 0 3630 Elvis has left the building... 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