Cremorne 35 with Eden Brae

Hi Guys,

I'm new to this forum and looking to get in touch with others who have had experience building with Eden Brae. We've paid deposit on a lot in box hill and currently narrowed down to clarendon and Eden Brae as our choice of builders. I prefer Eden Brae's design as its more open plan- which is exactly the look I'm after.

We've finalized the Cremorne 35 design and made a couple of changes and submitted the paperwork for the tender . Just need to wait and watch what the tender comes back at . Meanwhile, I was wondering if anyone else has built a Cremorne 35 or similar home and if I could get any suggestions or tips regarding the tender process and building process in general. Anyone else building with Eden Brae currently and currently at the tender stage? Would appreciate some input on what to expect .

Love the information on this forum . Its really helpful !!

Eden Brae we’re great. Thorough and very professional. My suggestion would be try to get as many discounts, thrown in for free items as you can at the tender stage. It gets harder after you sign the contract. They want your business so make them work for your signature as the building industry is somewhat struggling compared to where it was this time 5 years ago.

The tender presentation is pretty straight forward and take it with you for a week or two to mull over the details. Don’t be forced into signing a contract until you are ready. Yes they try to put time limits on it, but they aren’t going to lose a 600k job for a few weeks.

Also like all builders, expect to upgrade. A lot. You’ll be surprised how much extra you’ll spend and how quickly it ads up. Allow at least 100k (plus additional site costs like OSD) on the base price depending on your tastes. From memory the cremorne is the middle of their range and the inclusions are very basic.

I’d build with them again in a heart beat. Their reputation is very good vs others out there. You pay a bit more than others (Clarendon for example) but I think it’s worth it for the quality.

Thank for your reply Brickface. Really helpful!

Just wondering what kind of free stuff we could ask for ? I'm thinking maybe get electrical upgrades included and maybe facade? But i cant think of much else to ask for. The base price for the home is approx 386K. I'm hoping to complete the build within 415K . Hope that's not a stretch.

I've been to their home options gallery to look at whats included as standard. If anything, I'll probably be upgrading the kitchen as i don't care too much for the standard stone bench tops.

The sales guy said that as a standard no electrical is included. Wondering what they mean by that . Do they provide an allowance at tender for electricals?

Ive tried to include all the changes that i want in the tender application so that we dont have any nasty surprises later on . But i guess there's always some surprise where construction is concerned. Nervous and excited at the same time!!!

I dont know much if anything about eden brae’s pricing structure, but i think your budget is way to tight. As brickface suggested, probably allow another 100k, on base price, this would be the same for most project builders.

I've actually got quite a lot of upgrades already built into the pricing as part of a couple of offers they had going. For example upgrades already built in : high ceilings to 2590 mm, 40mm benchtops in kitchen, ducted aircon, 20 mm stonetop in bathrooms, colorbond roof, got added an allowance to upgrade to porcelain tiles, soft close doors in kicthen, smeg applicances including microwave, window splashback to kitchen . and an offer of a discount off the base price . we'll be doing the level 1 flooring post handover.

so all in all , i wonder how much ill be paying for more upgrades . hopefully it doesn't exceed over 50K over the base price...fingers crossed !!

Like I said, I don’t know anything about Eden Brae’s pricing structure but brickface has given you an indication of 100k in extras.
You said you have 29k over base price, for upgrades, assuming you have no additional site costs, basix requirements etc(which is unlikely).

In regards to electrical, Most project builders charge around $100-$150 per downlight, you standard inclusion is likely one bayonet point per room, so likely at least 30-50 Downlights would be needed. You will need additional PowerPoints again likely to be $100-$150 each. You would Probably want to upgrade your air conditioning, I’d have at least $8-$10k electrical allowance.
Tiles is the other big cost, and although you’ve had porcelain tiles included, there is generally an additional cost to lay large format tiles.
You said you don’t like the standard kitchen stone, while an upgrade up one category may only be $1-$2k to upgrade to some of the Calcutta stones will Likely be $10-$15k. What about additional drawers in the kitchen-extra cost, a nice waterfall edge-extra cost, a Butler’s pantry-extra cost and let’s hope that you don’t want shaker doors on your kitchen!
Nice taps, nice vanities, frameless/semi frameless shower, Front door upgrades, the list is endless.
There’s also stair upgrades, if your happy with the standard that’s fine, but most people want something a little nicer as a bit of a statement.
Have you looked at the standard bricks? Are you happy with them?

I’m not saying it’s not doable, if your happy with the standard inclusions, with only a few minor upgrades, what I’m saying is go in with eyes wide open, like brickface said negotiate hard and good luck.

Thanks for your reply gogo65. Like I said I’m hoping to squeeze as much as I can out of them before signing the contract so I hopefully won’t have to spend too much on the upgrades . I’m hoping to have some extra leftover cash to spend on furnishing the place . Otherwise we’ll be sleeping on a mattress on a floor for a while . Lol ..
but yes I do agree that one can spend a lot on upgrades and it all adds up and before u know it , bam ! You’re looking at a budget you never thought you would go to ..

Just also wanting to get input feom other users who have built with Eden Brae or other builders on what to watch out for while signing the contract . Fine print etc .. would appreciate any tips ..

It’s all a daunting process . But I guess we won’t know until it actually starts . Hopefully I don’t lose too much sleep over it !!

I’d be still thinking 100k even with your upgraded package. It gets away from you really quickly and what you estimate an upgrade will cost you, builders charge more. It’s a simple builders margin.

Electrical is a big hit. We spent another 12k and that was just by adding more powerpoints and baton holders (as we had our own sparky come in after and replace batons with downloghts) 100 downlight at 130 add up quick!

Even if you went simple baton holder with 1 light per room. You need to buy the fittings after handover. But they never give you enough powerpoints.

If the home your building has a display home I strongly suggest you spend a lot of time in there and review all their lighting and electrical. Think about how you live and how you maintain your home. I.e powerpoints for vacuums, lamps, kitchen appliances, garage and tools and even outside.

Bricks are very basic and to be honest their standard colours are very standard. There’s a reason a lot of the these new developments all have the same looking brick. I strongly recommend visiting PGH bricks several times and then getting addresses of homes that have the bricks you like. We changed our minds a few times after seeing them on a house. A 2x2 display wall at PGH is very deceiving to a real house.

Tiles are all ceramic and 45x45 from memory. There’s certainly some ok ones there but for a forever home you want porcelain and if you go floor to ceiling in your wet areas that’s another 10-12k on a 40sq home.

You can do your non wet areas after handover. Including carpet. The standard carpet has a feel of a nylon door Matt. It’s really poor and standard underlay is only 3mm from memory. You want 10mm in my opinion. And they’ll charge you $10sqm to upgrade that.

Di Lorenzo are very very pricey.

Kitchen you can get away with the standard if you’re happy with standard. But as soon as you move out of standard the price jumps fast. What might cost you $1000 in real world costs you 2x with a builder. Frustratingly a lot of the their “upgraded” stone is the exact same price as standard stone if you walked in off the street and bought direct from Essa yourself.

We dropped another $25 on the kitchen alone and that’s without a butlers pantry which they wanted $12k for. We did that after handover for a fraction of the price. We just had pre wired and plumbed for it.

Air con shouldn’t cost you more unless you want extra zones within the included system. $241 per zone. Their standard vents are more than fine. Aircon was our cheapest selections appointment at about $1000 extra for more zones.

Stairs can cost anywhere up to $25k for the modern footing treads. We spent and extra $2.5k only here and got a really nice hardwood Hampton’s style carpeted staircase.

Colours appointment was also another $15k. By the time you upgrade front door. The standard is absolutely **** imo. Larger skirtings - volume builders do skirtings first which means your carpet and tile chews into their height. It’s a time and corner cutting excessive which I don’t agree with but that’s what they do. Even their standard window colours are limited. Yes window frames change price in colouring. Go figure... flyecreens are extra too. Oh and they’ll charge you another few thousand to ain’t skirts and architraves with water based enamel. Oil goes yellow after time.

Which facade you going with? Also a little oversight, rookie experience, is your faced DOES NOT include the render if it has one in the brochure. And this can be another big cost. You can however negotiate on getting that free or discounted.

Have you discussed Hydraulics with them yet and out in a provisionals? We have a flat block, highest in the street and still had to spend over 20K for storm water management. And that’s before I still need to do a basin wall after handover which could be another 10-20k.

All in all I still think my original summation of 100k extra is warranted. If you read through this site youlll find Most people are doing this on average.

I’d get in touch with the options gallery and get a list of all their common upgrades people get. They do this a week out before your appointments. If you get them now you can use it maybe as a guide on what to ask for to be thrown in. Mind you the options guys are a different companies so not sure how that works with Eden braes pricing structure.

Thanks so much for such a detailed response Brickface. Appreciate you taking your time to reply. thats a good idea about getting the addresses to check out the bricks! will definitely do that

i guess upgrades is where they make their money so they're betting on people upgrading ..which is sad..

just wondering if you have any contact for the pantry that u mentioned. i might look into doing the pantry later too . i did ask about the flyscreens and was amazed to find out that its not included! what a rip off!


havent talked abut hydraulics and to be honest i didn't even think about it until u mentioned it !! and i dont even know what that entails!! so ill have to do some research before i talk to them about it. Dont want to sound like they can pull a fast one over me haha .

they dont paint painting the skirting!! OMG haha .. just cant get over so many things. its like they'll build you a skeleton and then you have to pay extra to add the meat lol ..

oh well .. I'll just have to learn along the way . This forum is awesome though! i'm hooked and i spend a couple of hours every night trying to learn all the tips from others

No problem.

Absolutely they make most their money at the interior stage of the house. And probably why there isn’t too many project builders, if any who are happy to take you to lockup stage. Had I been able to do all my own trades I would had easily saved 50-70k. But it’s a business and they are, like we are with our work, in it to make money.

Sorry they do paint the skirts and architraves, however in oil based as standard. You really want water based as it won’t yellow in time.

Yep the flyscreens is another jip. But if you’re even semi handy they are not hard to do yourself. Which I did and are just like bought ones.

PGH happily Hans our addresses. We found 3-4 bricks we liked and spent Sunday driving all over Sydney.

Hydraulics will also depend on where you are building. Newer estates are somewhat sorted with their pre planned pre developed easements. It’s the older established areas that are not.

All the best

Totally agree with Brickface...$100K will be the minimum you need to budget.

We started with a list price (after their Autumn offer discount of $30K) at just under $400K (for a 42SQ house) and are currently at CDC stage with a price of about $620K. We are yet to get the final Hydraulics costs (provisiond $10K).

You would think the $200K on top of the standard gives you a lot but it doesn't...we haven't even added many "nice to have" things.

On top of that we need to do the driveway and landscaping.

I was also thinking that $500K will be enough to build the house (including the driveway/landscaping), but it didn't take long to realise that one needs to add a lot on top of the standard price. You often read on this forum that 50% on top of the base prices is a good indication and I totally agree with that. If you want everything what you see in the display homes, you need to add more than 100% on top of the base price.

Wow ! That’s a big difference ! It’s scary that we need to keep over a 100k aside on top of the build price quoted .

Agree with all the above. We are currently building a Waldorf 42 in Mulgoa Sanctuary (Glenmore Park) and have about 100K in upgrades. Noting that nothing we have done was over the top and that I managed to get EBH to throw in the display home staircase for free.

Wow. 20K+ staircase. Damn, good win there!

Oh that’s great that at least they threw in something !

Yes I was happy enough that they had sharpened the pricing adequately after a few visits to the sales office, then throwing in the staircase was the icing on the cake. Looking forward to seeing it when it is installed (hopefully soon).

That’s great ! Would love to see pics once it’s ready ..

I agree. We are building with them Waldorf 48. We have put in $200k provisional allowances on top of their essentials price (which already includes a few things and is a bit higher than the base price). We bought their luxury upgrade package as well. We are finalising all the quotes and find that we need to add another $50-80k. I am beyond angry. Some of the provisional allowances were very inadequate. I think the sales rep deliberately under quoted (or hopelessly incompetent). We told her exactly what we wanted and repeatedly asked her whether the allowance is enough. The quote come back more than triple the allowance. There are so many things that they don't even mention at the sales stage.

We've already signed the contract (actually we signed the contract more than a year ago) and we are just about to start build. They are not very helpful. During our DA process, they suggested to put stairs in the garage (!). They just want to move along to the next stage, they don't really care about whether it is a good design. My experience with Eden brae is more than disappointing so far. Hopefully once the build starts it will get easier. If I were to start again, I wouldn't go with Eden brae. I would have gone with a customs builder.

Who was your sales person and client liaison officer?