Having looked at what seems like almost 30 different display homes from the various builders, we've finally decided to build with Henley Homes. The main attraction is the number of standard inclusions, 50 year structural guarantee and 1 year maintenance period. We choose the Monterey Belle Q2 because of the layout and the flexibility for further structural changes.
We've found this forum very handy spending a lot of time reading other people’s builds and have already picked up loads of great tips, especially those building/have built with Henley. This will be our first build, so any tips and suggestions would be very welcome.
Land: 576 sqm (16m x 36m)
We put a deposit down on some land in Clyde North back in December. We were told at the time it will title between Nov '16 and Jan '17 so we thought we'd have plenty of time to sell our current house. Six months later and our house has been sold (we're currently renting it). I popped into our land developer sales office for an update a couple of weeks ago and they told me they're hoping our land will now title in August '16. Initially I thought we'd sold our house too early, but with the new information I'm glad we did.
House: Monterey Belle Q2 (Broadway facade with part render) with the carpet (Cat. 1) and flooring (Cat. 1B Augusta laminate) promotion.
The land we bought dictated this particular version (16m frontage). The layout and space suits our lifestyle better as we didn't have much storage space and never had space for guests/visitors to stay.
We have decided on the following upgrades.
- Fixed site costs (I know, not really an upgrade, but wanted peace of mind)
- Kid's retreat option
- Grand Alfresco option
- Guest bedroom in-lieu of study
- Increase ceiling height from 2570mm to 2720mm
- Extend length of home by 1000mm (beds 2 & 3 extended by 500mm each)
- Flyscreens to all openable windows
- Double glazed windows
- Double 820mm cavity sliding doors to Theatre room
- 1020mm cavity sliding doors to entry and rear hallways
- Front timber windows
- Translucent glass internal doors to pantry and laundry
- 5 star zoned heating option
- Franke Queen undermount double bowl sink
- Laundry laminate benchtop/cabinet and overhead cupboards fit out
- 300mm x 580mm shower niches to ensuite and bathrooms
- Square set cornice to whole house
- Luxury electrical pack
We had our Cosham information session a couple of weeks ago. That was a real eye opener. We came away feeling completely overwhelmed , however, I must say we were quite pleasantly surprised with what you get for category 1 with Henley. We have our colour appointment in two weeks’ time. We've been looking in display homes and trying to work out what colours we want. I was hoping that they still had the concept boards (to give us a good idea - colours aren't my strength :: ) to help us with our choices but they stopped doing these about a year ago. They only do the external colour choice board now .
I will put up our colour thoughts in another post as we haven't quite decided and still have some time. What was also interesting at the visit was the other upgrade considerations. I now have a secondary list of things I'm considering. My only concern is what will happen at bank valuation time. I've tried to stick to mainly structural changes (see above) which I think the bank will accept(?).
Here's what I'm also considering:
- Both toilets upgraded to medium range
- Front door (INF5VG Corinthian infinity range)
- Offwhite mortar
- Sarking
- Category 2 underlay with category 1 carpet
- Move roof access hole to laundry (not sure if they charge for this)
- Privacy locks on powder room and ensuite toilet doors
- Extra data points for study and kids retreat
- Garage set down
I have also been giving consideration to having independent inspections (probably Darbecca) done for the following stages (is this overkill?)
- Pre slab pour
- Framing
- Pre plaster
- PCI
I think that's it for the moment. I would appreciate any feedback on any of the above or even some important things that I've completely overlooked!
Timeline:
- Deposits paid: 29.11.15 / 16.04.16
- Colour appointment: 30/05/16
- Tender appointment : 15/06/16
- Contract signed: 15/06/16
- Electrical appointment 14/07/16
- Unconditional finance approved 09/09/16
- Land settlement finalised 05/12/16
- Building permit issued 21/02/17
- Site cut started! 16/02/17
- Slab poured 07/02/17
- Frame and roof trusses complete