Sahara Q1 - happy ever after

mirz · Jul 30, 2016 11:20 am

Our very first daffodil in nature strip. Hoping for a little belt garden with full flowers by end of September

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

stayxtrue · Sep 06, 2016 12:41 pm

mirz

Our tiler was working today on Sunday. It was a big surprise for me.

We discussed misaligned tiles on the back and left hand side of bath tub with him. He acknowledged this as an issue and promised to fix it on his next trip (hopefully couple of days).

A big thanks to Siapao for pointing this out.

Laundry wall tiles

Grout is now giving a neat look

hey Mirz,

Do you remember how much you paid for the laundry fitout?

mirz · Sep 07, 2016 12:11 am

it was around $1300

stayxtrue · Sep 07, 2016 8:54 am

mirz

it was around $1300

Oh wow!! Henley want a lot more than that for the palace!

qdnanc_78 · Sep 11, 2016 12:34 pm

Hi Mirz,
I am new to this forum but I have learnt a lot from you from your blog.Thanks so much for sharing your experience.We are going to build Sahara Belle Q1 in melbourne eastern surburb. We are thinking to install evap cooling with henlry ad part of free promotion.however ,the evap cooling can be installed upstair only. I saw your post previously that you installed evap cooling for both upsair snd down stair post handover. Below are couple quick questions in regards of your evap cooling system.
1) how your evap cooling system for down stairs was installed? Are they sharing the same ducted heating vents for down stairs?or they have to install seperate cooling vents?

2) is the evap cooling system sufficient for the hot days? 35 degree plus?
3) i heard a lot people saying the evap cooling vdnts let the heating escape during winter. What is your experience?

Looking forward for your input! Thanks a million!

Nancy

DAlex · Sep 12, 2016 12:59 pm

qdnanc_78

Hi Mirz,
I am new to this forum but I have learnt a lot from you from your blog.Thanks so much for sharing your experience.We are going to build Sahara Belle Q1 in melbourne eastern surburb. We are thinking to install evap cooling with henlry ad part of free promotion.however ,the evap cooling can be installed upstair only. I saw your post previously that you installed evap cooling for both upsair snd down stair post handover. Below are couple quick questions in regards of your evap cooling system.
1) how your evap cooling system for down stairs was installed? Are they sharing the same ducted heating vents for down stairs?or they have to install seperate cooling vents?

2) is the evap cooling system sufficient for the hot days? 35 degree plus?
3) i heard a lot people saying the evap cooling vdnts let the heating escape during winter. What is your experience?

Looking forward for your input! Thanks a million!

Nancy

Hi

As far as I know cooling and heating through the same ducts is possible for refrigerated cooling system only. Evaporative cooling requires large separate ducts.

You can ask them to put extra vents downstairs as well but only possible if hollow straight pillars are coming through. They may be able to do one or two vents depends on the structural set up and capacity of Evaporative cooler.

Cooling vents let heat out but you can manually close the vents to prevent it to an extent.

Is Evaporative cooling sufficient enough is personal choice. I live in south east Melbourne and was ok last summer. Gets bit soggy when left for long periods.

I am also building Sahara belle in south east. Which estate is yours.
Regards

qdnanc_78 · Sep 12, 2016 2:00 pm

Hi Dalex ,

Thanks for your reply much appreciated.

We are doing knock down rebuild in nunawading.

mirz · Sep 12, 2016 7:07 pm

Hi Nancy,
We have evaporative cooling upstairs only.
There is no way to install evaporative cooling downstairs post handover.
Only porter Davis provides couple of ducts downstairs if you build with them.

No heat loss issues at all.

qdnanc_78 · Sep 12, 2016 7:54 pm

Thanks, Mirz. You are a legend !
How did you find last summer with your evaporative cooling system? Do you think you might need to install any split system downstairs for those really hot days?

Do you have 5 outlets or 7 outlets ? I am thinking to upgrade from 5 outlets to 7 outlets so we can add an extra onr near stair case to grt the cool air to down stair a bit?

Sorry for all the questions , i am bit struggling to the decisions at the moment.

mirz · Sep 12, 2016 8:09 pm

We got 4 ducts in bed rooms, 5th in TV room and 6th goes almost right above staircase.
Master bed, tv room and staircase ducts are much bigger in size for higher air flow.

It does a good job. But being evaporative, you will need to open windows downstairs to move cool air in required area.

At least go with provision to have power points on external walls for split aircons. It will help you from running cables or conducts outside later on.

qdnanc_78 · Sep 12, 2016 9:45 pm

Thanks heaps ,Mirz. Your suggestions are really helpful.

DAlex · Sep 12, 2016 9:52 pm

mirz

Hi Nancy,
We have evaporative cooling upstairs only.
There is no way to install evaporative cooling downstairs post handover.
Only porter Davis provides couple of ducts downstairs if you build with them.

No heat loss issues at all.

Carslisle does it as well.

DAlex · Sep 12, 2016 9:55 pm

qdnanc_78

Hi Dalex ,

Thanks for your reply much appreciated.

We are doing knock down rebuild in nunawading.

We are building at Cranbourne north..

mirz · Jan 19, 2017 12:16 pm

HomeAssurance team is one of the best experience if you are building with Henley.

They are attending each and every issue we raised, and following up to make all sorted and we are pleased with the outcome.

I think, this is one of most important part of your life time investment and dream home.

MichaelQ · Jan 20, 2017 8:46 pm

Hi Mirz,

Great to hear from you and glad to hear you've settled in well.

We have our 12 month inspection in a couple of weeks and hope to have a similar experience.

cheers
Michael

howser99 · Feb 27, 2017 7:43 am

Hi Mirz,

Super informative reading - your doing a real community service!!

We are looking at doing a KDB with Henley in the inner south, and we are getting a price of mid 4's for a 41 square Sahara. Thats with estimated site costs of 50, plus another 15 random zone charge. We have added aircon, higher ceilings etc.

Does that seem in the ballpark, or should we be negotiating?

stayxtrue · Feb 27, 2017 10:12 am

howser99

Hi Mirz,

Super informative reading - your doing a real community service!!

We are looking at doing a KDB with Henley in the inner south, and we are getting a price of mid 4's for a 41 square Sahara. Thats with estimated site costs of 50, plus another 15 random zone charge. We have added aircon, higher ceilings etc.

Does that seem in the ballpark, or should we be negotiating?

We are in the process of the Sahara 40 and its so far upto around 370k, but it all depends on what you are adding as well. That number seems to be fair to me considering our site costs are under 7k

howser99 · Feb 27, 2017 3:48 pm

Thanks for the reply!

So ex site costs and zone surchagre we are at about 391. Note that this is before any upgrades to standard finishes etc.

Im wondering if anyone has any experience with zone charges? We really love the henley design and finish is pretty good, but the xtra $65 is kinda killing the budget!

stayxtrue · Feb 27, 2017 5:54 pm

howser99

Thanks for the reply!

So ex site costs and zone surchagre we are at about 391. Note that this is before any upgrades to standard finishes etc.

Im wondering if anyone has any experience with zone charges? We really love the henley design and finish is pretty good, but the xtra $65 is kinda killing the budget!

391 seems a bit expensive have you added a facade into that? Or is it things like flooring, cooling etc bumping up the price?

howser99 · Feb 27, 2017 8:16 pm

Faced is included in that (nothing to flashy, think its about 5k addon). Also includes upping ceiling heights, 5k for carpet, 10k for flooring, sink in butlers pantry etc.

I think maybe I just underestimated the total cost of doing this!!!