Colours, Upgrades & Final Costs

The House:

• Bellaire 25 $179,400
• Grafton façade, including 2040mm high entry door & feature render $1,450
• Driveway/fencing allowance $4,000 (to be credited back to us post handover).

Included:

• Flooring – Cat 1 Laminate flooring to living areas & Cat 1 carpet to bedrooms & passage
• Aluminium windows & flyscreens
• Keyed locks to all windows
• Remote control sectional garage door with remotes x 3
• Technika SS dishwasher
• Evaporative cooling (Ducted - 7 outlets)
• Gas ducted heating.

Site costs:

• Excavation $3,714
• ‘P’ class waffle concrete slab $3,752
• Additional steel reinforcement to slab $3,736
• Internal stiffening beams to slab $1,325
• Concrete piers $6,259.

 Upgrades:
• Colorbond steel roof (promotion offer) $1,999
• Ceiling height increase to 2590mm (in lieu of 2440mm) $3,750
• Colorbond ‘Timberlook’ garage door $525 and matching flashing $360
• 2 x aluminium (3) sectional entertainer doors to alfresco area $1,111
• Keyed locks to all sliding doors (x3) 144
• Broom cupboard inside linen $85
• Translucent glazing to front door & front entry side window $377
• Lockwood Deadbolt to front entry door $127
• Cavity sliding door between bedrooms 2 & 3 $830
• Privacy locks to bathroom & toilet $32
• 19mm x 75mm wall mounted door stops to all doors $165
• Feature wall (paint) in living room $192
• Ceasarstone bench tops to kitchen $3,840
• Laminate upgrade ‘high gloss’ to kitchen cabinetry $495
• 2 x Perspex cabinets adjacent to rangehood $484
• Upgrade upright dual fuel cooker, including wok burner $127
• Rangehood canopy upgrade to curved glass $168
• Kitchen tap upgrade $126
• Provide pot drawers x 3 either side of cooker $330
• Soft close drawers (kitchen) $280
• Upgrade cabinetry handles $190
• Upgrade basins (x 3) to bathroom & ensuite $285
• Upgrade taps to bathroom & ensuite $195
• Upgrade shower mixers to bathroom & ensuite $160
• Upgrade bath tap $98
• Laundry base cupboard & benchtop $490
• Laundry benchtop extension to 1200mm $280
• 9 x additional ceiling lights $468
• 3 x additional junction boxes (external) $270
• 10 x additional double power points $520
• 1 x external weatherproof power point to al fresco $118
• 2 x additional tv points $298
• Upgrade all powerpoints to Clipsal slimline $306
• Upgrade all switch plates to Clipsal slimline $180
• Additional solar panel (gas hot water) $1,185 (as per Carlisle Homes)
• Capped cold water point to fridge area $256
• Relocate hot water service to external wall of bed 4 $362 (as per Carlisle Homes)
• Upgrade feature tiles in bathroom & ensuite $432
• Provide 300mm niche in shower alcove ensuite $300
• Carpet underlay upgrade $400
• Upgrade kitchen sink to undermount $875

Bushfire requirements, including:

• Corinthian BAL 12.5 range of entry doors
• Screening to weepholes & external vents
• External fascia and cladding gaps
• 6mm fibre cement sheet above openings that don’t have brick work
• Aluminium framed flyscreens with aluminium mesh
• Grade A safety glass (doors & windows)
• Nylon brush/weather strip to perimeter of sectional garage door
• Corinthian tempered hardboard 40mm door with kick plate to rear garage hinged entry door and compliant door frame
• Sarking below entire roof area
• Screening of roof vents
• Whirlybird ventilation including ember guard
• Metal water & gas pipes (when above ground)
• Painted 6mm fibre cement sheet cladding to any non-compliant feature up to 400mm above a flat surface ie ground level, porch floor etc.
 • Total cost: $3,714

Council requirements:

• Temporary fencing $1,148
• Sediment control $396
• Provide crushed rock to driveway $372
• Temporary timber crossover $372
• Termite treatment $849

 Developer requirements:

• NBN Fibre pack $1,633

Colours/Selections:

External:

• Bricks – Austral ‘Mannagum’ 
• Colorbond Roof, fascia, gutters, downpipes, whirly bird – ‘Ironstone’ 
• Render #1 – ‘Crust’ 
• Render #2 – ‘Western Myall’ 
• Garage door – ‘Caoba Dawn’ (Timberlook) 
• Aluminium windows & flyscreens– ‘Monument’ 
• Front door – ‘Gasgoyne Grey’ 

Internal:

• Walls – ‘Beige Royal’ ¼ strength 
• Ceiling, skirtings, architraves & internal doors – ‘Natural White’ 
• Kitchen Benchtops (Ceasarstone) – ‘Osprey’ 
• Kitchen Cabinetry (Laminex Silk – high gloss) – ‘Polar White’ 
• Kickrail (kitchen) – Stainless steel 
• Splashback tiles - Gloss White 100x300 
• Kitchen sink mixer – ‘Phoenix Argo’ MK2 Gooseneck 
• Oven – Technika 900mm wide dual upright cooker with wok burner 
• Rangehood – Technika 900mm wide stainless steel curve glass canopy 
• Dishwasher – Technika Stainless Steel 12 Place Setting 
• Sink - Technika 2 x single bowl Undermount Sink 
• Ensuite, laundry & bathroom benchtops (Laminex natural) – ‘White’ 
• Ensuite, laundry & bathroom cabinet doors (Laminex natural) – ‘Sorrell’ 
• Vanity basins – ‘Raymor Topaz’ Round Countertop Basin 
• Basin/Bath tapware – ‘Alder Alto’ 
• Ensuite/bathroom/laundry wall tiles - ‘Gloss White 100x300’ 
• Ensuite/bathroom feature wall (tiles) - ‘Paxos Travertine Silver’ Gloss Rect 300x600 Ensuite/bathroom/laundry floor tiles - ‘Lifestyle Ice Grey’ 400x400 
• Carpet - Category 1 ‘Ballad’ -Nylon Plush 
• Laminate timber flooring – Category 1 ‘Spotted Gum’

Choosing the right house for us…

Quite early on, prior to purchasing the land, my son and I had started looking at display homes. It was a bit of a challenge finding a floor plan that would suit our lifestyle as well as the block orientation. This was our initial list of wants/needs: • 4 bedrooms • Alfresco area • Double garage • 2 living areas • Wide frontage (if possible) • Air conditioning • Dishwasher. The trouble was that the more we looked at displays, the more things we realised we ‘needed’! There were lots of floor plans where the houses were long and skinny but we wanted a ‘wide’ house. We wanted to take advantage of our 14m frontage as much as possible so that it would leave space at the back for a decent size backyard and the “BIG’ shed of course! This ruled out many of the floor plans we saw. We also wanted an alfresco area, which needed to be on the opposite corner of the house from the garage (which was on the south side of the house) in order to take advantage of the northerly aspect (and sun). There didn’t seem to be many floor plans that fit the bill. Our preferred builder at this stage was Burbank Homes, who seemed to have a really top quality product. Their display homes were beautiful and they had floor plans that would have worked for us, with a bit of tweaking, that we could have afforded (just!), but there seemed to be one or two things that made us hesitate. My son actually came across Carlisle Homes (I’d never heard of them) and brought home a brochure for me to have a look at. He seemed impressed with their display homes and had spoken briefly to one of the sales reps. They had a floor plan that looked closest to perfect (for us)….the Bellaire 25. It had 4 bedrooms, double garage, 2 living areas, wide frontage, and flooring, air con, ducted heating & dishwasher were all included and it was in the right price range. I made the effort to go to the display village and have a look for myself. There was no display home for this specific floor plan, however, looking at the other display homes gave me a good idea of the quality of homes they build…and they were nice! Beautiful in fact. The only issue I had in looking at display homes was that you never knew what was an upgrade and what wasn’t. Be aware of this when looking at display homes! Just keep in mind things like ceiling heights and ‘extra’ cupboards in the kitchen/laundry/bathrooms may not be standard. There are many more things that don’t come as standard and after we had browsed the display village a couple of times we asked the sales rep to go through the display home with us and point out specifically what was standard and what wasn’t. This was a very helpful exercise and enabled us to work through what we felt was worth upgrading and what wasn’t. The sales rep at the time was a credit to Carlisle Homes and we felt that he was being open and transparent, which we appreciated. At the same time we were being ‘wooed’ by Carlisle Homes, we were also keeping our options open as we hadn’t exhausted the rest of the new home builders market. Our next point of call was Mimosa Homes. OMG!! We looked at the Johanna 24 specifically. Stunning!! Beautiful homes, contemporary & stylish…and pretty much outside of our price range! Their designs and interiors were probably the best we’d seen, but sadly, the floor plans weren’t exactly what we wanted and the prices were just a bit of a stretch. Oh well. The good thing about this was that we felt we had done our homework and by process of elimination Carlisle Homes was the last one standing. Our next visit to Carlisle Homes was a bit more serious. We took along the details of our block and sat down with the sales rep to discuss our options. He was extremely helpful and obviously knew his product. He went through some of the upgrade options as well as discussed considerations about our block ie. soil reports, survey reports, slab types required, land fall, bushfire requirements etc. He also did an overlay and showed us where the house would sit on the block. We felt that based on the floor plan (first consideration) as well as their professionalism and good reputation, Carlisle Homes and the Bellaire 25 was the best option for us. On 7 March 2014, we paid a $1,500 deposit. Details: Carlisle Homes, The Essential Series: Bellaire 25 $179,400 base price, not including site costs or any upgrades. Considerations: Carlisle Homes don’t offer fixed price site costs as many of the other builders did. This was a concern as the costs could range from $5,000 to $50,000! We loved this floor plan so much that we felt that Carlisle Homes was our only option and we trusted that the site costs wouldn't be too exorbitant. Time would tell!

The Block

So, the block is 605sqm and on a corner. It is 14.62m wide at the front and 31.60m long down the side. There is a slight fall of about 15-20cms from east to west. There is one existing house on the south side with a 20m paling fence inbetween. There are no easements on the property. The front of the block faces west with the long side facing north. There is a view to the north of Mt. Disappointment, however, we are not sure whether this will eventually get blocked out by further new housing development. Hopefully not too much! :)

The Beginning

A couple of years ago my son (26yo) was involved in a serious car accident. He was seriously injured, however, today he is a walking miracle and is living life to the fullest. A part of his ‘living life to the fullest’ was to have a home to call his own again. An event like this makes you re-evaluate what’s important and as such, he and I decided to build a house together. Over the last few weeks I have been reading quite a few blogs about people’s home build journeys and have been inspired to do the same. Despite being a bit down the track of our journey (about to start the build), I will try and recollect the early stages of our decision, finding the right block of land, choosing our builder, colour selections, contract etc. etc. I must admit that over the last few months I have lost interest in the build as we have come across some issues and delays which have been frustrating and disappointing to say the least. As it has all been totally outside of my control, it has been easier for me to try and put it to the back of my mind. This was my coping mechanism I think! Things are starting to move forward again now, so it is probably a good time to start thinking about it again. So, where to start…… In February 2014 my son broached the subject of buying/building a house together. I hadn’t even considered building (another) house and I was aware that to get what we wanted and needed from the established housing market would probably be more than we could afford. I had built a house 20 years ago and remember that it was an absolute nightmare from start to finish. I vowed to never ever do it again!! We wanted to move away from the city and my son suggested Whittlesea. After going for a drive one morning I was sold! Whilst sitting in the main street having a cup of coffee, I felt a real difference in the air. People were so helpful and friendly. Three people said hello to me while I was sitting at a café!! That is unheard of in the city. The atmosphere felt so much more relaxed than the fast pace I was used to and I immediately felt at ease. The little town was quaint, but still had everything we needed and wasn’t too far away from the city to commute for work. Whittlesea is surrounded by some very picturesque countryside and I felt that to live in such a lovely environment would be good for our souls! Now that we had decided where to live, we had to find a block of land that suited us and that we could afford. My son is a very busy young man and has lots of hobbies....this equates to a ‘BIG’ shed!! This meant that we needed a reasonable size block. When it came to real estate, I found it quite difficult to juggle needs & wants on a reasonably restricted budget (surprise, surprise!!). I am aware that to get the house we wanted on a decent size block of land that would cater to all our needs was a big ask. At this stage, we decided that building a house would meet our needs better than buying an established home and making changes. So we started looking at builders, house plans, estates, blocks of land etc. etc. etc. We made a few initial enquiries with some builders and went and had a look at some display homes. Whilst they were very nice, it was becoming apparent that we were looking for a very specific house plan that suited both of us. As we were both independent adults, we needed a house that allowed us to co-exist, but not be in each others pockets. That meant separate areas for each of us. One particular day we went and had a look at a display home for a particular builder and after viewing the house, the sales person drove us out to Whittlesea to show us some blocks of land that they could build on for us. The display home was sub-standard to say the least. The carpets were dirty, the layout very basic and for the money they were asking, quite ridiculous. The block he showed us however was great! It was a larger block (605sqm), on a corner and only 2 houses up from a planned 20 hectare wetlands area and has a great view of Mt. Disappointment (a very disappointing name for such a beautiful hill!). We were disappointed though that it was this builder offering the land as we didn’t like their houses but loved the land. A few days later however, I noticed on realestate.com that the block of land we had been shown was listed for sale on the website. We jumped at it! We drove back to Whittlesea to have another look at the block and felt like this was for us. The vendor was asking $169,000 which, whilst we felt this was reasonable, due to a number of considerations we offered $160,000*. This was rejected straight away, however, they did eventually accept our offer of $165,000. We were delighted…and a bit nervous! *The reason we offered a lower amount than the asking price was for a couple of reasons; 1. the land is in a bushfire zone and as such, any house in this zone is required to meet certain bushfire standards. Cost wise, this meant an additional $3-4k on the house. Items include sarking under the eaves, aluminium fly screens, external grate covers, to name just a few. And 2: there is a lot of land fill on the block and we knew that this would mean that a non-standard reinforced slab would be required. Even though we weren’t sure of the cost we guessed that it would be $2-3k extra (which is was). With these things in mind, I had a discussion with the real estate agent and asked what the vendor would accept. We were happy to offer $165,000 and felt that it was a more than reasonable price, particularly as we were aware of some blocks of land in the area of similar size that are going for $20-$30k more than that. The land settled on 30 April 2014. We now had the land, we just had to choose from a myriad of plans and builders! This is a new beginning for us...