There is a big fence around our block and the trees are being torn down which is awesome. They have also started tearing down the old house that was on the block. WOO!
The last picture is the view from our block at the moment.
The land has not changed much since we bought it last year.. which is disappointing and slow.. But that is the building industry.
There is a big fence around our block and the trees are being torn down which is awesome. They have also started tearing down the old house that was on the block. WOO! The last picture is the view from our block at the moment.
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Today we had our pre-selection appointment at Mcdonald Jones head office in Norwest. We had no idea what to expect and we were told it would go for about an hour or so. We met with our colour consultant Jessica who was lovely. She gave us a gigantic folder full of all the different options we would be offered in the selections appointment and she walked us through it step by step. A few of the surprises or un-expected things we found:
Here is the Internal part of the folder we received, sorry I could only take photos on my iPad I didn't get to scan them in so some might be a little hard to read! If you can't read any and want more info I can comment them to you. Ceaserstone colours that are included: White shimmer Nougat Osprey Urban Walnut Nimbus Ice Snow Linen Almond Rocca Wild Rocks Atlantic Salt Jet black Ivory Paint Two colours for your walls (some people paint the theatre room a different colour) Then comes the external part of the folder. Bricks that are included: From the Austral Range - Every day life - Urban One - Whitsundays - Old colonial - Heritage Colour bond roof colours that are included: Classic Cream Cottage green Deep Ocean Manor Red Night Sky Pale Eucalypt Paperbark Woodland Grey Basalt Cove Dune Evening Haze Gully Ironstone Jasper Mangrove Monument Shale Grey Surfmist Basalt Terrain Wallaby Windspray Windows/Sliding doors colours: (Colourbond) Surfmist matt Woodland grey Pearl white gloss Monument matt Dune Matt Custom black matt Ultra silver gloss Stone beige matt White birch gloss Primrose gloss Deep ocean mist Garage door profiles included: Slimline, flatline, heritage or ranch Colours included: classic Cream Cottage green Deep Ocean Manor Red Night Sky Pale Eucalypt Paperbark Woodland Grey Basalt Cove Dune Evening Haze Gully Ironstone Jasper Mangrove Monument Shale Grey Surfmist Wallaby Windspray Then come the price lists.. again I can give more detailed prices if you can't read these but this is straight from the folder... So now is the time for us to go researching and house stalking!
There were two reasons I started this blog.
1. To remember the journey we took and the ups and downs we had building our own FIRST home. 2. To help other home builders out there with some things that may not be too clear when you start your own journey of building a house. I have been following some blogs that have helped me massively and I wanted to put them on here so you can check them out if you like: http://thehousethatj-lbuilt.blogspot.com.au http://ournovabuild.blogspot.com.au http://markm1962.blogspot.com.au And there is another one that had photos of almost every taubmans paint colour painted on the walls. But I need to track it down. We signed with Mcdonald Jones as the Quote was great!! When she first showed us the quote we almost fell off our chairs.. Luckily she then went on to explain what was free and what was our special surprise bonus that she wouldn't tell us about originally. The base price of our house was $179 690 - When we first looked it was $174 000 so it had already gone up which was a little disappointing, but thats the way it goes! Our original quote came in at about $260 000 which was huge!!!! After all the discounts it came down to $226 500. Which was right on budget. Then she proceeded to tell us the following was free - Airconditioning (We knew this one) -$13 500 - Impressions Upgrades package -$4990 (This was the upgrade package we were going to pay for which included the air con, ceaserstone, steel frames etc) - Alfresco -$5000 - Choice of one of 3 appliance packages Miele, Smeg or Omega (Microwave, oven, cooktop, dishwasher) I will attach the quote so you can see the variants, apparently the special deals change quite often so this won't be something to go buy but it gives you a good idea of what they offer on quotation. Some of the strange ones: Natural gas: Our developer isn't sure whether we will have natural gas so we are currently waiting on him. If we don't we will have to get gas bottles put in which is going to cost us about $2000 extra. Hopefully when the developer gets back to us we can cut that cost out. 3 phase mains: This is for the air con, apparently most houses run 2 phase and they charge a cost to put the 3 phase into our house which is what the air con runs on. Concrete piering: They allow 50 LM but if they go over it is an extra $90 per LM. Apparently they get you to come out on the day and count the LM with them so you can see first hand whether they go over or not. Opening from garage to BED 2 Blake builds bikes so this was an alteration we made so he has a small workshop to build in.. Sounds weird but you will see what we are doing once out plans are drawn up. Delete theatre wall: We thought this would give the living area a much more open feel because it is a small house. We are going to tile this room as well and put a big shaggy rug in there to make it feel homey but open at the same time. Our wall is going to be replaced by a fish tank to keep the open feel. They then provided us with the build schedule, which I'm sure will be slowed down because our land is not registered yet =[ Now we wait....
Until our land is pegged out they can't get on the block to do the soil samples done and the contours drawn up to see if we need any retaining walls done etc. Our pre- selection colours appointment is on the 4th April and Colours is on the 4th May. We also have a plans meeting in between those to check everything is how we want. We didn't receive any info about colours yet but I'm looking forward to the pre-selections appointment where they tell us how we can prepare for the selection day. Today we signed up to receive a quote and plans with Mcdonald Jones homes through the Kellyville ridge display centre.
The ladies were very friendly and helped us out by walking us through the house and explaining every room and what was included in our house and what was an upgrade. We were pretty surprised at what was included. She also said when we signed on the quote to start that there would be some other specials included... I personally hate surprises but she said she was not allowed to disclose unless we signed up with them. We filled out all our details and meet with her again next week. After looking at hundreds of different floor plans we decided the best house for us was the Mcdonald Jones Nova. A fairly small house but with heaps of amazing features: - 4 bedrooms - theatre room - open plan feel - Plenty of backyard with the L shape of the back of the house. Blake mocked up a picture of what our house will ultimately look like on our block of land We decided to flip the plan to fit our block better, as well as to accommodate the rising and setting aspects of the sun.
So the fun part finally begins and we have started checking out display homes! This is one of the most overwhelming processes with many ups and downs in emotions in a matter of hours. Before even considering going and looking remember: 1. There are hundreds more options than what are in the display villages, many of their cheaper options and different styles aren't built but they often have a wall of plans so you can have a look what other styles of houses they build that might fit your block better. 2. The houses are not what you get with the base prices! - Some houses we went into had over $60 000 worth of upgrades on top of the base price, and thats before you add the driveway and landscaping in. Some of these to look for include: - 2.7m tall celings and 2.4m doors - ceaser stone bench tops - melamine shelves in the cupboards and pantry (Most places you only get wire mesh shelving) - Taps - Overhead cupboards in the kitchen. (Eden Brae not included but they are in Macdonald Jones) - The amazing timber window shutters that open like doors (These we found out are apron $1000-$1500 per window!!!!!!) - bench tops in the laundry - decking or paving on the alfresco - The whole alfresco all together basically! - shower recesses - Wall recesses - The facade (Front of the house) is usually upgraded - lots more that I can't remember some of the homes we liked on our visit: Mcdonald Jones Eden Brae Rawson homes
Blake and I received our contract for the land today and there were a few things our solicitor pointed out to us that we needed to check before continuing: - The developer requires a 10% deposit on DA approval : We don't know when this will be, so have to have the money ready to go. - We have to pay a percentage of land rates, water rates etc while the developers are developing the land. - There may be a water trough dug somewhere on the property, allowing a 5% up or down change in our land size. - Is the electricity being connected to each block or just to the street? - Will the trees on the property be removed or will they be left for us to remove? The other issue I picked up on was with our solicitor. She had applied us for the "home builders grant" not the "First home buyers " grant which means she almost cost us an extra $7000 in stamp duty!!! not happy with her for that mistake! First home owners grants info here She also didn't tell me when I originally rang that she wasn't including tax in her fees when I asked how much. She told me her fees would total $1900. That was before GST so its actually $2100 which isn't heaps but every cent helps at the moment and I wasn't too pleased. All in all we are pretty happy and have signed off that it can all go ahead once the solicitor has checked out the few little bits and pieces. This is our street. The left side is "Schofields farm estate" and the right side is where our block will be. Our block is up the top where the tall tree is on near the street light. The man who owns the block is still living there so its just a waiting game to see how long until he moves out so they can knock down and start cutting up the land for us! We had a meeting with the family friend and they let us pick which block we wanted!!
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AuthorMy partner Blake and myself (Monique) are building our first home in Schofields and would like to share our experiences (both good and bad) with any other new home builders out there. Archives
June 2016
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