Developer Approval!

Exciting news arrived today.

After initially being told it would be a few weeks before we received developer approval because of a required change in front facade to meet developer guidelines, we opened a very nice email informing us that our plans had been approved by Lendlease in only 2 days! Talk about a quick turn around!

All we need to do now is wait for final engineering to be completed, checked and approved which should happen this week! Next steps as outlined by Boutique below.

"On the receipt of your final engineering which is due by the end of the week. We will be using this information to be updating onto your plans accordingly and they will then be ready for the next stage; scheduling of all orders and also a Quality Assurance check of all documentation. When the Quality Assurance check is completed we will apply for your Building Permit and also forward copies of your plans stamped Final for Construction and also your Final Colour Addenda to you for your review and approve prior to moving your file to construction."

I've included some of the approved plans also.

The landscaping plan as proposed by Lendlease.
Ours will not look like this however we will have to follow similar guidelines

Internal Floor Plan

Front Facade. Note the change in facade from the Modern to the Metro.
The reason for the change was that Lendlease require the porch to sit out from the
front line of the bedroom/garage.

Lighting Plan

Really excited for the final steps before we pass to construction! Can't be long now!

Valuation

It took a couple of weeks however we finally received our valuation. As expected it came in under the total build price.

Our broker challenged the valuation a couple of times which was the cause of the delay however he was not able to improve the value.

As it stands now we are sitting $40k below our build cost. This is only slightly higher than we expected and as such we have some funds available to cover the amount (In the end we are borrowing less by paying this out of our pocket so while it hurts now it is better in the long run).

We received copies of our valuations which was great to be able to see how they achieved the numbers. Some notable points are below.

- They quote the industry average build price between $900 and $1200 per m2 over the living area. (Our build appears to sit around the $1500 per m2)

- They listed 15 recently sold properties in and around our area as reference material to help value our build. We could see that houses that were either larger in living area or smaller however in living area but on bigger land sold for less than what our total house/land contract is at which explains the valuation.

- Only two of the properties listed had pools and in both examples our land/house was bigger and property has been valued above the sale price of both.

- There is mention of the fact that there is no landscaping/driveway/fencing quotes included for the valuation which suggests the valuation would have been more if this was provided. Specifically it is mentioned that without a driveway "marketability of the property will suffer if offered for sale". I would suggest for anyone going through valuation to include pricing for the driveway as well for this reason.

- It appears there is very little monetary value in adding a pool to your property at this stage of a build. Once the whole house and landscaping is done it may work out better as the valuer can see the whole package as a finished product however I believe this shows that banks a reluctant to bet on a pool adding value to a home.

Whilst we are not overly happy with the low valuation I can understand how they valued the property at the price they did. The explanations in the report make sense and we always knew we over capitalised the build putting in expensive fittings and our (amazing) floor tiles.

The only grey area for me is the question "if we built a Boutique Home at minimum price and didn't upgrade anything would that fall into the $900 - $1200 per m2 industry average build price or would there still be a mark up from Boutique...?"

What do you think? Would a minimum spend Boutique Home come in on valuation??

June Update - Title and Settlement!

Our land has titled and Settled!

It has been over a month since our last update and nothing else really happened in that time as we were just waiting on this milestone.

Originally due in the end of May the title date was pushed back a couple of weeks to the second week of June. I believe mostly due to the sheer volume of developments in the area also going through the title office. Given some of the stories coming out of other developments where they had to wait over 1 year for their block to title, I think only a couple of weeks late is great!

For those who don't know the process after putting down a deposit on a block of land the next step is to wait for the construction of the land (if you are buying off the plan), wait for your title date and then organise your formal land finances.

We were able to secure conditional approval for our full land house and pool amount some time ago however for settlement of the land we only required the formal approval of the land portion. This requires the remaining deposit to cover any loan shortfall and also includes stamp duty and other fees. Your conveyancer or solicitor will advise you of this amount however it will generally be a minimum of 10% of your total land purchase price and then fees on top.

Don't forget you need to cover your stamp duty fees which can't be made up as part of your loan. In our case it was another $12k we needed to account for however we were prepared!

Don't get caught out when developers offer you a block of land with only a couple of thousand deposit. There are still fees you have to pay!

-----

Now that our land has titled we have advised our builder who has given us a rough build start date of mid September. We were originally advised August however with the delay in the title this would be expected.

It is looking a little doubtful for our January move in however fingers crossed there are no more delays. Worst case scenario would be the pool being finished as the end of summer rolls around. Can't think of anything worse than a brand new pool and no weather to use it!

For now, another couple of months of waiting before anything else will happen!

April Update - Pool, Estate Progress.

As it has been a while I thought I would provide a quick update to what we have been doing over the last couple of weeks.

Our estate is progressing well. Looks like most of the works are done and we look on track to receive title in May. The only downside is it looks like we might be sharing a driveway crossover with the block next door. Not ideal however it isn't the end of the world either.

Our block is in the middle of the two crossovers.
Our shared driveway is the shared one on the right hand side.

We have now officially signed off on our Colour and Electrical appointment paperwork. Lots of emails back and forth between Boutique and myself confirming changes and updating paperwork. Some changes we had to make were changing to a glass kitchen splash back as you can only have a caesar stone splashback if you have a induction cooktop (nearly $3k to add) which we didn't want. We also couldn't get the wall pendant lights in the ensuite as it turned out they are not supplied by Beacon so we have just installed capped junction boxes where they will be and source our own lighting after hand over.

I would suggest reading through your addenda and variation contracts multiple times. I think we looked at ours more than 10 times and each time we did it found mistakes. Incorrect tiles and sizes has been chosen for the bathroom floor and different colours used on our ensuite cupboards. I don't know how these mistakes happened and our colour consultant didn't either however I would hate to think we missed them and they ended up in the house! Overall I think we found nearly 15 mistakes, some of which would have had a major impact.

With the house contract signed and variations locked in we started looking at pools again.

You can see where we are planning to place the 10m X 4m pool and pool fencing

A few months ago we went to the Pool and Spa show at the Melbourne Exhibition  Building. We spoke to 4 different pool companies including Rainwise who we had been dealing with originally.

Out of the 4 new companies who took our details, only two made contact and only one of those seemed interested in our business. Outdoor Freedom Pools was the one who pushed hard for our business and as we already had a quote from Rainwise we decided to get a comparison from Freedom to see what they would offer.

I emailed through our house plans and design ideas so they could prepare a quote and then we arranged an on site visit of their showroom to see the pools in person. Their customer service was excellent and they really seemed keen to have our business. Getting to see the pool in person was awesome and we were really happy with the size. 10 X 4M is massive however it is exactly what we wanted.

The pool we are thinking about getting with the spa jets operation.
We will not have this many jets and they will not shoot that high.

Original we were looking at a pool that was rectangle and had a seat/step on the side however after seeing a clean rectangular pool in person we have settled on a the cleaner shape.

The pool shape we are going to get

We also got to see some add on features like water jets coming out of the paving and a "Wet Deck" which would be perfect to lay or lounge on.

An example of a "Wet Deck" Ours will not be this big.
This is 2m X 4m. Ours will be 2m X .5M

With the quote sorted and a price in mind we left Freedom and went back to Rainwise to discuss our original quote.

I just have to say that Rainwise customer service is second to none. We have been dealing with Shane who just goes above and beyond to cater to whatever we want. He is extremely knowledgeable and very friendly.

We didn't change too much on the original quote however asked if they could add the water features we saw at Freedom. As it turns out he can and the prices are pretty much the same (after a lot of research it seems that most pool places charge pretty much the same amount for all their features and options.

After a long discussion with Shane and working out the details and then receiving the quote we feel that we will go with Rainwise.

The total price is more than we planned for however this includes pool fencing and paving around the pool which we had origianlly planned to do after the pool was in. We feel that if we spend more now at least the pool will be 100% completed and ready to use straight away!

I have included the full quote at the end of this post however I have listed some of the major inclusions below.

Sequins / sparkle in pool - $650

4th LED light - $450

4 channel remote control - $750

Wet deck - fully tiled - $1800

6 x spa jets with separate pump - $1400

In ground pool blanket and roller system - fully installed - $4250

Paving within the fenced area, includes drains - $11,150

Glass pool fence as per drawing with 3 soft close gates - $10,500

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXCAVATION INCLUSIONS

 Excavator and 2 x tipper trucks (1 x day) 

 Tipping fees and cartage of soil

INSTALLATION INCLUSIONS

 Base (aggregate) and backfill (stabilized sand mix) to secure the shell

 10,000lts of water (by tanker) to ensure safe and secure shell installation

 380mm-600mm concrete beam (100mm thick) with reinforced steel mesh, tied to pool shell

 Large Skimmer box (for filtration and sanitisation)

 Suction / return fittings (for filtration and heating)

 40mm & 50mm pressure pipe for fluent water recirculation 

 Hydrostatic Relief valve (for safety and levelling of the pool pressure)

 POOL shell to be pre-plumbed in factory, ensuring stronger installation of all fittings & pipe

 All start up chemicals and pool salt

 Complete supervision by our own fully trained staff. We will follow the installation of the pool with an 

extensive tuition of the pool maintenance and equipment operation.

POOL EQUIPMENT INCLUSIONS

 POOL PUMP – DAVEY: PowerMaster Eco / multi speed / 8 star energy rated pump

 POOL FILTER – DAVEY: EC1550 Cartridge filter or 25” GLASS MEDIA filter

 POOL SANITISER –DAVEY: Salt Chlorinator / Self cleaning w/timer MSC24C

 POOL LIGHTING – Multi colour changing LED underwater pool lights x 4

 POOL HEATING – SOLAR HEATING, 100% coverage, fully automatic

 POOL COVER – Recessed pool blanket and roller (installed) – recessed into the ground with hinged lid / cover

 POOL CLEANING – MAYNTRONICS: Dolphin X30 (cleans walls and floor)

 SPA JETS – 6 x jets fully controlled by a separate pump

 CONTROLS – Remote control for the features of the swimming pool

LANDSCAPING INCLUSIONS

 POOL FENCING – Fully frameless 12mm toughened glass (stainless spigots) 19m plus 3 x soft closing gates

 POOL COPING – Coping pavers to suit swimming pool design (Riverstone Pavers)

 PAVING – additional paving around pool (36sq m) 

 WET DECK – 2.0m x 0.5m on side of pool. Finished in ceramic tiles

 DECK JETS / FOUNTAINS – 4 x spirting jets to be located either side of the seat

CRANE LIFT ALLOWANCE / INCLUSION

PROJECT EXCLUSIONS

 Supply of electrical or gas lines for the filtration and heating

 Excavation of rock or other sub-surface materials that may extend the excavation

 Existing pipe diversions due to excavation

 Sewer connection for Sand filters 

 Council application fees for ASSET PROTECTION (must be done)

 Council application fees for PLANNING PERMITS (only if required)

TOTAL PRICE:  $73,750 inc gst

Electrical Appointment

We had our electrical appointment today. Our guide was Elle, she officially works for Argus Technologies who Boutique use for all their electrical work however is contracted out by Boutique for the consultations. She was excellent to deal with. Very knowledgeable, very friendly and the whole experience was a pleasure!

Lighting plan below.

Sorry, I don't have a digital copy yet.

We went into the plan with a $5,000 electrical allowance and $1,800 optic fibre allowance however I knew this wouldn't be enough for what I wanted to do so I planned for a $10,000 budget after the allowance was removed.

For most people what you see above will be overkill however we currently live in a property with a similar LED lighting plan and really love it so we decided to add extra and just place dimmers if we were worried about too much light.

On a side note, Boutique use Beacon lighting as their supplier, so anything that Beacon carry, Boutique can install!

Some of our notable lighting selections are below. Sorry for the excess text. There isn't much to take photos of!

-----

51 LED 12W cool light down-lights. We could have gotten away with 30 or less however really wanted a bright house. We also upgraded the fittings so they will look a lot better and the globes are also replaceable instead of having to replace the whole fitting. We spent aover $7k on this and it was nearly half our electrical spend.

44 double power points throughout the home. I went in with a plan already drawn up showing where I think we might need or place lamps or other powered items. In the end I would rather a power point I don't use than have the trouble of a space where I should have placed one.

We added 2 under cupboard down-lights to the overhead cabinets in the kitchen.

We have 2 feature up/down lights on the front facade either side of the porch.

Our porch light is linked to a sensor so it turns on as people step onto the porch.

As we have a third garage we have 2 sensor flood lights covering the driveway. We have 3 more on each side of the house and 1 on the back facing the yard.

We added 3 dimmer switch locations throughout the home. Main Bedroom, Living and Alfresco

We have the provision for 3 pendant lights above the kitchen island and 1 in the dining room. Just have to choose the lights now. We are thinking below for the island bench and need ideas for the dining room.

Possible kitchen Island pendant lights.
They have a rough concrete finish to match our tiles

We added 2 power points either side of the main bedroom bed position which have USB charger points already included. This way we have a more slimline way to charge our phones 

2 wall mounted feature lights to be installed either side of the ensuite mirror. They look like the below.

Wall mounted feature lights either side of ensuite mirror

We upgrade our smoke detectors to a more slimline look.

We opted for a wired door bell so we don't have to worry about batteries in the future.

We added a sound and entertainment package which includes wall mounted TV, Data, PayTV and HDMI all running to a plate behind where our TVs will be wall mounted. They are recessed into the wall. We have this in the Theater and Living room walls.

We added a Honeywell Alarm system which has 3 motion sensor points. The benefit with the Honeywell system is that in the future we can add home automation in the future. This would include remote powering on and off of lights in connection with the alarm being triggered or just if we want to turn them on. Controlling appliances or cooling from your smart phone etc.

We have added the provision for two fans in the alfresco to be installed after handover. We also added 3 ceiling mounted points in the alfresco. One for our Sonos speaker to play music outside and two for roof mounted heating which will heat the space in winter (similar to what you would see in a Cafe).

We also added TV and Data plates to be installed in the alfresco so we can really create the indoor/outdoor area we are looking for.

We added extra power and the provision for light switches to be available for use with the pool. This included upgrade power box inside the garage to allow for extra circuits to be connected to the home without having to adjust anything in the future.

Lastly, after looking at our electrical plan we have decided to upgrade our home to 3 phase power. This will ensure that the pool, cooling and lighting will all run at the same time with no issues, with room to spare.

In the end we came in at a total of $19,000. After the allowances came off we ended up at $13,000 $3,000 more than I wanted to spend however we still left happy.

Now we just have to wait for the final sign offs for the colour and electrical appointments as we have asked for clarification on a few things. Once that happens we will finalise our pool quote and take all quotes/invoices to our broker for our final loan approval.

What a fun day!

Colour Appointment!!

Last Wednesday we went to our colour appointment. As we were so prepared and had done so much research we managed to smash through it in only a couple of hours! Tegan was our consultant and was a great help. She has a lot of good ideas and has obviously been doing this for some time. 

Our plans and geo-siting. Still some minor adjustments and variations to come (man hole locations etc) however nothing major to change.

We ended up adding $12k during our colour appointment however 90% of this was the cost to our floor tiles. The tiles were not in Boutique's standard range and were listed as POA (price on application). We tired looking for a different tile during the appointment that we would like however couldn't find one we were happy with so decided to spend big.

Overall we found we didn't have to add a lot of upgrades as we were very happy with what comes standard. This would have changed recently since Boutique changed their pricing structures however we believe Boutique's standard is still better than most builders.

*Please note that as we signed our PWC before Feb 1 the prices and categories may have changed*
Here are some of our selections below.

EXTERNAL

Colours all together. With Grey Pebble Render,
Monument colour gutters, facias, downpipes
and a dark stained Front Door.

Modern Facade 

Austral Settler Pepperwood Bricks (Category 3)

Macquarie Twilight Roof Tiles (Category 1)

Colorbond Garage Door - Monument

Front Door - Hume XLR160 2040 X 1020
Dark Stain to match Monument Garage Door Colour

INTERNAL

Paint Colours

Ceiling Colour - Boutique Builders White

Wall Colour - Floral White (2 coats)

Media Room Colour - Charcoal (3 coats)

Carpentry

Square set cornices - Entry, Hallways, Home Theatre, Home Office, Kitchen, Dining and Living

Carpet

Carpet to Bedrooms, Office and Theatre only. Upgraded to tiles in passageway in front of bedrooms 2, 3 and 4.

Carpet - Twist Again Pile - 790 Sky (Cat 2)
Underlay - Stepco (Cat 2 - 4)

Twist Again Pile - 790 (Cat 2)

Laundry

Floor Tiles - Galileo Disk Grey Glazed Porcelain 600X600
Wall Tiles - Matt White 100X300 (Cat 1)
Bench - Laminate Polytec Benchtop in Astral Talc Matt
Cupboards - Malamine Square Edge Char Oak

Our laundry Setup. Colours will be different

Tiles and Cupboard colours together.  Went for a white grout

Cupboard colour and handle selection (Handle is Cat 4

Kitchen
Floor Tiles - Galileo Disk Grey Glazed Porcelain 600X600
Wall Tiles - Clear Glass White Splashback (Cat 2)
Bench - Caesarstone 40mm Fresh Concrete (Cat 2) - Waterfalls both ends
Cupboards/drawers - Evolution Ravine Square Edge Char Oak. Overheads have shadow line finish

Exactly how our kitchen will look.
Floor Tiles, Cupboard Colour and Bench are all exactly the same.

Ensuite
Floor Tiles - Dolomite Ash 300X600 (Cat 2)
Wall Tiles Shower - Dolomite Ash 300X600 (Cat 2)
Wall Tiles Splashback- 18mm Grey Lady Hexagon Honed vanity splashback (Cat 3)
Bench - Caesarstone 20mm Raw Concrete (Cat 2)
Cupboards/drawers - Melamine Matt Square Edge Char Oak.

Ensuite Colour Scheme. 

Bathroom

Floor Tiles - Galileo Disk Grey Glazed Porcelain 600X600
Wall Tiles/Bath Hob - Galileo Disk Grey Glazed Porcelain 300X600
Bench - Caesarstone 40mm Fresh Concrete (Cat 2)
Cupboards/drawers - Melamine Matt Square Edge Char Oak.

Bathroom colours

Powder Room

Floor Tiles - Galileo Disk Grey Glazed Porcelain 600X600

Powder Room Sink (Selected from Caroma website)

All our colour selections together. Looking nice!

OTHER SELECTIONS

Door Handle Style - Used in all areas (Cat 4)

Sink used in Ensuite and Bathroom

900mm Shower Rail

200mm Towel Rail instead of Ring

Clarke Pete Evans Sink and Dorf Mixer

Westinghouse Stove and Oven (We received a credit for taking out the Ilve

- Upgraded to Dorf Bliss Rail Shower
- Added upgraded locks to all external access doors
- Upgraded toilets to Banksia Wall Faced Close Coupled Toilet
- Upgraded to Caroma Cosmo Chrome 600mm double Towel Rail
- Added extra 900mm Caroma Cosmo chrome towel rail to be positions vertically above the other.
- Upgraded to Cosmo 200mm Towel Rail instead of Towel Ring
- Relocated Man Hole location to Garage

Electrical Appointment booked this Wednesday!

February Update - Tile Headaches!

It has been a month since our last update. Not at lot has happened however from our perspective there has been a lot of ups and downs.

We have spent the last 4 weeks in and out of display homes trying to find some colour and tile options we like to prepare us for our colour and electrical appointments in March.

Natalie and I also spent quite a lot of time searching the internet for inspiration and found that we really liked the idea of wood style tiles. You would get the durability of tiles with the look for wood flooring. The best of both worlds!

Wood style tiles found at Elegance Tiles

 

With some ideas in mind we made contact with Boutique homes and asked if we could bring the above tiles to the build instead of choosing from the Boutique range. In response we were advised that we could bring our own tiles however Boutique still had to tile the wet areas before hand over so they could receive the certificate of occupancy. We felt that this wasn't an option for us as we had changed our passageway from carpet to tiles and that connected the living areas to the bathroom and powder room. We didn't want to have two different tiles side by side on the floor. 

After speaking with Boutique some more they advised us we could go for a visit through Hynes Tiles. Hynes supply all the tiles to the Boutique homes and we were advised that whatever tiles Hynes had available we could choose for our build. Natalie phoned Hynes and booked an appointment and we went for a visit.

Hynes doesn't really have an official show room. Just a small room above their head office which has samples of the tiles they supply. As luck would have it, they had some beautiful tiles. We fell in love with a 300X1500 wood style tile. Yes, that is 300mmX1500mm!

The Hynes 300X1500 tile made in Italy.

We took some pictures and wrote down the information and with the excitement back in our steps we headed out. Later that night I emailed Boutique with the tile selection information and asked for a price.

A few days later we received word back from Boutqiue who advised us that to do all the living/dining/kitchen and passage areas it would cost around $15,000! A lot more than we expected however something that we really considered going with anyway to achieve the look we wanted!

However this was not to be with Boutique emailing me again 5 minutes later advising that they couldn't actually install this tile as Boutique doesn't work with tiles over 600mm in length!!

This was a surprise. Neither Boutique or Hynes had mentioned this important fact and if they had we wouldn't have spent weeks looking at tiles that we couldn't even select. It really ruined the day for us and all the excitement we had felt after finding 'the' tile disappeared.

Natalie then remembered that we had seen longer than 600mm tiles in one of the Boutique display homes. We went back through our photos and found the 900mmX200mm tile in the Montauk display in Point Cook. I emailed Boutique again with this fact and received an email back advising that they would have to honor the tile choice that is on display in the Montauk. 

This now meant we had the option to go for a longer tile again however we were begining to feel like we were becoming a difficult customer.

900mm long tile in Montauk Display in Point Cook.

Natalie and I had a day off together and went out for a drive to view the display homes in Point Cook and the newly opened displays in Werribee. Initially we really liked the look of the 900mm long tile. We were not sold on the colour however were hoping that there was another option in the show room. We took some photos and then head over to the new displays in Weribbee.

We hit the jackpot with the two new displays. The Chelsea display is beautiful and we loved the colour style throughout the home. We took photos of the walls and a couple of different tiles we liked. We didn't see any floor tiles were were interested in however finding colours that we liked was a great feeling.

Chelsea Kitchen (We love the splash-back tile)

Chelsea wall colours. Bad lighting however you can see the hints of colour

Then we walked into the Riviera. It is an almost identical floor plan to the St Tropez however a bit wider and longer and it has an extra rumpus style room at the back. The living room / kitchen is set up much the same as the St Tropez and the display had the extended alfresco which really helped visualise what our home will look like.

The colours used in the kitchen area pretty much exactly what we had thought about choosing in our initial PWC consultation. It was perfect to see it set out and it just confirmed to us that these were the colours for us.

Riviera Display

We then looked down. We didn't really notice the tiles at first as they were square and all through our journey we hadn't been looking at square tiles however there was something about these that caught our eyes.

They are 600mmX600mm concrete look porcelain floor tiles. We aren't sure of the category that they sit in however we are assuming that it will be Cat 4 or above. We have emailed Boutique to ask.

The more we looked at them the more we loved them. We spent 20 minutes in the display and most of that time was looking at the floors. Being able to see the tiles next to the kitchen colour scheme we wanted was an excellent help and by the time we thought it time to leave the display we had decided that we had found our new floor tile. Now we just have to wait for the email reply from Boutique advising us what the cost will be.

When we got home Nat and I sat down and worked out what our tile selections would be for each room. At this stage they are as follows.

Entrance, Living, Kitchen, Dining - 600X600 White concrete style floor tile seen in the Riviera Werribee display living areas.
Passage Floors - 600X600 White Concrete style floor tile seen in the Riviera Werribee Display living areas.

Bathroom/Powder Room Floors - 600X600 White concrete style floor tile seen in the Riviera Werribee display living areas
Bathroom/Powder Room Walls - 300X600 Grey textured style wall tile seen in the Barcelona Point Cook display ensuite

Ensuite Walls - 300X600 Wall tile in Barcelona Point Cook display ensuite
Ensuite Floors - 600X600 Floor tile in Barcelona Point Cook display ensuite

Laundry Floors - 600X600 White concrete style floor tile seen in the Riviera Werribee display living areas

Splashback Kitchen - Hexagon style tile seen in Chelsea Werribee display kitchen splash-back

Splashback Laundry - Hexagon style tile seen in Chelsea Werribee display kitchen splash-back

Exactly how our ensuite will look. This is on display a the Barcelona display in Point Cook

Splash-back tile. We may or may not use this in our kitchen.

Floor Tiles in all areas except Ensuite

After 4 weeks of looking at tiles and the ups and downs involved we finally feel like we have a clear picture of what our home will look like. The excitement is creeping back into our lives and we can't wait for the colour and electrical appointments.

Some other pictures of features we liked from the display homes.

Pendant Lights

Cupboard  Handles