Update from Carlisle Homes

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from our CLE that our request to correct our facade from Riviera to Ramsay has finally been approved. It took them a while to do this, more than half a month actually. We found out that there was a mistake in our document when we attended our colour browse on 28 May and since then, I have been exchanging e-mails with our CLE.

I was starting to lose my patience and wrote a biting e-mail to our sales consultant on 14 June that this slow service was not what we signed up for. I reminded him that we chose Carlisle Homes, even if they are charging us $34K for the site cost (more than 3X other builders), because of their excellent customer service based on online reviews.

He explained that this is currently going through permits to make sure that there's no problem with the new facade on the block and this could take time. He did mention to us when we signed up in April that we are the first to build Amberley with Ramsay facade and he didn't even have a prepared template then to do a siting plan using Ramsay facade.

But still, it's been more than half a month....anyway, it's been approved and they will update all our papers accordingly.

So, it's now official,  Amberley 27 with Ramsay facade.

He also wrote on his e-mail that he will give us a free telephone point because he made a mistake during our signing and told us they provide 1 telephone point just like Boutique Homes.

All is well again at this stage and hopefully, things will go more smoothly from here :-)

To upgrade or not to upgrade?

Most people can get over excited when building a house and want all the best and latest trends to be included in the build. We need to confess that are we one of them, Elmer is more on the durability, comfort and practical aspects while I go more on the aesthetic and trend. We are not very young anymore, we've built a house before we moved to Australia and we know how it often works. On our first build, we said that we will renovate and upgrade a lot things as we go along considering our budget and priorities at that time. After several years of staying in our yellow house, no renovation and upgrading happened as our priorities also changed with the security of roof over our heads. The only not so major work we have done was to add a gate and a covered laundry area before we left our country so we can secure the place and charge better rental fee.

We also had another house which we never lived on and had been renting out since we bought it. With this one, only repairs and maintenance were done every time we changed tenants. We sold this house recently as the cost of repair is getting more expensive and we expect that over the years more repairs will need to be done as this was not an owner maintained and loved house.

Given this background, we feel like we need to include all the upgrades that are necessary plus the ones that we love during the building process. With this in mind, our budget is now over inflated with the upgrades that we want to add and we'll need a better strategy on how to do this home building wisely without breaking the bank.

At this stage, we are just listing down all the "wants" and we will trim them down at the later stage based on budget. I'm classifying these wants based on the following: Durability and Comfort, Aesthetic and Trend, Energy Efficiency and Environmental Friendliness and Security.

Here are the major items that we have in mind, some items can be classified in others too.

Durability and Comfort

• Porcelain tiles or timber flooring
• Bigger capacity hot water system
• Ducted vacuum system
• Tower robes in master WIR
• Rubbish bin to kitchen
• Broom closet in laundry
• Door stoppers
• Soft close mechanism for drawers and cupboards
• Additional door to ensuite
• Additional powerpoints
• Additional TV point
• Capped gas point for alfresco
• TV wall wiring
• Junction boxes
• Power surge protectors

Aesthetics and Trends

• Higher ceiling
• Higher doors along the hallway and living areas
• Better external and internal doors
• Stone benches in bathroom and laundry
• Category 2 stone benches all throughout the house
• Carpet underlay
• Undermount sink
• Full render facade with feature stones
• Category 2 bricks for the rest of the external walls
• Venetian blinds and curtains for some windows
• Feature walls for bedrooms, living room and rumpus
• Silk finish to all drawers and cupboards
• Feature cabinets, desk and shelves for study nook, living room and rumpus
• Niche walls to showers
• Better tapware for showers, vanity and bath
• Better tapware for kitchen
• Decorative pendants for kitchen, study nook, bedroom and rumpus
• Wall lights to facade and entry hallway

Energy Efficiency and Environment Friendliness

• Double glazed windows and doors
• LED downlights all throughout the house
• 6 star energy rating heating system with zoning control

Security and privacy

• Privacy locks to toilets and bathroom and bedrooms
• Outdoor lights with sensors to front garage, laundry and alfresco
• Additional lights to garage
• Double lock to doors
• Touch screen alarm system in lieu of LED
• Smaller smoke detector
• Translucent glass to toilets, shower rooms

I got dizzy just listing down all these desired upgrades even without thinking of the cost yet. The list also doesn't include the basic things that we need to move in such as drive way, pathway, letter box, towel rail, tissue roll holder, door bell, curtain rods and curtains. I'm pretty sure a lot of these items will be bumped off the list. The extent of upgrade and which ones we will prioritise depend on our income and savings in the coming months so I'm keeping a tight reign on my inner shopaholic self now and in the coming months.

Colour Browse at Spectra Showroom

Last Saturday, we went for our colour browse appointment at Carlisle Homes' Spectra Selection Centre. It's our first time to visit the showroom and we were looking forward to seeing the actual samples from the Spectra book.

The showroom was sure to impress any guests the moment they step in the reception area with the automated sign in system, the comfortable waiting area and the awards display wall.

We arrived early for our appointment and we needed to wait for a few minutes, we were offered drinks while waiting but we declined. Not long after, we met their staff. We had our showroom tour where it was explained to us which are included in our build and which are upgrades and how to access their different samples, some of which are hidden in drawers. We found the selections very daunting and overwhelming even though we came prepared. We also thought that it would be simple selection for us because we would just copy the external colours and design of the display home Riva 29 with Ramsay facade in Berwick Waters and the internal colour and design of Amberley 27 in Woodlea. 

 

We didn't get much information about upgrades prices as we thought we would this day and we're told that we'll know the cost after the colour selection stage. We were given brochures though about the design specifications of Riva 29 (Ramsay facade) and Amberley 27. We also reminded the representative to make sure that they correct our selected facade from Riviera to Ramsay. When we got home, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was also given a file with costings on it. 

Elmer and I also realised that we need to make another round of display homes visit again, this time to get more detailed designs ideas especially with the ensuite and bathroom tiling and the cabinetry and benchtop stones colours. 

   

Amberley 27 is the ONE!

After much ado, visiting numerous display homes in Werribee, Point Cook, Taylors Hills, Plumpton, Mernda, Berwick Waters and Clyde North and talking to different builders such as Metricon, Boutique Homes, Mimosa Homes, Porter Davies and Carlisle Homes, we finally decided to build the home we first fell in love with and signed up with Carlisle Homes for Amberley 27.

We love this design for the following reasons:

• It's an exact fit to our lot. When we met with Carlisle Homes for house siting, it felt like the stars were all aligned and that our Gilderton Esplanade lot and Amberley 27 were a match made in heaven. Perfect fit!

• It's the perfect  house size for the four of us.
• The light filled, open plan design was just amazing.

• It ticked all the boxes on our house selection criteria.
• We just felt like this is the ONE for us! We did a lot of visit to other display homes, but I think at the back of our mind Elmer and I knew that we were just going through the motion and we already found our ONE!

Some photos of Amberley 27 from the display home:

Having selected our house design, next task is to select our facade.
 

Home and Builder Selection

Choosing a home builder is a crucial stage in home building, this can make or break your dream house and turn it into a nightmare. Coming from Asian background, we believe that a pleasant experience during the house building will pave the way for a pleasant and harmonious living in the house.

On our first visit to Woodlea, we also checked out their existing display houses. That time, there were only 2 builders, Mimosa Homes and Carlisle Homes, with their 4 display houses. Before that, we visited Metricon in Aspire Estate. A month after our land purchase, we also checked out the display houses of Metricon, Porter Davies, Henley and Boutique Homes in different display villages such as Taylor's Hill, Werribee, Point Cook, Sunbury, Mernda, Clyde North and Berwick Waters.

One important thing that we need to consider in choosing our home is the house siting in our lot. We have a good sized lot but the shape was a bit irregular, it has a huge frontage of 20 meters which tapers to 12.8 meters at the back. This was quite tricky with the house siting given the developers design guidelines.

We were also checking out the online reviews of these builders at productreview.com.au to see what their customers say about them.

Based on our display homes visits and customer feedback, we shortlisted Carlisle Homes, Mimosa Homes and Boutique Homes.

• Carlisle Homes
• Pros: 
• They have the highest customer rating online with a score of 4.6. 
• They have house designs that will exactly fit our land. 
• They have a very good promotion at the time we were selecting.
• We like Carlisle Homes.
• Cons:
• Their site cost was very high, at almost $34K.
• We heard that their upgrades cost is more expensive than other builders.

Some Carlisle Homes that we liked:

Amberley 27

Broadway 27

Arlington 27

• Mimosa Homes
• Pros:
• They have a good customer rating at 4.2
• They have an impressive display home at Woodlea.
• They charge fixed site cost of  only $10K.
• Cons 
• They need to modify the dimensions of their display home to suit our lot, or
• We need to choose the smaller version of the display home.
• The budget fixed site cost sounds too good to be true and the quality of the home might suffer.

The Mimosa Homes that we liked:

Saba 260

Rochester 277

• Boutique Homes
• Pros: 
• They have good customer rating at 4.2.
• My husband has a friend who built with them and she's very happy with her home.
• They have a house design that we like. 
• Cons:
• They couldn't fit the house size that we like, 28 sq and they can only fit a size 26 sq in our lot.
• Their promotions and inclusions are not as good as Carlisle Homes.
• The facade that we like would cost additional $17K.

Some Boutique Homes that we like:

Barcelona 28

Marseilles 28

St Tropez 28