We have been looking for a month or so at various display homes, travelled to distant suburbs from Berwick to Altona and literally changed our minds about a hundred times between who to build with and which house to build.
Long story short, we decided to build the Waldorf Grange 49 with Porter Davis. It’s not too big and not too small, it’s just right. The rear void will make the house look larger than it is and the placement of it at the rear of the house will take advantage of the views to the south and the city views to the south west.
The promotion at this time is free refrigerated cooling, double glazed windows and colorbond roofing (or up to Cat 3 tiles).
A few initial options we made to the floor plan are as follows:
- Feng Shui Stairs
- Grand Dressing and Alternative Master Ensuite
- Guest Suite and Extended Kitchen with Galley
- Grand Lounge and Study with Vaulted Ceiling 1 (just like in the display in Altona)
- The floor plan looks a bit like this:
Some changes:
- Removed the Guest WIR so the room can double as a Theater Room and/or Guest Room and/or Home Office.
- Entrance to the room is also moved vertically instead of horizontally.
- Widen the garage as wide as possible on our block (can’t confirm width until tender)
- Enclose the Terrace (but not the Alfresco) with enlarged windows on both the side and rear wall.
- Largest possible sliding doors (2 of them) to the Alfresco.
- Large picture window to the Dining room, Family Room and the Void.
- Largest possible sliding door to the Guest Bedroom.
- Added 5kw solar panels and Tesla Powerwall 2
- Changed included gas cooktop to induction cooktop.
- Removed a couple of posts from both the Study and Lounge (can’t believe there is a charge for this).
- Got a bunch of window changes (which unfortunately will no longer be double glazed as part of the promotion)
Then we had incredibly generous allowances and site costs in the quote.
- National Tiles Appointment: $5k
- Kitchen Culture Appointment: $20k
- Electricals Appointment: $30k
- Flooring Appointment: $20k
- Colours Appointment: $5k
Site cost approximation was $90k. So our total quote came up to just under $800k. I almost fainted, but Sylvia (the sales consultant) said that the quote is showing the worst case scenario and not necessarily what we will end up spending on the build. The soil test and surveying are due to be done on June 30.
My wife decided on the LongBeach facade. To be honest, I didn’t really care which facade as long as it didn’t cost that much more. This one costs $17,900, a lot more than I expected… but what the hell, happy wife happy life!
After narrowly being inflicted a $10k price rise by one day (they couldn’t pre-date the quote), we quickly paid the deposit when they advised that there was going to be another $10k price rise.
Deposit paid on Sunday May 30 2021.
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