We are (im)patiently waiting for the results of our soil tests from Henley to get a quote on our site costs. We are now looking at building the 'Palladian' with Henley, after a bit of a hiccup with another builder. As luck would have it, the day we had our tender appointment with another builder and got quoted what we felt were 'exhorbitant' amounts for our site costs, Henley started a promotion where they reduced their 'base' price by $30,000 on their double storey houses. It felt like fate! We just hope we have made the right decision! Only time will tell. What we love about Henley is that most things that other builders call luxury upgrades (stone bench tops, tiled showers etc) are actually standard inclusions.
Our block requires a two storey house, and the Palladian is a wide house, that doesn't go very deep into the block which suits ours perfectly (18.3m wide x 31m deep with 6.5m front setback). We have a north facing backyard, so we have chosen the 'Grand Alfresco' option and hope that we will be able to make the most of our good sized backyard. In order to meet one of the covenents, we must have a porch of 10m2 minimum, so we are chosing the 'Urban' facade which has a big balcony. This sort of facade is quite common with many of the other houses in the estate, so will have to choose a snazzy colour scheme to make ours stand out a bit!
Rachel is only in Melbourne for a couple of more weeks before she is heading back to Perth to finish the last couple of months of her degree, so we are madly trying to work out our colour selections etc. so our building process isn't held up unnecessarily. We will be heading out to some of the brick manufacturers display centres, and into Henley's 'Cosham Interiors' gallery over the weekend to try to nut everything out prior to our colours appointment.
I hope to upload some photographs of our block and the bricks and colours that we have chosen in the near future. Will also keep you informed on the progress with our site costs. Fingers crossed!
Jason & Rachel
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Welcome
Welcome to our blog!
Rachel and I are both West Australians who have recently moved to Melbourne. We have created this blog so that our friends and family back in the west can keep updated on our progress as we build our new home together.
Soon after arriving, we decided that rather than purchase someone elses older/established house, we wanted to buy a good sized block and build the home that we could call our own. So off we went, searching all the new estates to find our own bit of dirt.
We looked at virtually all the estates in the West and North of the city, from Pt Cook, Tarneit, Caroline Springs, Craigieburn, Mernda, South Morang, Doreen and ended up choosing a block in Hawkstowe Estate, South Morang. This block is a 600m2 block on Hawkstowe Parade with an 18.3m frontage, overlooking the Park and proposed Community Centre. Our block settled in April, and is fully titled and ready to go.
Hawkstowe is located 26km N/NE of the Melbourne CBD along Plenty Road, in the fast developing Plenty Valley corridor which includes numerous estates in South Morang, Mernda and Doreen. Check out more info about Hawkstowe Estate on http://www.stockland.com.au/Residential/VIC/MelbourneNorth/Hawkstowe/About/
We are now in the process of sorting out which house we are going to build. As we are on Hawkstowe Parade (the main street of the estate) one of the covenents require us to build a double storey. As we have quite a wide block, we are looking for a house that can best utilize this block and allow us to have a good sized backyard. We think we have found one that fits it perfectly, but at the risk of cursing it, I will not reveal until we have sorted out a few minor details.
I will update you further when I have more details!
Jason & Rachel
Rachel and I are both West Australians who have recently moved to Melbourne. We have created this blog so that our friends and family back in the west can keep updated on our progress as we build our new home together.
Soon after arriving, we decided that rather than purchase someone elses older/established house, we wanted to buy a good sized block and build the home that we could call our own. So off we went, searching all the new estates to find our own bit of dirt.
We looked at virtually all the estates in the West and North of the city, from Pt Cook, Tarneit, Caroline Springs, Craigieburn, Mernda, South Morang, Doreen and ended up choosing a block in Hawkstowe Estate, South Morang. This block is a 600m2 block on Hawkstowe Parade with an 18.3m frontage, overlooking the Park and proposed Community Centre. Our block settled in April, and is fully titled and ready to go.
Hawkstowe is located 26km N/NE of the Melbourne CBD along Plenty Road, in the fast developing Plenty Valley corridor which includes numerous estates in South Morang, Mernda and Doreen. Check out more info about Hawkstowe Estate on http://www.stockland.com.au/Residential/VIC/MelbourneNorth/Hawkstowe/About/
We are now in the process of sorting out which house we are going to build. As we are on Hawkstowe Parade (the main street of the estate) one of the covenents require us to build a double storey. As we have quite a wide block, we are looking for a house that can best utilize this block and allow us to have a good sized backyard. We think we have found one that fits it perfectly, but at the risk of cursing it, I will not reveal until we have sorted out a few minor details.
I will update you further when I have more details!
Jason & Rachel
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