Happy Valentines - Have A Slab!

Slab done - really straight!

We visited the site on a weekend - we had been anxiously waiting for site start from November. End of year is not necessarily the best time to start building - the industry has a looong break. Nevertheless bricks arrived over the school holiday period, with trench digging, plumbing and cutting not long after and they poured the slab on Valentine's day in February.

Colours & Decor

Black Pearl Granite

We signed up with Henley in November 2008. Our colour selection visit was fun and also a bit stressful. Dave and I had made the mistake in the past of going with the "fashion" colours - Dave would challenge that as it was actually me who decided (in the eighties) that pink and grey were the way to go! I was wrong and within a couple of years we longed for a bit of beige!! You are always going to be restricted a bit by what manufacturers provide but essentially we went quite neutral this time with black and gold accents.

We had done a good bit of homework and largely had the selections sorted before going to our appointment - it was just some minor details that we needed to address; and some things were not overly important so the decisions were fairly straightforward. Even so we found that we were very pressed for time at the colour selection session. I would strongly suggest checking out your brick and render selections with the lists that the brick manufacturers can provide. There was a house near us made of the bricks we were considering, and with the same fascias etc - it was really lovely. We drove past often and showed all our family and friends,. Not long after the owners put the house up for sale. I wondered if they were concerned about all the people "casing" their house....oops.

We decided to spend the most time selecting the things that you can't easily change - like bricks and tiles and not get too hung up on the stuff that is easy to change like paint colours. From our past experience we now know cabinetry is not that hard to update either.

Our Colours:

Beige Glow Walls and White Canvas woodwork and doors (Taubmans)

Dark Oak timber doors etc.

Select Beech cabinetry all through

Black Pearl Granite benchtops all through downstairs (love this)

Zulu Caesarstone benchtops upstairs

Zagross Taupe floor tiles all through and also used on walls in our ensuite

Veneto Macchiato inlay floor tiles to entry

Cream wall tiles to accent in our ensuite and in second ensuite upstairs

Vitreo Inverness mosaic tiles as decal to second ensuite

Aquilla Crema wall tiles to main bathroom

Cotham bricks

Cream fascias, windows and garage door

Jasper downpipes and colourbond cladding to rear of house

Amberwood render (Taubmans) with cream moldings. We chose part render (i.e. the porch area) and then added render to the upper front of house also.

Other Additions:

Double timber front doors with Antique Ceramica "leadlight" in lieu of single door with sidelights

Timber bifold doors to study with Antique Ceramic leadlight

Heritage architraves and skirting boards

Additional floor tiles to entry, hall, kitchen, dining and family.

Gas log fire to lounge

Granite to all benchtops downstairs, not incl. laundry.

Laundry cupboards and bench

Microwave and trim kit

Opaque windows to bathrooms.

Alarm, door bell, extra lights, fans, flyscreens etc etc!!

History - Looking for a Builder

OK. So Henley were not the first builder we started the process with. In 2006/07 Dave and I renovated our 'old' 12 square house in Melbourne's East. We had rented it out for 3 years while Dave and I undertook further studies and when we took possession again it was in sad disrepair. Fortunately, the house is in a great area and was worth the small reno investment. It sold well and we bought a good block in Melbourne's West where we had decided to resettle. I have a love of period style homes and despite not doing my homework convinced Dave that this would be the way to go. We started the process with another builder (won't name but was not happy with their responsiveness!) and put down our small initial deposit. The price of the build kept creeping up, with additional charges being added in after the initial deposit was laid down for items that were supposed to be "standard" with our build, and claims of changing legislation (might be the case but from my perspective that's their problem). It was as though the builders thought that as we had made a financial commitment they "had us". Well, my second last discussion with the sales rep went along the lines of we won't be paying for these costs and if there is no movement we walk regardless of the deposit. They didn't believe us. We got half the deposit back (no big deal) and it was worth walking away.

Dave and I then decided it might be better, especially in our area, to consider building a bigger more contemporary home for the resale potential and closer to retirement buy the period home (well, maybe). We checked out a lot of the bigger builders deciding that we could get more bang for our buck with their purchasing power. We were most impressed with Henley and what they were offering as standard. Having built before and this time, doing a lot of homework, worked out that although their houses were a little more expensive to begin with, by the time you added in what the others weren't providing for, they came out streaks ahead. I especially liked the multiple times their standard inclusions said "as displayed". Such as the timber doors and staircases, and the nice design features such as the bulkheads and inset doors. Other builders we visited had these features in their displays but were not considered standard.

We especially loved the Ambassador 483 and for about the same price as the 28 square period style home we had initially intended to build we are now building a gorgeous 40 square home and 3 square alfresco. That's another point to note: With Henley, the alfresco comes under roofline with lighting and the concrete floor - most builders we visited did not provide the floor.

The link to the Ambassador 483:

http://www.vic.henley.com.au/?#/House/60/

Catch Up

Dave and I have wanted to blog the building of our home for some time, especially as it can be such a stressful time and you can get lots of ideas and reassurances from other people's blogs. I am squeezing in some time today to now do this. Also, as our blog suggests, we are pretty obsessed with our new home, as are most new home builders. I have looked at quite a few other bloggers blogs and love the fact that new home builders have their own language. I often hook into the Henley forum, because we are building Henley's Ambassador 483. Today, I was checking out the progress of Stormy's Castle - we are pretty much at the same stage with our build. Stormy was writing about her "morning drive by". Yep, Dave and I regularly conduct the morning drive bys, and because I finish work so late usually, Dave does the afternoon ones and takes pictures to keep me up to speed.

This first blog, I wanted to paint the picture so far. I have heard some horror stories about builds, and about Henley (it's always great to hear these, especially after contract signing!!), but I must say, despite a few changeovers of staff, we have so far had a very good experience with Henley. Any little issues along the way have been dealt with quickly and with little fuss, and we absolutely love our house!!

This is the second time we have built, and even though this house is significantly bigger, I think that this time has been much less stressful. And although building materials overall are probably not the same quality (we had hardwood skirts etc last time and they were standard), the actual quality of workmanship is better - probably due to the better technologies??

So for our family and friends - I hope you enjoy keeping up to date with the progress and for others popping in - I hope our journey can add value to yours. I intend to do some entries about the various stages along the way, and will upload relevant pics.

Cheers :)