Our External Color Selection !!!!

External Color is very important as this is the first view you will get before entering home. So we wanted to have a perfect brick for our home. But the builders had a range on the brick colors. First we chose Vino color brick which is a D range color. We like darker color brick and for Vino we need to pay extra $2605. So we started to look for the house that has been build by Vino and after seeing few houses we really liked the brick color. We were fully prepared  for the external color selection. But few days before our first appointment I found on the Homeone forum that Vino can be chipped and the original color might exposed if you do pressure wash. Then I did some research about the Vino brick and found that all the painted bricks have a possibility to be chipped. So we decided not to go with Vino and start looking for another brick color. We liked the Gravel (B range) and Loam (D range) and decided to go with Loam as we saw some display homes which looked very nice. So finally after a lot of confusion we got our external color done.

Lifestyle Series Inclusions!!

Before we signed the tender we didn't had any idea what are the inclusions for lifestyle series, but still we took the ‘Best Ever Sale’ promotion. And later we found that it was a good decision to go with the promotions. Here is the standard inclusions and the ‘‘Best Ever Sale’ promotion for the comparison. 

Standard Inclusions

Best Ever Sale promotion

Site Plans

We Signed the contract!!!

Today we had our contract presentation appointment. We received the contract just one day before, so didn't have much time to read through it fully. We sent to our solicitor immediately and he let us know the contract is ok to sign. But on the site plans we found some errors which are being fixed on the contract presentation day. We made a note for all the questions that we got before the contract appointment. The tender and the contract presenter was the same person. So it was quite easier to consult with her. After she finished her contract presentation we raised the below issues.

·         No indication where would be the hot water system – She draws the hotwater system next to meter area (behind the living room).

·         A window between alfresco and dining which we were not aware of, as all the display homes we went had stacker door between the alfresco and dining which makes it look more open. So we asked a quote for sliding door and stacker door. The quote for sliding door was around $590 and for stacker door $1850. After little bit negotiation we decided to have stacker door, as we wants to have the same door that we are getting on our family room. So the final price for stacker door is $1600.

·         We asked for a fixed window on the dining area instead of sliding window on our tender appointment but they didn’t change that. After notifying her, she removes the sliding window and includes a fixed window on the dining area.

·          We didn’t like the 3^rd bedroom window height, so we asked her if we can increase the height and she gave us a quote for $215. After negotiation she gave us the final price $100 to increasing the height which we agreed to pay.

And we signed the contract :)

Before

After

house plan and Facade!

Ground Floor

1st Floor

Facade

Tender is signed!!

After so many changes and negotiation we finally signed the tender acceptance. Have done some changes on our home plan and the changes are- 

·         Additional shower to Laundry approx 900mm wide x 900mm deep $2,200

·         Ensuite with WIR $2110

·         Increase depth of Living and Bed 1 approx 500mm towards front boundary $4438

·         Fixed window into the dinning room

·         Sliding door  to Media room and Ensuite $300each

·         Tiles to Living and Media room

·         Reverse upstairs Linen Press to get access from Bed 3

·         Reverse Bed 3 robe to get access from Bed 4

·         Add Best Value Ever promotion

·         We asked for Sliding door but the price they give us was expensive, so deleted that from our tender as we will do ourselves after handover.

·         Moroka painted Facade and letter box.

Chosen One!!

Now it’s time to look for the perfect house which we will turn into a home. Our Home. We had seven builders to choose from them we preferred Eden Brae, Clarendon and Wisdom. We had a good experience from all of them. We liked Ferndale 30MKII from Clarendon, Washington from Wisdom and Lincoln30MKII from Eden Brae. After a lot of thinking we select the Lincoln30MKII.

We have put the Initial deposit $750 on 29^th February 2015. And we got our tender appointment on 7^th April 2015. Between these times we checked all the options that we want to include in our tender for example bricks, roof tiles, floor tiles, kitchen appliances and others. It was a good idea indeed as we know what we are getting as a standard.