Step One - Sales assistant

The first process through plantation home is for you to sit down with your Sales advisor at the display village.

We had Micheal who was very upfront with all details and explained everything to us clearly.

The issues we had with our land is that we fall under Brisbane city council "small lot code" - which gives us rules and governs home design.

This is also where we planned some of the initial things that we wanted for our home.
(if items were costed separately I have provided them)

1. Master to rear option
2. Sink and stove top on the same side
3. Butlers pantry
4. Guest room in lieu of study
5. Removal of ensuite bath and extended shower $600
6. Shower in powder-room downstairs $2750
7. Shower Niche to Ensuite $390
8. Raised ceiling height for second floor. $2600
9. Upgrade to durian timber stairs to include under stair storage, stain grade timber treads $2500
10. Mirrored sliding Wardrobes x3 $1650
11. 1 Set pot draws in kitchen $415
12. External Range hood ducting $250
13. Off-white mortar upgrade $2800

Current Promotion at the time for Plantation Homes

• Bifold Doors instead of Timber Stacker doors (We opted for the stacker option which saves $1800)
• Waterfall edge 40mm Ensuite Stone top
• 4 x Feature Internal Doors.
• Ducted air conditioning throughout the house.

Because of the small lot code there was alot of additional expenses that needed to be covered

1. Increased slab size to comply with code $3500
2. Zero Lot wall and drop edge beam  garage wall. $5000
3. Additional Council Fees

We had allocated an additional $18,000 for site costs - we were lucky enough to have soil testing done by the previous owners which revealed H1-P soil (NOT VERY GOOD)

Here were the original drawing done by the sales assistant.

As you can see big changes from the original plan.Had to swap the Powder and laundry and extend the garage

Now we had a waiting game, because in June 2014 the council was going to release a new small lot code rules! and we had to see whether or not we were affected by them

Luckily enough we weren't.

So we paid our initial $1500 deposit so plantation could start doing soil testing and site arrangements....

Already we are nearly $55,000 above the list price... as you can see costs rise very quickly!