Sorry, but the standard house kind of doesn’t exist. The standard house is not what you could live in.
From the base price you need to add site fees (ours were $45,000) and around $50,000 minimum to put things in it. You see, the base price doesn’t include floors, as a starter. Nor does it include very much cabinetry. It would be a hollow shell of a kitchen. Then the base laminates it comes with are perhaps not the ones that you’ve seen in homemaker magazines – think cardboard laminates, not a dream kitchen.
The base facades can also be a bit too much brick for our taste. The really nice facades are generally going to cost you another $7k – 30k.
We upgraded the following:
- Added sarking to the roof
- Upgraded ceiling heights
- Upgraded category 2 carpets
- Upgraded internal door quality
- Upgraded entrance door and lock
- Upgraded all windows and sliding doors to category 3 for durability and wear
- Upgraded heating and cooling
- Upgraded underlay for carpet
- Upgraded garage roller door with remote
- Upgraded skirting boards
- Upgraded tiling floor to ceiling
- Upgraded electrical (pretty much everything)
Then there are the added extras to actually live in the house and surrounds
- Curtains and blinds $15,000 – $30,000
- Driveway $5,000 – $10,000
- Crossover rectification/ footpath repair $2500 – $7500
- Front fence $8,000 – $15,000
- Landscaping $7,000 – $25,000
- Clothes line $300 – $1000
- Letter box $45 – $250
- Front path $1000 – $5000
What did you upgrade? What did you not? Any regrets?
E and M's Metricon Adventure 