Electrical Update

As I mentioned previously, our electrial amendments were made manually on a plan as the computer system was down at the time of our appointment.  Yesterday we recieved the proper plans and there were a few things that hadn't translated from the handdrawn plan, some that had changed and some that were technically right but were misleading on the original.  There were also a couple of changes we wanted that we hadn't noticed previously.  Our issues were:

1. The powerpoint on the end of the island bench was omitted
2. The light switch for the two front lights and the entry light had been moved to outside the front door!?
3. The second switch for the lights in the kitchen, dining and living rooms was in the rumpus room, when it should have been on the other side of the wall, in the kitchen.
4. We decided to add a batten light above the toilet in the ensuite, as there is a half wall there that will probably make the area pretty dark.  Switched separately but on the same plate as the ensuite light and fan.
5. We also decided to add a double switch to the alfresco and rear yard floodlight in the rumpus room.  With the bifold doors it could be awkward to come out of the rumpus and then go back into the living room to turn the lights on.
6. We also noted that there was no switch on the plan for the ducted heating ceiling light, although we have now been told that this is not something they put on the plan.

We emailed our building co-ordinator last night, and by 9:30 this morning we had amended plans :)



This is our revised electrical plan (excluding security, fibre pack and wall mounted TV pre-wiring).

 

Total cost for lighting and powerpoint changes: $4,994.00.

Colour Selection

This is a little more difficult to remember than electrical because of all the details we went through!  Hopefully I can do it!  I will come back and add photos when I have uploaded them from the camera.

External colours

As I think I mentioned in a previous post, we were pretty much settled on the category 4 Mocha bricks.  We have based our selections on this, but unfortunately we won’t know the price until Contract on Thursday.  To go with the bricks we chose ‘pale parchment’ render, ‘woodland grey’ Colorbond roofing (with ‘Gunmetal’ tiles as our budget backup) with matching gutters, facia and garage door, Jasper downpipes and meter box.  Windows and wood panels above the entrance will be Sandbark.

Entrance door

We are making quite a feature of the entrance, so we are hoping to have (read: be able to afford) the Corinthian 8G 2340x1200mm door.  Such a heavy door really needs a hydraulic losing system for safety (especially with little fingers in the house) and we would like a pull handle with a rolling mortice lock, so that the door doesn’t need a traditional handle but can be latched without being deadbolted all the time.  This was all outside what they could do at Hopetoun, so we got in contact with out building co-ordinator who is arranging a quote that we can see on Thursday.

Internal Colours

I have already posted about our tiles; well, the night between our tile and colour appointments I completely flipped out about them!  I couldn’t stop looking at the sample they gave us, convinced we had made a terrible mistake.  Of course, choosing the tiles first meant that everything else was going to be based around them.  But on Thursday the colour consultant said they were great (without prompting).  Sure, she might say that to everyone, but it made me feel much better and happier proceeding.  Having selected all our colours I am feeling much better about it all.

Walls

Internal walls will be Wattyl Flokati.

Wattyl - Flokati

Kitchen

• Benchtop is Caesarstone Ice Snow
• Underbench cupboards are Laminex Licorice Linea
• Splashback is Dulux linseed on starfire glass
• Overhead cupboards are Alifrost Pearl either side of the rangehood, and remaining cupboards are a shade of white I can’t currently remember the name of.  However, the more I think about it, the more I don’t like the idea of two different cabinets overhead, so I think we will change the Alifrost to the standard cabinets on Thursday.

Caesarstone - Ice Snow

Laminex - Licorice Linea

Dulux - Linseed

 





 

Bathroom, Ensuite and Laundry

• I really like consistency, so the tiles in the wet areas are the same as in the rest of the house, and these three rooms will be consistent with each other.
• Cabinets will be Laminex Smoky Sappelle
• Counter/vanities will be Caesarstone Latte
• Glass in the ensuite toilet and bathroom windows will be frosted.

 

Caesarstone - Latte

Laminex - Smoky Sapelle




 

Tapware

• Kitchen tap we have included the Brewers Italia flexible sink mixer tap with vegie sprayer.
• Laundry we have added a pull out veggie sprayer tap.
• Bathroom and Ensuite showers will be Olympic 3 function hand held shower rail (one is included in our promo, one we have added)
• All taps throughout the house (except the washing machine tap) will be mixers.

 

Internal Doors

We are still undecided on internal doors.  It will be around $250 each to upgrade to solid internal doors which would be nice, but isn’t necessary.  If we do upgrade we will probably go with the Corinthian PBAL2, otherwise we will stick with the standard hollow flush doors, with the exception of the internal garage door which we will upgrade for security reasons.

Wardrobe doors we will change to sliders.

Cornice & skirting

We will have the standard cornice, and the skirting was a very plain option, I’ll have to check the name.  All will be in white.

I think that’s most of it!  I will come back and add the names of the things I couldn’t remember when I’ve had a chance to check them.

Like all our previous appointments, everything has gone really smoothly.  Colours is really difficult for us, we were dreading it the most.  However our consultant was great, listened to our ideas and made great suggestions for us.  She would also give her honest opinion, which is exactly what we needed.

Electrical Selections

On Thursday we had our electrical and colour selection appointments at Hopetoun Interiors.  I should have updated sooner, but fortunately for anyone reading this probably means that I’ll be brief(er) without all the details fresh in my mind.  I will come back and add pictures once I’ve uploaded from the camera, and will add prices after we get our contract on Thursday.

Electrical

First up was electrical.  Unfortunately the computer system was down, so the consultant had to do the plans and calculations manually.  She was great though, and this was much less tedious than it sounds (for us, anyway).

Lighting

Lighting we replaced the batten lights in the entry, study and kitchen/living/meals area with LED downlights.  These were about $150 each, although we got $50 back for each batten light we took out.  However, in the end we only completely removed two or three battens, as we have placed 3 battens above the bench for feature pendants.  We also added 4 downlights under the overhead cupboards in the kitchen.  Lighting everywhere else inside is just standard battens.  Entry, kitchen, living and dining lights are all double switched, so they can be turned on and off from room entry and exit points.

Outside we have added one double floodlight to the backyard, in addition to the floodlight at the laundry door.  We also included pre-wiring to the front pillars so we can install our own lights after handover.  Doing just the pre-wiring (as opposed to having the lights installed) saves us about $400 due to not having to include sensors.

Power points

We added heaps of power points, usually doubling the amount in each room, as follows (unless specified, references are to standard doubles):

• Master bedroom we went from 1 to 3
• Ensuite, 1 to 2
• Entry 0 to 1
• Study 1 to 1 quad
• Theatre 1 to 1 + 1 quad
• Dining left at 1
• Living 1 to 1 quad
• WIP 1 to 2
• Kitchen 3 to 5
• Rumpus 1 to 1 + 1 quad
• Bathroom 1 to 2
• Remaining bedrooms 1 to 2
• Alfresco 0 to 1.

Hopefully it’s enough, but I’m sure there will be times we want more!

Pre-wiring

We added wall mounted TV pre-wiring in 3 rooms (theatre, living and rumpus) for $264 each.

Opticomm Fibre Pack

The estate four pack includes data, phone, TV, and Cable TV from one central location to 4 nominated locations, including Multi socket points to 4 rooms, slimline enclosure and a single power point for $2072.40.  We nominated the master bedroom, theatre, living room and rumpus room to have all four points, and added an additional data/phone point to the study for $88.44.

Security

We added a security system, the Hills Reliance 12, for $1292.00.

All up, our experience for the electrical selections was pretty good.  The conultant was friendly and knowledgable, handled the lack of computer system really well and wasn't at all pushy.  If we had one complaint, it would be that sometimes we weren't presented with options until we asked about them and could have missed out if we weren't as prepared as we had been.  But from a consultant's point of view, I suppose what is helpful to one person is pushy to another.  We were by and large really happy with how the appointment went.  When we got home and reviewed the plans we emailed a slight change that was no problem.

Today we have recieved the computerised plans, and will have to compare them to the hand-drawn ones when I get home from work because there seems to be a couple of little issues, hopefully they are flexible the 48 hours you usually have to make changes, seeing as though we are only just seeing the actual plans for the first time!

I think I'll do colours in a separate post to keep things simple!