Colours and Electrical

Last Friday we had our colours and electrical appointments with Simonds. It was a long and tiring day with far too many decisions, but we got it done, and the house is just that little bit closer now.

We chose a Sambucca roof tile and a Redgum brick - didn't get any samples of those, and forgot to take photos, but the Sambucca is a dark blue-black colour, and the Redgum is a red brick with blueish highlight patches.  We had a free upgrade on the roof tiles, so we've got Monier Traditional tiles (basically a flat profile instead of the standard wavy profile).  To match these colours we chose Monument colorbond gutters, Classic Cream colorbond fascia and garage door, and White Birch aluminium window frames. 

Monument, Classic Cream and White Birch

To finish off the externals, we went with a Caramel stain on the front door (upgrade from painted door - $197) and added translucent glazing to the front door glass from our promo pack.  Downpipes will be painted to match the Monument. Facade cladding, posts and back doors will match the Classic Cream.  The front gable will be Classic Cream with Monument trimming.

So far so good, now for internals.  For paint on walls and internal doors we chose Pale Mushroom, with white ceilings.

Pale mushroom

We have a hardwood handrail and first 2 stairs from our promo pack, and chose a Caramel stain for these.  Not sure about this one, as we are still yet to decide what timber flooring to go with.

I was a bit disappointed that they don't do a DiamondGloss laminex for the kitchen benches, so I had to choose something similar in a matt instead.  So we chose Imperial Topaz for the kitchen bench, Pearl Mist (fine stipple) for the cabinets, and Luxor for the kickplate. 

Imperial Topaz, Pearl Mist and Luxor

We accepted the standard 900mm Technika cooktop, but we're upgrading the rangehood from our promo pack to a slideout with cupboards, and the oven we will provide ourselves - we're getting a Neff 600mm wall oven.  We also accepted the standard taps, but upgraded the sink ($465) as the standard was quite shallow.

In the bathrooms and laundry, we chose a Stonehaven benchtop, and Pearl Silver cabinets.  The standard basins were either square or round above counter. I generally prefer semi recessed basins, but not enough to want to pay extra, so we went with the standard square basins.

Stonehaven and Pearl Silver

There were plenty of other decisions - door handles, taps architrave and skirting etc.  Generally we just accepted the standard where possible.

The electricals was a little different, as I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.  Of course this was also the big $$$s.  We ended up spending about $4k even after the items included in the promo pack.
The big stumbling block though, is that they don't do patch panels.  I find this rather surprising, considering they will be doing all the data cabling, but what can I do?  Anyway, because of this, we didn't finalise on the day, as I wanted to run everything past some of my more knowledgable network friends.  After some of their feedback, I'm knocking a few items off (and hopefully about $1k).

Tiles

Today we had the first of three selection appointments in two days - tiling.  Finally we get to do some of the fun stuff, instead of sitting on hold to various utilities companies.  Arranging abolishment of the gas and electricity has been about as painful as I had feared it would be.  But the end is in sight - gas abolishment form has been sent in, and I'm nearly done with the electricity form.  We've met with the demolition guy (funnily enough, he's based about a block away from where I used to live), and received a final quote.

But back to the tiles.  It turned out to be fairly simple, as I've spent plenty of time scouring the internet for ideas and examples, and had a good idea of what I wanted.

For the floors in the bathroom, ensuite, powder room and laundry, we're having a 400 x 400 Portofino Basalt Matt tile with light grey grout.

Floor tile  sample - Basalt Matt 400 x 400

For the ensuite shower walls we'll have the same tile in a gloss, with a white pebble feature tile in the back of the shower niche.

Ensuite tile samples

In the central bathroom we'll have the same floor tile, with a row of the white pebble tiles on the floor along the bath.  The basalt gloss will be used on the bath hob/top/splashback, but I wanted a lighter tile in the shower, as it is walled in on three sides, so for the shower we're having a 400 x 400 Portifino Graphite Gloss on the walls, with a grey pebble feature tile in the back of the niche.

Central bathroom tile samples

The only other tile choice was the laundry splashback.  We went with a standard 300 x 100 cafe grind matt.

So that's it.  The Basalt Matt, Basalt Gloss and Graphite Gloss were all upgrade tiles at $5 per sqm, which cost us about $250.  The pebble feature tiles in the two niches and the row against the bath cost another $200.  So far so good budgetwise - let's hope tomorrow's colour and electrical appointments are as easy.

3D model

I've been working with Google Sketchup to model the new house - it's a bit addictive, but really helpful in visualising sizes of rooms and positioning windows.  In the pictures you can see the Google Maps background that shows the existing land with the old house.

Ground floor

Upstairs

Position on block

Front elevation