Monday 10 June 2013

Internal Colours

If you've ever been to the Seaview on display at Kellyville, you'll notice that the internal colour scheme works really well. Everything has a nice warm earthly tone and flows throughout the house. It's one of the reason we originally went with Rawson, so it made sense to try and replicate that. For the wall colour we chose Pebble Bay. It is a nice and neutral colour that will go with basically any colour. This will be handy if we ever want to mix up the individual bedrooms with different feature walls. As part of the standard package, you do get a feature wall colour (we have chosen Pebble Bay) but you're limited to only one wall in the entire house. Any additional walls would result in additional costs, and so would additional colours. It's probably best to do these yourself after handover (another reason to have a neutral wall colour so you don't have to undercoat it to cover up dark colour underneath).

The kitchen/bathroom/en-suite benchtops were 20mm caesarstone and this was also part of the inclusions from the supplier bonus. However, the walk in pantry, laundry and powder room weren't and had to be upgraded to keep the consistency. Again, we chose the neutral Osprey colour in the standard range so that we'll have the flexibility to choose any colours for the kitchen cupboards and bathroom vanities. Between the three available suppliers (Polytec/Formica/Laminex) there's no shortage of colours available. Just keep in mind that anything apart from Matt finish are considered an upgrade (Sheen, Textured, Grain etc). We knew we wanted the vanity to match what was on display so it was easy to pick out Truffle Lini. However, the kitchen proved to be alot more difficult to decide. In the end we limited our options to those with the same pattern as Truffle Lini but a different colour tone. Once we settled on Hazel Strata, we knew we wanted a different colour for the overhead cupboards but was surprised to fine that this would also be an additional cost. Luckily the figure was reasonable. We wanted a solid colour and was recommended for these, it would be better to have it in Sheen. The solid Matt finish just doesn't look right next to the patterned finish and we agreed. There were so many variations of white but we finally settled on Classic White. 

Colour Samples

We originally also had the window splashback in the walk in pantry, but in order to reduce the amount we were spending on variations, we decided to cut that out. Our plan was to replace it with a glass splashback. However, the quote for the glass splashback turned out to be over 60% of the window splashback figure so we were going to have to live with regular tiles as the splashback. That was until we came across these Super Gloss tiles. At a fraction of the price of glass splashback, these were perfectly suited for our budget and we went with Super White. A small compromise in appearance but a huge impact to the final figure. 

Super Gloss Tiles

Floor tiles was something we weren't prepared for. Who knew there would be so many different types and colours and trying to find something that would match was a nightmare. We knew what we wanted as the porch tiles, something grey and quickly decided on Nero anti-slip from the Eclipse range in 400x400 (shown in the top right hand corner in the picture below). So then we decided to stay within the same range for the rest of the floor tiles (to keep it simple). In the end we thought a neutral colour like Latte smooth was the best option (the larger tiles in the picture below). We were then told that for wet areas, 400x400 was considered oversized tiles so we were going to incur additional labour costs. In an attempt to avoid these, we reduced the size down to 300x300 but was then told that this is a new size for this range and that it wasn't included in the standard tiles. Fortunately, the $27.50/m allowance covered most of the costs to lay this tile (going by the coverage/area of the floor plans) so the extra charge was negligible. 

Eclipse

For the feature wall of the showers, niche and tiling between the vanity and mirror we chose the Grey tone of the Corten range (shower wall would be 300x600 laid horizontally while the niche and vanity would be the mosaic). These were also not in their standard range, but since it was only a small area (one shower wall, niches and vanity), the extra costs were reasonable. The other shower walls and laundry splashback tiles were the stock white 250x500 laid horizontally. We initially had floor to ceiling variation for all the bathrooms but took that out and luckily we did. Since most of our tiles weren't standard, I could see the costs of upgrading the wall to ceiling tiles being alot more and may have double the figure in the tender had we left it in. Never knew tiles had such varied costs depending on size and wet/non-wet area. 

Corten

The main dilemma we had were the flooring to the rest of the house. We did have a variation to have the ground floor upgraded to tiles while leaving the first floor as carpet. However, there were additional costs to have 600x600 tiles laid and looking at the figures it may be better to do the flooring after handover. So we began to look at bamboo flooring while waiting for the estimating team to come back to us with the figure (credit) to remove the tile upgrade and standard allowance to non wet area floors. We had a look at the various brands of bamboo (ARC, Embelton, CleverBamboo etc.) but in the end, liked Verdura Distressed Brown Sugar the most. Then it was just a matter of ringing around to get various quotes.

Verdura Bamboo Distressed Brown Sugar

When the estimating team finally got back to us we were surprised to find that it would only cost a quarter of the lowest bamboo quote we obtained (given the credit value by removing the flooring allowance along with any upgrades we were going to have) to have bamboo throughout the entire house. Our only concern at the moment is the finishing to the flooring around the kitchen island if we were to do the flooring after handover. Especially if we were to have waterfall ends. The skirting could easily be removed and reinstalled, but I'm not too sure about the kitchen island/bench. Would raising the kick board be sufficient? Can the waterfall ends be floating? Needs to research this before we make the decision.

Update: Seems like the only option around the kitchen island would be to have the scotia (edge trimming). There's no way to have a floating waterfall ends. As for the kick boards, that has to be arranged with the Site Supervisor, which may mean additional costs.

Saturday 1 June 2013

External Colours

We were initially shocked when we were told the Trend facades upgrade didn't include any of the rendering nor tiling to the feature columns that were on display. A quick glance at their pricing (double to triple the facades upgrade cost) meant we were going to have to settle for plain old bricks.

Colour Scheme

This is the colour scheme we are aiming to achieve (in case you're wondering, yes that's a power station). After weeks of visiting the three brick suppliers (PGH, Boral and Austral) we think we have found the exact bricks used. 

Symmetry Portland

Dried Pressed Bowral Blue

Both were from Austral and were not included in Rawson standard range of bricks. Bowral Blue upgrade cost was quite substantial (just as much as what the initial render or tiling to the feature column was going to cost) so we decided to limit the use of this brick to just the three pillars to the front of the house. This made the cost of the brick upgrade a bit more acceptable.

For roof tiles, we went with Monier Traditional Profile in Barramundi. This was not in Rawson standard range but luckily it was included in the supplier bonus we received. For the gutters and downpipes, I originally wanted to have the colour Ironstone from Colorbond. However, to match this colour for the windows and sliding doors by Stegbar was an additional cost. The only colour Stegbar had that would match Colorbond in the same tone was Woodland Grey. But I didn't like the green tint that was quite noticeable, so we went with Colorbond Monument and Stegbar Custom Black instead. 

Front Elevation
The garage door was an upgrade to Timber Coat Cedar to match the rest of the features. As for the rear, we chose the Colorbond Dune for the easylap cladding. At first the rain water tank and rear garage door were going to be Colorbond Monument, but then everything looked a little dark. So we lighten it up by switching these to Colorbond Dune to match the easylap cladding.

Rear Elevation

Hopefully it turns out similar to the power plant (we really like that colour scheme).


Modified Floor Plans

We've been looking at display homes for the last 4-5 years contemplating a knockdown rebuild for what seemed like forever. We first fell in love with the open plan designs done by Cosmopolitan and were quite eager to get the project started. Luckily for us, the administrators were appointed before we were locked in, so I guess we dodged a bullet there. Then came Ichijo, their demonstration home was fantastic and one of the first that had the soft close doors displayed. The 7-8 stars rating seemed like a no brainer compared to other home designs. However, they were just getting into the Australian market and didn't have any home designs, display homes or any pricing at the time. So we waited, and waited... When these finally became available, we were disappointed with their limited designs (no open area, very basic designs etc.). The lack of inclusions (site costs & flooring were extra from the base price etc.) also made them a slight premium compared to other builders. Modifications were also going to be problematic since the internal walls were modular. Which bring us to Rawson, we loved all three display homes shown at Kellyville (Balmoral, Edge and Seaview) and their promise of an all inclusive price was unbelievable. In the end we chose the Seaview because the other designs were more suited to narrow blocks and ours had a 15.24m frontage.

Ground Floor

First Floor

The front portion of the plans have been flipped over from the original Seaview 39 design (after the stairs and the garage) to ensure the garage would have access to the alfresco area (instead of the other side to the kitchen). As a result, the Bedroom 5 became slightly bigger and Bedroom 3 slightly smaller (so we decided to make it into a study instead and moved Bedroom 3 downstairs to where the lounge area was. After all there's already a family area, alfresco and home theatre downstairs. There's no need to have three seating area right next to each other). Now that there was a bedroom on the ground floor, it also made sense to upgrade the powder room under the stairs to include a shower. Also had to sacrifice a bit of space from the main bedroom so that Bedroom 4 isn't too small. The main bedroom originally had a retreat area that we think won't be necessary.