So the days leading up to this day was daunting, I had read that a normal day here is between 5 to 8 hours. Wowzers why so long?
They have a cool system that adds up the extras as you go. We had already included a few things in the original quote such as waterfall edges on the kitchen bench top, coffered ceilings, and some LIN1 internal doors.
So the day starts with choosing the external colours, brickwork, mortar, roofing, garage door, windows, external doors, eaves, downpipes, posts, fly screens and the colour of the bag & paint for the facade. We upgraded the garage door colour and the colour choice for the front windows. And we will get the front door stained. The remaining windows and doors to the laundry and sliding door to the alfresco will be a standard colour.
We then moved onto internal colours, they start with the floors as its the biggest area to fill. We decided to have MDJ install all the flooring, their prices were higher than a quote that we had looked at but it was just easier to get them to do it and they will install all the skirting boards above the floors after installation. If we had someone else do it they would be left off and it would be left to us to find someone to do it. So we have gone with carpet in all the bedrooms along with the home theatre and vinyl plank everywhere else, you may not have heard of this, durable and hard wearing click in tiles, scratch and dent resistant, easy to maintain and hygienic, comfortable and warm underfoot, quiet to walk on and ideal for wet and dry areas as its 100% water proof. Its normally used in hairdressers, coffee shops and old homes as its easy to clean up and a cheaper option that hardwood flooring. Thats music to my ears! The planks can mimic all sorts of wood or tile flooring, we will have one that looks like floor boards. Anyways I hope it looks good!
We then moved onto the kitchen, we have decided to upgrade all the below cabinets to handle free stacker draws and include a under bench bin. All the cabinets will be a sheen finish and we have gone with two tone. so the cabinets below will be one colour and above another colour. Kick boards will match the below cabinets and we have a beautiful glass splash back which I was most excited about. The caesarstone 40m waterfall bench tops are a lighter colour. And we will go with Smeg appliances which is included in an upgrade package.
The wet areas were next, MDJ provide the tiles to the laundry, ensuite and bathroom. We had already included shampoo nooks in both bathrooms in our original quote. The shower in the ensuite has thick fixed toughened glass with no door, and the main bathroom we changed to a semi frameless shower. Added an extra towel rack and added a 3 stacker draw but this time with handles to the centre of the ensuite vanity, went with the standard toilet, and vanity bowls. The bench tops are also caesarstone but we chose a darker colour than the kitchen. Both bathrooms include massive mirrors which are so cool.
Finally once you have done all the hard work, its onto the walls, so cornices, skirting and wall colours. We can choose any 2 colours for the walls and decide where those colours go. So all the bedrooms and home theatre will be one colour and the living, kitchen, children’s activity, walkways, laundry and bathrooms will be another. We kept it very neutral, I’m keen to paint a feature all when we move in to some of the rooms. All the internal doors will be a white gloss, so they will probably remain open so no one touches them and gets their grubby hands on them.
Can you believe it that we made all these decisions in only 2 hours! Smash it! We had lunch and went through it again, I actually added a few decorative things that were in the display homes I really liked. Then we were on the road home a bit later.
I’ll add some pics.
therayworthsbuild 