External, Internal and Electrical Appointment - What We Spent at Studio M this Time

We had our Studio M appointment on the 4th of April. Since this is the second time we are having a go at the external, internal and electrical appointment, it was less time consuming. We again had the Studio M Manager, and her sense of our background and familiarity with our previous selections assisted us to complete the selections in less than 2 hours.

Most of our external selections this time were from the standard range; an upgrade item that we could not resist was the lovely timber-look, wood grain finish Caoba Colorbond sectional overhead garage door for $490. Apart from this, we chose to upgrade to translucent glazing to front entry door and Satin-lite obscure glazing to ensuite and powder room windows. For pictures from previous selections, click on External Colour Selections from the Labels menu on the righ-hand side of this Blog.

Money spent on External upgrade items $784

For internal items, we were unwilling to compromise on kitchen design; and therefore spent a considerable chunk of our budget on items such as cupboards, pot drawers, under mount range hood, cook top, under bench oven, extension of the island bench, upgrade to Category 2 Caesar stone bench top, and laminate finish wine rack to above fridge space. Metricon provides Category 1 Caesarstone bench-tops to appliance and island bench tops as part of their promotion; thus saving us from having to spend a fortune on upgrading kitchen bench-tops.

Money spent on Kitchen upgrade items $4327

The next big ticket items were upgrades to bedroom robes such as having adjustable shelves and drawers, double hanging space etc. My Mrs and I were in a dilemma whether to utilise Metricon to undertake this job or employ a joinery company post-handover. We got a quote from a joinery firm that our sales consultant recommended, and found that their quotes are competitive for some types of work; however, their quotes for bedroom robes are not equally bad. Since the quotes for bedroom robes from both Metricon and the other joinery firm were quite similar, we chose Metricon itself, as they can be responsible as part of the build, rather than having to wait to complete robes post-handover. We hope to use the joinery firm for a number of other items (pantry joinery, media alcove etc) post-handover.

Money spent on Bedroom robe upgrades $2555

Bathroom upgrades were the ones that we compromised on this time, but still ended up retaining a few goodies such as recessed shaving cabinets and drawers to vanity.

Money spent on Powder, Bathroom and Ensuite upgrades $2090

Upgrades to some internal doors (Hume Sorrento SOR5) and 2365 mm high framed mirror sliding doors to all bedroom robes costed a further $835. This is far lower than the timber doors with translucent glass that costed $9000 last time.

We spent approximately $2000 on other assorted items such as front entry door furniture, door handles, locks, converting some hinged doors to cavity sliding doors, and using maple treads to only the bottom two steps of the staircase, with the remainder of stairs carpeted as standard, along with matt Black etch paint metal balusters – see picture below (instead of Maple treads and risers to the entire staircase with stainless steel balusters that costed nearly $4000 last time).

We chose from the standard options for other items including architraves and skirting, door handles (see picture below), tiled kitchen splashback (instead of glass) and wash and wear matt paint from Dulux instead of low sheen. For pictures from previous selections, click on Internal Colours from the Labels menu on the righ-hand side of this Blog. 

After a lunch break, I met with the electrical consultant. I had a budget of $4500, far less than the $10,700 shopping spree that we went for last time, and still managed to include key items this time. Key items included wiring only for ceiling fans to all bedrooms, sitting and family areas (no air conditioning or ducts this time), TV conduit provision for wall mounting TV in three areas, junction boxes for future outdoor lighting, NBN (National Broadband Network provision), outdoor sockets, free-to-air and pay-tv points, phone points, timber noggins, doorbell, ducted exhaust fans, and of course, additional power points and batten holders. The key difference this time on light points is that not all lighting in future would be LED down lights (there will only be 5 LED down lights – can you believe it?). For pricing of electrical items, click on Internal Colours from the Labels menu on the righ-hand side of this Blog. 

Money spent on electrical upgrades $4375

We have been slowly paying in instalments for a number of lighting items that we selected at Beacon Lighting; however, those were based on previous electrical selections and, therefore, we will need to revisit them to incorporate the changes we did this time. I will post on our lighting items when we finalise them.

I received the colour quotation from our Metricon consultant a couple of days ago. We confirmed the selections we made on the 4th as well as requesting a few additional items and we are hoping to sign off on the variations early next week.

Internal Colour and Electrical Appointment-6

This post includes the remainder of our internal selections and colours not posted elsewhere in this blog; most of the selections are Kitchen, Pantry and Laundry items.



Above Fridge Wine Rack




Baumatic BAO9038-P 900 mm Underbench Oven in Stainless Steel finish




Baumatic GUH75 750mm Stainless Steel Undermount (concealed) Rangehood





Baumatic Pythagora BP95S 900mm Stainless Steel Gas Cooktop

 

Baumatic BAM251TK 25-Litre Microwave Oven with Grill & Stainless Steel Trimkit

 

Clark Orion/Cellini Round Undermount ERBU Sink




Cupboards in all Bathrooms/Ensuite/WC: Wilsonart Laminate - Concept Oak




This is how Concept Oak finish would look like
Source: http://shayneandjasonbuildahouse.blogspot.com.au/



All Cupboards/Panels in Kitchen, Pantry and Laundry: Formica Laminate - Chocolate Pear

 


This is how Chocolate Pear finish would look like with 20 mm Caesarstone benchtop in Latte colour
Source: http://www.kitchensbyfarquhar.com.au/

 

A closer view of Latte Caesarstone - A medium toned Brown shade with a fine grained textured pattern



Laundry Benchtop: Laminex Stipple Hemp




Laminated Kicker: Formica New Stainless Steel








Kitchen Sink: Clark Razor Large Single Undermount Bowl

 

Winders to all Awning Windows




6 mm Grey Tint Glazing to Front Entry Sidelights




 


 

Gainsborough 395 Circular Sliding Passage Set / Cavity Set




Gainsborough Amelia 100 Lever Set





Gainsborough Amelia 100 Lever Set with Privacy Snib

 


Gainsborough 385/386 Square Sliding Cavity Set / Passage Set



Gainsborough Rectangular Flush Pull Set with Rectangular End 99FP150SS



This is how 99FP150SS would look like on a door



Gainsborough PB10 Patio Bolt



Window Glazing - Viridian DecorPattern - Satinlite




 

Internal Colour and Electrical Appointment-5

Last week, we received the revised Contract variation and Colour Schedule documents reflecting the selections we made during internal and external colour appointment. After cross-checking with the New Home Contract and two variation documents along with the Colour Quotation document, we identified few more errors and omissions, and asked our Consultant to address them. Our consultant fixed the errors and emailed us the document by the end of week, after which we signed and returned the documents.

Ensuite / Bathroom / WC and Powder Room selections



Standard 6 mm Semi-Frameless Shower Screen with Polished Silver frame colour and clear glazing



Our shower in ensuite will resemble this one
(we will also have another one in the extended Powder room)



Our Shower in Bathroom will resemble this one

All three showers have 300 mm high x 90 mm deep tiled shower recess



Stylus Venecia Close Coupled Toilet

  

Two 950 mm high x 420 mm wide x 90 mm deep mirror front wall-mounted recessed shaving cabinets



Mirrors in Powder, WC, Bathroom are Silver backed with polished edges on a 16 mm backing board and have either full height wall tiles or 100 mm tiled surround 

Ensuite Shower: PureJet Shower Set Duo (2 spray function); height adjutment rail, with push-button control

Ensuite: Pinto Quad shower mixer



PDR and Bathroom showers: Moda Duo Rail 99002 + HS200 shower head




PDR and Bathroom: Alto wall mixer for shower



Caroma Liano inset basin 415 mm x 415 mm

PDR, Bathroom, WC and Ensuite: Pinto basin mixer

 

Stylus Newbury bath 1675 mm




Vito Bertoni fixed bath mixer set; 220 mm spout with Chrome back plate



Star robe hook

 

Bathroom and Ensuite: 750 mm Metza double towel rail (88902)




Metza towel ring



Metza toilet roll holder



Internal Colour and Electrical Appointment-4

We finalised our internal selections six weeks after we had our Internal Colour appointment. We got to this stage after exchanging several emails, as there were some omissions, errors, follow-ups with the estimator, and items that required clarifications. Although some of these could have been avoided, I provide credit where it is due: the consultant was patient, courteous and helpful throughout this journey.

From what I have experienced, you need to have ‘attention to detail’ at five levels:

Level 1: This involves checking for items that you originally requested, but was omitted in the variation. For example, we requested HUME Sorrento SOR 5 doors throughout the house; however, the Consultant / Estimator missed including SOR5 door for entry into Powder from Sitting.

Level 2: This involves checking for items that you originally requested, and included in the variation; however, the numbers don’t stack up. You need to visualise by perhaps drawing on a piece of paper, tally the number required and cross check with the ones included in the variation. For example, we requested patio bolts in Dining and Family for added security. There is one elevation in Family and two elevations in Dining; therefore, it is only natural to include three patio bolts. However, one of the elevations in Dining has a bi-part door, thus requiring two bolts instead of one that is typical needed for sliding or stacker doors. Thus, you will need to visualise such omissions and advise the consultant accordingly. Another example of this type is when there are two separate items. For example, we requested Laminex cupboard handles (244 mm), in lieu of standard, for pantry doors. When looked at the item in isolation, the number of handles was correct. However, we also requested a laminate panel for the integrated dishwasher to be placed in the Pantry – in between the two pantry base cupboard doors – for which a handle needed to be included. There were other minor Level 1 errors (for example, a wrong description). In our case, instead of stating ‘front laminate panel to Pantry…”, it read ‘front laminate panel to Kitchen…” (Our dishwasher is in Pantry).

Level 3: This involves checking for items that you originally requested, and included in the variation, but the codes are wrong for the items that are included. The only way you can verify this is if you take a note of the codes when the consultant refers to the brochure at the time of selection. For example, the code for handles 244 mm is 869991; however, was wrongly stated as 869990. There might also be typographical errors that are Level 1: for example, the length of the handles for the code 869990 should have read 188 mm instead of 88 mm as originally stated.

Level 4: Pricing issues that do not make sense. We originally included Category 1 stone bench top to many wet areas in the New Home Contract itself; however, chose a type and colour that was Category 2 during the appointment. However, the Estimator did not take that into account while calculating the variation. Instead of stating “provide Cat 2 bench top….in lieu of Cat 1”, the Variation stated “…in lieu of standard”, which prompted us to seek clarification on the over-the-top upgrade price.

Level 5: The last one includes undertaking research and asking the consultant to include additional descriptions to minimise potential mistakes during the construction stage. You will need to read blogs of other clients and may even need to collect your own information. For example, one of the bloggers had lamented that the kitchen supplier installed the handles centred in the middle of the drawers, which made it hard to pull open from the middle (rather than the top).

Drawer handles centred and top aligned
Source: Metricon, Byron Kitchen

The blogger also lamented that the drawers were not fully extendable, which made it “inaccessible to pull pots and dishes out of without first moving items from the front row”. Further, the blogger was not happy that the island bench was not deep enough, as it forced him to drink his coffee leaning over it, instead of actually sitting under it. These are small, but significant matters that needed attention; I am glad I read the blog, and eventually got the consultant to include a description that drawer handles must be centred and top aligned, in addition to extending island bench top depth (while agreeing to paying extra for it). We also requested that drawers are to be almost fully extendable (and agreed to pay extra for that privilege).



Not fully extendable drawers
Source: pnhousebuild.blogspot.com.au



Almost fully extendable drawers 



Likewise, we were particular that entry door handles resemble and are positioned similar to the one in one of the Metricon display homes. Therefore, we measured the position of the door handle and the lock and requested the consultant to include a description to position the lock at 1000 mm from floor and centred to Horizon 750 mm pull handle, like the picture below.

I’ll post pictures of our internal selections after we receive our final internal and colour variation document.