Housewatch: Drake Edition

[Drakecula]

Given I know people enjoyed following along with the TomCat's new digs thread (myself now included, as I slowly catch myself up). I thought maybe I'd start a new thread in case people were interested. There won't be many trip reports coming from us for the next little while, so I guess this could be sort of a trip report, from one single location over a much longer period of time.

We've got the block, we've got the plans, we're about to do all the selections for interior/exterior soon. I feel like we're woefully underprepared and we're stressing out a little bit, but that being said, I think we're on top of things. We have built before, and we're taking a much keener interest this time round. Last time was very much a house and land package 'you get what you're given but we'll let you choose if we have the option' situation.

And if anyone wants to stickybeak - here's a handy display home with virtual tour option.

 

[Drakecula]

Oh my goodness. So we had our selection meeting yesterday where we managed to get through I'd say 3/4 of selections. Why is everything so expensive?! And of course the colours of things we liked were mostly things that weren't part of the basic inclusions... *sigh*

Some soul searching, number crunching and quote requesting to see if we have to trim some fat. And this is before we even finish selections, we didn't get to the kitchen yet :O

Side note - anyone know anyone in the flooring business in Canberra?

 

[Denali]

We're no where near ready to build but we visited our fav builder/house design and went through all their standard choices v upgrades. Thankfully were were happy with the standard options so hope to keep costs down when its time.

Good luck, looking forward to following.

 

[Cossie]

Sorry can't help with the flooring, the guy that did our floating engineered wood has retired.
What are you looking for, carpet, wood, laminates?
The boss visited a place recently that polished concrete in the wet areas, said it looked great.

 

[Drakecula]

What are you looking for, carpet, wood, laminates?

Laminate for us. We aren't carpet fans, purely because we're pet owners. Carpet and fur is a nightmare.
I've asked for some quotes from some floor places, so it'll be good to see if the builder's quote is comparable or not. I'm assuming not, since they're a builder, but who knows.

 

[Pushka]

Given I know people enjoyed following along with the TomCat's new digs thread (myself now included, as I slowly catch myself up). I thought maybe I'd start a new thread in case people were interested. There won't be many trip reports coming from us for the next little while, so I guess this could be sort of a trip report, from one single location over a much longer period of time.

We've got the block, we've got the plans, we're about to do all the selections for interior/exterior soon. I feel like we're woefully underprepared and we're stressing out a little bit, but that being said, I think we're on top of things. We have built before, and we're taking a much keener interest this time round. Last time was very much a house and land package 'you get what you're given but we'll let you choose if we have the option' situation.

And if anyone wants to stickybeak - here's a handy display home with virtual tour option.

That looks like a fantastic floor plan.

 

[get me outta here]

Re flooring, I asked some friends who had some laminate flooring done recently and they used Empire Flooring and do not recommend them.

 

[Gigi]

Re flooring choices, have you looked at tiles verus laminate? Tiles are very pet friendly, servicable and long lasting.

 

[Drakecula]

Re flooring choices, have you looked at tiles verus laminate? Tiles are very pet friendly, servicable and long lasting.

Current house has tiles everywhere, but we prefer the look of laminate. Can confirm tiles are great for pets. Sometimes instead of vacuuming, we use our small leaf blower to blow the fur from inside to outside

 

[Pushka]

Current house has tiles everywhere, but we prefer the look of laminate. Can confirm tiles are great for pets. Sometimes instead of vacuuming, we use our small leaf blower to blow the fur from inside to outside

What can I say. I love my dyson but yesterday had to give it a massive clean because of all the clogged cat hair!

 

[TomVexille]

All the little things add up incredibly quickly at selections

 

[amaroo]

Subscribing. Look forward to the updates.

This week we spent 4 hours with the architect selecting the basic stuff to start the design development stage.

It took 6 months for the concept stage.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

 

[Drakecula]

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Totally agree. We've been working on this for over a year now and we still aren't ready to go yet. To be fair, we did start talking with the builder before we even found the block, but it's been a long time. They'll be glad to see the back of us by the time we're done I'm sure! Haha.

 

[Pushka]

Totally agree. We've been working on this for over a year now and we still aren't ready to go yet. To be fair, we did start talking with the builder before we even found the block, but it's been a long time. They'll be glad to see the back of us by the time we're done I'm sure! Haha.

It will probably be a mutual feeling!

 

[tgh]

It will probably be a mutual feeling

Indeed.. our builder is a friend , but I am quite sure he is as sick of us as we are of him.
Our interior selections escalated the basic contact price enormously ; it was nice to be able to buy whatever we wanted but the cost blowout was significant.
We will never again use a builder we know or want to maintain any kind of ongoing relationship with.

I have almost finished extensive exterior works around the extension and have to face up to the next interior stage soon.

 

[amaroo]

It will probably be a mutual feeling

Indeed.. our builder is a friend , but I am quite sure he is as sick of us as we are of him.
Our interior selections escalated the basic contact price enormously ; it was nice to be able to buy whatever we wanted but the cost blowout was significant.
We will never again use a builder we know or want to maintain any kind of ongoing relationship with.

I have almost finished extensive exterior works around the extension and have to face up to the next interior stage soon.

Our plan .... lets see how that goes.

We've allocated significant part of the budget on structural elements - space, light, views, features, glass, etc

We hope to tone down the interior budget. When I walk into a building it's all about the feel of the structure, I never look at a tile and go WOW that's nice.

Back to the OPs journey.

 

[Drakecula]

When I walk into a building it's all about the feel of the structure, I never look at a tile and go WOW that's nice.

That's what I think too. We picked a really nice tile, but after looking at costs, I'm thinking we could achieve a similar look with a tile that's part of the standard inclusions. We did pick a 'feature' tile which costs more, but it's only for one small part so that cost I can live with

I took some pics of the bits we'd picked out, but since we may change things at our next appointment, I'll wait til things are locked in before sharing
The exterior was mostly easy compared to the interior, since we had a good idea of that before going in.

 

[amaroo]

I've reluctantly joined the instagram mob The amount of things you can cherry-pick from architects, builders, designers, etc is simply amazing.

 

[Pushka]

I've reluctantly joined the instagram mob The amount of things you can cherry-pick from architects, builders, designers, etc is simply amazing.

That was my go to when doing up the house. Plus check out Pinterest.

 

[Drakecula]

Second selections meeting was today, after failing to finish last week. Heh. Still went over time today. Dang kitchens are expensive!
But everything has been selected, and we've got the contract and electricals to go through next week.

We did end up changing the tile for one that was part of the standard inclusions which saved a fair bit, we then of course made it up and then some when it came to the kitchen. I have some pics of the samples which I'll post when I find my phone. But we're going mostly for a black and white interior with shades of grey (just not 50 of them!).

Afterwards we popped into the show room of a flooring company who gave us some quotes over the weekend. They'd quoted on the exact same floor we liked from the builder's selections (was much cheaper compared to the builder's quote as suspected). I'd also asked for a quote on a cheaper option with a similar look just to compare, they did so and suggested we come in to look at the range to see the colours. We ended up liking it more than the laminate. Hasn't vinyl come a long way? Ha. We had a good chat about options and I think we'll be looking to go with vinyl when the time comes.