We are back after our wonderfully relaxing cruise.
The last 2 days have been spent completing all our selection appointments. When they were all booked for the 2 days I thought it was great however it has turned out to be a very stressful and intense couple of days....not to mention expensive.
First was the landscaping appointment. Thankfully the designer from Wisdom did not laugh at my poor amateur sketch and was able to draw up a lovely design on the computer. The problem came at the end when he realised that a maximum of 40% of the outside can be 'hard landscaping'. Well when you put in a driveway and he pool we are at 42%. He is hopeful that this will be acceptable and that we will be able obtain approval for decking or tiling around the pool once construction is complete - I certainly hope so or we will end up with grass around the pool! We are waiting on the quote this week which should be interesting however we think we will just be going with the driveway using the $5000 voucher.
Next was the external selections with the lovely Cassandra. We were very prepared so this one was very easy. We loved the picture of the Savannah façade so we pretty much went with those colours. The best news is we didn't upgrade anything except for getting translucent glass in the front door.
Bricks: PGH Vino
Gutter, Fascia, Downpipes: Night sky
Render: Quarry
Feature render: Ironstone
Garage: Surfmist
From there we went to the staircase appointment which was a bit of a disappointment. The consultant seemed to be in a bad mood and wasn't very helpful. We will be going with the standard staircase with just the bottom 3 steps wood stained and the rest carpet.
Last appointment for that day was the kitchen selection at Knebel Kitchens. I was looking forward to this one but was a little stressed when we got there. We rearranged the sink position and asked to be quoted for Polyurethane cabinet upgrade, waterfall edge to bench top and bench top to be extended outside as a servery to the alfresco area. Quote is due back next week.
Following day we had the air-conditioning appointment which was uneventful.
Next was the appointment I was dreading Tiles and carpet at Dilorenzo. Bathrooms and laundry we stuck to the standard range only extra charge was having the mosaic tiles in the shower niches instead of just 1 line down the wall. I still don't understand why! We went with a large Bluestone colour tile for the floors with white wall tiles and grey mosaics.
Floor tiles for the ground floor has always been my weakness. I fell in love with the Belgique wood effect tiles in the display homes and had to have them. Cannot believe how expensive they are and that you have to pay extra to have them laid. I am not looking forward to getting this quote back.
Carpet: I thought this one was going to be easy - in fact I gave it very little thought. However there is lots of different types with different warranties and the builders range felt horrible. In the end we did upgrade from the standard and upgraded the underlay as well. We did manage to match the colour almost exactly to the tiles so I cant wait to see how it all looks together.
Last appointment was the electrical with Clipsal. Consultant was lovely (and a fellow Wanderers supporter!) and we had been prepared for months so it was an easy appointment. Well easy to spend lots of money lol. We went with down lights downstairs and the standard lights upstairs. The most expense was the TV points - 4 in total including 1 outside in the alfresco (hubby's request). We did spend a bit more than expected but we got everything we wanted.
Well that was an eventful few days - now we just have to wait for the quotes to come back. Something I am not looking forward to. It is exciting that the colour choices have been made and that I can now start to see how it all will look together.
