Electrical Selections

After signing the building contract in August 2015, I then had my electrical selection appointment in September 2015.

The upgrades I paid for were as follows:

•  2x Batten holders for outdoor lighting ($110)
• 14x Down lights to the living areas ($1400)
• Dedicated circuit for the fridge ($305)
• 4x 2-way switching for lights ($220)
• 15x additional GPOs ($825)
• Outdoors GPO in the alfressco ($165)
• 2x Glass splash back cut outs for GPOs ($100)
• Additional TV antenna point ($70)
• 4x Cat 6 Data Points ($640)

The down light and Cat 6 pricing is pretty steep however, the rest of the electrical upgrade pricing is reasonable enough.  At the end of the day I had put an allowance of $4000 in my contract for electricals and I came in under budget at $3835. 

MDJ also only had expensive options for bathroom heater/fan combos, so I will be installing those myself after handover.  Likewise I plan to install some ceiling fans and change out batten holders for proper light fittings after handover.

Electrical Selections Plan

Electrical Selection Plan - Legend

Interior and Exterior Colour Pallete

 

All images I use in the blog can be viewed in their full resolution via my Google Photos Shared Album: https://goo.gl/photos/6iGZqyrBQeA4cPMU9 

Colour Selections Appointment

I did my Colours Selections Appointment in July 2015 at MDJ's Oak Flats studio and had Vicki to guide me through the process.  Prior to the appointment I had spent hours reading through the folder of choices I had and had gone to numerous display homes to try work out what I wanted.  

Going into the appointment I thought I had made pretty much all of my colour choices, however Vicki was a great help and we really managed to fine tune it out to something that I think I will be very happy with once it's built.

The other surprising thing was that for majority of the items there was a decent selection of standard inclusion items (ie. kitchen handles, bathroom tiles, Caesarstone bench colours, etc).
 
Below I have created a list of the selections I have made and have included where there was a cost for the upgrade.

 External

• Bricks: Austral Everyday Life Engage
• Mortar: Off White with Ironed joints 
• Bag & Paint:  Taubmans Coach House NH41 to the front of the master bedroom.  Over the front door and garage will be face brick.
• Roof - Surfmist Colorbond
• Fascia and Gutters - Dune Colorbond
• Roof Tank - Woodland Grey (to match developer's specified fence colour)
• Garage Door: Surfmist Colorbond in the Slimline profile
• Windows: Surfmist powder coating ($720 for fly screens)
• Front door: Hume Newington XN5 with translucent glass ($150) and painted
• Front door hardware: Gainsborough Trilock Align Satin Chrome ($260)
• Downpipes: Taubmans Dune CB
• Eaves: Taubmans Surfmist CB23

Insulation

•  Roofing Insulation: Anticon blanket ($3090)
• Ceiling Insulation: R4 Batts (Increased from R3 for $640)
• Wall Insulation: R2 Batts (Increased from R1.5 for $190) and Wall Wrap ($1080) 

 Bathroom

• Vanity Benches: Caesarstone Walnut 3350
• Vanity Panels: Polytec Melamine in Mountain Pepper Matt 
• Handles: hettich Clivia CC128 Stainless steel
• Vanity Bowl: Manooga Bowl
• Bath - Caroma Newbury 1675 island bath
• Toilet - Porcher Quatre close coupled toilet
• Shower Hob and Mirrors - White powder coating
• Wall Accessories and Tapware - Reece Mizu Drift 

Kitchen

• Kitchen Bench: 40mm Caesarstone in Urban 2040 ($1590)
• Kitchen Panels: Polytec Melamine Classic White Matt
• Kitchen Breakfast Bar Kick Panel: Polytec melamine Belgian Oak Matt
• Kitchen Handles: Hettich CLIVIA CC128 stainless steel
• Appliances: Miele (included as a promotion)
• Sink: Posh Solus MK II 1.75 end bowl sink
• Tapware: Reece Mizu Drift
• Cupboard above the fridge ($390)
• Ducting to Rangehood ($790)

 
Interior and Paint

• Doors: Standard
• Door hardware: Gainsborough Classic White Knob with Shadow Chrome back plate
• Skirting: Standard painted 67mm half splayed MDF
• Wall paint (all rooms except H/T): Taubmans Gothic Cream NH48
• Wall paint (H/T): Taubmans Candlewood NH40
• Ceiling and Cornices Paint: Taubmans Illusive White NH29
• Windows and Skirting Paint: Taubmans White Spirit NH74
  

Flooring

• Bathroom Floor Tiles - Kakadu Stone 300x300mm
• Bathroom Wall Tiles: Kakadu Stone 450x300mm
• Living Area Tiling: Hunter beige 400x400mm ($8280)
• Grout - Mudberry 285
• Carpet to bedrooms and H/T: Godfrey Hirst Eco+ Sunrise in Koala 180 colour ($3953)

Misc

• 1200mm cupboard above the laundry tub ($450)
• Actron ducted air conditioning (included as part of promotion)
• Aircon WiFi control ($640)
• Sound insulation to 3 rooms
• Wardrobe upgraded to melamine ($1450)
• Wardrobe drawer unit in WIR ($340)
• Wardrobe double hanging rails in WIR ($85)

I have also received an estimate of $12,060 for the driveway and front path from MDJ, however, they can't confirm price until the land is registered and a site survey is completed.

Floor Plans and Facade

The floor plans I went with was mostly the standard Cordova One design, except I did make a couple minor alterations:

• Raised ceilings to 2.55m ($4000)
• Install dual cavity sliding doors to the Home Threate ($880)
• Install a hung door on the walk in robe ($270)
• Brick in the walk in pantry window ($280 credit)
• Provide frosted glass to the kitchen window ($120)

As for the Facade I chose to go with their classic design as I did not see the value in paying an extra $5000 for the facade upgrades, especially given LendLease stipulate you need substantial plantings of trees in front of the house.  The changes I did make to the standard facade are as follows:

• Deleted the brick stack on the left hand side
• The brick stack next to the entrance will do right up to the roof height
• Eve over the front of the garage (developer rule)

MDJ were actually very reasonable here and said that since I was deleting the brick stack they wont charge me for the eaves or entrance brick stack.

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All images I use in the blog can be viewed in their full resolution via my Google Photos Shared Album: https://goo.gl/photos/6iGZqyrBQeA4cPMU9

The Beginning...

Evidently I have been quite slack at updating this blog, but with land almost registered I figured I probably should get around to starting it, so here goes...

Purchasing the land
Originally I had been looking at building in  the Brook's Reach estate (Horsley/West Dapto), but with the local property market going gang busters the land costs just got ridiculous and out of my reach.

It was actually just by chance that I came across the ad for Calderwood Valley in the local newspaper (which I don't always read) in mid-March 2015 for the first release that was happening at the end of March 2015.  The next week was a frenzy of crunching the numbers, talking to builders, my mortgage broker,etc to make sure I could afford the build.

Fast forward a week and I was lucky to secure a place on the second day of their appointments to purchase a block in Calderwood Valley Stage 1A.  Initially I had wanted a 450sqm block, however, all the decent ones were gone by the time I had my appointment.  Luckily though, I did get to purchase what had been my first pick out of the 375sqm blocks.

Picking a builder
From looking at all the builders in the Brooks Reach and Shell Cove display villages, I had narrowed down my options to Allworth, New Living and McDonald Jones as being the main options within my budget and having designs I liked to suit a 450sqm block.

When I instead ended up with a 375sqm block it really complicated matters, because 12.5m wide lots are a lot harder to find decent designs for than a 13+m wide lot. 

Ultimately I settled on the building Cordova One with McDonald Jones as I was keen on building a steel framed frame with a Colorbond roof and MDJ's display homes seemed to show a better quality standard.

I ended up putting down my deposit with MDJ in early April 2015 to lock in my prices before their upcoming price rise.