Sunday, August 9, 2009

A weekend of colour preparation!

Yesterday we went to Austral bricks display centre in Lynbrook - much nicer by miles than the Boral brick display in scoresby (which we saw last weekend)! Firstly it was all indoors, with a great setup of all the bricks. Extremely helpful salespeople, and a guy wandering around who took us out to the brick displays, gave us a couple of example bricks to take home, and they gave a list of where we could see pretty much every brick on a house job. Highly recommended to visit!

I fell in love with the Zinc brick - a semi glazed brick, which looks absolutely stunning when the light hits it! It's a Category 8 brick, about the top range of brick options, so it'll probably be hellishly expensive for the whole house - we'll have to wait & see! Here's a pic of it used in the display centre entrance!



And a pic of a house in Mt Waverly built with the Zinc brick - this house looked amazing with the northerly light hitting the bricks just right! Hopefully we can use this house as a bit of inspiration - zinc bricks, lighter cladding and garage door, and maybe some kind of feature render.



This morning we went back to Studio M for our second preparation visit, gathering up as many colour selection samples as we could. We picked up a few!

We're thinking very broadly right now; but maybe...

Outside: Austral Zinc bricks (depending on co$$$$$t!), light cladding/garage door, dark roof tiles, guttering, fascia and downpipes.

Kitchen: White lower cupboards (Polar White?) with Osprey ceasarstone, and darker grey overhead cupboards.

Ensuite/Bath/powder room: large grey square floor tiles, white (whitish?) wall tiles, and undecided on vanities.

We also stopped by the Imperial Balwyn display home today - I'd like to see whether we can get two banks of pot drawers either side of the oven like in their display kitchen, but not holding my breath! Here it is;

The option we have so far is an 800mm bank of 3 pot drawers either side of the oven with a 400mm cupboard. This looks like a double bank of 3 pot drawers, 600mm width each. Maybe possible, maybe not.

Anyway, I'm trying to render my sketchup model with our choices to see what it'll look like, and hopefully by our colour appointment in mid September we can just walk in, hand over a completed list, and have relatively little stressful on-the-spot decision making to do!

Cheers to our "partner-in-crime" Michelle who's just done her colour appointment - we're planning to discuss our structural changes at prelim and hoping to get all the changes we want; including the shower/toilet ensuite swap etc ec :)

T & T

9 comments:

  1. Hey guys, regarding the kitchen cabinetry, Metricon are super flexible on this. We were intially going with the Nolan, then almost got to site start with the Grandview 36 and we had basically redesigned most of the cabinetry in the kitchen and added our own layout to the pantry. We had pot drawers of all different configurations, open shelving, even an open area (25cm wide) for tea towels to hang and dry.

    They will basically do whatever you want layout wise but of course you will pay for the privelige. Be very, very clear with them about what you want, even take in some drawings, and if the girl you are allocated says "no" ask to speak to Tamara Spencer. She is the head of Studio 501 and we ended up having an appointment with her just to design our cabinetry. She is absolutely outstanding.

    If you go for the bank of three pot drawers, think about making the top one a bit shallower with two deeper ones below. They seem to work out more usable than three the same size.

    Good luck!

    *just to add, my experience was around 12 months ago so hopefully nothing has changed and they are still as flexible and accommodating.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi guys

    Thought this might help planning for your costs...I was quoted $26 425 for Austral Cat 7 (by the way...we didn't go for this option!!)
    Hope this helps...

    Cheers Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey,
    Will be watching your progress. We are just about ready to lodge plans to council in NSW to build the Riva.
    I found that at the external appointment that they were really helpful, we turned upp with our brick and tiles samples in the bags.....lol
    They are just new to our area and I hope that they build our house FAST!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have check out your changes to the laundry changes. I feel that the direct access from the kitchen to the laundry sink was a plus. I have that in my plans. This will mean I can do some of the more dirty/smelly cooking stuff (peeling prawns) in the laundry room instead of my kitchen sink which is in the center of my home.
    The other plus to landry/ kit access is a direct path to throw out garbage and I plan to plant some herbs outside so I can get quick access here. With my open plan island (similar to yours) I will need to hid as much mess as I can and the laundry is perfect. I also do not have a window in my kitchen so I gave made the laundry door to kit frosted glass. This will be a nice natural light point. Anyway, this is just how I plan to use my space and your circumstances may be different.
    Jen

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  5. Thanks everyone for comments!

    Jo - thanks for the tips - I've drawn up our kitchen plans and will publish them in the next post on this blog.

    Michelle - $26425 for bricks?!!!?! I think we'll have to make up a shortlist of 2-3 bricks and decide on the day.

    Jen - yup, some good points you make about using the laundry as a "messy" kitchen area. Our last house had the laundry off the dining room(!) so this time around we want it kind of seperate from our living area.

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  6. Hi Tim and Tina

    Would it help if I listed the prices for bricks??

    Cheers Michelle

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  7. Hi there

    This is a quote for the Nolan 45 (not the 41)...but it is a great guide!!

    Bricks - Category 2
    Boral (House &
    Garage)
    $1,225.00
    2. Bricks - Category 2
    Selkirk (House &
    Garage)
    $1,225.00
    3. Bricks - Category 3
    Austral (House &
    Garage)
    $2,800.00
    4. Bricks - Category 3
    Boral (House &
    Garage)
    $2,450.00
    5. Bricks - Category 3
    Selkirk (House &
    Garage)
    $2,450.00
    6. Bricks - Category 4
    Austral (House &
    Garage)
    $4,725.00
    7. Bricks - Category 4
    Boral (House &
    Garage)
    $4,550.00
    8. Bricks - Category 4
    Selkirk (House &
    Garage)
    $4,550.00
    9. Bricks - Category 4B
    Boral (House &
    Garage)
    $7,000.00
    10. Bricks - Category 5 Provide Category 5 Austral bricks to House and Garage in lieu of standard. TD 17.5 $7,875.00
    Austral (House &
    Garage)
    11. Bricks - Category 5
    Boral (House &
    Garage)
    $7,525.00
    12. Bricks - Category 5
    Selkirk (House &
    Garage)
    $7,525.00
    13. Bricks - Category 5B
    Boral (House &
    Garage)
    $8,400.00
    14. Bricks - Category 6
    Austral 50mm
    (House & Garage)
    $14,700.00
    15. Bricks - Category 6A
    Boral (House &
    Garage)
    $11,375.00
    16. Bricks - Category 7
    Austral (House &
    Garage)$26,425.00

    Hope it helps!!

    Cheers Michelle

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  8. Thanks Michelle - that'll come in real handy for our shortlist! Amazing how the prices for upgrades jumps exponentially after cat 5!

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  9. henly homes price list are
    austral bricks
    cat 1. $810+gst per 1000 bricks
    cat 10.$870+gst per 1000 bricks eg: zinc
    they can buy these bricks at this price as they are bulk buyers, but they will tell you that the zinc brick is not a bulk buy, $1580 per 1000. WRONG you cheating bastards

    ReplyDelete

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