Fence is gone - Portaloo gone..
Dropped by Wisdom today to pay for the Interim Occupation certificate. Unfortunately we can't get Final Occupation Certificate until i get turfing done.
Bank inspection successful. Bank is happy to release the final payment!!!
So its all on Wisdom to get the PCI items fixed...
Oh one last thing your Appliances don't get installed till after settlement. Bummer we can move in but we won't have hot water and stove for another week, as long weekend is coming and no plumber will come out till the next week....
Internet and Telephone service scheduled, gas connection is next on the list.
We'll be going for Smartslat Gates matching the gutter colour.
Front Door Entry and Footpath - Tiles to be cleaned with rest of house 2 days before settlement.
Obscure Glazing to the Toilet and Bathrooms. These are not standard, which was a surprise to us and we had to upgrade to have these done.
OWG, big congratulations for your house!
ReplyDeleteI have been for a business trip right after our color session last week. And I just red your info and experience for us.
Many thanks ken for your generous help. We really appreciate your time as we know that it took really time and effort to write down your comments/reasoning for your smart "endless" upgrade list!
We are going to have our kitchen and electrical selection on this Tuesday. We have red your tips on for those doing double a must is:
-downlights ground floor
-ducting for A/C
- exhaust fan for the kitchen
As for issue of downlights ground floor, if possible, can you give us more specific idea
As for issue of exhaust fan for the kitchen, if possible, can you give us your comment that is it enough if we have external ducting to standard rangehood.
We are very first time builder for our know down and rebuild project. (before this project we have never done anything relating to building and construction)!!! Although we have tried our best to read and learn about home building and selection, my DR and I are unsure what we are really after!!! If you have some more tips and experience relating to electricals for double storey house, please share with us!
Again thanks so much for your experiences and help!
Momoko
ReplyDeleteDucting for Rangehood was part of our standard build.. not sure if its the same with your builder but make sure to ask them especially if your kitchen is located away from an exterior wall. Have them put in if they are not included. They will install it to an external brick face. Things to keep in mind is that it should be away from where your clothes line will be..
A/C pre-ducting for the ground floor is a must if you don't want to get the A/C package with the builder.. pre-ducting is around $150 per outlet.. you only need to get the ground floor pre-ducted, the A/C installers can get into the roof space on second floor to do the ducting there.
As for the downlights.. cost wise with wisdom homes it was $100 per downlight (energy compact fluorescent downlights) so i opted out of it because i am single storey home. To do this on my own with an electrician is $30 per downlight and $30 for electrician to put it in electrical cabling inclusive... So if your builder is charging $75 for an energy efficient downlight get it done with them.. less hassle for having to arrange things afte... in the event that it is expensive $100 per downlight you can opt to have normal light installed where you want a downlight.. what you get out of this is $50 apprx to have normal light each vs $100. the electrical cables are all there so all you need is a handy man who an idea about cabling to replace those lights with downlights. As for lighting arrangement make sure to have as much light switches as you can. I.E if you have 10 downlights in the dining area you would want to beak that up to 2 or 3 light switches so that you can save on energy.. in this case i would go 3 switches with a 4-4-2 arrangement on the switches.. Why so that you can turn on 2 downlights at 2x11W = 22W hr to illuminate the dining rather than a single light switch on 10x11W= 110W hr... it gives you control.. plan it that way for living spaces like the dining, lounge, leisure, kitchen and even bedrooms... Make sure to ask about 2-way light switch for your stair well and ask where your consultant where else it may be useful..
Many thanks for your quick reply to our question. As always, it is very much helpful. I printed our your experiences and will try to correctly understand it by our Tuesday electrical selection.
ReplyDeleteI also want to ask you a small question regarding to your Kitchen Sink. I saw you have a double bowls & drainer on the left side while I have seen many other Kitchen sinks where their drainers are on the right side. I only use Kitchen sink with a bowl and a drainer so I'm not sure is there a rule for a location of drainer and two bowls? Did you follow some rule for locating your drainer, small bowl and bigger bowl?
its because we havea dishwasher and generally you keep that away from where the cooktop side is. Really in the end its a preference by yourself if your cook top is located elsewhere..
ReplyDeleteOne last thing most people forget about phone lines and internet.. rule of thumb have a phone line terminating at your study/office space and make sure its either the first or second line if your having more than 2 telephone point.. this is for most who will have adsl2 internet, if your going cable then that is a different case.. But for ADSL2 there is a limit on number of telephone point before you have problems. keep it a max of 4 and just use a wireless phone with multi-handset option. Good luck with the plan, your electrical consultant will be there to advice you what you can and can't do due to safety reason.. also if you have an alfresco have them put in an external outdoor powerpoint, it'll come in handy trust me on that, especially if you have kids for that jumping castle... what you pay now to put in will save you $$$ later on because some things are just hard to achieve once house is built..
cheers
Ken