Upgrades

Given that we're now getting a little closer to completion I thought it might be worth itemising the upgrades we made to the base house design.

We had some upgrades as part of our Luxury Promotion Pack. These packs always vary but we made quite a few upgrades again on top of this pack. For the most part it upgraded our selection categories, but we found we upgraded again on quite a few things, particuarly the kitchen.

The Upgrades:

Structural

• Higher Ceilings: 2550mm ceiling instead of 2400mm standard ceiling

External

• Front Render: Render to bedroom projection and portico, we also paid a bit extra to get 2 different colours.
• Brickwork Above Windows: By default all windows come with infills, we upgraded the alfresco and rear windows to be bricked.
• Bricks: Upgraded to Category 3 - Austral Bricks - Urban One (Chocolate)
  
• Roof Tiles: Upgraded to Category 1A - Bristile - Char Grey
• Hot Water Unit: Moved hot water unit to rear of house to make room for potential water tank
  

Garage

• Internal Garage Door: Installed internal garage entry
• Deadlocks: Upgraded all rear doors to be deadlocked
  

Windows

• Double Glazed Windows: We upgraded all windows to be double glazed, including the tri-stacker door. This also meant we had to go with awning windows instead of sliding windows
• Window Flyscreens: By default the house price doesn't include fly screens, go figure.
• Obscure Glazing: We added satinlite obscure glazing to toilet window, also not included by default

Front Entry

• Front Door: Upgraded to Corinthian Madison entry door.
• Glazing: Added glazing to front door and side window
• Entrance Handle: Upgraded to Gainsborough Trilock Level Deadbolt

Walk in Robe

• Robe Fitout: Fully lined inserts with laminated kicker, banks of four drawers, single hanging sections, double hanging sections, polished mirror

Ensuite

• Ovelle Spa: 1890mm oval spa with tiled hob and hot pump.
• Caesarstone Benchtops: upgraded as part of the package, we picked Osprey
• Basins: Upgraded to Caroma Liano Vitreous china inset basins as part of the upgrade package.
• Tiled Shower Base: upgraded as part of promotion.
• Tiled Kickrail: Bottom of cabinets upgraded to be tiled, we liked this look
• Bath Spout: Upgraded to Alder Zen gooseneck

Dining Room

• Wall Cutout: provide a 1350mm x 1630mm void in wall as a feature. We liked this from the display

Kitchen

• Colorform Gloss: Upgraded the laminate to colorform gloss doors and drawers, this cost a bit
• Fridge Shelf: Added in shelf above fridge, this space is normally empty otherwise
• Pot Draws: Added 2 sections of pot drawers each with 2 draws, either side of the oven
• Kickrail: Metalaminate kickrail which looks like metal instead of plain white laminate
• Overhead Cupboards: Cupboards added as part of promotion
• Overhead Shelves: We paid extra to put in the overhead shelves on either side of the cupboards
• Caesarstone Benchtop: Upgraded to Category 3 - Snow, we liked this better than the alternatives after we upgraded to the glossy cupboards
• Glass Splashback: We upgraded the splashback to Category 2 because we liked the colour better than the Category 1 colours after doing the benchtop and glossy cupboards
• Oven & Cooktop: We upgraded to a 900mm Baumatic oven and a separate Baumatic cooktop. These are normally one unit but we wanted them split and upgraded from the standard model
• Dishwasher: Upgraded by promotion
• Taps: We upgraded to a Zucchetti Elisse Sink Mixer with extendable 2 jet handspray & swivel sprout
• Handles: Upgraded to category 3 handles because we liked the look of them better
• Sink: Upgraded to a deeper 1300mm 1 & 1/2 bowl and drainer

Laundry

• Cabinet: Upgraded as part of promotion
• Overhead Cabinet: We added this in as a bit of extra storage
• Lock: Upgraded the door handle lock

Outdoor Room

• Tri-Stacker Door: We added in a wider, 3450mm tri-stacker door which is larger than the standard door space and and we also upgraded it to be timber and double glazed

Bathroom

• Basin: Upgraded as part of the promotion
• Tiled Shower Base: Upgraded as part of the promotion
• Tiled Kickrail: We preferred this look of the tiles and it is the same as the ensuite

Doors

• Cavity Sliding Doors: We installed cavity sliding doors in the ensuite to break it off from the bedroom.
• Front Door Size: We upgraded the front door to be higher to go with the higher ceilings
• Higher Doors: Upgraded all doors to be higher than the standard size doors
• Timber Doors: We took the lead from the display home and upgraded the bedroom and pantry doors to the timber corinthian doors with a glazed glass, we also increased the size, as above
• Privacy: We added privacy locks to the central toilet and bathroom

Flooring

• Carpet: 100% Nylon Plush Pile Carpet to bedrooms, hallway, rumpus and living room.
• Floorboards: Truelock 1000 series 90mm x 10mm timber floorboards in spotted gum.

Decking

• Portico Deck: we are having the front deck done which is going to be done in 90mm x 19mm merbau decking

Electricals

• Downlights: We put downloads in the main living areas
• Garage Lights: We substituted the garage baton light for 2 florescent lights
• Front Lights: We added downlights to the front of the house including 2 feature lights on the front portico
• Front Sensor: We put in a front sensor light to light up the downlights and front feature lights
• Dimmer Switches: Added in 3 dimmer switches to the downlights
• Exhaust Fan: Added in exhaust fans into toilets and showers
• Power Points: Of course we added in a whole heap of new powerpoints and light switches etc on top of the standard
• Surge Protector: Added in a single phase surge protector which wasn't included by default

Heating

• Ducted Heating: Added in a 4 star Bonaire ducted heating system with 13 ducts, this is compatible with the evaporative cooling to use a single control

Cooling

• Evaporative Cooling: Upgraded to 4 star VSM 65 Summer Breeze cooling unit with additional cooling points in each bedroom

Additional Upgrades:
There are a number of additional items we added that weren't through Metricon that will be completed after we take the keys.

Alarm
We have a friend that helped us out with a high end security system for the house which has blanketed the entire house after we added in additional sensors.

Ducted Vacuuming
This is something we tossed up about but in the end we're really glad we decided to put it in.

Entrance Security System
We have allowed to put in a front door sensor and doorbell with a screen inside the house so we can see who's at the front door from the living room.

Data & TV Cabling
We had all of our tv and data cabling done by a company named Techlife. We removed out Metricons tv points and and it all goes back to a hills hub that we are putting in to centralise the cabling.


Summary:
All in all, most of the upgrades were your default stock standard upgrades that you do as part of any house. We decided to do quite a few things through Metricon, although it was more expensive, more than anything it was just easier. The electricals cost a fortune through Metricon, however we did leave standard baton lights in most areas, and we only put the downlights in the main areas and to save having to do painting etc later, we just went with the downlights.

The optional upgrades, like alarms and ducted heating are very expensive through Metricon, it is normally retail plus a markup.

We also decided to spend a bit more now rather than regret not doing things at a later point in time, the attention to the detail will hopefully pay off in the long run.