Articulation Zone Setback and Contract Signing

Days before we signed the contract, I had a review of the setbacks from the Elara Design Guidelines - front setback must be 4.5m and the articulation zone should be no less than 3.5m.  I had a look at our drawings and ALAS!!... our articulation zone was 2.9m.

I reported this to Elderton and they acknowledged the error.  This needs to get fixed, our land registration was just weeks away.  This could be easily remedied by moving the whole house 560mm back.  But the current rear setback is only 4030mm.  As per the guidelines, it should be no more than 4000mm.  This could mean that the length of the house will be reduced or cut off the balcony.

..............................................

The day of the contract signed came.  Helena greeted us with her warm smile.  Apparently, John (our previous tender presentor) was already working 1 day a week and Helena took over the job 3 months ago.

Firstly, we discussed the issue with the articulation zone setback.  As a solution, it was suggested to change the facade (no more balcony) or reduce the meals area.  Fair enough, we had no choice but to choose from these options.  But we thought we needed to sleep on it.  It was hard to let go of the balcony.  Equally, we don't want the meals area to be reduced.  So we asked Helena to request to put the two options in a Variation sheet and show the corresponding credit.  Settled!

We went on to the contract.  We were happy to go with Elderton and we signed the contract and paid the 5% deposit.

Electrical Appointment

Heavy storm hit Sydney during this week.  Roads were wet and flooded... but didn't stop me to meet with Costa Electricals since I am looking forward to this appointment.

Jessica was very accommodating. She showed me the sample powerpoints, switches, smart hubs, intercom and alarm systems, ceiling fans and kitchen lights upgrades.

Apparently, Costa was subcontracted by Elderton.  Any upgrades that we add will be separately payable to Costa and will not be a part of home loan.  This was a surprise, but not a big deal.  Since we already have some previous costs of electrical items in our tender, Costa was happy to price match and use that cost in our quote.

I had arranged some extra double powerpoints and light battens all over the house.  LED downlights to be installed after handover.  We also included some external wall lights, TV points, data points, ceiling fans and intercom provisions.  I was also happy that Costa was ok to arrange the NBN wiring provision from the front of the house going to the WIR of the main bed, where all the data point will be terminated in a patch panel.  I really hope that this would work.

I've seen other builders hike up their prices for electrical items. For our case, the prices were reasonable.  Overall, I was really pleased.

At the moment, we haven't finalized our electrical quote.  I will try to upload some prices in the following weeks.

Variations 001-004 + PCV001

Here are the first part of our variations;

Variation 001 - This was the alternate entry feature that Elderton had provided.  It was an extension of the porch with roof with piers.  This thing costed a hefty $10,500.  The standard balcony only costs $8,500 to upgrade so the balcony was obviously the smarter choice.

Variation 002 - We requested to revert the facade to Akora since the Orana balcony wasn't as large as the Akora.  Another item in this variation was the change of sizes of the 2 bedrooms.  All of which costed us nothing.  We had decided to remove the Smart Hub (worth $1,650).  I would be setting up all my ethernet connections and patch panels in the WIR.

Variation 003 - Well... thankfully, all the woes for this one were over. There were discussions on the bag&paint finish for the balcony and balcony piers.  Very grateful to the people in Elderton, Adam and Lisa.  Other items in this variation were the following;

• Golden Oak Timber-look garage doors $385
• Upgrade of tapware, shower rail and bathtub spout $548
• Scyon Matrix cladding in facade $284
• Relocation of rainwater tank and aircon unit to the left side, No Charge

Variation 004 - Since we will be having light battens installed (for downlight provisions), a credit for 28 light fittings was given worth $448.

Post Contract Variation 001 - Remove the letterbox (worth $924).  We will deal with this post handover.

Color Selection Photos

Here are some random photos.

  Stains - dark stain (left), walnut stain (right). 

We opted for the Dark stain for our front door.  This is the closest stain that could match an upgraded golden oak garage door.  As for the Walnut stain, this will be used for our staircase.  I am aiming for an Ebony stain but it is not available at the moment. However, in the coming days, Elderton will be introducing new shades of stains and with crossed fingers, Ebony stain is one of them.

Form-tek Kitchen & Bathroom Cabinets/Vanity selection

The range of selections were pretty good.  Aside from the colored gloss selection, Elderton had some timber-look options that came as standard also.  This is what I was looking for.  We opted for the Charred Oak for the floor cabinets (back bench and island bench),  and a Designer White door for the overhead cabinets as we wanted a classic white feel in the kitchen.  

Kitchen Cabinets - Charred Oak (right), Designer White (left)

Bench Top (Island bench/ Back bench) - Smartstone Arcadia

Kitchen Colors - Overhead cabinets / benchtops / Floor Cabinets

Shower and Tapwares - Standard and Gold Inclusions

Standard stuff here. As a standard inclusion, we were getting the normal tapware which I found to be short, stubby and outdated.  So, we're looking to upgrade to the next level up for tapware only.  We will wait for the cost and see from there.

Taubman Color Sheet 

From this sheet, we had chosen the paints for our facade, main walls etc.  This photo shows only a third of the whole paint selections.  We opted for the cool/grayish tones for the facade.  The brick shown above the color sheet is the Austral Blackbutt color.

Roof Tiles - Boral Vogue range, Gun Metal Color  

These are roof tiles with a flat-profile.  They are very nifty, I like it!!  Photo taken at Boral brickyard.

Bricks - Austral Wilderness Range, Blackbutt Color 

A stylish brick here.  This would work well in a modern/contemporary design.  We were very pleased that Elderton had included this in their standard range.  Photo taken at Austral brickyard.

Floor Tiles - Bosco Argent Timber-look Tiles
Bosco Argent is the one on the bottom left.  This will be done post handover.  I would love a plain greyish porcelain tile for a contemporary look.  However, I think we're going with timber-look tiles.  Photo taken at TFO.

Aircon and Color Selections

It was a lovely sunny day.  Perfect day to hit the beach for the last time before the cold season begins.  Unfortunately, our day was packed with appointments.

We started the day with an appointment with Peter from UltraAir - the airconditioning supplier.  It was quite straightforward, select the aircon ducts and select the aircon model.  Product is the Actron Air Classic, 17.5 kW.  

The upgrade to ESP+ was very tempting since it will save you approx 60% of power comsumption.  It costed $1,800.  However, we didn't bite. :)  

Later in the afternoon, we met Michelle from Elderton for our color selection appointment.  She had assisted us on every single step.  End results are here. 

Selections for the bricks and kitchen cabinets/vanities were pretty much ok, for us at least.  We didn't need to upgrade since we already loved what were provided in the standard selections.  However, we felt that tapware, garage door and balcony paints needed some upgrades.  So we requested a quote for these items.

Overall, we were very happy with our selections.  We were satisfied on how the day turned up.  I will be uploading some photos of the selections in the following posts. Next up, electricals appointment..

Follow-up After Tender Accepted... Continued 2

As expected, we received the first DA drawings in the post.  We had a review and pointed out to Jessica that the balcony size needs to be revised.  Elderton sent a revised drawing with an updated balcony the next day.

We also requested the relocation of the rainwater tank and aircon from the righthand side to the lefthand side (back of the garage).  This would free up a large chunk of space from the righthand side pathway.   Hopefully, the clearances would be enough to fit the tank and aircon.  

Follow-up After Tender Accepted... Continued 1

.... We visited Boral brickyard.  Since an upgraded promo was included in our package, we selected the Vogue range.  This was the flat profile tiles.  Gun Metal or Shale are our possible colors.

We decided to delete the letterbox from the tender.  We plan to have it done post handover to save some ka-ching $$$.