Aother visit to Homeworld
We visited Kellyville Homeworld this morning for the 35th time to check a few measurements. Yes, I made that up, we have visited Kellyville Homeworld so many times in the past 12 months that I already lost count. But it's definitely over 20 times.
We spent the whole morning, going through almost every bit of our drawings. We also checked every cupboard, drawers, robe, vanity, ...etc. And we noticed a few things worth further discussion with the builder.
Kitchen - kickboard is veneer, not Tasmanian Oak
We all thought the whole kitchen cupboard are made of Tasmanian Oak. The other day while going through the colour selection details, we noticed the kickboard material is noted as "veneer". We checked and confirmed today that, unfortunately, as shown in the photo showing from the fridge space, it's indeed made in veneer with a thin Tasmanian Oak colour coating/skin on top.
This is not a major issue as the colour looks exactly the same. In the worst case, can cover the whole kickboard with tile, if the budget permits...
Kitchen - big gap inside bottom drawer
We also discovered a big gap inside the bottom drawer under the oven. The funny thing is, even the Princeton Kitchen has the same problem. Will discuss with builder and see if they can do anything about this.
Photo from Palace Regent Kitchen
Photo from Princeton Kitchen
Kitchen - cooktop with battery operated ignition
The standard Palace Regent kitchen cooktop has a "battery" operated ignition. I checked under it and found this ugly little battery holder hidden at the back. Luckily we upgraded to the other model using eletric ignition. I wouldn't want to change battery all the time just for that!
Bathroom - no mini-tap under vanity
Checked all 3 bathrooms, none of the connections under the vanity has a mini-tap for cold/hot water connection. This means if there's any service required with the tap above the vanity, you have to run all the way outside the house, to the main tap near the water meter to shut it. We experienced a bursted pipe under the vanity before in our old house and that wasn't fun. Will also discussed with builder about this.
Bathroom - why there's an extra mini-tap near the floor?
As the displayed items in the Palace Regent and Princeton are a bit out-of-date, we also visited the newly built model to have a better feeling of the interiors. Again there's no mini-tap under the vanity, but I noticed there's an extra mini-tap near the floor in every bathroom.
As shown in photos below, the one in Powder room downstairs is next to the shower hob, and the one in the ensuite is behind the toilet. Don't know what's that for, may be for cleaning the floor? Personally it would be more useful to have it installed under the vanity for each tap.
Photo of extra mini-tap in Powder room
Photo of extra mini-tap in ensuite
Laundry - new tub
The Palace Regent still shows the old plastic laundry tub, with a sign saying all new houses will get a stainless one. We finally saw it in the newly built house.
Originally we paid to upgrade to the Princeton laundry bench, also paid extra to upgrade to 70L tub. We then decided to drop the height for about 5cm and the builder wanted to charge us for that as well! We are really unhappy about that and decided to cancel the whole thing. We will just keep the basic tub and install a new benchtop by ourself after hand-over.
TermGuard
We heard about this "TermGuard" thing for Termite protection quite a few times and today finally have a good look at it.
Update: have a look at this discussion from homeone.com.au forum where further details about TermGuard are been discussed.
This is the cover, there's a few of them around the house.
With cover removed, the pipes shown.
This is the old one installed in the Princeton, looks much bigger and the pipes seems different.
Water Tank
Also from the new displayed house, we finally have a better idea of what the water tank system looks like. We have a slimeline one exactly the same as the one on display.
This photo shows the control box.
With the cover opened, shows the motor and filter
A few other equipments connected as well, looks like some sort of leaf guard or filtering thing. Read from one of the web site that talks about the first flush diverters and this might be it.
6 comments:
I would have it at a guess that the space is deliberate to allow air circulation around the oven.
timbo
May be you are right!
Thanks for the information, will check with builder at our next meeting.
Allan
I visited Quinn home last Sunday, and I noticed this is in their standard inclusions. Did you upgrade all your internal and external water service pipes to copper? I am told this will prevent leaking. Is this right?
Many thanks
inclus
I remember we did ask for a quote and the price was ridiculously high so we didn't go ahead.
Don't know about "prevent leaking", I think may be if there's any movement (quite rare since whole house on one single slab with lots of concrete piers below) the copper ones can sort of extend better, or sustain the movement better?
Allan
I want to tile to the ceiling for the wet area, but the builder's price is expensive, what is your advice? buy additional tiles, then have them tiled later?
many thanks
If budget allows, definitely do it as it increases your property value.
It's definitely better to do everything in one go.
When we did ours, our builder allowed us to deal directly with the tiler/tile supplier. We just pay them the extra bit separately.
If you were not allowed to deal with the tiler/tile supplier, may be try to get the tiler's detail and get him to return later to finish the job.
Regardless, don't forget to order the tiles all in one batch, as they might later run out of stock or might come in different colour due to different batch.
Or try to get a few quote from other suppliers, may be you can find a cheaper source, may be in th end the price were pretty much the same, they are indeed quite expensive!
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