Facade update

External painting started on Valentines Day and the scaffolding came down today, giving us our first good look at the facade. There is still additional painting to be done, with the rendered ground floor to be painted the same colour as the cladding and all mouldings around windows to match the eaves i.e. Colorbond Surfmist.

Scaffolding was left around the portico for the installation of the roof frame, which will sit inside the brickwork with the roof invisible from the street.

Details, details

In amongst all the significant external construction work – roofing, brickwork etc – is the installation of the external wall moulding. This architectural feature divides the brickwork and the first floor cladding and is a minor but important detail on our "hampton" facade. It wraps around the entire external facade.

Melbourne and furniture

What happens when you make a trip to Melbourne for the Aus Open Tennis? You look at furniture.

Heading to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy for lunch, we came across a strip of furniture and homeware shops. Only natural to check a few out right?

Not sure what the budget will be for a new lounge but what is clear is that there might be some differences of opinion on style, comfort, materials etc. One of the places we visited was Sofas Direct and we were impressed with what we saw. They manufacture in Melbourne and can even make custom adjustments to their range eg. back height, arm width etc. Don't know much about them, but will definately do some more research.

Here are a few pics.

Flush tracks for our aluminium stacker doors

Door tracks on external sliding doors are not only a trip hazard, but a little ugly. A good friend of ours gave us a little tip from their KDR experience. All you need to do is to have a recess put into the slab to allow for the door frame. This is not standard so you need to ask for it.

You can see the recess in the photos below. All the contractors do is insert some formwork into the concrete based on the construction drawings. I watched them do it and it took no time at all.

The only reason we will have a flush finish on our external stacker doors is because we were given a great tip from our friend Kerith.

Personally I think this should be standard or at the very least offered as an option during the tender stage. It is little details like this that contribute to a great result.

Pendant Light for Powder Room

The first piece of our new home arrived this week – a pendant light for the powder room from Ivory & Deane. We decided to purchase it in case it was no longer available by the time our rebuild was finished. 

The smallest room in the house is where we have decided to have a bit of fun with black, white and highlights in copper tones. We have chosen a matt black subway tile for the wall behind the basin/mirror. The wall tile will be laid in a herringbone pattern with black grout. Since we do not require any storage, we will go with a 600mm wall hung basin from Studio Bagno with AstraWalker's Metropolis basin mixer in flemish copper. To soften the square lines of the basin we will hang a round mirror from IKEA (Grundtal) with a black leather strapped mirror kit from etsy.com – thanks to Robyn from Inspired Interiors for that find! The pendant with it's black and copper detailing and a retro edison filament globe will finish the look.

Feature wall elevation

Flemish copper (right) is more subtle than copper (left)

Black subway tile with 600 x 600 floor tile and spotted gum flooring sample

Kitchen Design

'The kitchen is the heart of the home' is a common saying and in our family of six that is certainly the case. We went into our Kitchen Culture appointment with a clear idea of what we wanted. We had a mood board with research from sites like Houzz and had even developed some draft elevations ourselves including thoughts on colours and finishes. Robyn from Inspired Interiors also joined us to offer her expertise and advice as a qualified kitchen designer.

Sample mood board

Houzz is a great resource – not only for identifying want you like but just as importantly what you don't like. Our visual research led us towards a palette of white and grey combined with the warmth of timber.

Which Floor Species?

One of the key considerations was the selection of species for the flooring. Blackbutt and Spotted Gum are both popular flooring options. Right now Blackbutt is arguably more in favour but we decided to go with Spotted Gum as we liked the slightly darker colour as well as the greater variation in colour and also the grey veins that run through the boards.

Design

We have kept with Eden Brae's Sandringham kitchen layout – a galley plus an island – with the following changes:

• increased the island bench overhang and added waterfall edges
• added a window splash back
• added overheads above the freestanding oven with a concealed undermount range hood
• added one run of floor cabinets in the WIP
• addition of bulkhead above overhead cabinets
• use of pot drawers

We have stayed with the standard range of inclusions for appliances excluding the fridge which is not included in Eden Brae's kitchen package.

The lighting plan for the kitchen will also be a key consideration. So far we have included LED lighting in the overheads and placement of batons to accommodate three pendants above the island bench.

Draft galley elevation

Draft elevation including island bench

Finishes and Palette

Kitchen base cabinets: Satin Polyurethane in Dulux Mt Eden

Kitchen overheads: Laminex Impressions Sublime Teak Riven Finish

Kichen benchtop: essastone Pure Cloud

Splashback: window and essastone Pure Cloud

Palette for kitchen

WIP base cabinets: Formica Ashphalt (selected to match Dulux Mt Eden)

WIP benchtop: Laminex Fresh Snow (selected to match essastone Pure Cloud)

Palette for walk in pantry

Facade and exterior palette

The facade is a modified version of the Long Island. The exterior will be brick on the ground floor and weatherboard on the first floor. The entire front facade will be rendered and painted the same colour as the weatherboard (see palette below).

Finishes and palette

Render & weatherboard: Taubman's 'Miss Molly'
Exposed brick (sides and rear): Truffle from PGH (this is an upgrade from standard range)
Roof tiles: Monier Horizon Sambuca
Windows: Colorbond® Surfmist
Gutters and Facia: Colorbond® Monument

Floor Plans

Here are our floor plans. We have made the following modifications to Eden Brae's Sandringham 38:

• increased the depth of the house by 500mm
• added the alfresco
• added 1000mm to the width of the garage
• increased the size of the laundry/reduced size of the living space
• reconfigured the ensuite, walk in robe (master bedroom), powder room and walk in pantry

Home Options: Meeting 1

Our first Home Options appointment was today which included:

• Exterior colour selection and finishes
• Interior colour selection
• Door furniture
• Kitchen design
• Ensuite, bathroom and powder room cabinetry
• Vanity and tapware selection
• Kitchen appliance selection
• Air conditioning

At times we felt like we were being pushed through a factory – it was a lot to get through in one day. We had visited PGH, the Home Options gallery and had also been to Di Lorenzo twice to look at flooring and tile selection prior to today, so we had done our homework and were well prepared. From what we can gather around 70% of Eden Brae's clients are investors and a lot of them are not that concerned with selecting colours and finishes. I guess if it is not your home your main priority is getting a valuation of your list of inclusions so that you can give it to your accountant to calculate your tax deductions! Most investors are also unlikely to spend a lot on upgrades. We on the other had, do care and want to be happy with the home we are building and intending to live in.

Sandringham Display Home in Melbourne

To our knowledge Eden Brae have not built a Sandringham in Sydney. In fact, Eden Brae do not have the Sandringham on display which makes it very hard to visualise the design. Perhaps this explains why no one has built one!

Eden Brae source many of their designs from RSS Design Studio – a Melbourne based design company. The Sandringham design is also built by Porter Davis – a Melbourne based builder. They use the name 'Somerville'. It seems that Eden Brae and Porter Davis license a number of RSS Design Studio layouts eg. The Waldorf.

Porter Davis have the Sandringham on display about 50 minutes north of Melbourne CBD. Today we travelled to Melbourne for a couple of days at the Australian Open and decided that we should take the opportunity to inspect the display home ahead of our contract meeting with Eden Brae.

There are a couple of minor differences between the standard layouts used by Eden Brae and Porter Davis. For example Porter Davis runs the staircase in the opposite direction to Eden Brae. Overall though the Porter Davis layout was very similar to what we were expecting. The void over the rear living space is a stunning feature! We also loved the upstairs layout – the size of the living space and bedrooms which is very well suited to our family.

Overall it was definitely worth the visit and confirmed that we are heading in the right direction.

Entrance Hallway: The Porter Davis layout has the staircase running in the opposite direction.

End of entrance hallway looking into kitchen & living space

View of Dining/Living from Kitchen

Upstairs living space

The void is probably the key feature of the Sandringham layout

What is good design and who cares anyway?

Our decision to initially brief an architect to renovate our existing home was based on a love for design. To be honest, we are not huge fans of project homes and wanted our renovation to be sensitive to both the local built and natural environment. Our architect did not disappoint by coming up with a solution that we believe a draftsperson would not have put forward – see Renovation: Episode I. Unfortunately local government and planning regulations do more to encourage the proliferation of ‘ugly’ and ‘bland’ – see Renovation: Episode II.

The reality however, is that most of us cannot afford ‘bespoke’ design. The main problem is building costs – which in Sydney have become ridiculous. To have arrived at the point where we have decided to build a project home is the result of years of frustration and the reality that a knock down rebuild represents significantly better value for money. At least we think we have found a project home and façade that we are happy with.

Which Facade?

Not surprisingly, the key considerations for us in choosing a facade where visual appeal and cost. Cost ranges from the Heritage (included in the base price) all the way up to +$25k. A big factor in the final cost is choice of bricks and other finishes eg. amount of rendering, stonework, hardwood timber, glass etc. It can be a little confusing and unclear. Final costs do not become clearer until the tender and contract stages of the purchasing process.

The other issue for us was that we found the choice a little underwhelming, especially in the sub $15k range. We were keen to find a facade that would not look like your typical 'project home'. A lot of Eden Brae's designs come from RSS Design Studio in Melbourne and in fact many of Eden Brae's designs are shared with Porter Davis in Victoria. A review of the Porter Davis site identified a hampton-style facade called 'Hampton' – who would have thought! I am not necessarily a massive fan of the hampton style in general but I do like it a lot more than the other options in our budget. More importantly, my wife loves it and we both agreed that it does not look like your typical project home facade.

We emailed our sales contact at Eden Brae to ask if the Hampton Facade was available in Sydney and it was!

Hampton Facade. Source: Porter Davis website. Design: RSS Design Studio.

Which Project Home?

Choosing a project home was not really that difficult in the end. It really come down to finding a 5 bedroom floor plan that would fit our block without going anywhere near our 1 in 100 year flood zone which affects the rear of our block – see Renovation: Episode I.

That constraint alone narrowed our options quite considerably and included the Sandringham 38 by Eden Brae, Trentham and Vaucluse by Metricon and Benham by Rawson Homes. Both Metricon's Trentham and Rawson's Benham would have required modifications to add a 5th bedroom so were less than ideal, but initially, we wanted a few options to get some ballpark costs.

The next step was to visit a Display Home Centre and have some initial conversations with a few sales consultants. Unfortunately none of the project homes we were interested in were on display. Visiting display homes can raise expectations about affordability. They are all professionally 'styled' and usually feature high level finishes and expensive additions eg. open tread staircases, outdoor kitchens, plunge pools etc. This is all part of the sales & marketing process.

The other discovery is that each company has their own approach to promotions and pricing. Eden Brae for example have the somewhat questionable (and amusing) '$1 Upgrade' packages. At the end of day, they were all around about the same price point – without going to a detailed tender with all of them – so for us the choice came down to our preferred layout and whether we were comfortable with the reputation of the builder.

Without a doubt, our preferred layout was the Sandringham 38. It was the best fit for our block and with four daughters, having the kids bedrooms upstairs, with two bathrooms and a living space was just about the perfect second floor layout for our family.

In addition friends of ours had built a home with Eden Brae in 2013 and had a very positive experience. This provided us with a lot of confidence to move forward.

Eden Brae's Sandringham 38 Plan