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.

Confusion with Facade

Sent an email to Eden Brae today. Ever since our tender presentation in November, our chosen facade has been referred to as 'Long Island' not 'Hampton' as per previous discussions. We referred to the initial email and photo that we had sent to Eden Brae's sales representative that did not appear to have a balcony despite Eden Brae now telling us that the facade would have a balcony. It didn't make sense. We were assured that we would love the 'Long Island' facade.

Over the christmas New Year break, SJ did some digging and worked out that Long Island is in fact a different facade. Both the Hampton and Long Island facades are from Porter Davis in Victoria which has the same design partner as Eden Brae – RSS Design Studio. We requested the Hampton facade from Porter Davis, which Eden Brae agreed to provide in early 2016.

Both Long Island and Hampton are hampton-style facades but Long Island has a balcony and Hampton doesn't. To make things even more confusing, the Porter Davis site now promotes a facade called New England which looks very similar to the Hampton but applied to different floor plan/s. In fact, it looks like they might even use different names for the same facades across difference ranges.

The Hampton facade. Image sourced from Porter Davis website.

The Long Island facade. Image sourced from Porter Davis website.

The New England facade which looks very similar to the Hampton facade.
Image sourced from Porter Davis website.

So I sent an email to Eden Brae today ahead of our contract meeting at the end of the month. Hopefully we can sort it out before their design team starts on plans and elevations. The big lesson here is – check, double check and keep on checking. Hopefully the promise of the facade doesn't turn out to be a facade.

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.