I had a very positive conversation with Bev at Eden Brae today about our Kitchen and the use of Scotia. Bev was very responsive, friendly and solution oriented – big tick from us!
The plan is to install the kitchen first on the slab as per their normal practice, minus the kickboards, barback and waterfall stone bench. Once the floor is laid, kitchen installers will return to install the kickboards, barback and benchtop. This will involve an additional cost as it involves a call back for trades but it is a cost we are happy to accept to get the result that we want i.e. no scotia. We still need to communicate this with Kitchen Culture, but Bev did not see any problem.
The most important issue is to make a decision about flooring and understand the impact of that decision. Hardwood strip flooring requires a 40mm allowance, whereas a floating floor requires 20mm. This has implications for bench heights, window splashback etc and even floor levels throughout the rest of the ground floor eg. carpeted rooms.
The lesson is to consider all these potential issues upfront. The challenge of course is that this requires a keen eye for detail and the advice of people around you who know what they are talking about, because not all of us our experts.
Thursday, 23 February 2017
Monday, 20 February 2017
Scotia Nightmare!
We love hardwood floors, so during the tender process we allowed for a flooring upgrade.
In preparation for our two meetings to select finishes and colours, we visited Di Lorenzo twice to look at carpet, hardwood flooring and tiles. At our first Home Options meeting last week, we were required to choose our interior colours and finishes for kitchen and bathroom vanities, but to do that we needed to have considered flooring i.e. will our colour and finish selections work with our flooring? Eden Brae's process of choosing wall colours etc., first seems 'arse about' to me. I would have thought you build your palette of colour and finishes from the floor up. As a print designer this makes sense and speaking to friends who are interior designers only confirmed my thinking. The right process is incredibly important to good design.
Scotia! Aghh!
When talking to the sales people at Di Lorenzo about hardwood flooring options, we were told that we would need to select scotia to run around the edges of our kitchen cabinetry. To say we were shocked is an understatement. On further investigation, we discovered that Eden Brae's standard practice is to install the kitchen first and then lay the floor – whether it be tiles, a floating floor or a hardwood floor.
Scotia is therefore required to finish off the edges because an allowance has be made for the floor to expand and contract. Tiles on the other had can be cut for a tight fit and finished with grout and caulking.
When you speak to flooring experts however, best practice is to lay a hardwood floor first. Then other trades can walk on the floor to fit out the internals. No protection of the floor is required, because the floor is sanded and finished once the internal fit-out is complete. This results in the very best result and removes the need for scotia, which looks bloody awful!
A hardwood floor (i.e. strip flooring) can bear the weight of a kitchen. We have some conflicting advice on engineered floors – most experts say an engineered floor can not bear the weight of a kitchen whereas we know of one supplier who claims it can. Whatever the case, we do not want scotia ruining a beautiful kitchen.
We have spoken to our Customer Service Administrator (CSA) about this issue and have been advised that Eden Brae will not change their process. I can only guess that Eden Brae is totally geared towards the investment market with 70% of clients investors who would select a standard floor inclusion i.e. tiles. We will be writing to management on this issue, but if anyone has any insights it would be appreciated.
I hope I don't sound like a whinger but attention to detail is the difference between an average job and a great job, the difference between ordinary and quality. Eden Brae I am sure would consider themselves to be a quality builder but on this issue, their process is wrong. As I said above, process is critical to good design and it is also critical to quality building.
What is really disappointing is that the use of scotia was not made clear during the tender process. We were very clear that we were interested in a hardwood floor. I believe we should have been told that the floor would be laid around the kitchen not on top of it. We just assumed that the job would be done properly. We assumed wrong.
If you have your heart set on a hardwood floor and want the job done properly…choose another builder.
In preparation for our two meetings to select finishes and colours, we visited Di Lorenzo twice to look at carpet, hardwood flooring and tiles. At our first Home Options meeting last week, we were required to choose our interior colours and finishes for kitchen and bathroom vanities, but to do that we needed to have considered flooring i.e. will our colour and finish selections work with our flooring? Eden Brae's process of choosing wall colours etc., first seems 'arse about' to me. I would have thought you build your palette of colour and finishes from the floor up. As a print designer this makes sense and speaking to friends who are interior designers only confirmed my thinking. The right process is incredibly important to good design.
Scotia! Aghh!
When talking to the sales people at Di Lorenzo about hardwood flooring options, we were told that we would need to select scotia to run around the edges of our kitchen cabinetry. To say we were shocked is an understatement. On further investigation, we discovered that Eden Brae's standard practice is to install the kitchen first and then lay the floor – whether it be tiles, a floating floor or a hardwood floor.
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| Scotia |
When you speak to flooring experts however, best practice is to lay a hardwood floor first. Then other trades can walk on the floor to fit out the internals. No protection of the floor is required, because the floor is sanded and finished once the internal fit-out is complete. This results in the very best result and removes the need for scotia, which looks bloody awful!
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| Scotia installed around an island bench in a Metricon display home. Let's be honest – it looks crap! |
A hardwood floor (i.e. strip flooring) can bear the weight of a kitchen. We have some conflicting advice on engineered floors – most experts say an engineered floor can not bear the weight of a kitchen whereas we know of one supplier who claims it can. Whatever the case, we do not want scotia ruining a beautiful kitchen.
We have spoken to our Customer Service Administrator (CSA) about this issue and have been advised that Eden Brae will not change their process. I can only guess that Eden Brae is totally geared towards the investment market with 70% of clients investors who would select a standard floor inclusion i.e. tiles. We will be writing to management on this issue, but if anyone has any insights it would be appreciated.
I hope I don't sound like a whinger but attention to detail is the difference between an average job and a great job, the difference between ordinary and quality. Eden Brae I am sure would consider themselves to be a quality builder but on this issue, their process is wrong. As I said above, process is critical to good design and it is also critical to quality building.
What is really disappointing is that the use of scotia was not made clear during the tender process. We were very clear that we were interested in a hardwood floor. I believe we should have been told that the floor would be laid around the kitchen not on top of it. We just assumed that the job would be done properly. We assumed wrong.
If you have your heart set on a hardwood floor and want the job done properly…choose another builder.
Thursday, 16 February 2017
Home Options: Meeting 1
Our first Home Options appointment was today which included:
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.
- 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.
Friday, 13 January 2017
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.
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.
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| Entrance Hallway: The Porter Davis layout has the staircase running in the opposite direction. |
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| End of entrance hallway looking into kitchen & living space |
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| View of Dining/Living from Kitchen |
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| Upstairs living space |
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| The void is probably the key feature of the Sandringham layout |
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
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.
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.
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.
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| The Hampton facade. Image sourced from Porter Davis website. |
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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.
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