Evaporative Cooling/Heating

PCV raised..

My family and I think we'll probably need to zone our heating/cooling arrangements for the house. We've requested to have 2 thermostats installed in the house, one on the ground level and one on the upper level. 

It is not very usual that someone would make an arrangement such as ours. Have 1 stat on the upper level controlling all of the upper level and the Master Ensuite on the ground level. 
Another stat in the kitchen and controlling all living/dining/lounge/study areas. 

We decided that this would be the best for our family as we can easily get the kids to adjust the heating/cooling for all the bedrooms. Well we tend to be in these areas the most during night times when it can get quite chilly!

One the plus side, we were told that the stat on the lower level CAN adjust the heating/cooling for the other zone, and vice versa!
WIN WIN!

The zoning will be as follows:

We have been advised that this will cost us:

$534 for each zone.  It comes with 1 thermostat as standard, which needs to be upgraded ($220). You will then need an additional thermostat for upstairs ($451)        

Total Cost:

$535 for each zone = $1068

$220 to upgrade the existing thermostat

An additional thermostat is needed for the zones ($231 +  $220 for upgrade)

The details of the unit are:

Mx35i 21kw – 14 outlets.

Contract Signing

Just signed our Contract! 

Again the meeting was longer than usual. 

The sales manager was taking our appointment this time. He went through HIA contract and our Contract again. Going through every single point in the contract. 

We were even able to request for some changes to be made within the house. 

• Included sliding doors in our Ensuite and WIR - this will ensure that no moisture gets leaked out into the bedroom during showers. 
• Provide revised Electrical changes - Include 20 amps
• Include half body height tiles to Powderoom
• Provide mirror extension to Powderoom

Still waiting for the council to get back to us regarding our front setback!!

Sparkies!

Our Electrical appointment was equally as long as our colour and tile selections. We have been to too many in a row!

Well first off, the charges for bulbs and circuits and electrical Amps are WAYYY too expensive! Thus we have opted to go with just standard bulbs in the whole house. 
Allowing for circuits to be run for the whole LOWER level in all rooms, and only single bulbs in the UPPER level. 

Find the compete electrical selections here.

We only finalised our electrical selections after the date because we decided to add on a 20Amps switch for our future air-conditioning system in our Family Room.

Tile Selections

We only visited National Tiles once before our actual selection day. 

Our Facade has some Bluestone chip tiles on the front horizontal area of the balcony. We like how it looks and were happy to go ahead with it until we found out the price. 

The cost of the tile and installing JUST the balcony area with bluestone was going to cost us $12,000. We told them that we'll gladly stick with the standard cladding option. 

Our tiles selections can be found here.

Our Cladding option for the balcony.

James Hardie Scyon Axon Cladding 400

Colour Selections!

We just had our colour selections today!

It was a long and tedious meeting, however because we have had already visited Hopetoun multiple times (almost 3) before our actual colour appointment, we've had a good idea of what are the things we want and didn't want. 

We mainly liked the colour/style scheme from the Greenvale showroom (Whitsundays), Here are some of the things we've selected. 

The full list can be found if you click here

It was hard to select the flooring we wanted as we were given a promotion of paying $4000 for Evaporative cooling AND Bolero Laminate flooring. 

I had been trying to get more information about Bolero and where can I have a look at it being used, but it seems like there is little information about it. The range of colours available for it however is quite extensive and they are almost comparable to the Timber floorings on display. Our sales consultant even told us that Laminate flooring will be more durable compared to Timber. 

So at the end we went with the Rustic Coffee!

We also decided that we will upgrade our carpet underlay. Having good carpet without good underlay is like having a beautiful house built on sand. Cat 4 Steplex Underlay. 

Oh and because we have an extended Garage, we needed a separate Render colour to our Hebel wall to hopefully give it that distinct look. 

Render Colour: 

#1 Time Capsule 

#2 Carriage

Rustic Coffee - Bolero Floor

Our Majestic Pivot Door - INFWS 6G

Vallo Sink for the Powder Rm

Milli Edge on ALL sinks

MIlli Edge wall mixer in all bathrooms

Kado Cirque Sink in Bathroom 1 & 2

Cube 500 Undercounter Sink - Ensuite

Ensuite Bathtub

We had some problems with the free standing bath. Because it is a free standing unit, the spout that is coming out from the wall needs to be long enough to reach the Bath. We initially had a standard spout and that was insufficient. We had to have at least a 300mm bath spout. At our Tender appointment, we had been told that IF by any chance that the spout is discontinued, we will receive a FLOOR spout. Just like the one in the picture above! 

Things to improve on:

Our colour appointment was not finalised until AFTER our contract signing because: 

#1 all of the selections we made at the showroom was NOT transferred to our Building coordinator...for some odd reason. We ended up having Milli Flow tapwares instead of Milli Edge which we selected.

#2 We somehow managed to forget about our evaporative cooling unit COLOUR! 

#3 Our Hopetoun coordinator was helpful and great at what he was doing, however he somehow managed to not select our roof tiles and roof colour tiles. 

#4 Maybe have some sort of internal network link between PD and Hopetoun, rather than having paper documents floating around. An electronic selection method will be great!

Although it took me 4 takes to rectify all the misunderstanding between hopetoun and PD of our selections. My building coordinator was so helpful and most willing to help us get the selections right! She was very prompt in getting our file updated with the correct selections and clarifying areas that were not properly done by Hopetoun.

Underground Energy

24/5/2012
Just put through an order with Jemena for our underground pit to be installed. 
Hopefully the Demo starts straight after our settlement as planned. 

underground pit location requested

30/5/12
Got a letter from Jemena stating that they will not construct the pit at our requested location. They will only construct on boundaries of properties. I guess they have this policy to service both properties if required. 

2nd underground pit proposal

8/6/12

Application received by Jenma. 

19/6/12

Paid for Jenma work.

20 Working days from today!

14/7/12

COMPLETED Underground Pit!

Completed Pit

Completed Pit

Tender Appointment

23 May 2012

Just had out Tender Appointment.
Took a WHOLE afternoon! 1pm - 6pm.

The meeting was not attended by our building coordinator but rather a presenter. 
She was very nice and very professional. 

Prior to the meeting we had already been liaising with our building coordinator and our sales representative. 
However, come to tender signing day, it appears that may of the changes we have requested such as upgrades to our windows and ceiling heights and additional sliding doors have not been passed on to the drafting department who prepared our tender document. 

The meeting started of with our presenter going through every single item on the tender document and explaining to us what they were. Understanding the actual cost involved with having these upgraded items. 

We are requesting for a Dispensation from the council to have a 6m front set-back instead of our neighbour's 8m. After today's appointment we will be notified whether the Council will allow us to essentially have a bigger backyard!


These are some of the MANY changes that had been made to our document:
I may include a copy of our final selections later on.

1. Our Slab had been upgraded from M-class to H-class Waffle Slab due to the soil and survey report which PD had finally received after the first failed attempt.
2. Revised cut and fill from 10.10m level to 10m.
3.  Retaining walls, on side of the property, next to the garage. Engineering retaining walls in the garage area.
4. Include HEBEL offer, render to the whole house. 
5. Evaporative Cooling Unit Provision
6. Provide a 3.8m garage extension, instead of 2m as initially requested.
7. Changed all internal doors to the upgraded ceiling heights.
8. Delete shelving unit in the laundry. Replace it with a broom cabinet.
9. Remove duplication of sink mixer in Kitchen as prestige promotion has already included this.
10. Internal vacuum unit in garage with 4 internal vacuum points.
11. Include Security System
12. Delete all WIP shelving - as we are converting the area into one that will fit a double refrigerator. The space allocated for refrigerator will be our Pantry - Refer below
13. Upgrade kitchen overhead cabinet option
14. Upgrade Master Ensuite cabinet option as per Greenvale Showroom
15. Include Niches in ALL showers.
16. Replace front door with INFWS6G Pivot Front Entry Door, with 2 sidelights to suit.
17. We wanted the large windows in the kitchen as per the display home - upgrade
18. Ensuite cabinet as per Bathroom Ensuite in showroom - upgrade
19. No glass railings on the upper floor where void is located - too expensive! $6000
20. Open area between Study and Family Room
21. Kitchen cabinet up until the island bench - we didn't see a point having the extended cabinets as they cost too much and they weren't something we will need.
22. Increase window size in Bedroom 4 - standard size is TINY!
23. Change Bedroom 2 window - From 2 small units to a single large sliding window
24. Provide 1 extra awning window in Bedroom 5 to get some North Sun!

Our MOST major thing that had been upgraded was our SLAB! We have initially been working our budget around a M-class slab provided by Porter Davis. However, after the 2nd company that went out to do a soil test (ridiculous story with the 1st company that went out) we have gotten a result that was P for Problematic soil conditions - Buratt Engineering.

 

We were astonished as our own Geotech engineers had came back with a result of M soil conditions - Bayside and Suburbs.

I truly believe that PD has gotten an advantage in this area as their own Geotech engineers had been engaged. I believe there must be some sort of agreement between the 2 companies and us home owners lose out in the end. But we are too far deep in the sea now, we have no choice but to add on an additional $32k. 

I can provide the geotech reports if anyone wants to have a look!

Pantry Layout

Took us 3 changes to be made during the presentation for us to finally be happy with our Tender document. 

Having second thoughts about our electrical/colour selections now..