Electrical Appointment

You know when you've already blown the budget at the colour and tile appointments and tell yourself that it's okay because you won't be upgrading anything during electrical therefore you can afford to spend a little extra here and there? Yeah that's what we did and we lied to ourselves big time. Well we ended up spending around 5-6k but that's only because the majority of upgrades we chose were only the installed wiring for the things we'd buy ourselves and install later. We had the wiring done for the tv brackets, intercom, fan placement and ducted theatre surround sound/music (my mother really wants Michael Buble all over the house like the display homes have) which is still expensive in itself but does save us some money for things we can do a little bit later. We also realised that we needed a whole heap of extra double power points for table lamps and reinforced pendant light holders for the staircase and dining for future chandeliers. We also put in down lights for the theatre room, a dimmer, front entrance lighting, a pay tv point, extra tv points, another phone point and rear fog lights...we didn't really expect all of that to equate to that much money but unfortunately it does. We just keep telling ourselves that it's best in the long run to have it all done at once.

Waldorf 48 at William's Landing Display

It was a really rainy gloomy day when we visited the displays at Williams Landing, i didn't really feel like leaving the house but we needed to sort out an issue with our sales consultant in the same location and decided to have a look at the prestige displays while we were there. As soon as we stepped inside we felt overwhelmingly at home and like we never wanted to leave. Buble was playing in the background (i think they have his dvd playing and music ducted in every display home), the fireplace warmed us immediately and an inviting sweeping staircase and check tiled entrance in gorgeous warm colours led out into a large open living area with the most perfect and timeless kitchen i've ever seen. There were cute little knick knacks Porter Davis is always good with adding to their displays and overall we both knew then that we wanted to emulate everything we saw to the best of our abilities (and budget). If you have a similar style aesthetic to me i urge you to make the trip as it's only a fifteen minute drive from Hopetoun at Port Melbourne.

Look at that entrance! The dark wood furnishings and staircase really exudes warmth and character, this is the sort of look i love.

The lounge room is timeless but a little eclectic, i love the lounges and the art deco appeal.

Must find bar stools exactly like this, it feels so open and yet intimate and homely.

We are waiting on a pricing to coat the back of the kitchen in crystal gloss like they have here, it looks beautiful!

Last one of the kitchen, ah love!

Love the curtain colour and the lounge but our rumpus will be slightly darker

These were very obviously taken from the Porter Davis website and there are many more pictures of the Waldorf and other homes on the website link and they even have a 'style finder' option if you're having a hard time finding design inspiration. I also hope this explains my probably boring colour selections, it's so important to have a foundation of colours that can be mixed and matched with a number of different coloured accessories and decor items when you want to refresh the home, after building a few homes already we were really tired of feature walls in very contrasting colours and bright kitchens and the like however tempting a bright red kitchen may be in magazines!

Colour Appointment

Today was our colour appointment and despite nerves we soon started to enjoy ourselves and knowing the colours we'll be having makes it much easier to imagine the house when it's completed. Our consultant was very nice and thorough but i felt that the standard range for a lot of things weren't very attractive options and we found ourselves upgrading a lot of things especially the bathroom taps and sinks as the standard had a pokey side tap where you have to squash your hands under in a corner of the sink just to get them clean. Luckily due to the promotion we took we already had an upgraded sink and tapware for the powder and ensuite but we upgraded in the main bathroom and added mixer taps to the shower, laundry and bathtub. Also am i the only one who hates those standard showerheads? You know the one that falls down all the time and you're constantly having to retwist in place? Those should be banned! We upgraded to a hand held style in the main with the hand held already included for the ensuite. Other upgrades were the kitchen handles, prestige veggie sprayer tap, patterned sidelights, dead locks, privacy locks, offwhite mortar and crystal gloss to the side of the kitchen counter overlooking the dining just like the Waldorf display at Arndell. In fact everything we have chosen thus far in colour and tile selections have been made to look like the Waldorf display as it's absoloutely perfect and what i am aiming for..i'll show some pictures of the display in the next post so you can see where i'm going with my colours.

Anyway here are the selections we made!
Exterior
Roof: Macquarie in Ebony
Fascia and Guttering: Colorbond Monument
Brick: Brushwood Category 1 brick with offwhite mortar
Garage: Caprice style in Colorbond Monument
Front Door: Corinthian Homebush Celebration in Deep Indian Red (wanted wood or black but wood upgrade was expensive and black was unavailable due to bubbling in the heat so will replace with mahogany wood at a later date.
Bi-Fold Doors: English Walnut stain

Paint 
Internal Paint: Wattyl Smoke Pearl with Oriental White architraves
Rumpus room colour: Wattyl Reiki
Alfresco Beams: Colorbond Dune

Kitchen
Counter: Caesar Stone Osprey
Cupboards: Ebony Macassar
Overhead Cupboards: Pumice
Splashback: Cafe Latte tiles

Main Bathroom
Tile: Portifino Bianco Gloss
Counter: Ebony Macassar
Cupboards: Ebony Macassar
Sink: Valentino
Tapware: Raymor Torino Basic Pillar Mixer

Ensuite
Counter: Caesar Stone Osprey
Cupboards: Ebony Macassar
Sink: Raymor Pearl Round
Tapware: Side Handle Basin Mixer

Powder Room
Counter: Caesar Stone Osprey
Sink: Raymor Pearl Round
Tapware:  Cross Handle Taps

Carpet
Category 1 Belmont Old Leather with Category 3 Supreme underlay

Top is Pumice samples above Cafe Latte tile splashback with Osprey counter and then Ebony Macassar beneath with Majestic tile finishing. To the right is Smoke Pearl internal paint, Crystal gloss Ebony Macassar and another little sample of Osprey. Terrible picture, the Ebony Macassar is much more vivid with caramel/orangey streaks through it to add some character but overall everything ties really well together.

Good news!

I'm pretty sure by now i've painted myself as an overly dramatic worry wart which might not stray too far from the truth....but i have excellent news! So we didn't go the Bianco porcelain as it was just too expensive but we found one called the Majestic at $42 or the MAXFL1540 (code) if anyone has similar decor tastes that ties in beautifully with our colour scheme and is almost identical to the Bianco except with less yellowing to it. I was dreading the tile appointment big time but it went so smoothly and swiftly that i actually found myself enjoying it! We had a choice of the glass or tile splash back but since we decided that we didn't want to upgrade to starfire (a glass splashback without iron and therefore the green tinge) we went with the tile. Here are our selections:

Main floor Tile: Majestic Ivory Polished 600x600

Splashback is in Cafe Latte (i think) 100x300 tiles pictures at end of post.

Bathroom tiles are in the standard range of Portifino Bianco gloss which i think are 400x400, pictures at end of post

Upstairs balcony tiles are in Portifino Low Lands rough finish also 400x400

I hope you can read the names i guess i made the text quite small and sorry for the picture quality i used my Blackberry instead of a camera. The selection may look a little 'boring' but we like these colours, this is going to be our forever home and we want the colours to look fresh now and in ten years time.

Close up of my Majestic sample:

You can see the little browny specks in the tile which will compliment our wood kitchen, dark furnishings and golden brown carpet!