Building Journey: Eden Brae Livingstone 23 Blog

Saturday, 12 July 2014

External Quote - Kitchen

We've reached out to an external kitchen manufacturer called Paradise Kitchens (Wetherill Park, Sydney) to quote on the 'remaining' kitchen requirements. It's such a shame to learn the standard kitchen with Eden Brae (even with the upgrades package) doesn't even come with overhead cupboards!

Here is what is included in our Eden Brae kitchen package:

Laminex 400mm Squareform benchtops to island and cooktop run
Stainless steel 900mm canopy rangehood
Stainless steel 900mm gas cooktop with wok burner
Veninni 600mm oven
Stainless steel 1.75 bowl Monaco kitchen sink
Irwell Yukon mixer to kitchen sink
Dishwasher provision
Cupboards underneath island and cooktop run
Standard ceramic tiles for the kitchen splashbask
Wire shelves to walk-in-pantry

Here is what we're looking to upgrade with Eden Brae / Kitchen Culture:

900mm Baumatic oven
900mm Baumatic curved glass rangehood
5 x pot draws either side of the oven
Increase length and depth of stone kitchen island benchtop
Inclusion of bin draw
Monaco double kitchen sink with left hand side drainer
Mirrorsheild splashback (TBC)

Here are two quotes to fitout the walk-in-pantry and overhead cupboards:

Paradise Kitchens walk-in-pantry quote:

Laminated two tone finish

Polar white overhead cabinets

Lustrous Elm natural finish all other cabinets

1mm PVC edge

20mm Essastone bench top new crystal salt

Delivery and installation of cabinets and stone bench tops

Floor cabinets and overhead cabinets

Standard Hardware

Microwave pantry cabinet / double door pantry cabinet

Bi fold Appliance cabinet

Laminated end panels

Brushed Aluminium kickboards

Modern Square Handles cross bar handles

Supply and install RAW MDF Bulkheads

Overall Height 2250mm

Price quoted for above items $7,500.00
Supply and install glass splash back mirror shield based on 2.05sqm $1,400.00
Soft close hardware $800.00
Silk Polyurethane overhead cabinet $ 950.00
Grand total $10,650.00

Paradise Kitchens overhead cupboards to cooktop run quote:

Laminated Finish

Polar white overhead cabinets

1mm PVC edge

Polar white back panel behind canopy

Delivery and installation of overhead cabinets

Overhead cabinets only

Standard hinges

Modern square cross bar handles

Supply and install RAW MDF Bulkheads 300mm

Overall height 700mm

Price quoted for above items $2,200.00
Supply and install glass splash back based on $2.85sqm $2,000.00
Grand total $4,200.00

Kitchen Drawings:
Here are our sketches of the kitchen and the walk-in-pantry so you can visualise what we're after. We put these together so that when getting quotes we can compare apples to apples. We've also re-posted the kitchen photos from the Livingstone 23 Display Home for your reference.

Kitchen Cooktop Run.

Kitchen Island.

Kitchen Walk-In-Pantry.

Livingstone 23 Display Home Kitchen - view of island and cooktop run.

Livingstone 23 Display Home Kitchen - view of cooktop run, island and walk-in-pantry.

Livingstone 23 Display Home Kitchen - pictured is the Moncao 1.75 kitchen sink with right hand side drainer. We're planning to upgrade to a Monaco double bowl kitchen sink with a left hand side drainer so that we have more space on the kitchen island itself. In addition increase both the length and depth of the kitchen island.

Livingstone 23 Display Home Kitchen - this area to be converted to a larger walk-in-pantry as per the sketch above.

Here is a link to read more on our kitchen inspiration and research process; click here

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Land Development - Progress Pictures

A picture journey of the last 12 months (Mar 14 - Feb 15) capturing our road being cut, curb and guttering, asphalt laid, street sign stuck into the ground, services installed, council tree planted, family photo, aerial view if the entire estate, red pegs, fencing, the famous Eden Brae construction sign and finally slab excavation!

Fast forward to view the 'Build Progress (Slab to Linnings)' post > Click here

29 March 2014 Update

29 March 2014 - Estate prior to any residential development.
Our block cannot be accessed as they're still cutting in the road.

29 March 2014 - Close-up cutting in the road.

24 May 2014 Update

24 May 2014 - Curb and guttered!

24 May 2014 - Our block now with curb and guttering!

6 July 2014 Update

6 July 2014 - Road now with asphalt. No street name as yet!

6 July 2014 - Our block!

13 July 2014 Update

Exciting news this week, our street name has been confirmed!
We also have trees being planted in front of every
property - not to sure how long they'll last!

24 August 2014 Update

Land registration still planned for end of November.
Our first picture together in front of our block!

29 October 2014

Land registered 29 October 1 month ahead of schedule.
Bring on construction!

19 December 2014

Red pegs officially in the ground. Waiting for our site
supervisor to be assigned, then it's excavation time!
1 year and 6 days since signing the contract, it's gone
both slow and fast for us! :)

29 December 2014

Aerial view of the entire estate (stage 1 complete, stage 2 & 3 work in progress!)

11 January 2015

Fencing up and land looking a little overgrown!
We are still waiting for our SS to be appointed and
excavation to commence. Feels like it's dragging!

6 February 2015

The sign which means you've officially
been released to construction!

Fast forward to view the 'Build Progress (Slab to Linnings)' post > Click here

Monday, 30 June 2014

Research - Temporary Blinds

I stumbled across this really great site that offer temporary blinds at ridiculous prices - if you're not ready to go all out on your blinds quote. Such a cost effective solution for new home builders!

They're manufactured by a company called Redi Shade in the US and are distributed here in Australia by a company called Ezyblind, based in Melbourne. The temporary blinds come in a variety of sizes and colours, and the best bit is you only need a pair of scissors or stanley knife to install them!

I have no affiliation with this company, I just think it is such a cool idea and wished we had of stumbled across this sooner. Our blinds quote is already signed off...

Ezyblind Window Solutions: http://www.ezyblind.com.au/

Research - Laundry

Our laundry is now double the original size! We were able to increase the space from approx. 2.4 x 1.5m to 2 x 3m as a result of deleting the open study. Technically what we have done is turned the Livingstone back into the Manchester floor plan, as the study is the only real difference between the two!

Here is the original laundry space:

Livingstone 23 laundry space, as you can see only
room for 1 x front loader washing machine.

The open study which we deleted and
split the between WIP and laundry.

Here is what we plan to do with the space:

New laundry floor plan.

We wanted the space to be as functional as possible, to have plenty of storage space for linen, blankets, vacuum cleaner, ironing board, mop, broom and all the other bits and pieces. I would have loved to have drawers with integrated washing baskets, however happily compromised by splitting the tall linen cupboard into two sections, and dedicating the bottom section for the washing baskets.

We plan to get the new laundry floor plan quoted through Kitchen Culture, however know it's going to be a costly exercise! So we'll probably end up completing the necessities through Kitchen Culture and finish the rest of the kitchen through a third party company who specialises in kitchens.

Here are some of my laundry inspiration pictures from Pinterest:

Laundry Inspiration.

Research - Taubmans Paints

Eden Brae as part of the standard range let you choose one out of 54 colours available, as featured in the Taubmans Custom Colour Selections booklet, pictured below. This will be applied using two coats; the first being the undercoat with the second being your choice of paint. To upgrade to a three coat application will cost approx. $1,000 based on what I have read from other blogs.

If you've started to research or are undecided between colours my recommendation would be to get to your nearest Taubmans store or stockist and purchase sample pots (ours cost $11 per pot). This way you get a better feel of the colour and if it throws any other colours that you might not have been expecting.

In the interim, I have scoured the internet gathering photos from the standard range available. I hope this is useful for you:

Taubmans standard paint colours