Sub-Contractor Delays During Colour Stage

We were hoping to have all of the outstanding options finalised by the day after the Colours Appointment (30 Oct), as suggested by the Fowler Homes Colour Consultant. It has now been over a week and we are still waiting on prices for some kitchen upgrades...

Also, it has been over a week since I made my first of three calls to Vaccaro Electrical to make an appointment to do our Electrical Plan. Twice I was told that I would receive a return phone call, on the third I was told that I will get a call on Monday.

Electrical Plans (with Pics)

I am showing here the standard Electrical Plans versus our Final agreed Electrical Plans.  For reference, the orange crossed circles are light points, blue squares with toggles are powerpoints of varying types (single, double, weatherproof), red squares are switches of various types (# of switches, 2-way, dimmer), green squares are air related (fans and exhausts).

 

Ground Floor - Standard

1st Floor - Standard

Unfortunately it doesn't distinguish between normal lights and downlights.  We are using downlights in the Home Theatre (first room on the left), Porch and Hall (including niche), Family Room (rear left), 3 in the Kitchen, the Alfresco and 2 in the Main Bedroom niche. We have selected higher spec Philips 7W LED downlights to minimise energy consumption and heat. These were fairly expensive at $125 each including provision of the light point, supply and install. I'm sure we could have done it cheaper by getting our own Electrician but it was easier to just get it all done through the Builder and it will be nice to have a good proportion of the lighting fully completed when we move in.

Ground Floor - Upgraded

1st Floor - Upgraded

During the Tender phase we had managed to negotiate for free a S/S Ceiling Fan to the Alfresco and 2-Lamp Heater-Exhausts to the bathrooms and downstairs WC.  There was some reasonable cost there so I think we did well. 

Other things that you will notice we added were TV and Pay-TV points (surprisingly pricey), some external lighting to the front facade (dear too), floodlights to the rear eaves, a few extra standard internal light points and a couple of powerpoints.

All in all we will have spent about $4.5k but at least half of this is in downlights. The process was also managed very professionally by Vaccaro. Quite a pleasing outcome

Kitchen Prices in, Electrical Booked

It turns out that upgrading from the Caesarstone base range is very expensive.  Going to a 'no-handle' option is also relatively expensive which I find surprising.

We managed to book the electrical appointment for next week, so we are going to hold off on deciding what options were are going to commit to until we've got the electrical prices on the table.  We received the standard electrical plan today and it seems reasonable.  The biggest thing lacking (which we already knew from the inclusions list) is that there is only 1 TV and telephone point. It looks like Vaccaro use Clipsal (C2000 range), they have a pretty good website to view their stuff.

It feels like we are making decent progress now.  The Fowler Homes head office consultant we are working with seems to be pretty proficient which is great.  We were advised in a letter attached to the contract that the DA should be lodged 3 weeks after signing.  That is today and no DA yet. I will be interested to see how much longer it takes...