Post-Appointment Changes 1

After counting everything up and allocating amounts for the few things left to do, we're getting pretty close to our budget - so some things are being pulled out of Colour Appointment 2 that we deem as unimportant right now or can be done/replaced with something cheaper now or at a later time.

I'll be editing Colour Appointment 2 and adding the things we took out to this post :) There will still be more to come depending on the post-contract variations we are awaiting quotes for.

Air Conditioning

Supplier: Home Air Design
Time taken: 0.5 hours
Consultant: Glen
Savings: N/A

We were thinking of upgrading to the ESP Plus System (SRD131C) for an additional $3,315.00, which would give us the following benifits:

• Additional controller
• Ability to move rooms around within the 3 zones supplied at no extra charge (normally $167.00 per room)
• Energy savings (up to 60%)
• Quieter indoor & outdoor unit
• Better temperature control

If we upgraded to this unit, we would most likely removed the 4th zone (costs $244) and add the home theater to the living areas zone. The savings on our energy bill would make the upgrade worthwhile after 4-5 years.

We decided this wouldn't be beneficial for us, mainly because we do have ceiling fans which take up less electricity to run during warmer day, and would only use the air conditioning system during summer months (which is what we did in our apartment and where we live now)

Electrical

Supplier: Clipsal by Schneider Electric
Time taken: 1 hour
Consultant: Michelle
Savings: $1,339

This was our original plan we walked away with after our appointment with Michelle:

Electrical plan drawn up in our appointment

Electrical plan symbols

We decided to take the following out of our plan, purely because they were an expensive feature we wouldn't use and can find cheaper alternatives at a later date if we wanted something like these back.

We removed the following:

Alfresco & Backyard

• Upgrade:
• 1 x Ceiling Fan stainless steel 1200mm - $313ea
• 1 x Double Floodlight, black - $197ea 

Porch & Frontyard

• Upgrade:
• 3 x Feature Light, up and down - $237ea

My partner was considering having security camera's installed, our consultant quoted us $2814.00 for the following:

• 4 x SDI Ness IR Cameras 
• 1 x 3 Terabit hard drive 
• 1 x Digital Video recorder 
• 1 x Connectivity to the internet including programming 

We are doing these after handover now, we have a friend recently set up their home for less than $1000 for many more cameras and system, so we are pretty happy to follow suit - it isn't a top priority but we will have them done

Shutters & Blinds

Supplier: Abbey Shutters & Blinds

Time taken: 0.5 hours

Consultant: Ashley

Savings: $1,033.63

I wanted the front windows to look fancy, but for over $1000 for the front room, I'd rather put that money towards something else in our house, so we have decided to not go for Plantation Shutters in the Home Theatre, made from Basswood, 90mm blades in Pure White. We can always add these in at a later date, but it isn't a huge thing for us right now.

They are so nice, but way to pricey for us :(

Tiles & Carpet

Supplier: Di Lorenzo

Time taken: 2 hours

Consultant: Lisa

Savings: $1571.71

We asked for a quote to have our alfresco done with the same tiles our threshold is done with, while the tiles themselves are cheap, the labour is most of the price (same with all the other tiles). We are skipping it for now, if we don't do this with landscaping we can come back to it later - hell we can buy these tiles outright from Di Lorenzo and do it ourselves! These tiles would go with neutral grout, tossing up between tiling or having it done with our landscaping, so its good to have the option.

A little darker in person, has a gripping feel