The Upgrades - Food for Thought

We didn't get a proper scan of our house layout except for what we received at the tile appointment - I guess we'll get this once everything has been drafted and we are ready to sign (our CSO is begging for us to do this asap!) 

I really invested a lot of time thinking about the practical and not so practical things to add as upgrades to the house. We're not in any position to splash the cash and I wanted to make sure any upgrade we chose was worth every penny.

I lurked the net and scoured through many home building sites and forums which helped me to really picture what we want versus what we needed. I'm listing a few goodies below of what we came up with :-)

External vent for the kitchen rangehood (no smellys in the roof) $267

Double light switches in the entrance hallway and kitchen/family room $50
Upgrades of double to quad powerpoints in lounge and living (its cheaper!) $49
Privacy Levers in the bathroom and WC (guests will be happy!) $22each
Sliding door in the ensuite (to block out sound and light) $300
Include carpet in the linen cupboards (nothing gets scratched)
Switch linen doors to mirrored sliding doors (more room in the hallway) $850
 Glazed Front Entry Door Glass and Sidelight (for privacy) $300
Moved the TV point from main bedroom to the additional lounge
Confirmed all windows were standard sizing (cheaper for blinds)
Move position of sink to island so its opposite the stove (easier when cooking) $130
Extended the kitchen island bench
Confirmed positioning of showerheads (to make sure they don't face the shower opening)
Increased the positioning of standard railing in all robes/WIR (easier to put in our own shelving/drawers)
Conformed all handles in bathroom/kitchen
Unified colour scheme in bathroom/kitchen
3 coat paint system (its actually 2 coats, much better quality) $1300
Added bricks on top of garage (Looks way better and FC Sheeting sucks!) $1100
Added feature in bathroom niche by choosing standard tiles (its free) 

Telstra cabling from the road to your house $310

We opted for the Promo where we've spent $10,000 on $30,000 worth of upgrades (we came at $47 over) and in the gallery we spent another $4700 on additional things that we were not able to get in the promo (some included above) -

- Timber framed front windows with timber strapping $1260

- Timber look Colorbond Garage Door $404 matched to the front windows

- Upgrade the colour of the oven $59

- Caeserstone benches in the bathroom/ensuite $800

- Extension of the Ceaserstone kitchen island bench $825

- Feature stone in the ensuite niche$220

So the total above the base price came just under $15,000 ! We were stoked :-) 

We haven't included a few things, mainly because we are planning to do this ourselves. Partner is a brick paver, so we're going to pave the driveway (still tossing on ideas I guess we have a while to think about it!) and for internal flooring we are going to lay our own hardwood - we've been dreaming about Spotted Gum! Further on these ideas a little later...