Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 09, 2010 12:58 pm I am bored at work, and got to thinking that it would be interesting to see what Upgrades people thought of adding when it was too late to do so, and it may help the people that are still in the initial process think of some things they may of not thought of. Here are mine - Double Showers in Ensuite - So then both my wife and I can always have the water set at the exact temperture for when we go in the shower instead of spending 2-3 mins adjusting. 4 point power points - You can never have enough power points, better still if they have surge protectors. If I was to win Lotto, I would build with a different builder, now to win lotto Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 2May 09, 2010 1:14 pm I wish we'd extended our garage to fit a roller door out the back. I wish in our double sized shower we'd thought to put 2 shower heads in. Not that I'm ever sharing my shower time with anyone, but I think it looks uneven and I'm a bit OCD that way lol. And I'm kinda regretting my tile and laminate choices after seeing some of the amazing bathrooms and kitchens on here. Bit worried mine's oging to look crappola. I can't even remember the carpet now so I have no idea if I regret it or not lol. But other than that, we got most of the upgrades we wanted, I can't think of anything else glaringly obvious that we didn't think of. Someone else might look at our plans though and think 'yep you missed that'! Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 3May 09, 2010 1:25 pm I wish I'd realised how repetitive the pattern was on my pretend marble ceramic tiled ensuite flooring. I would have asked the tiler to either put them all the same way or rotate them a quarter turn each tile. Having batches the same and then the occasional one turned looks terrible if I take the time to look at it. Eaves around our bedroom- it's the only part of the house without them. Conduits in all wiring spots for light wiring to be in as this would make it easy to add additional switches/lights where existing switches are. easy enough in the E.S. but in W.A. with brick internal walls this would be messy to solve. It also annoys me where our kitchen lights are. They are not totally "in" the kitchen. But around the corner from where I liked them. I was talked out of where I wanted them ( easily) by the SC and now I wish I'd insisted they'd gone where I wanted them as they would have been more "'in". .......... the rest can be changed.............................. 2 extra sets of external double power points. ( we had already put in additional taps for outside) More pot drawers instead of only 1 set. Farm house kitchen sink- though I love my large double sink. Hmm can you get double farmhouse sinks without taking out a 2nd mortgage? That 900mm wide stove and oven after all. -But only if we'd not had to sacrifice any bench space. -Deeper bowls in ensuite and main bathroom or even bowls that can hold soap as ours has too narrow a soap section. Longer bath like we had in the last house- They look so nice. Though it would still probably not get used. An additional light in our family /dining room area.- This could be solved with a lamp or 2. External Office door- will do this one day Blog http://wherethehearthis.blogspot.com/ Build https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=6634: Yard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27687&p=378401#p378401 Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 4May 09, 2010 1:33 pm Oh, and cupboards above the fridge. Got talked out of them because the sales consultant said it would restrict the type of fridge we could get and I believed him because I've never bought a fridge (got ours as a hand-me-down), now I think it'll look stoopid. Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 5May 09, 2010 1:45 pm Bath in the ensuite - but only if I didn't have to sacrifice space from the WIRs. Or anywhere else. Heating in the bathrooms. Sore point.... A few extra power points that my husband insisted we didn't need. We do. Underground rainwater tank so we could fit a really big one. Grey water diverters on showers, bath and laundry sink. WHY did I not do this? Completely redesigned kitchen. Pot drawers everywhere, L-shaped island and a butler's pantry with sink and lots of bench space. Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 6May 09, 2010 2:21 pm i wished i hadn't picked the awful tiles that I got in fact I would have like to have gone with out flooring all together and done floor boards through out the entire home. which I think I can still do. stone bench tops honestly are a must in any home!!!!! i went for a black laminex benchtop and its faded from ware and tear over the last 7 years. Larger oven cook top and range hood i have the tiny 600mm one and the huge pizzas from costcos in Melbourne don't even fit in the oven. having said that I would have had to stretch my budget way beyond my means so I might have to be happy with what i have for the moment then upgrade some stuff later or build again. Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 7May 09, 2010 3:47 pm Quote: Heating in the bathrooms. Sore point.... Kek... Have to totally agree with you on this! -More powerpoints!! -Rangehood ducted through to outside (Had no idea that is was ducted straight into the ceiling... really not happy with this! ) -Plumbed in water point for fridge -Extend garage area so we wouldn't have to buy a shed -Alfresco roofing ( this was an extra $5k) Hoping I will have a good SS and tradies whom is willing to do some "cash money" work Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 9May 09, 2010 4:58 pm cabling for security cameras on the eaves (we hadn't thought of cameras until we moved in and someone tried to break in - the police had a fair idea of who it was but unless they had video footage they couldn't be charged) underfloor heating in the bathroom (I have no idea how much it would cost in a huge bathroom like mine though!) After 4 years - we're in! Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 10May 09, 2010 6:20 pm A grate instead of the standard drain in the showers. I HAD requested it, but the selections chick said "we don't do that at selections. You need to discuss it with the plumbers when they are prepping your slab". Upon discussing it with these guys they said they would be happy to do it if the SS said it was ok, and they would just charge us for the extra work taken to get it done. SS said "if it's not in the contract, it's not done", so we missed out. Still fuming, and should have known THEN that my SS was a completely unreasonable man, but it took another two weeks before we finally came to that conclusion. Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 11May 09, 2010 6:44 pm - high ceilings through the living areas and the entry, very hard to do later on down the track. - raised alfresco ceiling in gyprock, nothing worse to look at than a 25c hardiflex ceiling in your lovely alfresco area IMO. - bench and trough in the laundry as opposed to the old school steel one - its cheap and it looks it. I've foregone a stone benchtop in my kitchen to facilitate these upgrades instead - I can always get a stone bench later....... Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 12May 09, 2010 6:52 pm I wish I would have realised that my bathrooms only had cupboards and no drawers! Would have put in drawers, would have put in a shelf/wine holder or cupboard over the fridge and built in shelves in the WIR. All things that we can get around to doing in the future. MM Building Doulton Q3 with Plantation Homes My Building Blog http://thewebbs-page.blogspot.com/ Building Thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32743 Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 13May 09, 2010 7:11 pm -Tiling to the ceiling in the bathroom and ensuite -Bath in the ensuite -Polished concrete benchtops in the ensuite and bathroom -Better designed the WIR shelving -Thought more about the kitchen layout, would have liked a walk in pantry Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 14May 09, 2010 7:26 pm somewoman A grate instead of the standard drain in the showers. I HAD requested it, but the selections chick said "we don't do that at selections. You need to discuss it with the plumbers when they are prepping your slab". Upon discussing it with these guys they said they would be happy to do it if the SS said it was ok, and they would just charge us for the extra work taken to get it done. SS said "if it's not in the contract, it's not done", so we missed out. Still fuming, and should have known THEN that my SS was a completely unreasonable man, but it took another two weeks before we finally came to that conclusion. LOL this conversation is on my to do list with the SS, but he is a reasonable guy we missed a video intercom and motorised roller door Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 15May 09, 2010 7:34 pm Nothing major and could probably be changed but to be honest next time or if we change or kitchen I'd get a pull out pantry. Our pantry is a walk in one and huge but I would go with long vertical cupboards to hold food etc next time. We have a double shower ensuite-about 2m in length I think and haven't yet used the other side as I'm a bit paranoid people can see into the ensuite at the moment. I don't regret putting a bath in the ensuite. I think it's a must. For the WIR-I eventually wouldn't mind getting screens/doors over the clothes and perhaps some drawers too. Everything costs money. That's all I can think of at the moment. There are lots of things but overall pretty damn happy with how everything has turned out. I think for almost 6mths of looking at our home and knowing exactly how it will look we are a bit over the house and to us we think it's just ordinary. Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 16May 09, 2010 8:22 pm I'd have made built in space for the spare fridge in the laundry. Longer/wider garage for extra storage. Pretty much got everything else we had on our wish list. The block just wasn't big enough to include these extra things and still have a single level house - which was a must for us. Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 17May 09, 2010 10:03 pm Ooooh, great thread! The only thing I couldn't see value in upgrading that I really wanted was 2 internal clear glass french doors on the media room. It was going to set us back $1200 for two 770mm doors We are going to change the doors on the media room ourselves down the track sometime. In the meantime, we have our normal internal doors on there (which are nice anyway just not clear glass like I wanted). Probs would have gone the full 9ft ceilings - we got 8.5ft. DH couldn't justify double the cost for the extra. DH would definitely have gotten a triple car garage if we could have fitted it on our block (and our budget allowed) he'll just have to make do with that workshop thing he added on. Oh and ducted aircon which we are going to save up for and do later on (much later on). We can't afford it at the moment and didn't want to factor it in our loan. Hmmm, yeah that's about it I think Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 18May 09, 2010 10:17 pm The only thing that I wish we had of gone with is more bi-fold doors. We've got a 4 fold but I wish we had another 4 fold and another 3 fold in the rumpus room. We've got windows where we would want the bi-folds so it is something that we could add later on with relative ease. Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 19May 09, 2010 10:29 pm Real travertine floor tiles.........................not in this lifetime's budget! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Upgrades - What did you wish you had put in ? 20May 09, 2010 10:41 pm mummamichelle would have put in a shelf/wine holder or cupboard over the fridge Only do the wine holder if you want to ruin all of your wine! There's too much heat generated over a fridge - you should keep it about 12-15C After 4 years - we're in! That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I do enjoy watching that tik tok inspector from Victoria but he does go a little… 12 81884 0 9808 I’m loving the potential versatility and practicality of a bench seat in a shower. Anyone had one of these done recently? Not sure if they are straight forward and easy… 0 762 |