Browse Forums Building A New House Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 21Sep 18, 2008 9:23 pm Quote: Our must haves were high ceilings, big cooker (don't know why cos Ican not cook ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 22Sep 18, 2008 10:54 pm My must have apart from few already mentioned above:
:- rangehood's vent to outside Must for me because i am more of a curry cooking person. Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 23Sep 18, 2008 11:22 pm mm lots of storage, i need to include that into my build
whats the advantage of having higher ceilings? say from 2400 to 2700? i am going 2x storey and natural light in the kitchen with a outside venting range hood... mmm back to the floorplan wishlist! 2nd-Fix | Blog Building with Desyn Homes previously with the insolvent [url=https://www.facebook.com/7NewsAdelaide/videos/1162546323776021/]Endeavour Homes[/url] Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 24Sep 18, 2008 11:43 pm Hi FireFox
I think higher ceilings (from 2400 to 2700) change the whole look of the house, It looks more spacious and natural light shows better, I dont see any downside of having higher ceilings but yes as you might know, quite a lot of $$$ involved. I met a real estate agent and he told that higher ceilings are always a plus point for any house Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 25Sep 18, 2008 11:50 pm mmmhh.. I think I need to add more storage in my floorplan and also raise the ceiling to 2790mm...
how about a tap water at the rear of the house... could be useful for gardening.. and another thing is a recessed CFL downlight would be good.. Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 26Sep 19, 2008 3:13 am What we looked for in a plan was *lots of storage *big main bedroom *big pantry *internal access via garage and our only 'upgrades' were a door onto the rear of the garage, a door to the laundry and main WIR.
I didnt bother with high ceilings...normal ceilings are high enough, and I didnt want to feel any shorter than I already am as for other upgrades, they were not available to us and the main things I want to change anyways are door handles and taps, which can be easily done after h/over. One thing that came standard with our house was a gas point out in the alfresco. Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 27Sep 19, 2008 7:22 am We want to do the standard kitchen up grades - stone benches, poly cupborads & 900mm appliances. Also uprgrading sliding doors to bifods, extending wall tiles to floor to ceiling in bathrooms and also gas and power points to outdoor entertaining areas (we will have to areas). must haves 28Sep 19, 2008 8:30 am Top of the list for us here in Canberra...
1. Double Glazing. 2.Hydronic heating. 3.Good insulation + good insulation.(Therma-cell blocks) 4.Large north facing windows. So as you can tell it is the efficiency of the house we are particular about, everything else will be added or modified after handover. Hoping to start buiding early March Cheers Michael He wants a dream home theatre - she wants a dream kitchen! Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 29Sep 19, 2008 8:34 am monkeyupatree One thing that came standard with our house was a gas point out in the alfresco. This was another thing we did add as an upgrade, but it was very reasonable... no way of every running out of gas for a BBQ now!!! Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 30Sep 19, 2008 8:49 am T1ms how about a tap water at the rear of the house... could be useful for gardening.. . Is this not standard already? Did you have to pay for outside taps as an upgrade? Our builder included an outdoor tap front and back, although we did pay extra to move the back one off the back wall of house and have it free standing half way along the back fence. Of course this is only useful if you have a deep yard; we have 15m yard behind the back line of house. Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 31Sep 19, 2008 9:17 am For me...must haves are being able to easily access Alfresco from Kitchen
See outside from kitchen and living areas keep an eye on kids playing. Wood floors in living areas. Entry form garage to the house. Double front doors......just a wide entry into the house. Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 32Sep 19, 2008 10:00 am Hi, we recently signed our tender (last week!!) and these are the upgrades we felt were necessary:
Our thoughts were that if there are any structural changes that you want, then these should be a priority as they cost big $$$ once the house is completed to change. - Floor plan change (including facade and alfresco) - 2590mm High Ceilings - We upgraded all the tiles in the house to full bodied porcellan. This is the thick porcellan tile and we wanted it to be more resistant to dropped items (such as bottles or glasses). We felt that it is pretty important to get a good quality tile as they generally last as long as the house. - Upgraded to a bigger shower in the ensuite. - We had stone benchtops to kitchen, ensuite and bathroom as standard (would upgrade all of these if they werent) - Brick in lieu of infill over all doors and windows - personal preference - not really keen on the infill look. - Garage access (ours is not internal as it would have been into the study, but we have an undercover porch at the entrance of the house and we put a door from the garage to that) - Evaporative cooling - easier and cheaper to get it installed before the house is finished. - Electrical changes - Cupboards to the laundry All of our other changes were cosmetic or extras that could be added later - glass splashback - internal door upgrades - internal door handles - 900ml upright cooker - garage remote controls - translucent glazing on the front door - upgraded toilets (who would have thought!) - changes to the ensuite and bathroom vanity - dishwasher - deadbolts to front and laundry doors - toilet privacy lock - additional doors - fly screens and fly wire doors - off white mortar to match our brick colour Overall we're wrapped with what we picked and are looking forward to building. Cheers Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 33Sep 19, 2008 10:22 am We also upgraded toilets..... we upgraded to better cistern and also it has a different seat that lifts further so it is easier to clean at the back.... hard to explain...boys are messy pigs and don't clean up after themselves in this area!
Brick infills for us as well.... but for me the priority is brick infill above the garage door on the facade. I think it's a better look. Flyscreens, water tank connected to toilets, double glazing. As everyone says, structural/things that cannot be changed or added is first priority, things that are hard to change second, cosmetic last. And did I mention lots of cupboards and storage? Seriously, 35 sq houses with one linen press.... completely unrealistic..... I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 34Sep 19, 2008 10:34 am joles Brick infills for us as well.... but for me the priority is brick infill above the garage door on the facade. I think it's a better look. It is also a good security point. Smart robbers are now simply breaking the wood panel above your garage door and they just climb through and if you have an entry into your house from your garage no one will see them trying to break in. There is also no alarm in your garage so if you happen to leave any valuables in their they can simply grab them and lift the door and leave. For this reason on our 3rd garage or storeroom that is within the garage we section off with another roller door so we can put an alarm in for hubbys man toys. Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 35Sep 19, 2008 10:43 am For Foxtel owners, the "must have" is to prewire your house so that you get Foxtel in each room (or at least the master bedroom) using only one Foxtel box in your main tv room.
It is much better than those wireless receivers which causes a lot of interference. Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 36Sep 19, 2008 11:26 am I think we got 1 outside tap standard - we had 4 put in, plus a gas point for a future outside fire place, plus we upgraded the gas line by 2 sizes to cope with pool heating....plus many, many other things.... but these were not things I'd consider "must haves" - I had a lot of what someone else very accurately referred to as "must wants"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lucky for me lots of these were indulged, too!!!!!! Thanks, hon' !!!!!!!!! Solidarity, not solidity.......The Lexicon of Life Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 37Sep 19, 2008 12:43 pm Hey, lots of great suggestions many of which we have also incorporated. Some items not mentioned so far, I think, are :-
- Surge protection (we are currently preparing for our electricals ATM). Not that expensive (I hope) and much better than having to buy extra powerboards, etc. - Also, someone else on this forum recently suggested upgrading the internal access door in the garage to solid timber for security reasons - I thought this was a good idea. - We are building two storey and have upgraded to include insulation (for both acoustic and comfort reasons) between floors. - As we have two young kids we have also opted to pay the extra and get some temperature controllers added to our hot water system. Some other upgrades that we are getting which are probably not must haves are:- - Metal gutter guards, ceiling fans, semi-frameless showers (we have small bathroom/ensuite), toilet suites, noggin and external vent for clothes dryer, privacy lock for master bedroom ( ) and, most important, double towel rails, lol. Good luck! 'We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.' - Winston Churchill Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 38Sep 19, 2008 5:01 pm Some of the upgrades which we did were
Higher door to downstairs Made the garage wider and extend to rear to have storage Added a shower to the powder room Upgraded heating and cooling External taps and power points Upgrade to kitchen cabinets Water tank to toilets WIRs for the kids bedrooms and yes cupboards double entry doors Added gas points for fire place external and internal - will add the fireplace later MUST HAVE UPGRADES 39Sep 19, 2008 5:29 pm - box gutter over garage side wall so you can move the garage & house all the way to the edge of the block otherwise you will have an unwanted little 300mm space between garage & fence....but this is for only those who are building their garage almost on the edge of block.
- dual zone for heating - single temperature control for cooling & heating - drains in laundry & backroom - for accidental water leakes or cleaning - shoes space cupboards - flic mixer tap in shower - fridge water connection - water proof powerpoints on the outside of property - 1 at rear & 1 at front - privacy locks to toilet & bath - deadlocks to outside doors - sensor lights Re: A MUST have upgrades discussion... anyone?? 40Sep 19, 2008 6:35 pm This is very interesting - not just what people consider must have upgrades but what things are not standard which need to be upgraded, for example pirvacy locks on toilets and bathroom and window flyscreens are standard with our builder and laundry floor drainage is standard throughout SA - it is a legal requirement to have this in bathrooms and laundries. Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39690 Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. So we ended up agreeing to a number with the insurance company, and after an extensive amount of hand… 8 23401 You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections. The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and… 3 18063 |