Bathroom fittings

After thinking about if for a while, we have decided to change our ensuite bathroom layout. Originally we chose to go with Option 2 of what the colour consultant suggested, but we have gone back to her and told her that we would like Option 1 instead now.

Our original choice: Option 2

Now changed our mind to: Option 1

Now the bath will be at the end of the room taking up the whole east wall, and the vanity (although it had to be shrunk back from 180cm to 150cm length) will be in the middle of the room, which will have more natural light when you look at yourself in the mirror. Sadly we can't increase the window size back to 150cm now, as we submitted documents to council with a 90cm window. We'll probably put a few glass shelves to the left of the window to balance out that wall. Shower will be slightly bigger (120x90cm before, 130x100cm now) too.

Part of the reason we went with option 2 originally was because we didn't want to reduce the walk-in-robe space. Now that we are going with option 1 we have less WIR, but with that sacrifice we hope we gained more useable layout in the ensuite. The shower is noticeably bigger which is great, and the bath and its surround will be a nice spot to place decorative objects and orchids.

Ensuite Bathroom Fittings

150cm bathtub with tile surround

150cm caeserstone vanity top with darker laminate doors

Floating vanity

130 x 100 cm shower (semi-frameless)

Family (Kids') Bathroom Fittings

170cm bathtub with tile surround

120cm caeserstone vanity top with darker laminate doors

Floating vanity

110 x 90 cm shower (semi-frameless)

Bathroom tiles are to be chosen later, but we are thinking white large wall tiles and brown/grey 30 x 30 cm floor tiles (budget permitting).

Colour and Material Selection appointment

We had another appointment with the builder's colour consultant today. We have decided on the internal colours and fittings for doors, trims, and bathrooms.

Colours
Entry foyer with raked ceiling: Taubmans "Princess Bling" (3 coats) - It's white, but not clinical white. Should brighten up the foyer and emphasise the tall ceiling and the feeling of open space in our entry hallway.

Walls throughout the house: Taubmans "Ocean Pebble" - It's a neutral, mushroomy beige.

Feature 5m wall in vestibule: Taubmans "Colonial P196-N4" - It's darker than Ocean Pebble but in the same tone. We plan to light up this wall with spotlight, and dress it with lots of black & white photos in white picture frames.

Skirting, architrave, window frame: Taubmans "Stoney Brook" - It's  an off-white colour, and is a lighter version of Ocean Pebble.

Ceilings and cornices: White

Fittings
Front door: Corinthian Infinity INFWS8G Pivot Door (1200 x 2340 mm) and side lights. Glass glazing is "Translucent" which is not transparent.

Front door lock: Gainsborough Angular Trilock BC in Bright Chrome finish.

Laundry door: Corinthian Backdoor Style TH7 (standard height). Glass glazing is "Obscure". Painted.

All internal doors are plain hollow core doors, which we are not completely happy about, as we wanted solid core doors for minimising sound. We will need to install taller doors for our Ground and Lower Ground floors, and we would have had to custom order the style of doors we liked to make them taller. So we've decided to go with standard hollow core doors at this time, to keep the budget blowup to a reasonable level. Doors are relatively easy to change later by ourselves if we really can't live with noise coming through doors.

Internal door handles: Gainsborough Carla Lever in Satin Chrome finish.

Hardwood Flooring

We will have hardwood flooring throughout the house, except for wet areas (bath, ensuite, powder room, laundry) which will be tiled. This is because 3 out of 4 family members of the Sasanqua household are allergy sufferers, and it's important to reduce their allergy load by eliminating dustmites from carpeting. Mrs Sasanqua likes the easy clean aspect of hardwood flooring, and timber is not as cold on the feet as tiles can be (we don't wear shoes in the house). But hardwood flooring comes with a big price tag. We are allocated $65 per m2 for the supply of flooring in our tender, so depending on the species and grade of timber we end up choosing, we may be up for some extra cost.

We are currently tossing between Blackbutt (Janka hardness rating 9.1) and Spotted Gum (11). We think Blackbutt might be just slightly too blond in colour (sports gym like?) and it's a softer species of hardwood timber. Spotted Gum is a harder wood but it may look too rustic because of its variation in the hues (although that's one of the attractions of this species too). Our mostly white kitchen and living will be a very open plan, north facing (we're in the southern hemisphere) area with 2 x 3 panel stacker doors leading out to al fresco area, so we need to keep in mind how light will affect the look of the timber floor.

We need to go to a timber display centre and have a look. Reading some forum posts, we found out that the wear on the floorboard will depend more on the surface treatment product used, than on the timber species (as long as it's a hardwood species). We will look at each species' different grades (Select, Standard, Feature/Natural), think about what width we want (60, 80, 130 mm etc), and the price of each, before we make our decision.

Blackbutt (it's a yellowish hay colour)

Spotted Gum (different hues of brown)

External Colours

We had to choose external colours (roof, brick, gutter, fascia, window) before council submission(*), but we were having such a hard time deciding on the right colours. The problem was we couldn't visualise what the combined colours would look like on a house. And because they tend to make or break the overall look of the house from the street, we just weren't confident enough to finalise our choice. We mentioned this to our builder and had a meeting with their colour consultant for some advice, even though it seemed that this was not included in the usual selection process any longer(*). But if you don't ask for help, you won't get any so we are glad that we did. We had made a scrapbook with our shortlisted colour swachtes of Colorbond roof, gutters, fascia, brick, and external paint colour for the weatherboard, so we took that along with us for the meeting.

* Our builder's colour consultant told us that they have recently changed the way they do colour selections. They used to offer an appointment with the colour consultant to choose internal and external colours and electricals all in one go before the council submission stage, but now apparently they are doing the main colour choice appointment after council submission. This means that the customers are left on their own devise for choosing external colours but our builder was happy to help us with this.

The external colours we chose are:

Window: Anodic Off White (Matt) by Trend 
The real colour looks a lot whiter especially when you see it in natural light.

Roof and gutter: Colorbond Woodland Grey

Fascia: Colorbond Evening Haze

Garage door: Colorbond Evening Haze

Brick: Boral Escura Smoothface brick in Jute

For some reason all the colours look like similar tones of brown on screen, but the real life colours have different depths and hopefully will go well together. Using a colour simulation tool at Colorbond.com, we've managed to put together the kind of look we are going for. Note: the house design is one of their default ones, and our house will be brick, not rendered.

The look we are going for.