Upgrades upgrades (Post #4)

Once contract is out of the way, you go to various appointments starting with your colour selection. I have covered our selections in the previous post. But here I am going to share some sample prices with your if you are thinking of upgrading. All pricing mentioned here would be in lieu of standard inclusion, and for our single storey 24SQ house. If you are building a bigger or smaller house, some prices would change accordingly. For eg, bricks, roof tiles etc

AIR CON

We upgraded from the standard fixed-speed Temperzone to a inverter Toshiba model for about $2400. This is 11kw cooling model. Also upgraded controller to the MyAir3 for about $1600. This controllers comes with 4 zones included. I might add that to add an extra zone with standard controller is about $400 per zone. We also wanted to hide the return air grill out of sight. So to fit that into a standard hallway, they had to install 2 smaller RA grills. This cost about $300 extra.

INTERNAL

Paints: Standard included paint is one coat of matt finish. We upgraded to three coats (including undercoat) and a low Sheen finish for about $1500.

Sliding BIR: If you have BIR a Gainsbourough Reflections PREF1 2040mm door will cost about $120. Flush doors are at no extra cost.

Internal doors: The upgrades come in various levels. iirc they start at $35. The one we selected (DECO2D) cost $70 per door.

Door handles: For internal doors we went with standard, but upgraded to a back-to-back D pull handle for $20 for a cavity slider door. We did put privacy set in the handles for all bedrooms for an extra $20 per lock. Front entry door handle was upgraded to a Trilock Omni for a bit over $100.

Entry Door: This was a big one. The SUNWS GL cost us over $850 to upgrade from standard included !!! But I think it was worth it.

There is no extra charge for keys to be keyed alike, if you want so. For eg. all windows and external sliding doors on one key. Front entry, garage internal and laundry external door on another key.

Cavity sliding door in lieu of a square set opening is $250, whereas to upgrade from standard hinged to cavity slider is $150.

Cornice: Upgrading the cornice to New York 90mm for all common areas was $1250 in our case. We left the cove 90mm in bedrooms and bathrooms.

Bathrooms: Adding a ceiling mounted 200mm square shower head cost about $400. This price also includes a diverter which has to be added to shower rail. Window privacy glazing to bathroom windows is about $230 a pop.

Extra hot/cold water point with drainage is

EXTERNAL

Sarking is just under $2500 for a single storey house our size (24SQ) Mind you if you are building a double storey, the roof might be smaller and hence the sarking should be cheaper.

Bricks: Level 1 upgrade would have costed us just over $800.

Garage Door:Western red cedar cost us $700+

Also upgraded the ceiling sheets in Porch to 6mm FC for about $400. This gets rid of the semi-circular strip beading you see where the sheets meet.

KITCHEN:

Dorf Jovian pull down mixer was a big expense at above $500 in itself !

Electric UBO was upgraded from Smeg 60cm (included) to Smeg 90cm for $600

Schweigen rangehood was $1300+ on top of standard.

A lot of sinks were very very pricey. The ones I liked were all like $1000-$2000 to upgrade. We stuck with Clack Monaco double bowl for $60. Even this is much much bigger than our current sink which is just a 3/4 sink. I prefered the look of the squarish bowls, but all those are very expensive. We went with overmount sink.

900mm drawer below the UBO is just over $220

A set of 1 cook and 2 pot drawers would cost you little over $600

We installed 2 Hettich Cargo IQ plus 300mm pull out units at just under $800 for both. Ouch.

All kitchen drawers are soft close as standard. If you want to soft close your cupboard panels as well, its $25 per door for Hettich Sensys mechanism.

We increased the height of overhead cabinets in Kitchen to go almost all the way to ceiling. This cost us about $500. There still has to be a small bulkhead on top. And cornice would run on it.

2 colours are included. But to upgrade to Sheen finish from matt or texture was over $700 for us. To upgrade to Gloss would be even more.

Hettich 13L door mount bin is $130. Keep adding !!!

You must have seen downlights under the overhead cabinets. To leave space for the wiring and lights itself, they put a slim box in there which you can slide out and which covers the wiring. To have the box is an additional $272. This covers cabinets on either side.

ELECTRICAL: Electrical pricelist – some commonly used items If there is anything you specifically require, ask them before or at appointment

SECURITY/DATA/ENTERTAINMENT:

Pre-wire video intercom $334.

Supply & install micron 7″ video intercom unit $952 (this includes wiring as well)

Additional Bosch blue line PIR’s are $175

Additional reed switches are $164

Install reed switches on upto 16 doors/windows $1185 (Star-wired, not daisy chained)

Cat 5e data point is $96. Another $40 to upgrade to Cat 6

Foxtel (2 wires) $178

5.1 speakers wiring, includes wall plates at master end $423

Hills Home Hub 600 series $962

50mm conduit for wall mount TV including bull nose plates $150