Time to get serious about what finishes and colours we want to put in the house as surely the preliminary contract would be ready soon. Nice drive down to Robina, found Studio M really easily where we were greeted with a warm welcome and as this was our first visit the young lady showed us around explaining which finishes and products were standard, upgrades or included in the Neo Dusk promo. She was quick to point out that she didn't know any prices and that would be covered in the colour selection appointments. I found that both frustrating and disappointing as I like to have all the facts at hand before making a decision. Might as well put a kid in a toy shop, tell them to choose anything they like and hope they have enough pocket money to cover it when they got to the check out. It could end in tears!
After the whirlwind tour my partner and I were slightly shell shocked we'd spent so much time designing the interior that we had given no consideration to how the exterior might look. No one said there would be bricks, roof tiles, window finishes, gutters and downpipes to decide on. First time house builders naivety had just struck!
Bricks: nothing in the standard range grabs us, picked 3 options in different upgrades so will need to go to Boral and Austral to get a better idea of how they look.
Roof Tiles: oh those flat ones are lovely. Another upgrade. Charcoal grey
Garage: slimline in a colorbond finish. Dark or light which will it be? Yeah at least this is standard.
Gutters and downpipes: standard to match roof or garage
Window frames: is that all the choices? Not impressed better go for black then.
Glass: clear is standard wonder how much to get grey tint.
Carpet: the promo carpet is not great and will need replacing in 3-5 yrs. Will cost about $2500-$4000 to upgrade. At least the carpet guy could figure out approx square meters and help us with costings
External door, taps, basins, toilets all promo. Well that's an easy choice then.
Wardrobe doors: mirror in all bedrooms plus one set of glass for master suite. The frameless ones look nice but how do you open them. Finger prints all over them and a couple of chipped nails and presto I have them open. Nice looking but zero points for practicality.
Baths: upgraded to extra deep and long baths
Floorwastes: upgrade to smart tile
Basin wastes: upgrade to chrome pop-up
Staircase: has to be the timber finish and yes you've guessed it that will be another upgrade
That just leaves the kitchen and bathroom benchtops, cupboards and vanities and paint colours. Not much then!!! We have been here 3 hours already and I am losing the will to pick up yet another laminex sample so quit while we're ahead. (Having a touch of deja vu and design fatigue after only having done this for the business 6 months ago). So with heads in a spin we take a very tired and fed up 4 yr old to the beach as promised what a great way to unwind.
Can't recommend enough how important going to Studio M as much as possible prior to your colour selections is. Otherwise you could find yourself super under prepared and in for a lot of very fast decision making. Give yourself the chance to make considered choices that you know will work for you before hand rather than making snap decisions you could regret.
We will definitely need to come to Studio M again as there are all those laminates to go through before we can narrow down exactly what we want for the kitchen and bathroom finishes. Also can't make up our minds whether to go browns or greys at this stage.
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