(Apparently they have had some people get there at 9:30am and still not be finished by 5pm)
The day started with external, then kitchens, carpets and tiles, then bathrooms, then putting it all together. Our consultant was Jessica. She was great, super friendly and had some good opinions. I did think she would have a bit more advice and made a few more suggestions but she really just left every decision to us. Because we were organised and knew what we wanted we were ok but I can see how it could be a nightmare for others who weren't organised. MJD says they have an 'interior designer' walk with you.. its not really like that. They basically just type into the computer what you say you want.
The one thing we went 100% on was the render and she kind of rushed us through that. But overall we were super happy, Jessica was more than happy to hold up samples and compare different colours etc
Our budget was about $20 000 for colours including Tiles and carpet throughout the whole house. The only thing we are doing ourselves is blinds and the laundry cupboards/benchtop.
By the end of the day we came in at $22 500 which we were pretty happy with. Some of the extras we decided to go with included:
Render to front of house: $2000 aprox - We got a $500 credit for removing the bag and paint so it only came to about $1500 to do the render. From looking around the older parts of Kellyville that were all bagged and painted they look pretty ratty now and they crack and peel so we decided it was worth just paying for the render.
Metallic splash back: $1200 (Didn't originally want to do this but it looked a million times better than any other option and mirror was even more expensive.)
It doesn't look that amazing in the photos. but it is super super sparkly in real life.
Tiles: $9200 - These are 600mm x 600mm and are called " G Pearl PP. They look AMAZING. They are definitely my favourite thing we picked the whole day. We are having these in front hall, kitchen, living/dining, theatre room.
- In the pictures the one we chose is the lighter tile out of the two.
(We did hear if you don't get MJH to do the tiles they don't screet the floor and it ends up being a nightmare getting other tilers in and the tiles crack because the floor is uneven and they leave the skirting boards off or your tiler has to pull them off etc.. we didn't want the hassle so went with MJH and the tiles are breathtaking anyway so super happy)
Carpet: $3000 - This carpet has a 15 year warranty. There were not many options to choose from, there was one that suited us perfectly though so we just decided it was worth it to go with MJH and get the carpet. The lady really pushed us for the expensive carpet. It was the only thing the whole day that I felt like she was trying to sell, she didn't push any other product which was a little weird.
Sheen top cupboards in kitchen: $500 - These are slightly shinier than the matt but not super high gloss, we figured they wouldn't show up the finger marks as much as the high gloss. Only problem we had with this was not all the colours were available in this "sheen" finish.
Pot drawers on right hand side of oven: $250 - Just to create nice storage space in the kitchen and to break up the doors of the cupboards.
High front door: $560 - Hated this one but because we got high ceilings we had to get the high wooden front door and the extra cost to go with it....
Wood stained front door (Caoba) $475 - Again not happy but thats the price
Wood stained pole at the front entrance $230 - this is a tiny pole holding the front veranda roof up that joins to a pole down the bottom. Its tiny but Blake wanted it stained...
Caoba coloured garage door: $675 - Cost for the in colour I think... This is for the dark wood coloured garage door to match the front door.
Semi Framed shower screens: $250 - We wanted to go semi frameless but it was $860 ea so we just decided to go the semi framed, which basically means the frame is silver instead of white and looks a little more contemporary.
Bricks: $500 - We upgraded our bricks to the Austral "Wilderness Blackbutt" The Austral people gave us a sample brick to take home and although we are having render out the front, we thought it would be really nice to have a nice brick out the back when you are sitting in the alfresco area. Apparently the smooth finish bricks are about $10 000 to upgrade to, so $500 seemed ok!!!
Wardrobe: $730 - We added 2 x 4 drawer/4shelf cupboards into the WIR ($350 ea) and a double hanger ($30) It will only be us two living there so we didn't worry about the other cupboards.
Melamine shelving: $700 - This was to upgrade he wire shelves in all the wardrobes and in the pantry changed to white melamine which looks cleaner.
Glass panelled door for pantry and ensuite (Lincon door): $1520 - This was something we think will make the kitchen look amazing and will make our bedroom classy and not look like its joined to another room. Definitely the one thing I would take out if we went too far over budget.
Door handles: $400 - This is the cost for the whole house to have nice long handles on every door. Definitely worth it as the standard ones are shocking. This was the first thing we decided we wanted.
Tri-lock front door handle: $280 - a long lever handle instead of the round one that comes standard.
Fly screens: $430 - We had 14 windows and one sliding door to be fly screened.