I find it impossible to pay full price for anything. It's simply not necessary - the are plenty of bargains to be had no matter if you're buying clothes, cars or building products. Half the fun for me in making a purchase is calling, visiting and googling about 100 different suppliers to find the best price. Ironically its the first place I've gone to that I generally return.
I have to acknowledge that I am very lucky that I'm able to use my contacts to obtain particularly good pricing on a range of goods (special thank you's to Brett's Timber & Hardware, Finlayson Timber & Hardware and Boral) for this project.
However, the most amazing bargain of all, one that has nothing to do with my work and something that anyone else can obtain, is the incredible kitchen, pantry and laundry cabinetry that we sourced through the wonderfully helpful Adam at Aussie Cut.
Aussie Cut is a high-end cabinet making factory. They've got this wonderfully clean and tidy, high tech factory at Brendale - it has huge computer operated machines that slice, dice and create kitchens following some data entry and the press of a button. I've had seen their advertisement in the Master Builders magazine about 18 months ago and then coincidently my mum and her partner sourced their kitchen from them last year - they got top notch quality at a brilliant cost because basically you are cutting out the middle man ie the kitchen designer. Of course this wouldn't be for everyone - you need to have a pretty good idea of what you want plus you need to draw up a plan and measure everything yourself.
And so this is what we have done. I must admit it wasn't particularly easy and it took a couple of trips out there to get it right. On my first visit - the first Friday of the school holidays - I had to leave and burst into tears when I got in the car because my two naughty brown eyed, brown haired boys misbehaved so badly I couldn't concentrate and was getting my measurements topsy turvey. In hindsight this was a blessing because we really hadn't put enough thought into things. Happily some holiday time and James' huge effort in drawing and measuring up ensured the next time went smoothly.
It's semi gloss lexicon quarter 2 pac for those that speak "builder". 40mm organic white ceaserstone benches to come |
My pantry - not quite finished but getting there... |
One side of the compact laundry - I've got drawers to store the dirty clothes... |
Sink to go in the top of there and more drawers for dirty clothes! |