Down, down, the prices are down!

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 

Still getting the plans "right" before going to the factory and then spending a few hours sitting with Adam talking through the plan and checking measurements was quite nerve-wracking - like sitting an exam.  If we made any, they would be expensive mistakes! We asked if we were particularly inept or if they often got people walking through their door with similar plans.  We were pleased to hear our approach wasn't uncommon!

My pantry - not quite finished  but getting there...

The kitchen took about 3 weeks to manufacture - most of that time it was getting "2-packed", it was then delivered and installed by our builder.  And the result?  Couldn't be happier!  We've got a custom-designed 2-pac kitchen, pantry & laundry all with blum softclose drawers for less than I would pay for an ikea kitchen.  What's not to be happy about - as I said I truly love a bargain!

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!

The kitchen was delivered mostly assembled and our builders have installed it.

Check, check again and again and again.

When dollars are tight you can't afford to make any mistakes.  I learnt a valuable lesson today - even when you think something is right get your builder to check it and then check it again.

Just as James clicked the send button to the place the hardwood flooring and decking order I decided to compare the provisional cost indicated in our quotation with the final price received.  As soon as I saw the prices, $4500 vs $5900, I knew something was amiss.  We were getting an exceptionally good price and I had expected it to be way under the provisional cost than over.  In fact some of the other decisions I am making are based on that I am expecting to be under, rather than over budget on the timber used.

As soon as our builder arrived I mentioned this to him.  It was decided that it might be a good idea to re-measure now that the framework is up.  Thank goodness we did as the original measurements, taken off the plan, were incorrect as the laundry and powder room had been included.  They should not have as they will be tiled with nice penny rounds.  It also became apparent that the flooring for the kitchen/living area had not been factored into the original quote as the builder had assumed there would be original flooring that was usable - not too happy about this but need to look on the bright side that it could be a whole lot worse if we weren't getting such a discount.

This certainly gave me a wake-up call.  I've been coasting along assuming that the builder will get it all right.  The fact of the matter is that mistakes do happen and I need to get on top of things to ensure they don't. We've decided to get up early in the morning and do a bit of measuring and checking to make sure that since the frameworks up that all the doors and windows are in the right place!

Guess it pays to be living on site!