Sparkie where art thou

Electrical planning, you've got to figure out where your beds are going, furniture placement and direction of the sun :) its all relative to where those power points are going and if you want an extension lead or a floor lamp in a bad spot.

For some this is migraine territory; for me i enjoyed the hell out of it. I'm a geek and have lots of kit; thus requiring power and ability to control all the things. I was really restrained by not getting c-bus  but even i cant justify it. Turn on a light, close a blind, pre-set air-con all sounds a bit lazy to me. Its cool technology, and its come along way; even samsung has a wifi option now - so you can drive the aircon with your fone.

Downlights have come along way in five years too; when we first started looking at building LED's were at least $200+ per light installed, competing with halogens and the insane draw they have; im glad i waited. Clipsal sell three types of downlight, 11w, 15w and the older 12w. I dont have to go with clipsal, but ive heard good things and the new LD series  with some insane 150 Deg beam; means we only need 30 lights instead of 90

Considering these for the entrance

Each bedroom will have fan & light combo's as it should reduce the need for air-conditioning, and its nice to have a bit of circulation at night. We are still undecided on something special for the stairway landing; perhaps a 2m dropped light etc.

This is kind of cinema im after, nothing over the top and can be still used for LAN's and slumber parties for the kids. Using these Philips Hue lights we found at Hardly Normal

Blue LED downlight, on the chosen wall colour

Finished with lights on

Im hiding the coms cabinet/rack between the staircase and garage, so i can have access to it from both sides. Ive got a deep rack that i can put networking on one side and home theater stuff on the other. At this stage i should be able to have a 3m screen; surrounded by black stack stone and the rack to the right hand side.

Fortunately for me, ive got three friend's whom are data cabler's, and since ive got over fifty runs in the house, it will save me alot of money. I roughly have two runs going to each room with a third for redundancy; there's extra for IP camera's and some wireless gear i want to put on the roof, together with the local AP's and shed runs.


all i need now is a thorium power station under my house to run everything

further reading:
Stack stone HT build - this is a painful forum for your wallet
H1 Forum for home automation
HT community in Oz
Guide on HT wiring
Projector Throw calc
AVS Epic underground cinema
Barrierboard
Acoustic Mgo Board howto


online stores:
4 cabling - server gear/ connections/ desk equipment
Cable chick - cables/ wall plates

happy wife, happy life

Yay! we have the first 3D drawings back from the kitchen designer; and the wife is most impressed; just need to figure out how much over budget we have gone on the kitchen. It was the only room in the house we decided not to compromise on. Be it on bench-tops, appliances or funky gas lift doors.

Kitchen appears small, until you look at the floorplan..

Included in our quote from the builder was some standard Miele appliances; and even a given included upgrade. On arriving at the 'Miele Experience' we knew pretty quickly that we were going to go over on at least half of the items! Its pretty much a showcase of the equipment; and makes an easy job of making you spend more money than you had planned. As a bloke that knows how to cook baked beans on toast and considers it gourmet; i left all the decisions on what to buy to the wife.
Given an unlimited budget, Miele is the place to go. They have a select bunch of ovens and wine chillers than resemble the price of a small car... each. The wife showed restraint, and kept the order down to:

• Intergrated dishwasher
• Sunken gas cooktop
• Conventional oven 
• Steam oven

Thankfully we didn't pick the integrated fridge/freezer combo; its the price of a large fridge just to fit a box around it, and blend it into the wall; all this and its a third smaller than what we need. We also skipped the microwave, given that whatever we buy will be hiding in the pantry.

Kitchen and pantry shown apart to see dimensions

Open plan area

As shown on the plan this this is the centrepoint of the house, we upgraded and upgraded some more. Together with some create lighting, we should be able to create a great place to entertain and cook.

We have chosen the engineered stone; also known as acrylic/ freestyle/ corian and has no joins even at 3.2m. The feel of the benchtop is not as cold as natural stone or essastone. The majority of fast food benchtops are made from corian; as its repairable and non-porus (very hygienic too) the downside is cost, and plastic scratches of course.

40mm+ benchtop with slab ends

Sunken sink routed into benchtop

kitchen idea's: 

Houzz

In the Neutral Zone

Exterior colours have been picked, as for our street appeal there is a couple of two storey houses, with red brick and some fully rendered in white/off white. We didn't want to go too dark, and to blend in with our front fence with a hint of jarah. Price pending we might do something with the front piers.

Front fence idea

• Paperbark aluminium window frames
• 'Buffout' external textured render
• 'Basalt' Colorbond roofing
• Jarah rollerdoor from B&D
• Modwood in 'Jarah' for side gate & front fence

'Fusion' front door FUSMJ101

For internal colour's we went for another neutral colour to match the kitchen and not date; our builder uses Haymes Paints (made in oz) we chose these colour's (pic doesn't give them justice). Pretty confident they will break up the massive size of the house.

Laminex Zucchero, Haymes 006 Silver Screen - Walls, NG12 Minimalist - Skirting, NG18 Fusion - HT

Even though im a geek, i still dont know how to photoshop ;)

Metricon External colour selector

Endless Choices

As selections continue; my wife and i have had such a busy week just to fit in all the choices and finishes for the house. Fortunately for us we have had almost two weeks to choose what we would like; as i hear from alot of other builders on homeone; selections are normally done within a couple of days to even hearing 4hrs!.
We've spent at least 6hrs on the kitchen running over design colour schemes and position; on that we owe all the assistance to our builder supplied kitchen designer 'Tammy' from Kersbrook Kitchens. Using alot of Blum equipment to accomodate our chosen Miele appliance's; we still are waiting on the 3D design and price from Tammy. Below is an idea we liked that resembled the plan

Kitchen selections:

We have dropped the feature tile in favor of a glass splashback

Floor tile, Formica 'Rock Salt' doors and Laminex Freestyle Acrylic 'Zucchero'

Sunken Sink & 'elbow friendly' Tap

Wet area's:

Laundry Basin:

Colour Scheme:

Soap Stone on display

Floor tile, Formica 'Rock Salt' doors, Diamond gloss 'Soap Stone' benches

Flooring:

Brown for bedrooms, bamboo for staircase, charcoal for HT

Finally something made in Australia!