Shower and Basins Upgrades

Ensuite Shower
I (Nathan) was very keen at our last house to upgrade our standard shower head to a large (20cm+) one. Preferably, I've wanted the 'rain shower' kind of experience, though I believe to get those properly costs thousands of dollars, so a large shower head would have to do. This time around, Suzy encouraged me to have the shower how I wanted it included in the build. So I did!

Communication from Porter Davis was pretty poor in this area (in regards to bathroom choices in general actually). We got told, variously, from different staff, that 1) we could choose any Tradelink product from our local Tradelink supplier website; or 2) we could choose any shower head we saw at any PD display house; or 3) we would be shown a catalog at our colour appointment and have a range to choose from. However, none of that was true. It turns out that as we are building a Lifestyle range house, we can only chose from Lifestyle range products (they have different suppliers for Access and Prestige range houses) - although I read in another blog on building the Drysdale 30 that they were able to pay extra to upgrade to even Prestige products... who knows? In the end, very disappointingly, it appears we only had ONE choice in this regard (or so that's what our colour appointment staff told us) and they couldn't even show us a picture! Unbelievable! Fortunately, I have now Googled the one we should be getting and I am very happy with it. And here it is:

The Tiber Overhead Rain Shower, 250mm, by Dorf

We will also have it coming down from the ceiling on a 200mm arm - the arm is quite chunky which I like.

Suzy has always liked the adjustable hand-held showers, and we got the upgraded Olympic 5-function shower included in one of the upgrade packs we chose, so we decided to keep BOTH. We had a 'diverter' included ($86) so you can chose whether you want to use the overhead rain shower OR the wall mounted hand-held shower. We also chose to have the hand-held shower in the main bathroom too, as they are much nicer than the standard shower head seen in millions of homes and only a small upgrade cost.

'Pulsar' 5 function shower with adjustable arm.

We have to follow up with Porter Davis as to whether we have a 'mixer' AND a 'diverter' as that's the way our documents appear at the moment. However, the diverter appears to the job of both and it would look odd having a mixer that looks different.

Raymor Torino Mixer/Diverter - appears to be both a mixer and a diverter.

Caroma Acqua (yes, with the 'c') Mixer - a  very different style to all the other objects in the shower.

Bathroom Basins
At our previous house, we had lovely above bench basins with gooseneck taps, see below:

Porter Davis offer a very similar option in the Lifestyle range. However, we decided to go with a different sink that still is slightly above bench, but not completely, see below:

Porter Davis display home photo, showing Valentino 420 Stepped Vessel basin

This basin is an upgrade. We also chose the same tap as the above photo, which is the 'standard' option for the Lifestyle houses.

Toilets
We did also upgrade the toilets to the all-ceramic option. It's also slimline, but we weren't too fussy about toilet selection!

Prices:
FYI, here are some of the upgrade costs you can expect for bathroom upgrades (as at July 2013):

• Tiber 250mm rain shower head AND 200mm ceiling arm - $501
• Caroma Acqua wall mixer - $56
• Raymor Torino wall mixer/diverter - $86
• Valentino 420 Stepped Vessel Basin - $144 each (3 basins in the Drysdale = $432)
• Toilets upgrade to Raymor Andorra - $34 each
• Upgrade main bathroom to hand-held shower - $40

Total Upgrades List

This is the part we found the most helpful on other people's blogs. The cost of upgrades. Writing this is NOT meant to be 'ooo look what we are getting' but more of a way to show others bulding the drysdale what can be upgraded and what they are looking to pay. We were pleasently surprised though, we came in a bit under budget, although we are still waiting for a confirmed cost on a few thigns, so that will most likely push us over. so here goes.....

1. carpet pack: $7199. This is for Bolero floor boards and carpet. Tiles to wet areas are included in the base price
2. Function fancy pack: $999. this included hand held shower to ensuite, laminate extended benchtop to laundry, laminate laundry cabinet with everhard white insert trough, fly screen, locks to all openable windows, internal access to garage. This was well worth it!!
3. rear alfresco $5596
4. automatic roller door to garage $670
5. extended window in theatre room (double the height) $171
6. flysceen sliding doors to both the sliding door from rumpus and living areas $688
7. 3 internal doors, to theatre, ensuite and rumpus room $569
8. 1/2 linen and 1/2 broom cupboard as extra in laundry $789
9. overhead cupboards in kicthen $1155
10. laminate in lieu of melamine in pantry $752
11. pot drawers, 2 either side of oven $377
12. drawers to vanity in ensuite $252
13. ceiling dumper to ensuite, 250mm $389, divertor for tap $86
14. two external garden taps $252
15. capped hot water point to alfresco $125
16. Capped waste point to alfresco $212
17. Capped cold point in alfresco $125
18. 900x1200 shower in ensuite in lieu of 900x900 $226
19. upgrade to 4.3* brivis zoned heating, 3 zones. $2600
20. essa stone to island bench in kitchen and opposite bench $2878
21. upgarded handles throughout the house, @ $7 per handle
22. deadbolt lock to front door, with a much nicer handle etc $186
23. upgrade to nice doors, 4 panel $484 for all internal doors
24. upgarded toilet $34
25. upgraded to hand held shower and mixer in bathroom $100ish
26. upgarded vanity basin $144 each. we got three
27. upgraded underlay, to grade 3 $306 throughout the house. 
28. upgraded tiles and feature splashbacks, came in at just under $1000. The main costs here were the feature splash backs in bathroom and ensuite, as well as tiles in the pantry (as a splash back) we upgraded to bigger floor tiles for wet areas and it was really cheap, only about $100 for the whole wet areas!
29. we also spent $1600 on eletrical, $43 per extra power point. $100 for external power points, $170 for a wired in door bell, $140 each for under cupboard lights in the kicthen, $70 for TV and phone points. 

 phew! all done!

looking at all those upgrades it comes to mind if we should have done it all!!! but i dont regret it. Its still all within budget as Porter Davis was so much cheaper than other local builders!.

although we are still awaiting prices for soft close pot drawers and cupboards, upgraded oven and rangehood and cooktop, as well as a dishwasher. So these prices will come soon, hopefully!