Hi All
Well its been a full on bunch of weeks deciding on fittings and hard flooring etc. This will just be a quick update with a warning that when working with Building Companies be sure you ALL understand the requirements. That what YOU are expecting matches what they are doing. We have had a hiccup as we proceed with this which has just been a miscommunication. We wrote on our list of requirements 'Extra Wide Doorways', we suspect we said what width that was (910mm) but as there is a Government Accessibility code that states doorways need to be at least 810mm wide (the door size) the Building Company Designers have innocently taken that Code as the means by which they are designing our house. So rather than take our requirements they have assumed that we want to follow the "Code" and have designed based on that.
Our assumption was they were following our requirements rather than the code so we never took note before signing of the apparent differences.
So our suggestion would be if there are important features that are non-negotiable (like doorway widths) that you are VERY sure what they are going to be, and that there is an agreement in writing or at least a specified size written on the contract before you sign or pay for it. Alas in our case nothing was written so we are hopeful they will understand our stance on the extra wide hallways and doors and make the change without too much cost to the overall plan.
If you are interested in the Government Accessibility code and perhaps designing a compliant 5 star home yourselves you can easily look it up here:
Well its been a full on bunch of weeks deciding on fittings and hard flooring etc. This will just be a quick update with a warning that when working with Building Companies be sure you ALL understand the requirements. That what YOU are expecting matches what they are doing. We have had a hiccup as we proceed with this which has just been a miscommunication. We wrote on our list of requirements 'Extra Wide Doorways', we suspect we said what width that was (910mm) but as there is a Government Accessibility code that states doorways need to be at least 810mm wide (the door size) the Building Company Designers have innocently taken that Code as the means by which they are designing our house. So rather than take our requirements they have assumed that we want to follow the "Code" and have designed based on that.
Our assumption was they were following our requirements rather than the code so we never took note before signing of the apparent differences.
So our suggestion would be if there are important features that are non-negotiable (like doorway widths) that you are VERY sure what they are going to be, and that there is an agreement in writing or at least a specified size written on the contract before you sign or pay for it. Alas in our case nothing was written so we are hopeful they will understand our stance on the extra wide hallways and doors and make the change without too much cost to the overall plan.
If you are interested in the Government Accessibility code and perhaps designing a compliant 5 star home yourselves you can easily look it up here:
You can check out there Pinterest recommendations here:
thanks everyone and keep posted for the next few updates. I am intending to blog about our choices and design. We let our son choose the vinyl planking for the main living zone and I would have to say that kid has taste!
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