The Gruen Eco Design blog about how to convert your dream of an energy efficient home into a reality.
Selecting Fixtures, Fittings & Appliances
As our April construction start date approaches there are still a lot of things we have to select and put into our fixtures and fittings schedule. But we are getting there.
The abolishment of services has been booked in. Then demolition can happen mid-March.
Our builder is working on the final costing.
But there are still many things that need to be selected. And then put into our schedule.
Bathroom fixtures
We have been looking at bathroom fixtures and fittings. And, we would like to go black on all our tapware. But, changing from stainless steel to a black finish comes with a 20% cost increase. So, we are still awaiting the final figure to see if we are willing to spend the extra. Or, if we change it back to the standard range. So many decisions….
We have also found a great round bathroom mirror, with a black frame. And some nice off-the shelf shower screens. Currently we have selected everything with black hinges. This means, if we were to change to stainless steel we would need to change everything else in the house to suit…
Lighting
In most rooms we will use simple white led light fixtures from Ikea. And we found a track system in beacon lighting that we will use in our living room. We are still not quite sure yet if that will be white or black though…
And we haven’t settled on a pendant light for over the staircase. The one I liked would be several thousand dollars. Not gonna happen…
Flooring
We found a great engineered timber flooring that looks good and is pretty affordable. Or rather our amazing interior designer Kathleen found it for us ?
Now we are waiting on some samples for the tiles to see what works best together with the timber flooring.
We will have tiles in our entry area. With a terrazzo look. The tiles will also be used in our guest bedroom and all the bathrooms. There are 2 steps up from the entry level to the kitchen and living room. And from there we will have the timber flooring, along with all the bedrooms upstairs. Hence, there is a lot of timber flooring in the house. Which makes it a big ticket item for us. And finding a more affordable flooring option did save us quite a bit of money.
Appliances
For us the performance and energy / water usage is important. But also the look, of course. We have opted for Bosch appliances. They also have a recirculating range hood. Which is important for the passive house performance.
We are still debating if we can justify getting the Liebherr built-in fridges. Which are amazing. Or whether we change to the built-in fridges from Bosch. Might depend on the final built cost…
Once we have nailed down our selections, I will share some more details with you.