What dressing would you like?

5 February 2009

Our building looks to be dressing up. In a beige dress. Except of course, it is not as poetic as you would imagine. The brickwork has started. Neat!

Ever wonder why buildings, vessels & countries are always referred to as females?

Simonds has aranged a series of front facades for us to choose from. Their basic modus operandi:- they will present to you a nice floor plan & some beautifully rendered elevations with a wide variety of materials on the facade giving it a dynamic look. Then they will bring you to the showhouses.

Here's a few tricks that D has picked up with the illusion of the showhouse. Illusion here also means, what we see may not be what we get.

1) They will always have a higher ceiling.

2) There will almost always have an alfresco area. Complete with sturdy merbau decking, pergolas, seats, BBQ pits

3) The skirting, architraves & cornices are the more profilic ones. Larger, more character, more lines, just better looking, essentially.

4) The floor finishes are more often than not, timber flooring.

5) There will be more openings. Larger windows, huge glazed bi-fold doors, lower sill height, higher head heights, etc.

6) Granite worktop for kitchens. Need I say more?

7) Grand entry porch.

No showhouse material

Of course, that is a very common illusion. Not dissimilar to how KFC in real life looks less appetizing than KFC on TV. No offence to KFC.

Coming back to the facade treatment, we regret to state that standard facades look nothing like the showhouses. But life is about choices & Simonds will give you a variety of better-looking facade if you will give them more money.

Spot the corbelled brickwork

Because our house was one of the Turnkey ranges, we got a free facade upgrade. We chose to go with the Mossman facade which incorporates a bit of gable roofing, entry portico & corbelled brickwork (something like a wall sweep) around the window edges.

Porch.