With the house build in its last phase we have finally settled on our flooring supplier. Our reasons for not using PD was mainly because we felt the choices in flooring (particularly the timber) were limited and we also felt we could get better value by sourcing it ourselves. It has been a hassle choosing to do it post handover as we have already given up many weekends just trying to source the right product and supplier but hopefully it will save us some extra $$ in the end. 

So the plan is to lay floating floorboards downstairs and carpets upstairs. The only exception to that is the cinema room which will be carpeted and bathroom and laundry which must be tiled by Porter Davis. 

For our floorboards we have chosen to go with engineered oak in a black wash. The boards are 190mm wide, 15mm thick. We found that you can spend between $75 - $120 per sqm for engineered oak so we just budgeted for a product somewhere in between. The boards we chose cost approx $90-95 per sqm. $25 per sqm for installation and $7 per sqm for a 3mm acoustic underlay. Our timber is from Smarter Timber Flooring in Cheltenham who have been great to deal with. Details here.

There are still a couple of unknown costs associated with the installation as they can't quote us until they assess the site. They are:

1) cost to remove and reinstall the skirting boards (personally don't really like the look of the quads) 

2) amount of floor leveling required. 

Here are some photos of the boards we chose. 

Here it is again. I was still drawn to it even after seeing it laid out.

Carpets

When it comes to carpets we weren't too fussed. Just give me something low maintenance, mid range pricing and looks decent. (haha) Throughout this process I certainly have learnt a few things about carpets so I'd thought I'd share.

• If you have pets avoid choosing a loop pile.
• Go for the best underlay you can afford. Besides the extra insulation it also gives you that extra cushioning effect that you don't get when choosing a cheaper carpet. hehe. That's what we did. "give me a not so expensive carpet but I want the best underlay you got!"
• Darker colour carpets don't necessarily mean it will hide all the dust, lint and hair plus it can make the room or space look smaller than it is compared to a lighter carpet.
• Keep in mind that when selecting your colour from a small swatch that it will appear darker once laid on a larger surface area for this reason I chose a shade lighter than the one I actually liked. 
• If you're not too fussy with carpets like me then my advice would be to consider using a carpet warehouse such as Fowles or Western Distributors - I found them to be much cheaper than your major retailers. 

Ashton Twist - Pambula Beach. theres my foot again. Whoops.