On Friday Michael and I went to the buyers' preview of some 'home maker's' items at auction near Coffs Harbour and came away with a list of a few things we might want to buy if we could. So this morning I nervously went to the auction - my first - and came away the proud owner of three brand spanking new toilets!
There were almost 200 bidding cards given out and the place was heaving. It seems to be a bit of an outing because people brought along their children, parents, friends, neighbours... lots of people milling around and surprisingly few of them actually bidding.
Once things got under way it went very fast. The auctioneer spoke so fast it was hard to understand and to keep on track with the lot numbers in the catalogue. And I didn't realise how it worked with the top two bidders: where there were multiple identical items the lead bidder won the right to decide how many of them they wanted and if any were left the second bidder got first option on the rest.
The shower cabinet, vanity unit and tiles we were after went for silly prices. The vanity unit went for more than it would have cost brand new! People definitely get carried away with the bidding process, and I can understand why; I didn't even bid on these items because the starting prices were high and the prices went up very quickly.
The toilets I was interested in were in the second lot sold; the first ones were 'sold up' up as being quite expensive and accordingly went for a higher price, but the lot of six toilets I was interested in wasn't highlighted in that way and I got three in the end for $377 each (a significant saving on the $549 each for the ones quoted by Warren's bathroom people). They're nothing special: white porcelain toilets with your standard behind-the-seat cistern. Nothing fancy, they're not wall-hung or with concealed cisterns or anything. But they have a 4* WELS rating and dual flush system which means they're very water-efficient (for a toilet), which is great. These three will hopefully grace our family bathroom, the separate 'powder room' as it's known over here, and the toilet in the studio. We'll get a matching toilet/bidet set for our en-suite but at least the other three will match.
So there you go. I understand why people get carried away: there's a 'buzz' that's to do with anticipation and anxiety and the thrill of 'beating' someone else for the prize. Winning the bid is easy: all you do is keep sticking up your bid card for the auctioneer to see, so that you bid more than the opposition. And it's so tempting when you see the one thing you'd have liked disappearing out of your reach! Being sensible requires planning and a bit of discipline. I could ill-afford the time to research the recommended retail prices of the auction items, but I looked stuff up on the web and came up with some figures. Then I calculated how much I would be prepared to pay, added the 11% buyers' premium charged by this auction house and evaluated the result and, if it seemed reasonable, that was my top price. All I have to do now is pay the balance (after leaving my deposit) and work out how we're going to transport them up to the shed on our block.
Showing posts with label pricing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pricing. Show all posts
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
Builder number #3
We have no choice but to look at other builders, so I can now introduce the lovely Jim into the mix. He came to see us last week, saw my models, looked at our plans, went away with copies and will - hopefully - come up with a price. He reckons about $1,500 per square metre, so perhaps we'll be back to sawing off bits of the house in an effort to make it more affordable? We'll let you know in the next exciting episode...
Sunday, November 9, 2008
The bottom line
Well the tag-line for this blog is "Great house: small budget: big ideas", so you could always see that we were heading toward difficulties along the way, and I think we've just ploughed straight into 'the money problem'.
You'll recall that we have two potential builders in our sights, Dan and John. John said up-front that he thought it would cost at least half a million dollars to build our house and Dan thought it might be cheaper. John doesn't want to do a costing exercise but Dan has just finished his, and the bad news is that even he thinks the house - not including the studio - will cost half a million dollars to build, which would be OK if we had the money...
The economic situation isn't helping. Importing anything now costs a lot more owing to the fact that the dollar is weak, and the raw cost of materials for building our house has increased by something like 40% in the last twelve months. While we're trying to use local products where possible, such as sustainably farmed timber from local forests for example, the overall cost of materials has gone up as suppliers have increased prices across their product ranges.
Dan has also pointed out that we have expensive tastes, which probably won't be a surprise to most of you! Mind you, I don't think we've gone overboard with things. If I was being snobby about it I would suggest that our European mind-set simply means we're interested in quality products rather than shoddy stuff. We're not interested in gold-plated taps; we want taps that will work for 20 years and more without discolouring, and with the right sort of ceramic disk technology that will work when the water supply comes from a rainwater tank rather than a mains system. We don't want architraves and a decent plasterer costs more than a bodger who uses skirting boards, architraves and cornicing to hide the defects in his workmanship. We could just build the whole house from cement-rendered brick, but we don't like the look, we don't like the associated environmental issues, and we don't want to be patching cracks for the rest of our lives. We could skimp on insulation but it seems like a false economy, especially when we'll be on a solar electricity system that won't allow us anything in the way of electrical heating or cooling. Spending money up-front on appropriate insulation for walls, floor and ceiling is the only sensible answer... and so it goes on.
I'm not quite sure yet how this leaves us. Michael and I haven't really sat down and done the hard work of reviewing our cash-flow, looking at different mortgage options or trying to trim costs. Our Plan B had been to postpone the office/studio building until later, using the second living room as a temporary workplace until we could afford it. We've already ditched the idea of a swimming pool until much later in the proceedings. But as Dan's costings - and we've been through them properly - mean we can't afford to build the office/studio yet anyway, we're going to have to think of a very difference Plan C, and an extremely creative Plan D as a backup.
Funnily enough I'm not despondent. Things haven't got to the stage where I'm seriously worried that we won't be able to build anything at all: we just have to review things and be creative. Often I find that when I first think of something I can't see how to change it, but after a period of reflection it usually occurs to me that there are more options than I had previously thought. What it might mean is a further delay, although hopefully not a huge one as I think it was a condition of our avoiding Stamp Duty on the property that building work had to commence within two years of purchase of the land, which would take us to the end of March next year. More news when we've come up with some ideas!
You'll recall that we have two potential builders in our sights, Dan and John. John said up-front that he thought it would cost at least half a million dollars to build our house and Dan thought it might be cheaper. John doesn't want to do a costing exercise but Dan has just finished his, and the bad news is that even he thinks the house - not including the studio - will cost half a million dollars to build, which would be OK if we had the money...
The economic situation isn't helping. Importing anything now costs a lot more owing to the fact that the dollar is weak, and the raw cost of materials for building our house has increased by something like 40% in the last twelve months. While we're trying to use local products where possible, such as sustainably farmed timber from local forests for example, the overall cost of materials has gone up as suppliers have increased prices across their product ranges.
Dan has also pointed out that we have expensive tastes, which probably won't be a surprise to most of you! Mind you, I don't think we've gone overboard with things. If I was being snobby about it I would suggest that our European mind-set simply means we're interested in quality products rather than shoddy stuff. We're not interested in gold-plated taps; we want taps that will work for 20 years and more without discolouring, and with the right sort of ceramic disk technology that will work when the water supply comes from a rainwater tank rather than a mains system. We don't want architraves and a decent plasterer costs more than a bodger who uses skirting boards, architraves and cornicing to hide the defects in his workmanship. We could just build the whole house from cement-rendered brick, but we don't like the look, we don't like the associated environmental issues, and we don't want to be patching cracks for the rest of our lives. We could skimp on insulation but it seems like a false economy, especially when we'll be on a solar electricity system that won't allow us anything in the way of electrical heating or cooling. Spending money up-front on appropriate insulation for walls, floor and ceiling is the only sensible answer... and so it goes on.
I'm not quite sure yet how this leaves us. Michael and I haven't really sat down and done the hard work of reviewing our cash-flow, looking at different mortgage options or trying to trim costs. Our Plan B had been to postpone the office/studio building until later, using the second living room as a temporary workplace until we could afford it. We've already ditched the idea of a swimming pool until much later in the proceedings. But as Dan's costings - and we've been through them properly - mean we can't afford to build the office/studio yet anyway, we're going to have to think of a very difference Plan C, and an extremely creative Plan D as a backup.
Funnily enough I'm not despondent. Things haven't got to the stage where I'm seriously worried that we won't be able to build anything at all: we just have to review things and be creative. Often I find that when I first think of something I can't see how to change it, but after a period of reflection it usually occurs to me that there are more options than I had previously thought. What it might mean is a further delay, although hopefully not a huge one as I think it was a condition of our avoiding Stamp Duty on the property that building work had to commence within two years of purchase of the land, which would take us to the end of March next year. More news when we've come up with some ideas!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Another day, another builder!
Well, one more builder, Dan Duffy, to be precise. Perhaps Michael should be blogging about the meeting as I had to run off to a Focus group meeting half-way through, but he's busy trying to fix our Media Centre which died last night so he's off rummaging for spare parts!
I find it very interesting how different people are in their approach to things. Dan's been involved in some fairly 'green' buildings in the past, including for the local Steiner school in Coffs Harbour, which is about as whacky as buildings get locally. So he wasn't at all phased by our ideas. We want a timber frame? No problem. Want a square set finish to the interior? Fine. Double glazing? Expensive, but a good idea and it will pay for itself if we're in the building for long enough? But the really great part of the discussion (which, of course, I missed) was that he reckoned on a brief look at our plans and a lengthy talk to Michael that it might be possible to do the house and the office/studio for around $350,000 which is much more like the size of our budget! I'm not going to hold him to it, mind, and he needs to go away and do a proper costing of things, but it is a figure that gave us renewed hope in a week of major depression about the fact that we have to leave here and we might not have enough money to build ourselves a new home! And that is a large difference in price: $350,000 works out at about $1,150 per metre square instead of $1,500 per metre square...
Michael and I have been feeling quite stressed out about having to move. Again. Into our third home in two years and with all the associated cost and sheer inconvenience, just when we were relaxing into thoughts of Christmas around the pool! It's crap, really, and we are very upset about it. The rental market is difficult round here at the moment: apparently some houses have thirty or so people going to see them, and agents are holding 'open days' for rentals which is something I've only seen in big UK cities before. Now admittedly we might be looking towards the top end of the market in order to find something sufficiently large for us both to be able to work from there as well as live, but even so it isn't good news.
It's been amusing in a slightly embittered way to talk to the two agents who will be trying to sell this house. Our landlord is clearly aware that he's treading on eggshells with us at the moment and he has taken some trouble to ensure both agents realise that they must NOT, on ANY ACCOUNT, annoy me! So anyone being shown around will have to be pre-approved, to deter sticky-beaks (a lovely phrase!), and I'm to understand that viewings will be at my convenience. I must say it's nice that he's taken the effort to say all this. Of course he's also saying that he'll ensure a long settlement period so that we can rest assured we'll be able to stay here until after Christmas, but frankly I can't see that happening, and I can't rely on it being the case because it is out of his control. Who in their right minds is going to pay $840,000 (who indeed!) for this house and then say, yeah, fine, the tenants can stay in it until next year? More likely the place will sell just before Christmas and we'll be out on our ears just at the worst time of year when any family that's going to move moves because it's the long school holiday and they can get their kids into school at the beginning of the academic year... and it's also peak holiday season so houses are snapped up on short-term lets for families holidaying in the area, and other houses that might become vacant aren't because the tenants understandably don't want to move house over Christmas.... I know I'm being really whiny, but the situation just feels grim, and I am SO fed up with it!
I find it very interesting how different people are in their approach to things. Dan's been involved in some fairly 'green' buildings in the past, including for the local Steiner school in Coffs Harbour, which is about as whacky as buildings get locally. So he wasn't at all phased by our ideas. We want a timber frame? No problem. Want a square set finish to the interior? Fine. Double glazing? Expensive, but a good idea and it will pay for itself if we're in the building for long enough? But the really great part of the discussion (which, of course, I missed) was that he reckoned on a brief look at our plans and a lengthy talk to Michael that it might be possible to do the house and the office/studio for around $350,000 which is much more like the size of our budget! I'm not going to hold him to it, mind, and he needs to go away and do a proper costing of things, but it is a figure that gave us renewed hope in a week of major depression about the fact that we have to leave here and we might not have enough money to build ourselves a new home! And that is a large difference in price: $350,000 works out at about $1,150 per metre square instead of $1,500 per metre square...
Michael and I have been feeling quite stressed out about having to move. Again. Into our third home in two years and with all the associated cost and sheer inconvenience, just when we were relaxing into thoughts of Christmas around the pool! It's crap, really, and we are very upset about it. The rental market is difficult round here at the moment: apparently some houses have thirty or so people going to see them, and agents are holding 'open days' for rentals which is something I've only seen in big UK cities before. Now admittedly we might be looking towards the top end of the market in order to find something sufficiently large for us both to be able to work from there as well as live, but even so it isn't good news.
It's been amusing in a slightly embittered way to talk to the two agents who will be trying to sell this house. Our landlord is clearly aware that he's treading on eggshells with us at the moment and he has taken some trouble to ensure both agents realise that they must NOT, on ANY ACCOUNT, annoy me! So anyone being shown around will have to be pre-approved, to deter sticky-beaks (a lovely phrase!), and I'm to understand that viewings will be at my convenience. I must say it's nice that he's taken the effort to say all this. Of course he's also saying that he'll ensure a long settlement period so that we can rest assured we'll be able to stay here until after Christmas, but frankly I can't see that happening, and I can't rely on it being the case because it is out of his control. Who in their right minds is going to pay $840,000 (who indeed!) for this house and then say, yeah, fine, the tenants can stay in it until next year? More likely the place will sell just before Christmas and we'll be out on our ears just at the worst time of year when any family that's going to move moves because it's the long school holiday and they can get their kids into school at the beginning of the academic year... and it's also peak holiday season so houses are snapped up on short-term lets for families holidaying in the area, and other houses that might become vacant aren't because the tenants understandably don't want to move house over Christmas.... I know I'm being really whiny, but the situation just feels grim, and I am SO fed up with it!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Builders
We had a great two hours with a local builder called John Newton yesterday. He was recommended to us by a friend's friend who is exactly the sort of person we'd want to build our house but can't because he's too busy with other projects...
How do you choose a builder? Answer: I don't know. I guess that you have to like them, because they're going to see you at your best and at your worst, they're going to find out a lot about you, you're going to pay them an awful lot of money, and they will be responsible for delivering your dreams in three dimensions with a roof on top.
John seems very nice: calm, practical, no nonsense. He runs a tight ship, so to speak, employing regular builders and tradespeople whom he trusts, and he seems to have a focus on a quality finish. He also knows and likes our architect, and likes Christian's work, which helps. So far, so good. The down side was that he thinks - without doing a full costing - that he'd be charging us around $1,500 per square metre and that our budget, therefore, is inadequate. Damn! Now $1,500 per square metre will buy you the structure (frame, walls, floor joists, flashings, chimney, roof), basic electrics (internal cabling, connection to your power system, wall sockets and power points, light switches etc), basic plumbing (connection to your sewage system, internal plumbing, taps and shower heads), some internal cabinetry (standard kitchen/larder/cupboard/bathroom units with standard tops, basic shelving, doors, skirting boards and architraves if you want them), internal flooring (tiles, carpet and wooden floorboards) and a spray-paint finish. Not included, as far as I'm aware, are toilets, bidets, baths, shower screens/cubicles, kitchen appliances such as cooktops or ovens or dishwashers, light fittings, airconditioning, windows, exterior work such as outside lights or patio tiling or decking, or your swimming pool! And if you want anything fancy you're going to pay extra for it too.
Anyway, 223.5 metres of house plus 84 metres of office/studio comes to 307.5 square metres of internal floorspace which at $1,500 per square metre comes out at $461,250 of basic build cost. I understand that one ought to allow around $100,000 for internal fit-out and 20% contingency... OUCH! I guess I need to go back to my spreadsheet.
How do you choose a builder? Answer: I don't know. I guess that you have to like them, because they're going to see you at your best and at your worst, they're going to find out a lot about you, you're going to pay them an awful lot of money, and they will be responsible for delivering your dreams in three dimensions with a roof on top.
John seems very nice: calm, practical, no nonsense. He runs a tight ship, so to speak, employing regular builders and tradespeople whom he trusts, and he seems to have a focus on a quality finish. He also knows and likes our architect, and likes Christian's work, which helps. So far, so good. The down side was that he thinks - without doing a full costing - that he'd be charging us around $1,500 per square metre and that our budget, therefore, is inadequate. Damn! Now $1,500 per square metre will buy you the structure (frame, walls, floor joists, flashings, chimney, roof), basic electrics (internal cabling, connection to your power system, wall sockets and power points, light switches etc), basic plumbing (connection to your sewage system, internal plumbing, taps and shower heads), some internal cabinetry (standard kitchen/larder/cupboard/bathroom units with standard tops, basic shelving, doors, skirting boards and architraves if you want them), internal flooring (tiles, carpet and wooden floorboards) and a spray-paint finish. Not included, as far as I'm aware, are toilets, bidets, baths, shower screens/cubicles, kitchen appliances such as cooktops or ovens or dishwashers, light fittings, airconditioning, windows, exterior work such as outside lights or patio tiling or decking, or your swimming pool! And if you want anything fancy you're going to pay extra for it too.
Anyway, 223.5 metres of house plus 84 metres of office/studio comes to 307.5 square metres of internal floorspace which at $1,500 per square metre comes out at $461,250 of basic build cost. I understand that one ought to allow around $100,000 for internal fit-out and 20% contingency... OUCH! I guess I need to go back to my spreadsheet.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Quoting, quoting, one, two, three
Now as we have no experience at all of building a house apart from that gained from watching in horrified amazement at the antics of people on Grand Designs, we are being guided by our architect as to what needs to be done next. Christian has been telling us to get on with discovering what we'd like to build the house with - everything from what windows we like to which light switches we'd like on our walls. Along the way we've discussed the number of powerpoints needed where, hanging systems, hardwood flooring, tiles, shower screens, louvered windows, cupboard fronts and laundry units... the list seems very, very long. And now that we are forming opinions about things we've started going out to get quotes, which is at once very exciting and absolutely terrifying!
Take windows, for example. Most people would agree that they would like to have windows, probably windows that open in some fashion. If you've lived in the UK you'll be familiar with double-glazing and might take it as read that double-glazed windows are sensible, even in a warmer climate, because they keep out hot sun in summer as well as keeping the heat in during winter. Fine, so you think you might like to have double-glazed window units.
But if you have environmental concerns, what sort of window frames do you choose? Aluminium frames are cheap and the metal can be recycled at the end of its life, but aluminium frames leak heat around the edges unless you go for a 'thermal break' system. Wood looks nice, but what about cutting down forests? How can you be sure that your timber is from a sustainably managed forest, and what about the sort of paint we would need to maintain a timber window in a humid, seaside environment? It isn't going to be low-VOC, water-based paint... PVC and u-PVC used to have a bad name environmentally speaking, but now people talk of them as having 'low embodied energy' and a long life-span without the need for on-going maintenance, so as long as they're responsibly produced and aren't going to 'off-gas' in your home maybe they're the best solution? Or why not go for something different; how about pultruded fibreglass frames? Modern technology means that fibreglass can be mixed with resins (both containing a percentage of post-consumer waste) and turned into a very stable, non-warping, maintenance-free, thermally efficient window frame with a life-span of 50 years and able to be recycled at the end of that time. Choosing your window system is NOT an easy task.
Well we'd like to look at pultruded fibreglass double-glazed units, as our first option, followed by PVC frames or thermally-broken aluminium frames as our second and third choices. We can find suppliers for all these options in Australia, although no-one makes them within a 500 km radius of here (which means un-environmentally friendly road freight costs, but possibly better than flying in the frames from elsewhere - although more on that in a moment!), but price becomes the next big issue.
When I asked Christian how much he thought windows should come in at he felt that $10,000 - $20,000 for single-glazed aluminium frames was a good ball-park figure, and that leaves plenty of room for maneouvre! I know we're going for double-glazed units, which are unusual in Australia, but even so the three quotes I've had so far have come in at $41,000, $57,000 and $80,000! Just slightly more than I'd bargained for. So now I'm in the mad situation where I email UK-based double-glazing companies to ask for quotes to include shipping to Australia, in the honest belief that the price might be lower! Crazy, and not very ecologically sound but there comes a point at which money is the biggest issue and we certainly can't afford to spend the best part of $100,000 glazing our house.
I guess the big question is why double-glazing isn't a popular option here? I think it will become more popular: Australians use a huge amount of energy per head of population in what is a small nation, despite its geographical size. Many Australians live in areas that experience extremes of heat and cold. Perth, for example, in Western Australia, can get to zero or below in the winter and yet has temperatures as high as 40 degrees centigrade in the summer. Sydney drops to around 10 degrees C in the winter and regularly goes over 40 degrees C in the summer. The trouble is, everyone just turns on the air-conditioning. Coffs Harbour has a fairly regular temperature, which is one of the bigger reasons why we moved here. Although this winter has been unusually cold, temperatures normally only vary between about 18 and 30 degrees C during the year. We want double-glazing to keep the heat in during winter and keep the summer heat out, and thus save the load on our solar electricity system so that we don't need to switch on any air-conditioning.
Leaving windows aside, the other amusing quote I've had has been for the material with which to make cupboard fronts for the large storage unit and island unit in our 'kitchen pod', which will be in the middle of our open-plan living/kitchen/dining area. My colourful idea is to front both units with sliding doors that reveal an array of shelves and storage areas behind them rather than individual cupboard and doors. I thought that if the sliding doors were made of translucent resin panels they could slide over each other, creating new colour combinations and we could back-light them so that the units could function as big lightboxes in the evenings. Cool idea, really silly price: I've been quoted over $25,000 just for the resin panels - no sliding mechanism, no cupboard units to mount them on... just the material, in sheets, to make up into the sliding doors! Now that I've sat down, laughing, for a while I'm searching out alternatives.
Take windows, for example. Most people would agree that they would like to have windows, probably windows that open in some fashion. If you've lived in the UK you'll be familiar with double-glazing and might take it as read that double-glazed windows are sensible, even in a warmer climate, because they keep out hot sun in summer as well as keeping the heat in during winter. Fine, so you think you might like to have double-glazed window units.
But if you have environmental concerns, what sort of window frames do you choose? Aluminium frames are cheap and the metal can be recycled at the end of its life, but aluminium frames leak heat around the edges unless you go for a 'thermal break' system. Wood looks nice, but what about cutting down forests? How can you be sure that your timber is from a sustainably managed forest, and what about the sort of paint we would need to maintain a timber window in a humid, seaside environment? It isn't going to be low-VOC, water-based paint... PVC and u-PVC used to have a bad name environmentally speaking, but now people talk of them as having 'low embodied energy' and a long life-span without the need for on-going maintenance, so as long as they're responsibly produced and aren't going to 'off-gas' in your home maybe they're the best solution? Or why not go for something different; how about pultruded fibreglass frames? Modern technology means that fibreglass can be mixed with resins (both containing a percentage of post-consumer waste) and turned into a very stable, non-warping, maintenance-free, thermally efficient window frame with a life-span of 50 years and able to be recycled at the end of that time. Choosing your window system is NOT an easy task.
Well we'd like to look at pultruded fibreglass double-glazed units, as our first option, followed by PVC frames or thermally-broken aluminium frames as our second and third choices. We can find suppliers for all these options in Australia, although no-one makes them within a 500 km radius of here (which means un-environmentally friendly road freight costs, but possibly better than flying in the frames from elsewhere - although more on that in a moment!), but price becomes the next big issue.
When I asked Christian how much he thought windows should come in at he felt that $10,000 - $20,000 for single-glazed aluminium frames was a good ball-park figure, and that leaves plenty of room for maneouvre! I know we're going for double-glazed units, which are unusual in Australia, but even so the three quotes I've had so far have come in at $41,000, $57,000 and $80,000! Just slightly more than I'd bargained for. So now I'm in the mad situation where I email UK-based double-glazing companies to ask for quotes to include shipping to Australia, in the honest belief that the price might be lower! Crazy, and not very ecologically sound but there comes a point at which money is the biggest issue and we certainly can't afford to spend the best part of $100,000 glazing our house.
I guess the big question is why double-glazing isn't a popular option here? I think it will become more popular: Australians use a huge amount of energy per head of population in what is a small nation, despite its geographical size. Many Australians live in areas that experience extremes of heat and cold. Perth, for example, in Western Australia, can get to zero or below in the winter and yet has temperatures as high as 40 degrees centigrade in the summer. Sydney drops to around 10 degrees C in the winter and regularly goes over 40 degrees C in the summer. The trouble is, everyone just turns on the air-conditioning. Coffs Harbour has a fairly regular temperature, which is one of the bigger reasons why we moved here. Although this winter has been unusually cold, temperatures normally only vary between about 18 and 30 degrees C during the year. We want double-glazing to keep the heat in during winter and keep the summer heat out, and thus save the load on our solar electricity system so that we don't need to switch on any air-conditioning.
Leaving windows aside, the other amusing quote I've had has been for the material with which to make cupboard fronts for the large storage unit and island unit in our 'kitchen pod', which will be in the middle of our open-plan living/kitchen/dining area. My colourful idea is to front both units with sliding doors that reveal an array of shelves and storage areas behind them rather than individual cupboard and doors. I thought that if the sliding doors were made of translucent resin panels they could slide over each other, creating new colour combinations and we could back-light them so that the units could function as big lightboxes in the evenings. Cool idea, really silly price: I've been quoted over $25,000 just for the resin panels - no sliding mechanism, no cupboard units to mount them on... just the material, in sheets, to make up into the sliding doors! Now that I've sat down, laughing, for a while I'm searching out alternatives.
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