Our $56 Fireplace

One feature we really liked from the Delatite display in Doreen that we wanted to incorporate into our home was the gas coal fireplace. Problem is...Premier wanted to charge almost $6,000 to have this - no bloody way! So, we are just getting them to provide a chimney and cavity and we will source the rest ourselves.

eBay has been a good friend so far...

First bargain - decorative tiles for the sides of the fascia. We had been watching these tiles for ages, since they were originally listed at $250. We kept watching as they received no bids and were relisted time and time again. Eventually they were listed at $50 - which we bid on and won! This includes two sets of five tiles, one for either side of the insert.

A short trip to Agnews and we discovered that these tiles are currently in store retailing for $125 for each side - in other words, a total of $250. Bargain!

Next bargain - cast iron fascia. There are a wide variety of fireplaces available on eBay - from complete sets with mantle, fascia, insert and so on...through to the individual pieces. We have been watching for awhile now, and it is very variable as to what everything eventually sells for. We started watching a cast iron fascia because it was listed at $5 - why not? We eventually won this for $6. Best part was it was local - so we picked it up the next day before the seller could change their mind!

When we got it home, we discoved that it is actually an original Federation piece, cast in 1903. Score! It has a little bit of surface rust, but nothing a quick trip to the sandblasters won't fix.

Cast iron fascia with the decorative ceramic tiles

So that is our $56 fireplace so far...next on the list is the mantle!

Waiting....Waiting.....

So...we put down the initial deposit for the site survey and final drawings on the 23rd of October 2010. We organised our site cut the following Tuesday, and informed Premier that we were ready to go on Saturday the 30th of October. When we visited the site the following weekend it appeared that the surveyors had already visited as there were pink markings everywhere and a few core sample drillings - very exciting! Making progress!

According to the timeline in the Premier brochure, we can expect to receive our preliminary drawings 4 to 6 weeks after signing the initial agreement....by my calculations that should have been this week sometime (accounting for the week's delay in having the site cut). We haven't heard anything, so I emailed them today and it looks like we won't have our drawings until next Thursday. As for their site cost estimates, they won't know until they receive the drawings.

That's fine - the problem is, their office is closing for the Christmas period on the 18th of December, just two days after we are supposed to receive our drawings. They don't open again until mid-Feb, so it looks like things will be coming to a standstill for a few months....very annoying as our pre-approval is only valid for 90 days at a time, so that will mean applying for pre-approval version #3! Grrr....

Might talk to them tomorrow to see what our options are in moving this forward a bit quicker (especially considering we will be on holiday on the other side of the country for the entirety of March 2011). It would be great to even have some supplier details so we can start researching our selections in Jan 2011. Will see how that goes...