Pre-visit to Hopetoun

Thought we'd drop in for quick visit to Hopetoun on Sunday on our way back from Ballarat and see what colour selection tasks await. The place is laid out well with all (well most) of the options marked for each price category. Managing the two little cherubs whilst trying to take in all the info from the staff made it quite interesting. (Thank god for Portable DVD players). Suffice to say come time to make the final selections we will be visiting childless. We thought the visit was quite beneficial although we did have a couple of issues.

1. The colour consultants were nice and helpful although they were very insistent that they could not advise on pricing of items for upgrades as they are only here to advise on the selections, which we thought was kind of odd (this applies to the weekend 'browsing' visits only). The whole premise for coming to these places is to choose what items you want included as part of the build and obviously you'd like to upgrade if the item is nicer and if the price is reasonable and within budget, right? There must be some underlying ploy here to get you in on the day and entice you to make the upgrade with little time to weigh up the cost in the greater scheme of things.

2. Our Display Centre consultant had advised us that we would need to pay $400 extra to have the additional 2mm PVC edging on the kitchen cabinets which we were prepared to pay as we have it in our current home and appreciate it worth. The Hopetoun consultant showed us the standard cabinet sample and what do you know - the PVC edging is STANDARD! What the! Obviously we will be subtracting the $400 from our tender.

3. In the showroom they have a separate room which showcases all of the lighting options and additional room speakers etc. When asked if we can take a look the consultant advised me that we can only go into that room during our 'Electrical Selections' appointment and that it was separate to the colour selections appointment (what 'the' again). Nobody had advised us that there was a separate Electricals app't.

Overall, the visit was well worth it, walked away with a few selections done and dusted and some selections that we need to.... err... 'discuss' (for want of a better word ;-) ).