Resolved?

After a week or so of two-ing and fro-ing with our Metricon CSC around the issues that we identified before contract signing.  The main issues that we had were -

1. On the original elevations that we were provided with, the Denver illustrated was a standard height home.  With the "Reflections" package the height increases to 2540mm which makes the internal rooms feel larger.  The issue that we identified at contract signing was that due to the extra height, Metricon uses FC sheeting above all windows and doors that are not part of the Colonial Facade, meaning the back of the house has FC sheet (less than appealing to keep a consistent look throughout).  This was only identified when we were provided with all the elevation drawings.  While we identified this "issue" at contract signing, Metricon's approach was that we should have identified this prior to the contract as it is a structural variation.  Our point was that we would have assumed that this was brickwork without having been provided with any drawings that showed FC sheet.  End result, our CSC and Building Manager have agreed to add the brickwork above the windows for $1395 with no variation fee.......Win 1.
2. We also noted, again due to the extra height issue during out contract signing that there appeared to be only one bulkhead above the kitchen cupboards (along one side).  The cupboards on the cooker side were missing a bulkhead above them.  This was something that Maya picked up at contract signing and queried with our Sales Consultant.  The Sales Consultant advised that there was actually a bulkhead on both kitchen walls......which at our Colour selection discovered was not true.  Again this was addressed with our CSC.  End result is Metricon have agreed to supply the additional bulkhead for $602 without any variation fee...... Win 2.
3. The third issue that we raised was in relation to the shower recesses.  We queried our Sales Consultant a few times during and up to the signing of our contract around the price for putting in shower recesses in both the main bathroom and ensuite.  We were under the understanding that we could do this at our Colour Variation but were advised at the appointment that it should have been added at contract. Anyway, we again addressed this item with our CSC and Metricon has agreed to add the two shower recesses for $380 each to the variation with the other two items listed above.  Again the recesses were purely confusion between us and our Sales consultant, but it was nice that Metricon agreed to do this at no charge.  Win 3?

Thanks to our CSC, all our "issues" to date have now been resolved.  During the week we also received back our Electrical Variation documents to sign off.  The variation received was missing the cost for our Star Server which was queried.  Our CSC advised that this was not correct and would be corrected.

We also did some shopping during the week and got a few items that are going to be really useful for the new place.  We bought a new trailer so that we can cart landscaping and other supplies to the block when  needed.  We also got our own Ride on Mower today after LOTS of deliberating between brands, size and then New vs Used.  We finally decided to go for a new Toro Lawn Tractor and then gave it its first run  today.  I actually couldn't get Maya off the thing!!!

During last week we also thought we would take a walk through a couple of local Metricon and other builders displays on the Sunshine Coast (rather than the Brisbane displays where we signed our contract), mainly to get a better idea of what sort of window coverings we intended to go for.  It was really interesting the simplicity of window coverings used in display homes.  

In our wanderings we also came across the first instance of the Blue Rio Bricks that we selected being used outside of a Boral display centre.  This photo was taken at Brightwater for a house that is still under construction.  It is definitely Blue Rio and has been used as a feature wall for the garage.  I think that they have used off white mortar which is a little different (less contrast) to the way ours will look.  We are really happy with the brick selection and believe that it will only look better with White Mortar and White Sand.

Tiles, Colours Everything!!

What a massive day!!!  All our appointments (Tile, Electrical and Colours) were completed in one day this week at Metricon's Studio M on the Gold Coast.  I think that we really benefited from going down to the Gold Coast Studio M on a few occasions in the last couple of Saturdays.  We had pretty much nailed down about 80% of our selections prior to the day.  Metricon QLD only opens Studio M and the Tile Studio on Saturdays so we could not really pre-select anything for our electrical appointment.

Given the number of selections that we had to make on the day, I thought that I might summarise our selections under our appointment headings along with some of the upgrade costs.  I know that we found the information on everyone else's Blogs around approximate costs really helpful for us "first timers" that had never built before (Thanks particularly to Tim & Tina http://tim-and-tina.blogspot.com/ who provided an extremely informative blog on their experiences with Metricon).-

Electrical

We really liked the idea of putting downlights right throughout our house (apart from the garage and outdoors) prior to our appointment.  We decided to get a quote from family and friends on installing the downlights we throught that we would require prior to our Metricon Electrical Appointment, mainly because we were told that Metricon's price to supply and install downlights was quite high.  The consensus from our family and friends was that if we had the downlights installed privately after handover we could expect to pick up a reasonable quality downlight for $20 each trade price and installation would be around $70 each, less if we were going to get the 70 downlights we had estimated on our floorplan.  Mr "D" our Electrical Consultant at Stratus (Metricon Electrical Contractor) was extremely helpful throughout the Electrical selection process.  We told "D" that we were interested in putting downlights throughtout and he guided us to the new style Envirolux CNC Glass Front Downlight (similar to the one in the photo below, but with a glass cover).

It takes an 11w Enviroglobe, but it fills a larger floor area with light meaning less lights required overall and all for $105 each installed.  This was less than the $7000 we had projected for installation and should save on power bills in the future.  Personally, I wasn't as keen on these downlights (as Maya was) aesthetically as a normal halogen downlight, but it does maintain the same overall look. 

Given the quoted cost of $15K to upgrade to the Clipsal Saturn (LED) light switches throughout the house, we decided to scrap them in favour of the standard switches.  We also considered the Clipsal Slimline switches, however for $10 extra per switch this upgrade was purely not worth the price.  The Denver comes with 19 double power points as standard and we added an extra 8 @ $63 each installed to fill out the house.  We also added quite a few other provisions for additional/future powerpoints and lights (that Metricon could not supply) and 2/3 way switching.  We also decided to take up the option of adding the Clipsal Star Server that includes 6 data points, 4 TV and 2 telephone prewired for $1795.  We were considering getting this done by an external contractor during or after construction, but the job became too difficult to organise with Metricon under their conditions.

All up for Electrical, Data and TV (including aerial) came to $8800 in variations.  Our Daikin Ducted Airconditioning had already been included in our original contract for just over $11K.  We probably could have gone without the aircon with a different design house with different windows, however the QLD summer would have cooked us.  

Tiles

This was probably our easiest appointment of the day due to the preparation (and weeks of "discussion") Maya and I had entered into prior to selections.  The whole appointment was supposed to take 3 hrs and I think that we were out of the appointment in 45 mins.  Our choices were -

All Floor Areas (inc kick panels) - MAXFL911 Super White 450x450 porcelain tile.  The pic below is of the 600x600 version.  We were originally told this tile would be a $55psm upgrade to the Reflections package, but at the appointment we were told the price had dropped on this tile in the last 2 weeks to $30psm.  Our first savings...........

Bathroom and Ensuite Feature Wall Tiles - MAXFL705 Silk Olive Porcelain.  This tile is a $135psm upgrade to the Reflections package so its a relief that we are only going to do one wall per room in this tile.

Bathroom and Ensuite Remaining Walls and Bath Hob - BELWP313 Mocha.  This is a standard tile so no extra costs with this one.  

Maya really liked the idea of taking the Bathroom and Ensuite tiles to full height (same height as the tiles in the shower).  To do this in each room we were quoted $1500-$2000 per room.  This really looks fantastic in the display homes so we decided to take this upgrade.  

Studio M

We always knew that we wanted quite a few upgrades during the Studio M Appointment, even though there was quite a lot included in the Reflections Package.  Given the amount of selections in this area, I have listed our selections under headings, starting from external  -

External

We have decided to go with Boral Blue Rio bricks (upgrade Category 6) for $1890 with White Mortar and White Sand for $2070.  We originally really liked the Austral Hawthorn bricks which unfortunately are not available in QLD.  

We have also decided to render the fron portico and the walls around the outdoor room in Colorbond Dune.  The gutters and facia will also be this colour (below).

We chose a Colorbond Roof (at an upgrade of $5K) in Colorbond Ironstone.

Doors - For the Front Door we went with the Corinthinan Infinity Pivot Entry Door which was included as standard with the Reflections Package.  We decided to upgrade from the standard 370mm Front door Handle to a 750mm handle at a cost of about $200.  After all, why have a nice big entry door with such a weedy little door handle?

We also upgraded the laundry back door to a Corinthian No7 as per below.  We are unsure of the ccost of this one, but given that the laundry does not have any windows for natural light, this is a needed addition.

We went with standard Corinthian internal doors throughout for all rooms apart from the Main Bedroom and Walk in Robe doors.  After much deliberation, we decided to upgrade these doors to the Corinthian Infinity 21 stain grade doors for approx $1200 per door.  We thought that we may be able to source some stain grade internal Wood/Glass doors cheaper after handover and tried a number of different suppliers including Corinthian.  Due to the non-standard size of the doors (extra ceiling height in the Reflections Package) we could not locate doors with sufficient height without getting doors customer made at a massive cost (over $2K per door).  It was therefore an easy decision to go with the Metricon supplied doors.

Kitchen - We made a few additions to the Kitchen above the Reflections Package which included Caeserstone benchtops, Glass Splashback and Technika Gas appliances.   We added some extra drawers in the kitchen, extra cupboards, metallic splashback paint ($175) and upgraded door handles.  While there were quite a few changes made to the kitchen, the costs involved were minimal.

Bathroom/Ensuite - We took all of the Reflections Promo items for the bathroom including Kohler tapware, Caeserstone benchtops and Kohler basins and then added a few extra's of our own.  We added chrome pop up releases for the basins ($50 ea), an upgraded Newbury bath ($75), polished edge mirrors ($200ea) and semi framed shower screens ($500 ea).  The shower screens were not a straightforward decision, mainly because Maya is of the opinion that the frameless shower screens don't seal properly.  I was ok with either, but given that we were putting in wall tiles to the top of the screens, it would look a bit odd having fully framed showers.  We also requested upgrades to the basic towel rails in the bathroom and ensuite.

Carpets - We chose to upgrade from the Carpets provided in the Reflections Package to Metricons Platinum range with rubber underlay for $32 psm.  We did go to some external flooring suppliers to get some quotes on carpet, but found that the adjustments to remove the Metricon supplied carpet from the contract was not sufficient to match the carpet we wanted through an external supplier.

Anyway, that is enough for now since there are simply too many selections made during the appointments to detail here.  I'm sure that everyone will see photos of our chosen colours on this site as the build progresses.  There were a few items that we were NOT HAPPY about at the end of our appointments day, mainly around things that we had queried with our Sales Consultant prior to contract signing and were told that they would now going to result in a Post Contract Variation and Admin Fee of $750.  I'll cover these off in my next post when we are a little closer to resolution with our Customer Service Consultant......hopefully.

Our First Mow!!

Its been a busy week since our last post.  Last Saturday we spent most of Saturday down at the Gold Coast at Studio M trying to preselect as much as possible before we have our Electrical, Colour and Tile appointments this coming week.  It was really worthwhile and we think that we have most of our options hammered down.  Once we have made our final selections, I'll post some detail about our colours, tiles, and external selections on this blog.  

Last weekend we also did our first mow of the block.  Thanks to Scotty K for the lend of the ride on.  Even with the ride on it still took nearly an hour to mow it.  Doing this block by push mower would have been a killer!!!!  I think we'll pull forward our purchase of our own ride on.   Maya caught me hard at work. 

We finally made a decision on what to do about our HSTP system.  Our Metricon Customer Support Coordinator (after we follow up with her on multiple occasions) came back to us with the price of $16600 for Metricon to simply do the connections of a HSTP and the HSTP council submission.  Given that the original amount on our contract for Metricon to supply, install and connect their Bio Treat HSTP was $14000, we decided to query this price.  After again following up on a number of occasions, we were told that the connection cost would be $1660 (not $16600 as originally provided via email).  Again...good enough reason to get everything in writing/via email.

We headed out to the block late this afternoon, mainly to take the hound for a run and noticed that we have our first building progress -

.....yes we have a water meter!!!!  Yes, it feels like our site start is getting closer.

Anyway, we have both taken the week off work to do our selections (really just needed a break and this seemed like a good excuse) and since we live on the Sunshine Coast, Metricon supplies us with 1 nights accommodation on the Gold Coast while we do our selections.  We're going to extend this out to a couple of extra nights.

Contract Signed!!!

We signed our contract on the 24th and things are definitely "on the road now" and not turning back. Our Sales Consultant was quite helpful. I think he had anticipated that we would have a number of questions and issues we wanted resolved prior to signing. In fact, initially we were not keen on signing a document/contract that did not reflect the design we wanted exactly, but the Sales Consultant advised us that every one of our concerns/issues with errors in the original drawings were going to be resolved in the first post contract variation. The one thing that I have quickly learned is to get everything in writing (mental note for the future try and do everything via email).

We already had finance in place (Given my job, it would be a little scary if I didn't) prior to signing the building contract so everything was set to go.

Our next step is to make our trip to make Colour, Electrical and Tile Selections at Studio M @ Gold Coast which has been booked in for a few weeks time.
Over the last couple of weeks we've made a couple of trips to Studio M just to get some ideas about what "variations" we might like above Metricons Reflections Promotion Inclusions. If anyone is either looking at building with Metricon or has recently signed a Preliminary contract/Quote, get to Studio M as soon as possible. It will give you a good idea of what is standard, what you get in any promotion and approximately what each upgrade will cost. That way, when you come to selecting items you would like added to the contract you can ask for provisions to be made. I'd recommend adding a provision for electrical in particular!!

We are still considering doing a couple of things ourselves such as the HSTP (Home Sewerage Treatment Plant) and Decking for the Outdoor room and Portico. Metricon has quoted us $14K for supply and full install of their Bio Treat HSTP system. We would really like to install a Biolytix HSTP mainly because it has underground wastewater dispersal, does not use any chemicals like Chlorine and is more environmentally friendly. So far we've got a quote on the supply and install on a system similar Bio Treat system excluding connections/power for $8K and approx $11K for Biolytix. Just waiting on a quote from Metricon to just do connections before we make a decision.

In the mean time (or at least until we have completed our Studio M appointment), I've included a graphic of our proposed external Colour scheme from the online Studio M site. What a nice little design tool!!!

Time to Sign!!!

After what feels like a long wait we have been told by our Sales Rep that Metricon have our contract ready. This is actually go number 2 at having our contract prepared. The first time (about a month ago) we were provided with a draft copy of our plans a few days ahead of the contract date.

Given the amount of changes that we had to make to the garage end of the house to fit it on our block (with enough room for a driveway leftover) we were really keen to check the drafties had got our scetch right. Unfortunately, it looked nothing like our sketch or our Sales Reps marked up plan either on the garage end or around Bedroom 1. Actually, I was pretty surprised that our Sales Rep actually tried to "sell us" the stuffed up plans that looked nothing like what we wanted and then when we disagreed said "I thought that you may not like it!!!". If that was the case, why sell us a stuff up???? Anyway.....

We have been sent an updated set of plans ahead of meeting with our Sales Rep this weekend. Almost everything looks good, apart from the colonial feature on the side of Bed 1 which should have been extended in line with the outside wall of the ensuite. Just another thing to bring up the Sales Rep BEFORE we sign. I'm sure that he is absolutely sick of my calls asking to get things fixed already!!
Anyway, here are our "almost final" house plans

Interim Plans

We received some interim drafted plans with the changes that we requested so that the Denver will fit on the block with a driveway down one side and a minimum space to the boundary on the other. It appears that the "drafty" was trying to purely save build costs and reduced the sizes of the rooms on the garage end of the house....not what we wanted. I won't post the house plan here, but have included the site plan (because it is mostly correct). Fits snugly on the block!!!

It would be nice to have direct contact with the drafty so that we can get the layout and sizing sorted in one go.

And the Soil is a .......

The wait is over for the soil test. We were hoping that it might be an "S" class soil, but it has come back a "P/M". What the??? After peaking out that our agent had sold us a dodgy block with a P=Problem soil class I gave the engineers a call to confirm what the rating was, particularly that I thought you only got a single soil class. The engineer said that it was actually a typical "M" class soil which was common to the Glass House Mountains area, but that the test was completed during a week of heavy rain which had an effect on the test. Apparently, the "P" classification was due to "low bearing capacities encountered across the site".

Well, its not an "S" which would have saved us about $10K in site costs, but it is within the original quote that we were provided with from the Metricon Sales Consultant.

We have also heard from our Metricon Sales Consultant and Customer Service Co-ordinator twice in the last week. The new home contract has been ordered and we should have it in about 3 to 4 weeks. That makes it just after easter and we should be signing the contract. The Metricon Sales Consultant said they have been generally starting site works about 4 weeks after signing and then we should have a 16 week build time. I don't think that he has come in contact with the Sunshine Coast Regional Council yet. I think we can add at least another 4 weeks to the time at council.

Anyway, there is LOTS to decide on in the next few weeks which will definitely involve quite a few trips on Saturdays to Studio M at the Gold Coast. At least we have a fair idea what we want the external of the house to look like.....the internals are a whole other matter!!!

So many choices!!! So little time!!!

Well the contract is now unconditional on the land and we have signed our initial agreement to build a Denver 33 with a few alterations, mainly because we wanted to fit a driveway down to a shed on the back of the block. The rejig of the basic plans went well and everything fits with a metre or so to spare. Just waiting on the soil testing, contours and HSTP plan to come back now. Hopefully we have a good result to the soil test which will save a few dollars. I will post a few photo's of the block in the near future.

Yay!!! We got the land!! Now for sorting out the Build

Well, after months of looking around for a house to buy we have finally decided to buy land. Thank god we are going to get back into our own place and out of renting again.