New Home Contract Signed

With Metricon correctly addressing most of our requested structural changes before the Contract Agreement meeting, we met MS, who presented every item of the Tender (Contract). We only changed one item during the presentation – widening the kitchen window from 2 to 2.7 metres. The meeting lasted over 2.5 hours, after which we put our initials on 3 copies of the HIA contract, and signed our lives away! We had gone through this process once (see my first post) and I am glad our Metricon design with a few changes is better and bigger than the previous one. I can honestly say that when this one becomes a reality, it would be the “dream home”; and therefore, we felt excited to have reached this important milestone in the process.

We did not pay the balance of the 5% today, but were advised that we would have to pay that soon.

The top 10 pricy items, in addition to the site costs, and complying with BASIX and 12.5 bush fire requirements are:

·         Dining room extension: 15.3K

·         Outdoor room extension: 13.5K

·         Front entry pivot door with door furniture: 3.8K

·         9 x timber with translucent glass doors: 9K

·         Revised layout and fit out for Butler’s Pantry including laminate pantry, 2 x 620 wide cavity sliding door units, laminate base cupboards and bench top, tiled splashback, round inset bowl and mixer: 6K

·         Increase PDR room (3.0 x 3.1) & include WIR, doors, windows, shower, exhaust fan, ceiling light point, and mirror: 5K

·         Air conditioning ducts only and up to 12 outlets: 4.2K

·         Redesign kitchen with wide kitchen island bench, plus base cupboards, drawers etc: 3.3K

·         Upgrade staircase to include stained finish to maple tread and risers, with zig zag capping: 2.8 K

·         2.55 m High ceiling to first floor (higher ground floor comes as part of the promotion): 2.6K

Our Plantation Facade

After Contract Agreement/Signing, we had a quick lunch before making selections on our external colours that is required for Stockland Developer Approval. Following are our selections:

Hebel Main: Dulux Gnu Tan

Balcony beam: Dulux Hog Bristle

Gutter, Fascia and Water tank: Colorbond Paperbark

Eaves/Lining: Dulux Hog Bristle Quarter

Downpipe: PVC round downpipes, painted in Paperbark

You will note Gnu Tan (pillar), HogBristle (upper and lower balcony beam) and
Paperbark (gutter and fascia - see above garage) in this picture (our facade is Plantation, not Oakpark)

Scyon 300 mm 'Stria' board lightweight cladding
(ours will be painted Hog Bristle, not the one you see in the photo)

Timberlook steel garage door (Panel Glide Tuscan Profile Colorgrain CAOBA)
(Image sourced from shayneandjasonbuildahouse.blogspot.com.au)

Aluminium Powder Coated Sliding Doors and Windows in Interpon Hamersley Brown

Pivot Door Hume XS26 2340 x 1200 in Merbau + sidelights in Merbau stain finish plus
Gainsborough 750 mm Horizon back to back pull handle 9248PHBB750SS + lock

We requested translucent glass to the main door and clear glass to the sidelights

Intergrain Merbau stain

Silver Chrome handrail (similar to the one in the picture), with horizontal stainless steel wire balustrade
(Image sourced from www.civico.com.au)

Other external selections include: Roof tiles in Classic Gun Metal; Timber posts in Dulux Pawn Broker (Dark Chocolate Brown with a tinge of Dark Red); Decorative timber slats infill to dutch gable in Intergrain Merbau; and 

Barge/gable end of the roof in Colorbond Paperbark.

Update on Registration of Land & from Metricon

With Stockland advising us that the Plan has been lodged with the Land and Property Information, and consequently registration anticipated in the next 2 to 3 weeks, I thought it would be timely to release pictures of our block of land.

Below are site plans showing our driveway design and siting of the house, along with our driveway gradient profile – yes, we have a long driveway! However, it righty slopes down gently from the garage door; so any excess water (from rain etc) drains naturally, thus avoiding the need to provide a grated drain across garage openings.

Stockland consultant confirmed that the Yellow duct seen on one of the pictures is only an offcut that is placed on the star picket as a marker for the sewer connection point, which will be removed when the sewer pipes are cut down to ground level.

I sent an email to Concrete Colour Systems (CCS) requesting them to send me a brochure of driveway colours; I received a pack within a week that included a ‘True to Life Colour Card’ consisting of 60 drive way colours of coloured concrete. For more information, see www.concretecoloursystems.com.au The arrival of the brochures is timely, as we will have to provide our drive way colour during the external colour appointment at Metricon next week.

We received the revised Preliminary Contract from the Design Manager (YD) of Metricon last week, a few days after he responded to a number of queries we raised earlier on structural matters. I double checked all 123 items in the Contract and emailed YD on the week-end about 20 items that required attention. YD responded that he would go through the items and get back to us prior to the appointment late this week.

Amended Floor Plans

Last week, I emailed the Design Manager (YD) and requested him to send us the revised floor plans for our review. YD sent a reply in 2 hours with the revised sketches, however advised that the revised Tender is not ready and apologised for the delay.

The amended floor plans captured most of our requirements. The key changes we requested were to:

ü  Convert the Sitting room and PDR to a Guest Bedroom plus ensuite with an additional entry via the Foyer.

ü  Include a bench top next to WC upstairs

ü  Include WIR to Bed 5 and WIL adjacent to Bed 5, thus reducing the overall area of Leisure.

ü  Redesign Kitchen, Pantry and Laundry.

Metricon’s site details most of the redesigns pertaining to rooms/closets. For example, our Guest bedroom with ensuite is a replica of Nolan Guest Bedroom + Ensuite (go to the dropdown list of structural changes on the Floor Plan page). Others such as our upstairs PDR can be found in the design of Newhaven, while our WIR and WIL designs are variations of the ones that can be found in Imperial.

Other minor changes (additions/variations) included:

ü  920 mm wide cavity sliding door to Guest Bedroom.

ü  2 x 620 mm wide cavity sliding doors to Study and Master ensuite.

ü  2340 mm H stacker sliding doors (from Family & Dining) to Outdoor Room; 2100 H bi-part doors to Dining.

ü  686 mm H horizontal aluminium fixed window with square set plaster reveals to Kitchen & Butler’s Pantry.

ü  514 mm high horizontal feature aluminium fixed window to side elevation of Garage.

ü  1800 mm high feature aluminium fixed mullion picture window with three fixed panels in Family

ü  1200 mm high aluminium sliding window in Study.

ü  686 mm high horizontal aluminium fixed windows to rear elevations of Bed 3 & 4 (in addition to standard windows to side elevations).

ü  Relocation of feature plaster diving wall between Bed 1 and Bed 1 WIR by 500 mm towards Bed 1 in lieu of standard to create a 1300 mm wide passage way.

ü  Increase in depth of Bed 1 robe to 600 mm (so that clothes do not get squished when sliding doors close).

ü  Square set ceilings to ground floor.

ü  300 mm wide x 1200 mm deep plaster bulkhead to perimeter of Entry.

After a review of the floor plans, I flicked an email to YD seeking minor changes (some of these were communicated during our Preliminary Contract Meeting, but I presume were not interpreted correctly; and therefore, we have asked YD to address them now). These include a horizontal feature aluminium window in the Sitting/Guest bedroom, location of rainwater tank, location of dishwasher on the Island bench so that we have pot drawers throughout and project a clean image on the Kitchen appliance bench side and height of door leading to Balcony; and seeking some minor clarifications on Laundry design.

After I sent an email, I realised I missed one additional minor point. The Design does not seem to capture a door to the under stairs storage area and so flicked another email seeking confirmation.