The Land is Ours!

We now own a large piece of dirt!!!

Our Lawyer advised us that Settlement occurred last Friday. We also obtained Section 149 Certificate, which provides information on how our property may be used and the restrictions on development. As far as I could see, there are no problematic restrictions. The land is also not excluded from the operation of State Environmental Planning Policy 2008, which means complying development may be carried out under the Policy. One thing that pleasantly surprised us was that the land is not recorded in Council’s records as bushfire prone land, which is in contrast to the bushfire report provided by the Developer (Stockland). I called Council, which advised me that although our land is close, it won’t be affected. This is a big relief (I hope). The next step is to contact Metricon and ask them to remove the bushfire item from our Contract and reduce the price accordingly.

We requested Internal Selections and Electrical Appointment (3 + 3 hour appointment) as soon as possible for family reasons, and luckily Metricon was able to provide us with an appointment this week. We visited the display house at Freemans Ridge last weekend and spent over 5 hours discussing electrical items! We have more decisions to make and have been spending some time every day before our appointment.

We followed the lead from Jess & Ryan (Nolan 45) and asked our Studio M consultant to provide us with the Colour Schedule (lists things that we would have to make a decision on in the appointment) and the Consultant emailed us straightaway the document. Thanks also to Birds Nest blog that provided suggestions for electrical appointment, which we have taken on board.

We are excited and equally nervous for the big day at Studio M!

Roofing Considerations-1

Metricon, as part of its Imagine Promotion, offers Hebel render (I will explain this in a separate post) or Colorbond roofing at no additional charge. We are keen on Hebel, so decided to accept roof tiles that comes as standard. Although I like Colourbond, concrete tiles comes with its own set of advantages such as (1) high mass that reduces sound entering through the roofline, (2) strong and dense that ensures roofing tiles are waterproof and long-lasting, and (3) warrantied product and service (Bristle offers a 50 year product warranty and 10 year installation warranty). However, a disadvantage of tiles compared to Colorbond is that the colour coating in tiles is purely decorative and therefore would fade and weather over time, in addition to becoming mossy, and therefore requires cleaning using a high pressure water cleaner and suitable cleaning agent.

(http://www.monier.com.au/RoofingExpertise/FAQs/Default.aspx)

My Mrs initially preferred light-coloured tiles, but I managed to demonstrate that darker ones look modern. I love Monier’s Barramundi (which has a blue tinge to its dark grey colour); however, Metricon’s roofing supplier in NSW is Bristle Roofing. Last week, we visited Bristle Roofing Design Centre at Albion Park Rail and looked at various tiles.

There are three ranges of tiles that Metricon offers as standard: Traditional (which was a no no for my Mrs), Designer (only Browns and Creams) and Classic. Amongst the dark toned Classic range of tiles, I like Charcoal Grey, but it is a Category 4 tile (meaning we would have to pay a higher price). My Mrs and I decided to stick with the standard tiles, which meant we had to choose Luna Eclipse (too dark for our liking – it was almost Black) or Coal. Both my Mrs and I was OK with Coal, although we would have loved it if it came with a blue tinge and a striated ‘shake’ finish; however, Coal neither had a Blue tinge to it nor was available in ‘shake’ finish. So, for now, it is Bristle Classic Coal with a Yeoman (flat) profile, featuring a plain ‘Shingle’ finish – see pictures below. 

We also plan to include roof sarking under tiles (not standard with Metricon) for its benefits: weather protection, dust protection, increased energy efficiency, bushfire protection and reducing the need for artificial heating and cooling.

Bristle Coal

Bristle Coal Tiles

Picture taken at the Design Centre (the one on the left is Coal)

                                    Source: http://www.bristileroofing.com/au/Projects-Gallery.aspx  

Same source as above; however the Coal coloured seems to have a Blue tinge

(I need to visit a display house with Coal roof and check out myself)