Progress on Frames and Flooring Appointments

The constant downpour over the past 10 days meant no work for most of the days on site; however our SS found two sunny days and recruited an army of men to work on the frames. I will post frame-pictures of different rooms on another day.

The Kitchen and Pantry windows can be seen from our neighbouring lot, which is on a higher ground – warranting the instalment of privacy screens – I thought I could get away from spending more money – but there is no escape from this one.

Retaining Walls: With the heavy downpour last week, there is mounting evidence that the retaining walls in the side and rear elevations will need to go up sooner than later.

Frames standing in water puddles on mud surfaces and stacked closely together – causing me to believe whether they would encourage mould growth and decay of wood. The timber entry frame has also been soaking up in the rain…

A peripheral look at the windows and sliding doors that were delivered from Southern Star Windows do not reveal any damage to them – a pleasant surprise – although we will know the reality when the protective layers are removed and fixed on frames. When we were at Studio M for colour appointment, we noticed Wideline as the window supplier; we must have been one of the last batches to get Southern Star (anyway, I do not prefer Wideline, which we have in our rental- place).

We completed last week our tiles and flooring appointments with Di Lorenzo and Carpet Call respectively.

At Di Lorenzo, we chose tiles within the Builder’s standard range; however, upgraded the tile heights on one or two elevations in most of the wet areas, as they not only make cleaning much easier, but make the rooms appear larger and give them a sleek finish.



     Wall tiles 250 x 500 mm  DCW1212 – the tile has a pattern as well as texture - the tiles will be laid horizontally




                                Floor tiles 400 x 400 mm  DC2223 – the tile has a visible pattern



Feature tile-1  200 x 400 mm DCW1196 (Chocolaty colour) to back of shower niche in Ensuite



                    Feature tile-2  (3 rows wide) Venus Lead Glass Mosaic –

on shower recess wall and face of the bath in Ensuite, and on returns in Powder Room.

At Carpet Call, we chose from the standard range of laminate for entire ground floor (except Sitting room). As part of Metricon’s Imagine Promotion, we got laminate flooring at no additional cost to Entry, Foyer, Kitchen, Pantry and Family (whilst carpet to remainder of home); however, we upgraded to laminate flooring in Study, Dining and Under Stairs Storage areas. The laminate flooring we chose was Tropic Ash Block-2 Plank fine grained texture from Parador Classic 1050 category.

For stairs and entire first floor, we chose carpet from the standard range – not bad considering it came at no additional cost because of the Promotion. The carpet we chose was Eaton Park Bike with a 7 mm foam underlay.

Tender Presentation

Metricon presented to us the Tender (Preliminary Contract Estimate) yesterday. Apparently, the tender presenter is on leave, and therefore, YD – Design Manager – explained to us each of the items, including the site plan, on which we spent nearly 30 minutes.

Although our SC communicated to Head Office the structural changes we requested three weeks ago, the changes we were shown on the basic plans during the Tender Presentation were not entirely accurate, and therefore, we had to re-explain all our changes. YD also asked our reasoning for some of the changes, so that he could fully understand them and come up with a revised design.

We used this opportunity to make some additional minor structural changes (eg., converting PDR to ensuite instead of just bathroom, clearly articulating our expectations of having a WC with a basin on a bench top instead of squishing a tiny basin, and including some items such as gas bayonet, which apparently cannot be included at a later date without incurring a variation fee). We went through over 30 pages of items and the whole meeting lasted for nearly 4 hours.

I was hoping to see reduced site costs in the Tender, but Metricon insisted that that there is 950 mm of excavation (cut) and 550 mm of fill, on the top of having to provide additional run of services over the standard allowance (our block of land and driveway is long); therefore, charged us about 25K. I wonder what other Metricon owners have experienced.

We paid 4K at the end of the meeting, so that the file can move forward to contract preparation. YD adviced that he would take about a couple of weeks to discuss the changes we requested with his staff and another week to discuss with us; so we are looking at contract signing around mid-August. Hopefully, our land should settle by then, and I can ask Metricon to accurately price the site costs (where ever possible).

Before we left, we were given a big Metricon folder containing over 25 brochures for all the selections we would have to make (although there was not any Studio M book that one of the recent Metricon blog owners had indicated).

After a quick meal, we went to Carpet Call (Builders Division) Head Office at Seven Hills. The NSW Contract Manager, Boris met with us, although we did not have an appointment, and explained standard and upgrade options. We even discussed our dilemma regarding flooring options – tiles, laminate and carpet – and he shared his personal experience on each of them.

Before we headed home, we dropped in for 20 minutes at Freemans Ridge Metricon Display Homes to have a peek at the external colours. My Mrs decided almost all of the external colours based on one Display home – Liberty 40. We will be revisiting Freemans Ridge again in the next couple of weeks when we bring our in-laws to show the house we plan to build (and will revisit those external colour options).