Registration of Subdivision

Source: www.stockland.com.au

Last week-end, we received notification from Stockland that the plan of subdivision, within which our new home site is located, has been registered. We expect Settlement by the third week of September. We have formal bank approval; so, I hope everything goes to plan.

Two weeks after we signed the Contract, we paid the 5% deposit. At the time of signing, there were a few errors in the drawings which we asked Metricon to address, in addition to requesting a few changes such as converting some hinged doors to sliding doors, adding sound screen batts to some bedroom walls to protect against noise pollution and insulation batts to entire garage floor ceiling so that the upstairs bedroom flooring immediately above the garage is shielded, adding timber look floating laminate flooring throughout the house (in lieu of the Promotion that offers laminate flooring only to main living areas), adding a recycled tap in addition to the two standard taps Metricon provides and adding/modifying a few windows. Metricon raised a post contract variation totalling about 6K and sent us the updated drawings reflecting the post contract variation.

Four days after Metricon lodged our plans and colour schemes for Developer Approval, we received notification from Stockland that our application for Full Design Approval has been approved according to the Design Requirements for Brooks Reach. Yeah! We are glad to have had two significant events happening within a week’s time.

A number of people from Metricon have so far been managing a sequence of events from the initial discussion of plans to following through on getting the updated drawings. We have been fortunate to have some good people manage our case right from Sales Consultant (RH)->Design Manager (YD)->Contract Presenter (MS)->Customer Support Team Leader (JO’D)->Customer Support Coordinator (SY), and I am relieved to see that it has been an efficient process so far.

We now await Settlement, so we can get some documents from Council that Metricon requires to proceed to the next stage of our pre-construction phase.  

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.