Day 406: 90 Day Service Inspection

Today we met Paul, Metricon’s Service and Warranty Supervisor to go through the 90 day service items.  Its been 131 days since we got the keys and we have been extremely happy since moving into Our Nolan. The main issue has been the floorboards – there are a few damaged edges, gaps and general unevenness between floorboard pieces. The other items have been minor issues which haven’t detracted from the overall enjoyment of our home.

The list of items needing attention include:

• Numerous paint defects (cracking and splitting)
• Loose bath spouts
• Dripping tap in power room
• Incorrect shower hose in powder room and bath rooms
• Shower rail bracket installed upside down
• Silicon touch-ups
• Bi-fold doors squeaking and not smooth
• Ventilation return air vents not flush with ceiling
• Floorboard issues (gaps, damaged edges, general unevenness)
• Loose carpet near balcony doors
• Tight latch on French Doors

Some of the items were fixed yesterday as part of Metricon’s New Home Service Inspection where they check thinks like doors and windows.  But most of the items will require a service call to a supplier of tradie to rectify.

C&K

New Nolan Facades by Metricon

A recent visit to the Nolan on Metricon’s website has  uncovered several new facades – Verve, Provincial and Alessi.  We like the Verve – modern, contemporary and fresh and looks like it has a reasonable balcony.

The Provincial facade is has some aspects of the Bordeaux feel which will appeal to people living in an area with some older style homes.

One thing we would like to see added to Metricon’s Lookbook is a list of available displays with different facades to make it easy to locate a particular facade to visit.

Nolan Verve Facade

Nolan Provincial Facade

Nolan Alessi Facade

C&K

103 blog posts and 40,000 page views later…

Overnight we have reached 40,000 page views!!! Woo hoo!

The blog visits has reflected our journey to date, a bit slow at the start but the last 6 months has seen good progress.

Thanks for dropping by for a visit.  And for those who are building or about to do a build with Metricon, hopefully our journey and advice has been helpful.

C&K

Metricon launches Lookbook to help with interior design ideas

Metricon just added a new feature on their website called Lookbook – www.metricon.com.au/lookbook

LookBook is all about inspiring you to create a stylish home.  LookBook has exclusive information, tips and hints from our team of Interior Designers to guide you through the latest interior themes and teach you how easy it is to recreate the looks.

Global Fusion Living Theme – Living Area, callout with design suggestions.

As we are now well into Fixing stage and only a few months away from completion, we have started to look into the major items that will need to be done soon after handover and moving in.  This includes landscaping, in particular the driveway and crossover, outdoor area and paths around the house.  Internally, the most important design item will be the window furnishings.  The Metricon displays are a great source of design ideas and it was really good timing that they launched Lookbook.  The best thing about Lookbook is the ability to view and search for design images and themes and then know which Metricon display homes that feature these themes.  This will help to identify the displays that we are interested in and possibly visit as part of our research.

Here’s an introduction video describing Lookbook:

C&K

Day 147: Up up and away – staircase to heaven

Today is another exciting day in the “Our Nolan” journey. We have stairs!!!! They look amazing, we love the look and are really pleased that we went with the stainless steel balustrades.  The temporary front door  has also been replaced with the permanent door going on today – looks great.

We have also had the bathroom window upstairs go in. It is quite small but we are hoping that it still allows enough light in.

Our Nolan – notice the front door? 🙂

Closer view of our front door – Hume Savoy X26 with Translucent Glass.

Staircase to heaven.

The last window – the bathroom (the small one) is now in.

We recently posted about our visit to the new Bordeaux display in Balwyn.  Today we received a lovely letter from Kate McGrath, Metricon’s National Marketing Coordinator and a signed copy of Megan Morton’s Home Love book in appreciation for our comments and pictures. What a great surprise!!! We started to write this blog for our own interest and as a way to track this wonderful journey. Along the way we have had lots of people stop by and ask questions and leave comments. We figure that we put our experiences out there and if it sheds any light or can help other people with their building experience then that’s great too. We never expected anything from Metricon but to know that they are reading our blog and appreciating our comments gives us a real buzz. We have just recently ticked over 30,000 page views and hope people are enjoying the ride.

C&K

Visiting Metricon Bordeaux Display

This weekend was the official opening of Metricon Bordeaux in Balwyn.  So we went and visited the display yesterday to check it out. It looks like this display replaces the older one further down the road which is now closed.  When we walked in we saw our Sales Consultant, Melissa Norden, but we couldn’t say “hi” as she was busy serving some customers.

The Bordeaux facade is very different to the existing Metricon available facades which we think would appeal to many people and is being advertised as being based on French Provincial styling.  The display was 56 squares (floor plans) and it did feel large, but not that much larger than Our Nolan 45.  The Bordeaux had a 5th bedroom but didn’t have a rumpus room downstairs which is something we would have needed.  Overall the display was nicely presented and had a nice layout.

One of the reasons for the trip to the display is that we are getting ideas for window furnishings – its hard to picture small curtain samples in isolation.  The Bordeaux was nicely decorated and we did get some good ideas for Our Nolan.  We will take a few more trips over the coming months to other displays for more window furnishing ideas as well as some outdoor ideas, in particular for the flooring of the Outdoor Room (paving or decking?).

We took lots of photos from our visit:

The Bordeaux facade

View of the side of the Bordeaux. The large glass window on the ground floor is the display office (garage?).

We took this photo from upstairs in a display home across the road.

Approaching the front door.

Welcome.  Let’s walk in…..

Entrance way

There’s a few photos we photo stitched together to get the full room into shot, starting with the next few.

Standing in the entrance way into the family, kitchen & dining room.

Standing in the corner of the family room.

Standing in the dining room corner.

Dining room.

Laundry room.

Laundry room bench.

Bedroom 4.

Shared bathroom for bedrooms 2 & 3.

Bedroom 3.

Bedroom 5 (downstairs).

Bedroom 2.

Upstairs Leisure Room.

Kristen liked this table.

Desk alcove near the upstairs leisure room.

Master bedroom. Ensuite can be seen through the double sliding doors.

Standing in the corner of the master bedroom. The room felt huge – too big for us.

Master bedroom ensuite.

Walk-in robe in the master bedroom.

Study – this was located off to the side in the master bedroom.

Outdoor room.  There are three bi-fold doors in the area, 2 of which can be seen here.  This would be nice for entertainment.

Pool off the to side of the house and outdoor room – will be nice on a hot day.

View of the outdoor area that is accessed from the Siting Room.

View of the pool from the other end.

At the end of the visit, time to sit down, relax and reflect…..

C&K

Metricon Electrical Prices (2012)

We have been getting various people asking about the electrical prices in preparation for their electrical appointment.  The provisions provided in the standard Metricon price is very basic and it’s easy to spend $8000+ during your electrical appointment to add/upgrade items to something that is suitable to your standard of living.

You may also find our blog post about our Electrical Appointment useful.

Here are the prices based on our appointment back in February 2012 (prices may changed since then).

Lighting

• Ceiling Light Points – $56 (The Nolan included 32, we added an additional 61)
• External Light Points for light fitting – $56
•  Junction Box (for future lighting connection outdoors) – $56
• Extra Light/power Circuit – $168 (we had 5)
• External light sensor to existing external light point – $105

Light Fittings

• Stairwell light fitting – $98 to $117 depending on your selection
  • We selected the DL36 Slimline Fixed Square Downlight – $98
• External floodlight 2 x 75W Halogen – $100
• Exterior Fluorescent Up/Down Wall Light (EXLSST5108) Crompton Lighting – $125 (for the facade pillars and garage)

Tip:

We didn’t bother with internal light fittings, we will do this post handover as you will have a better selection.  For some comments about downlights see our Electrical Appointment post.

Exterior Fluorescent Up/Down Wall Light (EXLSST5108) Crompton Lighting

2 x 75W G9 HALOGEN (DG9602CS) External Floodlight.

DL36 Slimline Fixed Square Downlight

Switching

• 2-way light switch – $51
• 3-way light switch – $100
• 4-way light switch – $145
• Dimmer switch – $82

Powerpoints

• Single powerpoint – $51
• Double powerpoint – $61 (we added about 18)
• Quadruple power point – $117 (we added 8 – expensive but better than having powerboards cluttering the floor)
• Double powerpoint to island bench – $95
• Double power point with extra switch – $158
• Single weatherproof powerpoint (external) – $90
• Double weatherproof powerpoint (external) – $112
• standard metal plate finish surrounds to powerpoints – $13 (we did these for the tiled areas eg bathrooms)

Tip:

When looking at your powerpoint needs, think about areas where you can conceal stuff eg. having dustbuster powered inside a broom cupboard rather than out in the open.  If you put up Christmas lights, you may want to consider some external powerpoints.

TV & Home Theatre

• TV point and coaxial cable – $101
• Digital TV points – $134
• Wall conduit (for future high mounting of TV) – $290
• Antennae – $500
• Foxtel Point – $300

Note:

House price does not include TV antennae – you will need install this yourself after handover.

Telephone & Internet Data Points

• Pre-wired (CAT 5 cable) and socket for room to room internet – $134
• Pre-wired (CAT 6 cable) and socket for room to room internet – $146
• ADSL point – $134
• Telephone points – $134 (Nolan included 2 points as standard.)

Other

• Single phase surge protection from external surges – $240
• Three phase surge protection from external surges – $700 (this will be required if you went refrigerative cooling)
• Clipsal 4FCC45 internal flush switchboard – $970
• Heating an Cooling – this depends on your house size and what system you go for – quote.
• Outdoor brush aluminum ceiling fan – $560
• Bosch Solution 16 Plus Alarm System – $1580
• DSC 6 zone alarm panel – $1370
• Smoke detector – $152 (Nolan standard includes 5.  We didn’t add any.)
• Ducted Vacuum (4 points) – $1595
• Intercom Genie 2 (Audio) 1 Door 2 Room stations – $730
• Intercom Genie 3 (Audio) 1 Door 3 Room stations – $930
• Look C hands free colour flush mounted camera intercom – $1660
• Kokom colour Intercom – $1415
• Door Bell (hardwired) – $274

C&K

Day 42: Framing

Today the fabulous framers were hard at work resulting in half of the ground floor frame going up. We got butterflies when we went to the block. Seeing the house gaining height and the rooms taking shape makes it finally start to feel like our home. While there is a long way to go, all our planning and waiting is paying off. We also realised that the house is going to be bloody big!!! This will be a welcome relief from the current shoe box scenario that we have been living in for the last 12 months. The plan is for the ground floor frame to be complete prior to Christmas. Going by the amount of progress made yesterday we still think this may actaully happen, fingers crossed.

The side that has been put up is the left of the building (looking from the front) which contains the study, family and rumpus rooms as well as the garage.

View from the front sidewalk

View from the side from the neighbour’s garden – you can see the door from the garage into the house.

C&K

20,000 Page Views!!

Since starting this blog a little over a year ago, we have now reached 20,000 page views!!

Our first post post was on 7 November 2011 and we have just published our 61st post.  Our timeline, colour selections and floor plans are popular and for some reason our post about underground electricity pit is a regular read.

Thanks to everyone for dropping by for a visit!!  We hope you continue to follow us on our journey through the build phases.

Visiting Metricon’s Liberty on the Peninsula

Liberty 39 at Peninsula

Today we took a day trip down to the Mornington Peninsula and we took the opportunity whilst we were down there to visit Metricon’s only Liberty display in Melbourne.  This display was only recently opened and is located right on the beach front on Point Nepean Road.  Nice location!

Visiting the display home was a way for us to keep our dream home alive since we are still gazing at our vacant block as we wait for council approval so we can get a site start.

The display home had a Plantation facade which is getting very popular as a few displays that have opened in the last 9 months have the Plantation facade.  The Liberty floor plan is very similar to the Nolan.  What was missing in the diplay home was the rumpus room and being 39 squares overall it did feel smaller than the 45 squares of Our Nolan.  We are glad we upgraded the size of the house.  Otherwise we liked the Liberty and the display was very well decorated and had a very good colour scheme that suited the coastal  surrounds.

Liberty 39 at Peninsula

Liberty 39 Plantation Facade

Liberty front and side view

View of the side and outdoor room

Guest room

Guest room bathroom

Entrance to sitting room

Sitting room

Kitchen

View of kitchen from family room

Kitchen, dining and family rooms

Family room

Family room

Family room (nice bi-fold doors opening to outdoor room)

Master bedroom

Master bedroom (entrance to ensuite in background)

Ensuite

Ensuite

Upstairs leisure room

C&K