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

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

New Nolan 45 Plantation display home in Melbourne

Nolan 45 Plantation at Clyde North

Last weekend Metricon opened a new Nolan 45 Plantation display home in Clyde North (near Cranbourne).  Naturally we went for a drive this weekend to check it out.  The other two Nolan displays in Melbourne are 50 squares so we were interested to walk through the Nolan 45 and get a feel for what our place is going to be like.

Visiting the Nolan 45 was good because it allowed us to get a feel for how big the rooms are especially the bedrooms given the Nolan 45 doesn’t have ensuites (except the master bedroom of course).

Whilst the display was nice, the layout/design wasn’t a true reflection of our Nolan 45 plan and it was also different to the display pamphlet.  The display didn’t have a rumpus room, had the fifth bedroom option instead of the sitting room and the master WIR only had one entry which is the first time we have seen this layout.  We didn’t like the WIR because you had to walk around the bed to get to the entrance which we think would be a bit annoying, much happier with the version we have (you can just see the entrance to the WIR to the left of the bed in the photo of the Master Bedroom.

We have made so many trips to the various display homes but each trip always proves to be useful. This visit was no exception despite the floor plan not being what we were hoping to look at. On this trip we were able to review some features such as the front door handle, feature doors, internal door handles and carpet, as well as reviwing our lighting plan.

The Plantation facade must be getting popular as the last two Nolan displays to open were Plantations.

Nolan 45 Plantation at Clyde North

Nolan 45 at Clyde North Front and Side

Kitchen

Family Room

Master bedroom

Ensuite

C&K

Finally a Nolan display home with Plantation facade to visit

Metricon Nolan 50 with Plantation Facade

Today we took a drive out to Greenvale to visit the new Metricon display centre at the Greenvale Providence Estate on Dellamore Boulevard.  This display was only recently opened (after Christmas) and has the Nolan 50 with the Plantation facade.  It is one of the rare displays with a double story house with a Plantation facade so it was only natural for us to take an interest in visiting the display.

We were really excited to visit this display as it is the first plantation facade of this style that we have been through. It gave us a chance to get a feel for what the views would be like with the pillars at the front.  We also enjoyed sitting on the balcony imagining what it would be like to sit out on our balcony relaxing in a comfy chair.  It also had the larger outdoor room which helped us confirm that we didn’t want to just settle with the standard outdoor room size.

Bedroom with highlight window

 

On our preliminary plans that we received earlier in the week we noticed that many of the upstairs windows had obscure glass to meet overlooking regulations. This means that the windows will be translucent or opaque and as a result when looking out of the windows we will not have a clear view.  Obscure windows are common for bathroom windows so you get privacy and a solution to meeting building regulations regarding windows overlooking neighbour’s habitable windows (again for privacy). We are not happy with having obscure glass for our windows. We want to be able to look out the windows and at least see the colour of the sky. While we were at the display home today we paid particular attention to the layout of the windows and noticed that none of the rooms upstairs had obscure glass windows.  What they had instead were highlight windows which are higher off the ground and more importantly have clear glass. This solves the overlooking problem while still allowing you to see outside.

Visiting the display home has given us some good ideas. We are going to work with Metricon to re-position some of the windows and implement highlight windows so that we can avoid obscure glass other than in the bathrooms.  Plus we really like the look of the windows too.

C&K