Nearly 2 Years On...

It has been nearly 2 years since I started this blog.  So that would mean just under 2 years ago we signed our lives away and began the journey of building a new home.

We have definitely come a long way since then.

The most reoccurring questions I keep getting from everyone is "Would you build again with Metricon?" & "Were they (Metricon) any good?"

Since we have moved in (just over 6 months ago) we have had a few dramas (to say the least). A leaking water pipe and reoccurring cabinetry issues.

Let's face it Metricon is a high volume builder and as they claim No.1 as well. So even if they promise that everything is of good/high quality they can't promise that the tradesmen that they use will be too.

Once you have your 3 month inspection all your concerns are lodged and the appropriate tradespeople return to fix everything.

I lost a lot of personal time waiting around for tradesmen to come and fix things around the house.  Some were great and quick.  All arrived on time and if they didn't our Service and Warranty Manager @ Metricon would follow it up and make it happen at a convenient time for us.  That was great service.  Although I probably wouldn't have needed this service if a little more attention to detail was made before handover by the Builder (our Site Manager and the tradesmen who contract for Metricon.

So back to the questions....yes I would probably build with them again.  Yes their service was great...but they really need to work more closely with the contractors they use. Hopefully the complaints that we have made to Metricon about some of the contractors used at our build have been heard and noted.  

So where to now?  We are still working through our landscaping.  With the colder weather settling in it has been a little hard to get anything done.  Thought I would add some pics for inspiration.

Backyard decking...I think we may need a pool?

Decking and concrete - ready for paving

Aggregate Concreting...so glad we did this...

Our shed

Finally we have a drive-way and cross-over - no more dust in the house

1.5 Months In......

Yes it has been a while since my last post.

As you can imagine getting the keys to a new house is pretty daunting.  So much to organise.  Insurance, change of address, moving, and buying new furniture!  Put in Christmas and New Year and here we are!

We are beginning to settle in to our new house.  The kids are loving the space and having their own rooms.  Finally we have an ensuite.  It was worth the 10 year wait!

There have been a few hiccups since we moved in.  Luckily we have our Site Supervisor who still looks after us one month in.  He was great.  Very accommodating and made sure all the tradies who came to the house after we moved in fitted into my schedule not theirs!

With Christmas and New Year so close to our move there have a been a couple of issues with tradies.  Obviously everything closes up for the holidays so we are still waiting on some urgent things to be fixed.  This I can tell you is very frustrating! I am hoping in the coming days we will get some responses back from Metricon and the tradesman in question. 

In saying that any small issues/defects we find in the house we need to note them down and then in 3 months (since receiving the keys), Metricon will do a walk through to note down any issues.  Let me tell you that the list is long! 

That's not to say we are not happy with the end result.  In fact the overall building process with Metricon has been good.  Bar a few small hiccups here and there our Site Supervisor and Service Coordinator were fantastic.  Always there to help.

Now that we are in the house we have started to focus our attention on landscaping.  After much searching we settled on Ben from Daviscapes.  You may have seen his work or heard of his name as there are a few blogs out there that are or have used him.

We found him to be very approachable, honest and helpful.  In saying that he is also very busy so we are waiting patiently for the job to begin.  My fingers are crossed that he starts our decking next week.  We would love to have our daughter's birthday in Feb here at the house so I can only hope that it all comes together by then.

I promise to keep up with my posts.  Especially the landscaping as I have noticed not many build blogs go passed the "Got the Keys" post!  I think it is important to show the full story...so watch this space!

Day 200 - Inspiration

As we hit day 200 since the start date of the build I found this bit of inspiration which I thought was fitting for where we are at the moment.

We are fast approaching our end date (not that we know when that is yet), and we can't wait!!

I hope this gives some clarity to others who are looking at building or are in the process of building!

Day 188 - Anybody There?

We are definitely on the home straight now.

Carpet and floorboards are in...and they look great.

When I started this blog my intention was never to highlight all the errors/mistakes being made by Metricon, but to provide a journal for me and others to show the whole build process...good and bad.

I have to say, now that we are nearing the end there have only been a handful of issues that Metricon have dealt with really well. Our new SS has been on top of everything and has been great.

BUT...there is always a but! The last week or so has been disappointing. To no fault of their own we have been left in the dark as customers. You see our Customer Service Consultant left the company last week. We knew of this departure and we also knew who was to replace her, however her replacement is on annual leave. In addition to that our SS is also on leave. To make matters worse we never even got an email or phone call from our Customer Service Consultant to say that her last day was last Friday! We were emailing and calling someone who wasn't even there! No out of office reply...not even a voicemail to say she had left the company!

Poor form I know from the Customer Service Consultant..so not really having a direct go at Metricon here, but what I want to highlight is that we as customers got left behind!

The problem has now been fixed. In fact I had a call from one of Metricon's Area Manager's who was very apologetic and very helpful!

That's great and I appreciate it, but I just want to highlight to all who are building or thinking of building, make sure you have not one, not two but at least three contacts whom you can call and rely on for information.

Our situation was quite unique and I am sure that it doesn't happen all the time, but it was so frustrating to know that a query I had from last week could have been actioned last week if only someone had made it clear to us that we no longer had a Customer Service Consultant.

Whether you think I am being precious or not, our build is a big deal to us. in fact it is life changing. I think it's important builders, not just Metricon, understand and remember this.

Day 186 - Retail Therapy

We are yet to get a handover date but from what we can see we shouldn't be too far away now!

It has been some time since my last post. The painters and tilers have finished and the electricians have also put their final touches to the house - I am sure they will be back to fix things!

I went past the house today to find the floorboards are being laid. Looking from the windows outside (house is now locked), the floorboards had been laid in the dining room only so there was a bit more work to go.  It was a hard to decision to make at the time - floorboards or tiles?  But we came to the conclusion that floorboards (Bamboo) would make the house feel warmer and possibly easier to keep clean.

It's great to see everything come together.  Even though I had taken photos of our colour choices it was so long ago that I had forgotten what we had chosen. This also applies to the handles and mixers. I am really happy with the bathrooms.  The tiles look fantastic.  I am glad we followed the advice of the guys at Beaumont Tiles and just stuck to the one tile/design. It's true what they told us.  You can always add and change accessories to the bathrooms but once you choose different patterns or designs in the tiles you are stuck with them forever. That's not to say you won't love them forever but for me I like things simple and the tiles are just that! 

So why the heading Retail Therapy?  Well since we are getting closer to handover we decided to go shopping for furniture on the weekend and we ended up buying a lounge, dining table. chairs and a bedroom suite for my daughter's room.  Tick, Tick and Tick!

I love shopping - who doesn't?  But I have to tell you it was pretty exhausting travelling around town negotiating on the best deal.

I know most people like to see photos of the house and where everything is at so below are some pictures of the house so far.

Ensuite - we have light!



Feature wall - insert fireplace here.



Main bathroom - porcelain tiles

Day 138 - Kitchen and Cabinetry

For a long time now we have been patiently waiting for the kitchen and cabinets to be delivered. Well the wait is over.  This week has been a busy one.  We now have a roof on our garage and the kitchen, Butler's Pantry, wardrobes have been installed.  Oh yes and the powder room, laundry and the bathrooms all have cabinets now!  I am really excited to see so much happening at the house, however I have been warned that the pace will slow down soon.

Our Site Supervisor has been churning through the house and has been really good with responding to our queries.  In my previous post I mentioned that we had hit "lock up" stage.  Well we checked the contract to see what "lock up" stage was and in actual fact it was a little different to what we had initially thought.  To cut a long story short we had our Private Inspector go through the house late last week. We received the report on Friday and sent it to our Site Supervisor and Consultant. We have now reached "lock up" stage...so bring on the fixing stage!

Below are some pics of the house from late last week....

Installation of the kitchen

 

 

Study nook and Fridge area

 

 

Butler's Pantry - Blum cupboard doors....awesome. 

Day 129 - Lock up?

On Friday afternoon we received that infamous text message from Metricon.

You have now reached lock up stage....please pay your invoice!  Well words to that effect anyway.  As soon as we got the text message an email arrived and sure as you would have it today the bill arrived in the mail.

Got to hand it to their accounts department....they are on the ball and don't miss a beat!

SO as I mentioned earlier we are now at Lock Up stage!  Well I don't think so. 

We still don't have a front door/garage door - garage roof and some of the windows are not even complete.  Not really sure what Metricon constitute as "Lock Up" but I am pretty sure you need to be able to lock a door!  Would love to hear from some of you who have been through this stage or are at the same stage.

Having said that we got a mighty shock at the house on the weekend.  We had no idea that the staircase had been installed....so when we went to check on the house we were shocked to see stairs!  I was so excited.  I had been waiting and waiting for the day I could check upstairs and it didn't disappoint. We will be staining the stairs in a Jarrah. We did try to get Metricon to stain the stairs however they did not want a bar of it...so I guess we will need to start looking into someone staining the stairs.  If anyone has any recommendations please let me know.

Very exciting times.

Last week was a long week for me and it was great to top it off with seeing the stairs.  On top of that we got a new Site Supervisor as our previous Supervisor was not well.  We will miss him but it seems as though things a full steam ahead with our new Site Supervisor so I guess we are still in very good hands.

Below are some pictures of the house - without scaffolding and with stairs!!!

 

 

Day 122 - Plaster it Up

It has been a busy week at the house.

For some time we have been waiting patiently to see more work at the house and in the past week we have seen the blueboard finished ready for render and the front two pillars (Nuvo Facade) being preped for render as well.

We also had the plasterer come through the house. 

We had a quick look on the weekend and were really excited to see the plaster throughout the house. 

We can now see the house come to life.

Our Site Supervisor told us that once the plasterers finish up the cornices will be installed and then hopefully the staircase and the kitchen will be installed.

I am yet to take a look upstairs so I am looking forward to seeing the staircase! 

Below are some pics of the house with plastering....

Hallway Entry - Theatre room on the left

 

 

 

Dining Room and Family Room - photo taken from the kitchen

Day 96 - Meeting with our SS

Today we met with our Site Supervisor at the house.

We spent just over 2 hours going over all our questions and queries.  Our Site Supervisor was great.  He managed to answer most of our questions and also showed us some of the work that still needs to be done in the house. 

We still have a few things that need to be fixed but all in all the meeting went well.  It does make a difference when you can talk one on one with the builder and find out why things are taking longer than they should.

I may have already mentioned this but I will say it again.  It is really important you have everything in writing...and that you are specific with your builder as to how you want things to be.  As there are so many different people working on your house at any one time if you keep on top of the builders you are more likely to find mistakes early so that they can be fixed.

The good thing is that we are all on the same page with our Site Supervisor.  We want things done right the first time. 

As it has been some time since I last posted a photo of the house I thought I would add one in.  Unfortunately you can't see much because of all the scaffolding.



Day 86 - Brick by Brick

I was hoping to post new photos of the house but the scaffolding is still up for the bricklayers to finish off the bricking. So not much to see really.

It seems like the bricklayers have been bricking up our house forever!  This weather hasn't helped at all. It was encouraging to see the brickies working on the weekend. I guess they want to finish the job too!

In the meantime we have been meeting with some landscapers to get quotes for landscaping the house. 

We put together a brief for the landscapers.  We basically prioritised the important jobs that we wanted done first.  We are hoping to break up the work in stages so that we don't have to compromise on the things we want.

It took us 3 hours to put the brief together.  We added photos and designs that we liked and we also included what colours and themes we had chosen for inside the house.  There are so many things to think about besides what plants you want.

As we are only in the initial stages of planning for the landscaping I will put together a more detailed blog on the landscaping once we choose which direction we will take.

In the meantime I promise to posts some new photos of the house.  We are hoping to have most of the bricking finished this week.  Watch this space!

Day 75 - Slow Progress & My Metricon - How Can it be Improved?

The past two weeks has seen no big changes to the build.  Things have definetly slowed down. Snails pace is the best way to describe it.  We had to wait for scaffolding to be installed for the bricklayers to finish off the bricking...that took a week to arrive.  Then the weather turned ugly.  All in all we are hoping to see some more work done in the coming week so I will update you all with more pictures soon.

In saying that this week I asked Metricon to set us up with the "My Metricon" feature on their website - this is for Victorian customers only.  If you are building with Metricon this feature allows you to look at the progression of your build.  It also provides information on "Your Team Members" (this would be your Site Supervisor and Customer Consultant).

Below is a grab from the Metricon website which outlines the benefits of My Metricon;

Benefits at a glance

• Ability to check the progress of your home at your own time and pace;
• Access detailed information about your new home, at the click of a mouse;
• Keep up-to-date on the progress of your home without having to contact Metricon staff;
• Access to a large information resource; and
• Learn more about the process of building your home, at every step.
• We look forward to welcoming you to my metricon

I must say I was a little disappointed with the site.  Besides the pretty graph on the front page that shows you how far you are into your build, there wasn't much more on this site that was helpful.  There was a Studio M tab which just took you through what Studio M was, but this is not that helpful.  If you are already a Metricon customer then you already know what Studio M is. Not only that, you have already picked your interiors so why would I want to know what's new at Ceaserstone??

I think they should update this tab to allow you to see what you chose at Studio M.  It should highlight what colours you chose and then maybe direct you to the Metricon Look Book to help you choose the right interiors. Not just colours but also what products you chose. 

At this stage of the building process unless you took heaps of photos etc you would have forgotten some things you chose at Studio M.  Of course you can always go through your paperwork but wouldn't it be easier to have it at your fingertips online??  Wouldn't this add to the whole Metricon build experience?

Also I think they should add another tab - Variations!  Yep, it should highlight all the variations you have made and when you made them and who made them.  This would probably be useful for everyone including Metricon. This is probably a huge job for Metricon to undertake - not sure how their IT Programmers would take it.

If you are going to have this website service for your clients then they should make it worthwhile.  According to the Metricon guidelines I should be getting regular updates from my Site Supervisor and Consultant on a weekly basis, so the bar graph on the site is something I should already know....and I do...I have a great Site Manager and Consultant!  What I am trying to get at is there needs to be a more personable approach to the "My Metricon" service.

On another note Metricon's Lookbook is a great addition to their website.  It has so many inspiring design ideas and I am always looking at the site to get ideas.....

Design Inspirations and Where to Look...

I thought I would take a time out in showing off our new home and start to look at interior design. 

For me this is the most exciting part of the home build. 

I get to work with a clean slate...I get to completely design the whole house and most importantly buy new things!!

I have been putting together a design board of all my favourite colours and design features.  In fact my "Inspiration" tab on the left of this blog is where I am housing most of my ideas for the interior of the house.  The new addition to this is http://www.moooi.com/collection.

I found this site when looking through the Exhibitors at the Salone del Mobile 2013 exhibition http://www.cosmit.it/en/milano held in Milan.  No I did not attend (unfortunately), however I jumped online to check out what was new in furntiure and interior design.

Mooi are not based here in Australia however Space Furniture in Richmond are their distributors.  Not sure about the rest of the capital cities but I am sure there should be Distributors across Australia...just check out the mooi site for more information.

These sites are great for design ideas...as I have mentioned in my previous blogs our "money tree" is pretty low at the moment so I am not expecting to buy the "real thing" however looking at these sites gives me a greater understanding of what I can look out for.  I intend on buying a lot of my furniture online...that is including light features. 

As I investigate further I am finding that what is available instore is often much cheaper (even with delivery) online.  Big Brown Box is a perfect example - http://www.bigbrownbox.com.au/ as too is Appliances online - http://www.appliancesonline.com.au/.

Ebay is also worthwhile as I often see great deals on pendant lights.

Enough writing from me...below are some pics from the Salone del Mobile 2013...

Euroluce - photo by Annalisa Cimmino

Euroluce - photo by Annalisa Cimmino


Below are some designs from Mooi...

 

Day 24 - Private Inspection

With the slab down the next step for us is the Slab Inspection from our private inspector.

Metricon also have their own inspectors but we have chosen to employ an independent inspector to oversee all the stages of our build.  We figure the extra money we spend will be well worth it in the end. Peace of mind is everything when you are building a home like ours!

We were given a few names of private inspectors but in the end we chose Houspect - http://www.houspect.com.

The company came highly recommended and Philip (whom we have been dealing with) has been so helpful and thorough. 

Philip guided us through the process and also advised us on allowing the slab to settle after it had been laid for 7-10 days. Hence the reason why we are waiting for more to happen at the house.

The slab was laid on Thursday so to my calculations the frames should be going up sometime later this week.

Our private inspector went this morning to inspect the slab and we will receive a report tomorrow.  All things going to plan we hope to hear good news. Keep you posted!

True to their word Metricon sent us a text message the day the slab was laid for the 1st stage (base) payment. The text read - an invoice will be sent to your email and also a hard copy is in the mail. They timed it so well that as soon as I read the text the email came through and today we got the letter...these guys don't skip a beat when it comes to getting paid! All I ask is that the job is done properly the first time!

It is important to note though that Metricon do not wait for the private inspection reports etc...they require payment still within the allocated time frame, so if you are looking at a private inspector make sure they are free to do the job and have the capacity to provide you with a report ASAP.

Will update you on the slab inspection tomorrow.

Day 17 - Pre Slab

We got a call from our Site Manager today lettling us know that the team were catching up and we should see the slab be poured either tomorrow or Wednesday.

It was also the first time I had spoken to our Site Manager. 

I have to admit I was a little bit worried about who we would get to manage our build.  I have heard many horror stories and (and some good stories) about Metricon customers getting along with their Site Managers and I had all my fingers and toes crossed that we would get someone good!

It's still early days yet but I think we are going to be ok.  Clive (our Site Manager) was lovely on the phone.  He explained everything that was happening and what was going to happen.  He also thought our request to leave the slab to settle for 7 days was a "step in the right direction".

We also chatted about what to expect in the coming months.  He had high praise for Metricon and I am hoping I will also share his sentiments.  Time will tell.

I look forward to working with him.  I am sure we will have many more stories to come. 

In the meantime below is a picture we took of the house "Pre-Slab".

It looks huge!!

 

 

 

Final Construction Drawings: Signed

Today was a very big day for us.

We finally signed off our Final Construction Drawings.

We received the final construction drawings about 2 weeks ago and since then we have been emailing Metricon with queries ranging from a missing window in the main bathroom to the height of Powerpoints and TV cables.

My advice to anyone at this stage of the building process is to allow a good week to read through the drawings. Even showing a few friends can help (sometimes), to help find things that may not be obvious.

I have to say that our joinery consultant Leo was amazing during this process. He found his own discrepancies and alerted us to a few issues. He also took the time to call us after hours to make sure we were happy with where he had allocated Powerpoints and cabling (where we have cabinets).

Leo definitely made us feel better about our choices.

It's amazing how you can look over a plan heaps of times and still find problems. We even found one small thing this morning! The Metricon team were very patient with us and I have to say we really did push them to the limit with changes!

I did want to add this piece of advice, when looking through the plans have a good think about how you are going to use the rooms and where the best place for Powerpoints etc will be. Above the bench tops, inside cabinetry? Are the Powerpoints ok to be poistioned at 1500mm off the ground or do you need them higher/lower? These were the little things that drove us mental.

So now we have been advised that our file has been handed over and we should have a start date very soon. I will be in touch with an update soon...

Permit Approved

Well we now officially have the green light from the Council. 

Our building permit came through a few days ago which is very exciting.

We have also had the Final Construction drawing come through. There were a few discrepancies the most surprising was having a window left out of the main bathroom.  Now you see it now you don't!

In our final contract there was a window but then in our Final Construction drawings there is no window!  It is not a huge drama, however I just found it weird that our paperwork goes through a QA department before being sent to drafting so this should have been picked up!  It also got us scared about what we might have missed!  So we are currently working through the drawings - with a fine tooth comb!

No more news on the property - just that we have ordered our second soil test so hopefully we should start building in about 5 weeks!

I will be in touch with more news soon.

Meanwhile below are some pictures of the Metricon Monarch Display Home.  Although we are not building this home in particular, the Whittaker does have the same floor plan. I like to remind myself from time to time that all the hard yards we put in now will pay off later...

Our home will be fairly similar with the same window configuration in the dining and family room. 

KITCHEN

DINING

BUTLER'S PANTRY

OUTDOOR AREA

KITCHEN/FAMILY ROOM

LEISURE ROOM - UPSTAIRS