Day 240 - We have Keys!

We are very excited to announce after 235 days since we started building we received the keys to our dream home.

Such an exhausting day filled with lots of emotion. But so worth it.

We walked through the house with our Site Supervisor and most of the imperfections we found during our last walk through had been fixed. There were still a few things that were not finished, such as;

1. No ducted vacuum unit. Apparently the unit is always installed after handover as it is one thing tradies like to steal! 

(I think Metricon need to install security cameras on all their sites!)

2. Some of the walk in robe doors needed to be changed completely. Could have been done before settlement however they needed to wait on materials to be delivered!

I guess they were the two main things. This didn't stop handover though. As exciting as it was to get the keys I really thought we should have waited until all of these things had been completed. Reason being is now I have to organise times to be at home so that these things can be installed and fixed. Very annoying as I just don't have the time to sit around and wait for tradies to come....and we all know how that works!!

Our Site Supervisor has been fantastic. In fact he has helped me coordinate some of these tradies and has forced them to fit into my schedule. 

Not sure how other big volume builders work however our Site Supervisor is still looking after us for another month. So if there are any issues we can still call him to get things fixed which is very reassuring considering we have already noticed a few issues since getting the keys.

After three months Metricon will come and see us and check in on any issues we have had. Hopefully there will be no major issues, but again good to know that they will check the house.

I have a busy week ahead with curtains being installed during the week as well as more tradies coming to fix a few things at the house.  

Looking forward to settling in the house with the kids.  They are really excited to have their on rooms and space. After living on top of each other for the last few years it will be a big change for all of us.

Kids bathroom

Entrance

Dining room - love those windows!

Kid's entertainment/living area

Day 226 - 1 Week Till Handover

Sorry for not updating you earlier, but things have been manic....especially with getting things organised for the house.

We had our final walk through last week. In the lead up to the walk through I read heaps of blogs about running through that all important last walk through before handover. 

So many things to take in. The one thing that seemed to come up a lot was to keep a running list of all the imperfections that you notice. Not just during the walk through but from Day 1. Also make sure you run through your plans and ensure that all those variations you made along the way have been adhered to. Especially any electrical or plumbing issues.

Before our walk through began our SS told us that he had walked through the house with a Metricon Area Manager and they had already picked up some small issues. 

Lucky for us we had our on private building inspector run through the house whilst we were there doing our final inspection. What we didn't pick up he did!! Let's just say that we would have had leaking toilets if our private inspector hadn't double checked the toilets after we did. 

This was not Metricon's fault though. Our SS told us that at the end of many builds there are some "tradies" that think it is ok to steal small parts and screws from the house. So between our SS surveying the house and us doing the walk through someone came through our house with "sticky fingers". 

Our walk through took 3hrs. A lot longer than I had planned. We just wanted it to be thorough. One of the things I liked about our SS taking us through was that he didn't really down play any of the issues we found. He was honest and made sure that everything we queried would be looked into. 

Obviously we will need to wait for handover to ensure that everything is sorted, but I do have faith that he will get the job done right.

With the handover creeping up on us we are yet to finalise all our white goods and I feel a little rushed. I guess the build had been so long in he making that now that we are finally here it just doesn't seem real!!

Like many other Metricon blogs I have read we also have heaps of purple (not red) dots around the house. I took heaps of photos to make sure I remembered where they all were!!

Metricon also provided us with a list of the issues we had. At handover we will walk through them all and make sure everything has been taken care of.

Looking forward to updating you next week after handover.

Day 208 - Getting Close

I have been informed that we are only weeks away from getting our keys. Well hopefully!!

Everything seems to be coming together.  The fireplace is in and final touches are being made to the painting and staining.

You may recall I mentioned in my previous blogs that we would need to stain the stairs after handover. Metricon did not offer the service.  Well we got to meet and chat with the painters who offered thier services to stain the staircase.  This was great news as they were also staining our front door and stacker doors.

At least everything would match!

Not much more to report on. We are yet to settle on purchasing whitegoods. I'm sure we will need to do this soon as time is getting the better of us.

Thought I would post some updated pictures...

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.