Metricon Lincoln 32 in Adelaide

Schedule:

2017-05-19 - Demolition - Asbestos Removal
2017-05-20 - Demolition - Removal of small items
2017-05-24 - Demolition - Removal of main structure
2017-05-30 - Demolition - Site clean completed
2017-06-02 - Soil Moisture Testing by Metricon
2017-06-06 - Water meter fixed / repaired after being damaged during demolition
2017-06-09 - Site Benching
2017-06-16 - Slab Preparation
2017-06-21 - Slab Pour
2017-07-01 - Stormwater, Sewer, Street power connection
2017-07-04 - Slab cleaning and brick delivery
2017-07-08 - Framing Starts
2017-07-11 - Framing completed
2017-07-17 - Gutters and Fascia installed
2017-07-18 - External wall wrap installed
2017-07-24 - Roof installed
2017-07-26 - Plumbing first fix
2017-07-28 - Brickwork commences
2017-08-15 - Brickwork completed (except over sliding doors)
2017-08-15 - Electrical first commences
2017-08-17 - Electrical first fix completed
2017-08-17 - Stormwater finally connected - sort of - still floods because not connected fully)
2017-08-18 - Brickwork cleaning
2017-08-21 - Independent inspection completed
*** ONE WEEK DELAY FOR M TO REVIEW INSPECTION AND ADDRESS ISSUES ***
2017-08-30 - Insulation installation
2017-08-31 - Gyprock commences
2017-09-02 - Gyprock completed - 13 week stage
2017-09-13 - Gyprock flushing
2017-09-14 - Sliding doors to outdoor room fixed
2017-09-18 - Doors delivered
2017-09-19 - Lock up! External doors installed
2017-09-20 - Waterproofing and gyprock cutouts
2017-09-22 - Undercoat paintwork, ceiling painted
2017-09-28 - Internal doors and skirting installed to carpet areas
2017-10-02 - Bathroom cabinetry mounted
2017-10-03 - All cabinetry mounted
2017-10-04 - SA Power connected electricity
2017-10-11 - Bathroom tiling commenced
2017-10-12 - Notified M that incorrect location for holes have been drilled for front door handle
2017-10-13 - Main floor tiling commenced
2017-10-28 - Replacement front door delivered onsite
2017-10-28 - Gas trenching to street completed
2017-10-29 - Tiling finished


Hi All,

At the preliminary estimates stage of my Lincoln 32 build here in Adelaide with Metricon and thought I will start a thread. It might be a bit slow to begin with, but lets see what happens. I need to record this info down somewhere, so may aswell make it public for anyone that is interested to read too. I have seen the first estimate, they are off doing some changes and in just over a week I will get to round 2 of the prelim estimate!

Anyway, the interesting bits of what is happening and done so far as to changes are below. Hopefully the structural changes doesnt end up causing problems and too much added complexity with the build later down the road.

Lincoln 32 with Californian facade, including the "Only the best luxury" package.

Where it is at currently with changes/ideas!

Site works
Demolition - I am just starting to look around at this, and it seems around $10k is the going rate for a demolition. Not sure who I will use, but Magill Demolition seem to have a good reputation. Suggestions welcome!
Footings - Metricon was pretty good with the estimates for this, they said "around $35k for footings" originally due to it being a knock down and rebuild and the surround works they have done before, and they came back at $35,727 in the preliminary estimate, so they were pretty good with their original guess.

Structural changes
Ceiling height - 2.7m ceilings
Garage - The garage has been extended by 0.5m, and the garage door by 0.39m.
Extra width on eastern side- added 0.45m extension to bed1, en-suite, WIR, family room
Eaves - 450mm eaves around the house (except where there is the extra width)
Grand Outdoor Room - Made the outdoor room bigger, it is now 33m2. Its just a plaster lined ceiling, nothing fancy.
Removed 3rd toilet - did this to make the larger butlers pantry.
Main Bathroom - Re-arranged bathroom layout to match the display home in Adelaide
Bed 1 Ensuite / BIR - Re-arranged ensuite and WIR to allow for a bathtub
Brickwork above windows and doors - This is included in their luxury pack

Windows
Double glazing - Bed 1 and Living Room. These are the northern facing windows. There is some large trees providing good shading.
Hush Lam glazing - All other windows except bathrooms - The house is kind of close to a railway line, and I value sound protection more than thermal protection, so have selected Hush glass in the other rooms despite it not being as good thermally. Curtains can solve that problem I didn't want double glazing for the other rooms as they can only do awning style windows in double glazing and I wanted sliding windows.
Window Sizes - Increased Bed 2, 3 and 4 to be 1800x1800. Increased leisure room to be 1800 x 2400
Family Room Window - Added a large picture window to the family room, which will look out to where there will be a maple tree and japanese garden created.
Dining room window - removed this window, there is enough natural light, and as the outdoor room has been extended this is where the BBQ will be located, no point having a nice window looking out to the side view of a BBQ.

Doors
Increased door height - the Luxury Package included 2340 high doors everywhere.
Front Door - Corinthian Infinity INF 6G Door as included in the luxury package. Have to pay extra $490 to get translucent glazing to this door and the sidelight.
Laundry Door - It included a Corinthian WIN21 door here, but moved this to be the pantry/laundry entrance, and have instead selected a Corinthian Design No 7 half clear door for the external door, so that a dog door can be installed.
Sliding Doors to outdoor room - Sliding aluminum stacker doors in the family/dining area, with fly screens. I did inquire about getting these with the same hush glass as the windows, but at an extra $2.5k this has to be dropped.
Sliding door to leisure room - there was no door here, have added a sliding cavity door so that this section of the house can be closed off for heating and cooling purposes.

Bedrooms
Built in robes to Bed3 and 4 with mirrored doors. No robe in Bed 2 as that will be my study.

Kitchen
Benchtops - The standard house includes 20mm caesarstone benchtops, I am hoping at selections the colour choice is decent and I can get away without upgrading this.
Soft closers - all kitchen doors ($25each)
The luxury pack includes a few things here so I wont need to worry about them at Studio M upgrades:
* Grey toughened e-vantage mirroed Glass spashback
* 2 set of 3 pot drawers
* undermount sink and upgraded mixer tap
* Smeg Appliances - Freestanding 900mm instead of 600mm cooker, rangehood, semi integrated dishwasher, microwave

Butler Pantry
As mentioned this has been extended by removing the 3rd toilet. Not sure how this will be fitted out yet. It might wait until after handover as I am having trouble visualizing the space and how things would fit.

Laundry
This is just going to get the standard trough/cupboard installed for now to save some costs. I will probably do a laundry fitout afterwards, unless M comes in cheap for it.

Bathroom
The Luxury Pack includes the following already
Ceaserstone benchtops
Frameless mirror in en-suite
Full height tiling in en-suite (category 1 - I am sure this will require an upgrade!)
Niche in en-suite shower
Banksia close coupled wall facing toilets with soft close lids
Semi frame-less shower screen with in line pivot door - Might see about changing this to fully frameless, depending on $$
rain shower head in en-suite


Electrical
The main electrical fit-out is the scary bit I do not know yet! I have allowed $10k in my guesstimate to cover lights, an alarm, a little bit of data cabling, ceiling fans and any extra power points. Hopefully this is enough. I will just keep the standard clipsal slimline switch plates, not going for fancy ones.
It was $3k to get three phase power to the house.

Insulation
Ceiling/Roof - Its a colorbond roof, I asked about getting a blanket instead of just sarking, and they suggested we are better off getting sarking and increasing the ceiling insulation from the standard R4.0 to R6.0
Internal Walls - R2.0 insulation to the internal walls
External Walls - Going from R2.0 to R2.5 sound batt acoustic insulation for the external walls cost $2.5k. I am not sure if I will go with this or not.


Other items
Air Con - Metricon gave a quote for $13k for an aircon system. I can get the exact same thing after handover for $10.5k, or the next model up and improvements for $13k. So I will be doing this after handover.
Flooring - This is the tricky one. Metricon has given an estimate for the tiling which is pretty high, I reckon I can get it for almost $5k cheaper after handover. Not sure about if it is worth paying more and just getting it done with M.



Now some pictures!

Floorplan as of 7/1/17



Ensuite Layout as of 7/1/17 (currently the wrong orientation, they need to mirror it obviously)



Site Plan as of 7/1/17

Hi Lincoln32, great choice of design. We are building with M too in the Adelaide Hills. We also took up the offer of "Only the best luxury package", we have many of the upgrades you described too, such as translucent glass on the entry door, R6.0 and R2.5 insulation. We decided to do the floor tiling ourselves. Beaumont tiles had a sale recently and we saved $2800 on the same tiles quoted at selections. Again, the air conditioning will be completed post handover, like you we can get an upgraded Daikin for the same price quoted by M.

Out of interest, how much did M quote for stacker fly screens?

The stacker fly screens was an extra $1,640 for the two:

Provide (2No) sets of aluminium framed sliding fly doors with aluminium mesh to suit nominated (3No) panel aluminium sliding stacker doors.

Did you end up having to upgrade many things at Studio M and was there much of a shock for the prices? I am hoping to minimise changes as much as possible to reduce costs, but do want to do things like silk finishes on the cupboards (not two-pack - I think thats too pricey) and possibly cupboards in the laundry, but these are the things that M wont give me even hints about pricing for .

- Mark

That's not too bad (for the fly screens).

Our main upgrades were:

-Carpets in all 4 bedrooms (cat 5)
-Electrical - lighting, alarm, surround sound system, home hub, extra TV points, WAN points and Foxtel wiring -$12 000
-light mortar for bricks
-Butlers pantry- shelves, laminate cupboards, stone top and glass splash back
-Bermuda tiles for all wet areas in lieu of stainless grate
-Double glazing throughout
-Sarking in roof
-kitchen tower
-built in bin
-laundry hamper
-additional cabinets in laundry (see pic)

Love the changes you've made, especially to the to the ensuite and WIR. Following along


GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643

Love that laundry cabinetry, that is kind of what I want eventually, but a bit shorter so that I can fit in a chest freezer in the laundry too.

Originally we had only space for the washing machine, however, the wife wants a dryer as winter in the Hills is usually cold and wet

Thanks! The bathtub in the ensuite was something that I am really keen on. I hope to have a nice garden outside the window, giving a relaxing view.

For the WIR section the internal left and right walls will be shortened and it will kind of become an open walk-thru closet design, with shelves/drawers on the left side, and hanging space on the right. M should be providing the updated layout next week for me.

Well Metricon have finally come back with the contract and final drawings with all the changes that were made to the standard Lincoln 32 to make it my "home". Its getting expensive, but I think it will be well worth it.

Next Tuesday is contract signing day, so I will be spending the weekend pouring over these drawings and the associated new home contract to make sure everything is 100%.

One of the small nice things I noticed is they put a drop ceiling in above the bathtub in the ensuite, I never thought of that and it would have looked a bit strange if they just had the narrow bulkhead above it and lined it up with the bed1/wir/family bulkheads! Its good that they put some thought into the additions.

Any comments or feedback is more than welcome!

Today was tile selection day. Selecting the tiles for the bathroom, ensuite, laundry, and also a tentative tile selection for the main living areas. The decision for the living areas is currently tentative as it might end up being luxury vinyl and not tiles, purely because its a bit more dog friendly for the elderly german shepherd that will be living in the house!

So the bathroom/laundry/ensuite will be using "odin beige" tiles in 450x450, these were in the standard builders category 1 that we could select from, which was nice. The only gotcha at this point is that for tiles above 400x400 Metricon mandate that you must also get strip grate drains. This isnt necessarily bad, as I liked them anyway, but they are expensive and was something I was probably going to skimp on to save money... looks like that is not a possible saving now.

Also something extra I had no idea about was doing mitre joints for the bathtub, wall corners etc. I looked at the photos I had taken of the display home, and they all had the metal strips on the joints, not mitred, so I decided to do the same metal and not pay for mitred joints....... it didnt bother me in the display home, so it wont bother me in my own home either.

http://www.beaumont-tiles.com.au/All-Pr ... a&pspid=57


For the living area, it will be "haven light bone" tiles in 600x600. These were not in the standard range, so were a bit more, but also are not rectified, so not hugely expensive. I was actually surprised with this cost as it was what I considered reasonable and less than expected. The benefit of doing it via Metricon outweigh the possible $1 - 2k saving doing it after handover.

http://www.beaumont-tiles.com.au/All-Pr ... =1&pspid=2


Photo of the sample tiles provided:



Beaumont also used their computer software to show us what it would look like. Its not a great picture as its a photo taken of a printout from their printer which wasnt great, but this is the look / style that will be used.

The external colour selection was the second appointment. One of the dumb things forgotten was to bring the sample tiles from Beaumont to the appointment! Luckily photos saved the day. The consultant was pre-informed that the Lincoln 29 display home in Adelaide had the colour/style that was desirable, so had already put in some thought about what would be suitable and knew what materials had been used in that home which was great. Having a reference for what as liked made the process pretty smooth and straight forward.

Due to already selecting the "Always the Best Luxury Package" many of the choices were already made for things such as sinks and taps for upgraded versions. In these instances the package upgrades were selected, removing the need for some choices and decisions which was nice.

First up was selecting Bricks and motar. The original brick that was selected as Austral 'Rye', this was a $4k upgrade. The consultant talked about the options similar in the standard range, and in the end Austral 'Nougart' was selected, its fairly similar, slightly darker, but the price was $0, which I really liked, this gives an extra $4k budget to spend inside. The default mortar was shown, which can vary largely depending on the sand used at the time, it could look good, or could look terrible with the bricks. It was a gamble that was not wanted, so an upgrade to the white mortar was selected

Roofing and gutters. Originally for thermal reasons a light coloured roof was wanted, but I have never seen a light coloured roof where I have thought it looks fantastic. In the end woodland grey was selected for the roof and gutters. THere were also 4 gutter profiles to choose from, the more traditional gutter style with some shape to it was selected. THere was some nice modern square ones that would suit the more architectual designed houses that are built these days.

External ceiling. THe external ceiling and eaves colour needed to be selected. Natural white was picked for this.

Garage Doors. The garage door already had an upgrade in the package to a fake-wood style, which was left. The only choice was to make it look like timber slats, or big timber panels. Slats were chosen.


Windows / Downpipes / fascia. Getting these colours right to match in with the bricks was next up. In the end the colour Dune was selected, taking into consideration that the window frame will also be seen from the inside, not just the outside!


The internal selections is where the choices really come out. First up was the bathroom. Taps, showerheads, towel rails, hand towel rings. ALl those things to pick at this point. There is no shelf in the shower for shampoos or those things, they have options for glass shelving, but instead a wire metal corner basket was selected, it was cheap and will look ok, and less likely to be broken. Hand towwel rings are not included, so one of them was put in. At this point the physical placement of these items was not done, the consultant said that we will decide these onsite with the site manager, they used to make plans and mark hem up, but found that customers kept changing it onsite anyway, so they now leave it to onsite.

The package included an upgrade to semi-frameless shower screens. THe price for upgrading the main bathroom to frameless was $1400, and the ensuite was $1900. Too much, so did not go for this option. The taps and basins were all left as standard, with the exception for the ensuite which had an included upgrade to an overhead rain showerhead.

It was decided to upgrade the internal doors to corinthian deco 1s doors. These were only about $80 to upgrade, and look a bit more fancy than the standard doors so was worth it.

The main front door and sidelight were made translucent glass which was expensive, but worth it for the privacy. The stain colour also needed to be seleced at this point. They all looked the same to me, but I was assured they are all slightly different. The consultant picked the one that she thought was best and went with that. The lock was also changed to a single barrel lock, I dont like having a key lock on the inside. THe consultant pointed out that someone can break the glass in the door, reach in and open the door, but if they go to this effort they will just break the sidelight and walk on in anyway. The laundry door was already changed to a half timber, half glass door to allow the installation of a dog door in the future. The door from the laundry to the pantry is considered as the "external door" now, so is translucent glass. It was going to be clear, until the consultant up-sold it to translucent so that any mess in the laundry cannot be seen, but the light is still let in.

The selection of the cornice and alcatraves was next. There was about 4 options for each. The standard 75mm cornice and stadnard alcatrave was selected.

Carpet can be selected at this point, having a look at the options and prices it was decided to do these after handover and not with Metricon.

Paint. Wow. So many colours. The Lincoln 29 display home in Adelaide had a colour Hogs Bristle Half which looked good, so this was selected. Originally the wood trim was going to be the same, but when laying it out with the tiles when home it was changed it to Hogs Bristle Quarter to give a bit of a break between the tiles and wall. For the ceiling colour, Natural white was selected, the same as the external ceiling and eaves.

So that covered off on all the 'choices' to be made, then was the 'what else do you want' part. At this point roof sarking was added in ($4.5k), a whirly bird, water point for the fridge, and extra outdoor taps.

The whole process actually finished about 25 minutes early, but it still seemed like a long time.

Its taken a little while... but next Tuesday is demolition day!

The final plans have also arrived from Metricon, there are a few minor things wrong that they need to fix up next week before I can sign off on them, but its pretty much there. The "almost" final plans are below.

All up the Metricon cost is a touch under $400k, this is not including the demolition of the existing house, or things being done after handover (air conditioning, carpet for bedrooms, rainwater tank outdoor room concrete and perimeter pathways)

Its Demo Day!

There was a demolition sale at the house on the weekend in preparation for Magill Demoltion to start the knock down process today.

Remind me never to try to sell anything on gumtree ever again... it was a very annoying process, but fortunatelya number of things were sold including hot water system, carpet, curtains, power points, front door. I was feeling a bit bad about knocking the place down and everything in there going to waste, but after the weekend it no longer looks like a livable home which is good.

Photos of the place this morning before the demolition starts:

New beginnings

After a delay with the demo crew, they have finally started onsite on Friday, a little behind schedule, but they are getting there.

The demolition is well underway this week, and should be finished today! After this is completed, I have to 'pre-wet' the block 2 hours a day for 7 days before the build happens, so a trip to Bunnings to get some hoses and sprinklers on the weekend is required, then hopefully handover to Metricon on 5th June so they can start their stuff!

With a 36 week build time in our contract, that puts an end date of 12/02/2018. It may be an unrealistic hope, but I am hoping that they can come in earlier than this and get it finished this side of the new year, its doubtful, but I hope for it. Fingers crossed!

If you weren't so far away Id pass over the block wetting tools I just finished with

What did you use to do the block wetting? I was thinking of getting some long hoses and a few large sprinklers, but not sure the best way to do it, advise would be welcomed!

I just used dripper hoses. They did say with drippers to use for a longer period - but I figure with the wet weather its a fine balance of wetting and not turning the block into Dagobah. I grabbed 3 of the 30 odd metre weeper hoses (the black ones not the green strip ones that put out a spray),linked them, weaved the 90 odd metres across the block, moving it every few days. Ran them off a timer for a couple of hours in the morning and a few hours at night over 10 days . Seemed to wet the soil well with minimal run off.

This is the first time I have heard of this. Is it unique to Adelaide?