Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Metricon Vantage 48 9Aug 31, 2021 3:22 am Facade choice: Do facades have any practical differences and benefits or are they just a pretty face? I've Only really ever lived in old houses/apartments. All I know is double brick 🤷♂️ I know they don't build them like they used to but other than the fact both the houses I live in have stood for over 100 years. They can be poorly insulated at times. I get that looks are important but I think there's only a few facades you'll ever get $ back? However what's the point of having a boss facade of the internal are not up to scratch. I want something I can easily maintain and if in 5-10-15 years I want to upsell maybe I can easily render or repaint to make it look refreahed. I also have to be practical with costs and budget. If it came down to an upgraded facade and Hebel powerfloor I think the powerfloor has priority or upgraded kitchen and facade. Would welcome all opinions and options. Keep or lose the voids?: IInitially we're losing the voids but I may be able to reconfigure the 5 bed 1st floor floor plan and keep the front void which will give the grand entrance a ~6m ceiling. However noise becomes a factor. Voids are nice & grand and if you have the space to allocate then go for it but I really am just focussing on getting as much living space as possible but I just hope that I'm not killing the character of the house. Note: Good idea for a standalone thread. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 10Aug 31, 2021 7:35 am If you lose the voids, you lose the grandeur of that home. Re the entry void, who cares about the noise, it's the kids bedrooms. Besides who is going to be making noise in that part of the house when the kids are sleeping? The dining void is a feature of the house. That will be the wow factor for guests and for resale. Otherwise it just looks like every other McMansion. Also making those changes will cost significantly. Facades, one of the biggest rip offs from most builders. example, one of Henley's nicest modern facades on a similar sized home cost around 40k. However Street appeal can't be discounted. Resale value is affected here. Plus you gotta look at it every day you pull in from work. Anything with a balcony will add significant expense and risk if not build properly. North facing block. Assuming you mean the front of the house will be facing north? Based on the configuration of the house, it is literally the worst orientation for it. Your living areas will be facing south and west (south east depending if you flip). Expect likely additional costs for meeting basix requirements. Re the categories. Base category is generally trash. There is nothing in my house chosen from the base range. my 32 sq single story is 150k in upgrades alone more than base. Even then, those aren't ultra speced upgrades. Base price and base categories is what they have to get you in the door and thinking you'll get the house for the advertised price. Many people end up with homes they're not happy with because they don't have money to upgrade beyond the base price. The upgraded categories are often overpriced, however you can generally make a mix and end up with a satisfactory outcome. Beside lots of people like the basic caeserstones over the more fancy ones - eh if you like a white modern kitchen, you'll find that the only thing you're likely upgrading is the appliances. If you like a hamptons kitchen, you'll find the profiling of the cabinets blowing out your cost expectations etc. Base carpet is like office carpet. Base tiling looks cheap AF and those that don't often have low variation meaning you get obvious repeats you can't unseen when you see them. Base timber laminate - nasty and often not water resistant. Expect to pay a lot for flooring if done through the builder. Electrical. Expect to spend about 14k per floor for the luxury house (based on builder price). They never give you enough lighting and fixtures in the base spec fyi. They're there to entice you to spend more on a specific fixture. E.g. having included downlights in the living entry and kitchen means you will have likely 50% of what you actually need and they will be the cheapest fitting possible. SO at the very least you will be upgrading the number of fixtures and then debating on upgrading the quality. Once you have increased the number of fixtures, your eon the hook for an increase in the quality, because youre making a luxury house, why skimp on $hitty plastic fixtures that will yellow over time? For such a large house, AC likely won't be an add on cooling unit. You'll likely need to go reverse cycle and you're going to be gouged here. Primarily because of the double story and ducting needing to go in during the build. Many builders are nowadays not doing ducting for you so you can do after hand over which forces you to get the builder to install. Some builders are charging 32k for a 24kw actron system (biggest residential one they make) that can do a large single floor home, you're going to either have to compromise, mix up the cooling solutions, get a commercial system or bend over. one person i know building their dream home has spend upwards of 70k on a top end HVAC. you mentioned earlier that the advertised price for the package was 1.25M and you were hoping to get them down to 1.1M. By looking at your updated posts, that's not going to happen. I predict you're going to be in the hole of upwards of 1.5minimum and you're not going to get everything you want at that price even. I'd love to hear where you land out of curiosity and what you feel about the experience. Where are you building by the way? Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 11Aug 31, 2021 10:01 pm Re void and aspect:
Thanks mate. You're giving me so much to think about Definitely something to consider, I've been speaking to a few friends who are agents (some sell in the area) to get their opinions on it. They suggested to keep the void as it will be the feature point of the house and will assist with letting more light into the house. As you mentioned that might be a premium because of the lot direction and design. I don't think the costs will be that much in filling them because the 46 doesn't have the voids and the cost is 20k between the two. But you're right because of the block orientation the extra light that will come in from the voids will be a huge difference. Block is North East facing with a south west garden and subsequently living area. Lot 3 is the proposed lot. [img:3hcbs9gp]https://i.imgur.com/9E2itCH.png[/img:3hcbs9gp] [img:3hcbs9gp]https://i.imgur.com/OOmUkSP.png[/img:3hcbs9gp] Re: Facade Thanks will keep this in mind, no real interest in a balcony. I didn't even think we could facilitate it with the majority of designs unless it's a shared balcony or something? I'm thinking about the Mode facade but the cost might mean I have to go with something else. [b:3hcbs9gp]Stamford - The facade in the package - waiting on facade prices tomorrow[/b:3hcbs9gp] [img:3hcbs9gp]https://i.imgur.com/jv7hfvT.png[/img:3hcbs9gp] Re categoriesories: What's the happy medium you think? My philosophy in life is bougie on a budget. There's lots of moving parts but we're looking at approx. 75-150 in upgrades depending on a few factors. We're paying about 100k more for the lot than we'd ideally like and 150k more than smaller lots in the neighboring suburb. If we contract out tiling and flooring what could we realistically save? I know that's a kind of how long is a piece of string question but if we were trying to go middle of the road. Because upgraded flooring and carpets are already included in the s series package I don't think I'd be able to get a credit for them. I'm hoping come selection that they might work with me for example if we delete the ground tiling we might be able to upgrade the carpets in the longue and ground bedroom. Likewise deleting the first floor flooring we might be able to upgrade the carpets in the bedroom but I'm not hopeful. They are running a 40k off promotion the 3 upgrades that stand out are the ceiling heights and staircase. So if I'm doing the flooring myself it might be worth while taking the 40k and then using the credits toward upgrading rooms? Or probably not? Re electrical: My goal here is to make sure the ground floor is covered. The first floor can be done after the fact so if we're at 50% coverage out the bat I'd only be looking at another 25% coverage with the first floor to come later down the track. Is there a big difference between quality of downlights? If we go with pendants I'll do them after because I hear it's a rort through the builder. Re cooling: Ducted heating is standard. I've read other being able to upgrade the ducted heating through the builder and then upgrading post hand over. Re: We're getting close I'll know more Monday. I'm building in Melbourne north. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 12Aug 31, 2021 11:27 pm Boy are you in for a ride. Just a comment on the ac. Yes ducted heating is standard. Pretty sure heating has to be provided. It's not a luxury inclusion. But it will be ducted to the relevant ducts sizes and fuel. When you do an add on cooling system, the heater has to be upgraded to allow for a bigger fan and as such the ducts have to be bigger too to support the airflow. You'll find that add on cooling systems aren't going to be an efficient way or nay even a possible way to cool such a large house. Ergo, the ducted heating is moot. Why pay to upgrade these things if when you hand over you get told the addon cooling won't be enough and you'll need a reverse cycle electric unit? See where I'm going with this? You're seeing these inclusions the way they are designed to be seen. You think you'll do this thing, or get this thing, then when you're 5% deposit in sitting in your electrical appointement, you'll learn you've seriously misunderstood what youre getting vs what you wanted. Then it's a matter of coming up with all this extra cash or pulling out and losing the deposit. What do you think is the common outcome at that point? Most people bend over and take it. They're emotionally and financially invested. I suggest taking a trip to the selection studios and getting a tour and prices/upgrades explained, touch and feel the finishes and get a better ball park idea of what you're in for. At least you can prepare and lube up before the main event. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 13Sep 01, 2021 12:04 am Ahh I think I might be missing something here. My understanding was this. Upgrade the standard ducts, zones, electrical, etc as if I were going with the split system ac from the builder in the first place.Then post handover it's just a matter of Installing the 21 kW unit and piping everything in. That way you get all the internals of the cooling system done by the builder when it's easy and you save the stupid mark up on the unit. Are you saying that this is probably a pipedream?
Re studio trip: As soon as we're out of lockdown we'll make it our top priority. Re: Final figure. I'm budgeting for at least 150k on upgrades at selection. Originally we planned to allocate more but the extra 100k is going to the land. Flooring and cooling to come post handover. That being said we haven't totally thrown out the idea of going smaller and we still have a few weeks to run the numbers and come up with a realistic final figure before we enter into commitment territory. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 (H&L) 14Sep 01, 2021 8:20 am Yes that is likley a pipe dream. The ducts will be sized to the unit installed. So you can't just upgrade the ducts to larger than the standard unit allows. They likley won't fit and the builder could refuse to do so as it would impact performance if you changed your mind later. The other thing to considder is that the location and platform size for the indoor unit may vary based on size of the unit. They're not all the same and the builder may have various truss layouts to accommodate the systems they work with for that part of the roof. You'll fi d lining up all of this business is a PITA. Additionally if you go after Hannd over the indoor unit will need to be lifted in through the roof. So colourbond will come off, sarking/anticon will be penetrated, and battens cut. Something to keep in mind. If it's done by the builder they do it in stages. They lift the unit in place before the roofing material goes up, then ducts and when electrical rough in and finally the out door unit closer to hand over. The extra you pay to have this done this way is somewhat worth it, but you need to be mindful of over gouging. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 (H&L) 15Sep 01, 2021 8:26 am Also 21kw for a 48sq is a pipedream. You might have 21kw for downstairs, and 15-18 for upstairs. But the calcs will be done by the installer so you'll find out after you are on the line for the build. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 (H&L) 16Sep 01, 2021 12:18 pm Noname Also 21kw for a 48sq is a pipedream. You might have 21kw for downstairs, and 15-18 for upstairs. But the calcs will be done by the installer so you'll find out after you are on the line for the build. Gotcha! You've given me a lot to think about! Re: Metricon Vantage 48 (H&L) 17Sep 01, 2021 3:15 pm jlirv Noname Also 21kw for a 48sq is a pipedream. You might have 21kw for downstairs, and 15-18 for upstairs. But the calcs will be done by the installer so you'll find out after you are on the line for the build. Gotcha! You've given me a lot to think about! What will also likley happen is you have a conversation with the aircon people and they will try to understand how you live now or plan to in the new home. This conversation is to get an idea of how to zone the system and work out which rooms will be used concurrently. This will be used to calculate the max kw for use at a given time. So if you're wanting to cool the whole house at the same time (ie you plan on having kids that will likley spread their time across the house) you need to account for that. Otherwise they'll give you a system that either cools the bedrooms or the living areas but not both at the same time. My advice is go with a system that give you the flexibility to do either or both. Not one or the other. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Metricon Vantage 48 (H&L) 18Sep 02, 2021 2:41 pm My advice with the Vantage 48 is to go to the display home and sit in the upstairs lounge room and listen while other people are walking around the house talking. The voids look absolutely beautiful and are the real feature of that house, but they are sound tunnels. There is a standard option to replace the dining void with a 5th bedroom, though. A couple of years ago IIRC the Stamford facade was in the +25k range. For our Merricks 42 house, with double-glazed windows and all Hebel construction, the 21 kW Actron system works well. At night with the heating off after 10pm in winter, the minimum house temperature was around 15C by 7am. In summer, it takes about 20 mins to cool the house to 23C when there are several rooms at 30C. Our electrical use (in average kWh/day, mostly in lockdown, all working from home all year) went from about 26 in January, to 15 in March, to 40 in July. Re: Looking at Metricon Vantage 48 (H&L) 20Sep 10, 2021 4:16 pm Thanks for your input everyone. Will hopefully have some good news to share re land in the coming weeks. We decided not to proceed with the H&L package as is.
The land was about $50k more while still in our budget didn't seem like good value. We missed out on a release in arguably a better area which was 117k-122k cheaper for the 450's and the 512's were 85k cheaper. Because of the easements despite being larger and wider block at 560m2 it had less effective building area and was shorter than the 450m2 blocks 30m vs 32. In addition there was a bout 15k in additional expenses. Corner lot treatment and BAL compliance. On goal to hit our savings target to unlock the rest of the funds but our funding is all approved. Still have a lot of research to do just about finding the right block now. Your best bet might be to go visit the display homes and walk around in them, and take photos. Get a feel for it in person instead of deciding from the floor plan. There… 1 21439 Hi, First of all, thank you to this community for sharing your thoughts and opinions. We are in early days of our pre-contract stage for Metricon Doulton and we are… 0 10749 Hello All 🙂 We are planning to start our journey of construction our first home. We zeroed down on Metricon and henley homes based on design suitable for our lot and… 0 8200 |