Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 18, 2009 11:20 am Hey everyone, i've never really blogged before, but as I'm waiting for my new home to built I've found it comforting to read through these forums to see peoples successess. so thought I'd start my own blog, http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com i'm hoping to keep it up to date with the process we're going through and photos of our progress, i'd appreciate any comments, etc anyone has. cheers, Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 2Aug 18, 2009 8:20 pm Hi.. We are going to build the Santorini 29 sometime next year... Land isnt even titled yet and so much to do.... Ill be watching with interest...hope you keep the updates coming... Cheers.. Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 3Aug 19, 2009 8:49 am Hi! I checked out your blog and it looks like you've made great progress so far. How much fun! We're building the San 26 also but we're just starting now. Slab should be down within a fortnight. Can't wait to see some pics and watch your build progress! We're home!!! Site start: 13 Aug 09 Handover: 29 Jan 10 Hubby & I are building the Santorini 26 with M3tr!con My thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20570 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 4Aug 19, 2009 10:14 am You are doing much better than I am at a blog. Yours looks great. We start today so yay M seems to be moving along nicely hope they do for us too Forum thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22300 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 5Aug 19, 2009 4:30 pm I'll try to get the photos up, at the moment they are just iphone shots, but I'll post so real photos soon. Frame should be up by the end of the week, so you'll be able to see how quickly yours should move. Plus we've been SO impressed with the santorini design, and M have been really helpful. The only heads up I would give so far is that you have to make sure your completely happy with the design when you sign it off. We are thinking about changing a few minor things at the moment and it seems to be going to cost a little bit to make the changes. Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 6Aug 19, 2009 4:35 pm Hey yeah, I've seen your thread, we're just a few towns away from you. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress. Not a race I know... Very exciting. charlie Hi! I checked out your blog and it looks like you've made great progress so far. How much fun! We're building the San 26 also but we're just starting now. Slab should be down within a fortnight. Can't wait to see some pics and watch your build progress! Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 7Aug 21, 2009 2:22 pm Hi there, I am so glad I came across this forum! . I have never been a member of a blog before so you'l have to bear with me while i get used to it. I checked out your blog site & congratulations on the progress of your house. Hubby and I are also building the Santorini 26 so i love the design. We are approx two weeks off settling on our land as the titles have finally come through after a 7 month delay! How has your M@tricon experience been so far? We have already signed our contracts and most approvals are in. Just waiting on settlement now, final plans sign off & building permit. My CSC has said this could take up to another 8 weeks before 1st site scrape. I just cant wait to see a slab on my block! Keep updating the pics, Im looking forward to seeing more of the progress and hearing about your experiences. Building: Santorini 26 with M*tricon Where:VIC Site Cut 29/09/09 Slab Complete 09/10/09 Frame Complete 22/10/09 LockUp Complete 17/11/09 Fixing Complete 03/12/09 **My Thread:[/i] viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23110 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 8Aug 21, 2009 6:27 pm evolvedmonkey Hey yeah, I've seen your thread, we're just a few towns away from you. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress. Not a race I know... Very exciting. Oooh I don't know - a race kinda sounds like fun! How long have they given you in the contract for your build? We got our Notice of Commencement in the mail on Friday - the official start date was 13 Aug, and the build must be completed by 30 April. Ages away!!! They did say that the time allowance is really conservative and it should be much quicker. I doubt there will be much progress at all during the Christmas & January period, but I really, really hope that it's completed early in the year! We're home!!! Site start: 13 Aug 09 Handover: 29 Jan 10 Hubby & I are building the Santorini 26 with M3tr!con My thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20570 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 9Aug 24, 2009 10:56 am Thank you Shelz, Have you setup your own blogspot or thread? Thats a fair wait for settlement! Crikey! M**tricon have been really helpful and always been responsive. However we are having some trouble with the office staff getting back to us about changes at the moment. Sales: Quick, responsive and all ways happy to help Head Office: Have only just had radio silence for the past fortnight. Before then they have always answered questions and have been quick getting our land file sorted for the builder to start up. Builder: Has started extremely quickly and has been in regular contact without any prompting, really happy so far An 8 week delay for site cut seems a long time, maybe they're under the pump in your area? I know that our SS said that they were doing up to 14 slabs this month which is unheard of. Looking forward to seeing some of your successess and photos.. Shelz Hi there, I am so glad I came across this forum! . I have never been a member of a blog before so you'l have to bear with me while i get used to it. I checked out your blog site & congratulations on the progress of your house. Hubby and I are also building the Santorini 26 so i love the design. We are approx two weeks off settling on our land as the titles have finally come through after a 7 month delay! How has your M@tricon experience been so far? We have already signed our contracts and most approvals are in. Just waiting on settlement now, final plans sign off & building permit. My CSC has said this could take up to another 8 weeks before 1st site scrape. I just cant wait to see a slab on my block! Keep updating the pics, Im looking forward to seeing more of the progress and hearing about your experiences. Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 10Aug 24, 2009 11:04 am I think our official start date was 14th August and I'd have to double check our contract period but it was something like 256 days. Which ofcourse is extra conservative due to the fact they would then be required by the contract to start paying costs. Our SS has advised that it should be done before xmas. And yeah, I cannot imagine any of the contractors working over the xmas/new years period. We've been advised that our carpenter will be out there as of today putting the frame up but looking on the weather site (bom) we are expecting thunderstorms and hail today. See how we go, and the somewhat race has begun.. lol charlie evolvedmonkey Hey yeah, I've seen your thread, we're just a few towns away from you. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress. Not a race I know... Very exciting. Oooh I don't know - a race kinda sounds like fun! How long have they given you in the contract for your build? We got our Notice of Commencement in the mail on Friday - the official start date was 13 Aug, and the build must be completed by 30 April. Ages away!!! They did say that the time allowance is really conservative and it should be much quicker. I doubt there will be much progress at all during the Christmas & January period, but I really, really hope that it's completed early in the year! Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 11Aug 24, 2009 4:33 pm I haven't set up a blog or thread yet! Just waiting till Iv got more than just a block of dirt to post pics of I hope your frame went up today, the weather has been fine but windy here in Melbourne! Gee! I hope ours gets built quick. I mean i don't want them to rush it, i still want a quality job done, but the sooner we can move out of mum and dads and have our space again the better! We have been given 250 days on our contract, which i thought was a lot considering the size of the house and the fact that we haven't made many structural changes. My cousin built the Tribeca 45 with M and they had a 296 day contract in which M still went way over that. They were meant to move in early february but only just moved in last month! So they actually went over contract by 5months. She did have close to $100k worth of extras & upgrades though. This was really worrying me but now that I have come across your thread & some others on this forum its given me hope that we might actually have a house before Xmas 2010 ( slight exaggeration)! We are building in Melbourne's western suburbs and a lot of the M@tricon homes that are being built in our estate seem to be coming along quite quickly. So fingers crossed! Make sure you post more updated pics! This house thing has become some what of an obsession! There is a Santorini 26 being built a walking distance away from my parents house and i regularly take my dogs for a walk past it just to see its progress! I think if my house doesn't start soon il loose my mind or get arrested for stalking someone elses house haha! Building: Santorini 26 with M*tricon Where:VIC Site Cut 29/09/09 Slab Complete 09/10/09 Frame Complete 22/10/09 LockUp Complete 17/11/09 Fixing Complete 03/12/09 **My Thread:[/i] viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23110 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 12Aug 24, 2009 4:47 pm Plantation Shutters I've just updated my blog with a few of the ideas that we've added to our house and thought I'd give a quick run down here as well.. We're having plantation shutters installed one spot for now and then a second spot when we get to that point. The first spot we're putting in is between the rumpus room and living room, the second is a wall that connects the passage to the dining. As plantation shutters seem to be a bit X'y we are unfortunate that just after signing M**tricon have begun working with a local blind company where we are to add the price to the cost of the house so you can add it to your mortgage. As we missed that, we are installing them after, we have allocated some money to the initial blinds we want installed and getting a few prices at the moment. Plantation shutters appear to be from $1,000 to $1,500 for the size we are looking at Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 13Aug 24, 2009 4:51 pm Shelz I haven't set up a blog or thread yet! Just waiting till Iv got more than just a block of dirt to post pics of I hope your frame went up today, the weather has been fine but windy here in Melbourne! Gee! I hope ours gets built quick. I mean i don't want them to rush it, i still want a quality job done, but the sooner we can move out of mum and dads and have our space again the better! We have been given 250 days on our contract, which i thought was a lot considering the size of the house and the fact that we haven't made many structural changes. My cousin built the Tribeca 45 with M and they had a 296 day contract in which M still went way over that. They were meant to move in early february but only just moved in last month! So they actually went over contract by 5months. She did have close to $100k worth of extras & upgrades though. This was really worrying me but now that I have come across your thread & some others on this forum its given me hope that we might actually have a house before Xmas 2010 ( slight exaggeration)! We are building in Melbourne's western suburbs and a lot of the M@tricon homes that are being built in our estate seem to be coming along quite quickly. So fingers crossed! Make sure you post more updated pics! This house thing has become some what of an obsession! There is a Santorini 26 being built a walking distance away from my parents house and i regularly take my dogs for a walk past it just to see its progress! I think if my house doesn't start soon il loose my mind or get arrested for stalking someone elses house haha! You'll be suprised how much checking out other peoples new houses is a way for a lot of people to cope with the waiting and the excitement of it all. I am very guilty of driving around new areas or peaking in on friends new places. As for the contract period, yeah, they usually make it a large amount to cover themselves, because if they go over the stated amount of time they pay you from $250 a week for, 'damages'? So yeah, usually from what I've seen and heard they are a lot quicker than that. Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 14Aug 24, 2009 4:58 pm Standard or Upgrades Some people have asked if we changed our plan from the original. Change of plans? To be honest, as its our first time in this little 'adventure', we only changed a sliding door to our pantry. Maybe some extra storage in the laundry. As we are in regional victoria we have overhead cupboard space in the kitchen as standard and I think thats about it. There is probably other changes we could have made. But as its our first home, we haven't due to costs. Upgrades? Well we upgraded our bathroom, ensuite and laundry tiles as well as upgraded to a few glass tiles as features. As part of a package we had, we were able to squeeze out enough lights but we will probably be adding some through a private electrician after handover (eg. external lights and additional downlights and feature lights). There was alot added to the package with the extras they gave us automatically including cement paths, letterbox, extra lights, yard arm, tiles in wet area and carpet. But I guess usually that is all normal. As in my blog, we've upgraded the basins in the bathrooms to square semi recessed. Most of the standard inclusions were good enough for us. Off the top of my head thats about all we changed. Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 15Aug 24, 2009 8:25 pm Thanks....Ill be reading your blog with interest. There is a Santorini 29 we stumbled across by accident and we have been stalking it each weekend.Im sure the neighbours are confused as to who owns it... I agree with Shelz about it all being an obsession.... Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 16Aug 24, 2009 8:57 pm Im happy to know im not the only stalker I had a look at your blog and I absolutely love the plantation shutters! I really wanted them as well but hubby couldn't justify the extra expense so we had the both the dwarf walls plastered up! I wanted the wall between the family and rumpus room plastered though because we are turning the rumpus into a theatre room. We also bricked up the window that faces the alfresco in the rumpus to make it more private & not so open. Did any of you find that M@tricon doesn't advise you of all your options when signing? For instance the one flaw that I do think our Santorini has is that the Master bedroom is quite wide but not very deep. I only found out a few weeks ago that we could have paid an additional $1600 or so to extend the master by 600ml. Its not a huge increase but i would have definatley paid the extra for it. Hubby and I are both in sales so I guess im a bit biased but would of thought that it would in M's best interest to offer extra's and upgrades. If clients are aware of these options then surely they may end up spending more. Not that I would want them to be pushy sales people but at least advise me of all my options. Its to late for us to make this change now as it is structural and we would need to reapply for developers approval. So I wont dare take the chance of it delaying us any further. Building: Santorini 26 with M*tricon Where:VIC Site Cut 29/09/09 Slab Complete 09/10/09 Frame Complete 22/10/09 LockUp Complete 17/11/09 Fixing Complete 03/12/09 **My Thread:[/i] viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23110 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 17Aug 24, 2009 10:09 pm We completely agree about not being completely informed of the options or the cost of said options. It wouldnt have been intrusive to know what you could do with your home right? It felt alittle like a dark cave at times, but we are happy with the choices. Shelz Im happy to know im not the only stalker I had a look at your blog and I absolutely love the plantation shutters! I really wanted them as well but hubby couldn't justify the extra expense so we had the both the dwarf walls plastered up! I wanted the wall between the family and rumpus room plastered though because we are turning the rumpus into a theatre room. We also bricked up the window that faces the alfresco in the rumpus to make it more private & not so open. Did any of you find that M@tricon doesn't advise you of all your options when signing? For instance the one flaw that I do think our Santorini has is that the Master bedroom is quite wide but not very deep. I only found out a few weeks ago that we could have paid an additional $1600 or so to extend the master by 600ml. Its not a huge increase but i would have definatley paid the extra for it. Hubby and I are both in sales so I guess im a bit biased but would of thought that it would in M's best interest to offer extra's and upgrades. If clients are aware of these options then surely they may end up spending more. Not that I would want them to be pushy sales people but at least advise me of all my options. Its to late for us to make this change now as it is structural and we would need to reapply for developers approval. So I wont dare take the chance of it delaying us any further. Builder: Me*tricon Homes Design: Freedom Range, Santorini 26 Handover Date: 12th February 2010 Homeone Thread: viewtopic.php?t=22216 Blogspot: http://www.evolvedmonkey-santorini26.blogspot.com Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 18Aug 24, 2009 11:44 pm evolvedmonkey I think our official start date was 14th August and I'd have to double check our contract period but it was something like 256 days. Which ofcourse is extra conservative due to the fact they would then be required by the contract to start paying costs. Our SS has advised that it should be done before xmas. And yeah, I cannot imagine any of the contractors working over the xmas/new years period. We've been advised that our carpenter will be out there as of today putting the frame up but looking on the weather site (bom) we are expecting thunderstorms and hail today. See how we go, and the somewhat race has begun.. lol I've been kinda hoping that we could get in before Christmas but figured I was dreaming! But now I can't help but get a leeeetle bit excited since it seems like a definite possibility that you might be able to and we have been given 260 days in our contract too. Must not get my hopes up! We have a meeting with the SS on Thursday so maybe he'll be able to give us a bit of an idea. We're home!!! Site start: 13 Aug 09 Handover: 29 Jan 10 Hubby & I are building the Santorini 26 with M3tr!con My thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20570 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 19Aug 25, 2009 9:18 am evolvedmonkey Plantation Shutters I've just updated my blog with a few of the ideas that we've added to our house and thought I'd give a quick run down here as well.. We're having plantation shutters installed one spot for now and then a second spot when we get to that point. The first spot we're putting in is between the rumpus room and living room, the second is a wall that connects the passage to the dining. As plantation shutters seem to be a bit X'y we are unfortunate that just after signing M**tricon have begun working with a local blind company where we are to add the price to the cost of the house so you can add it to your mortgage. As we missed that, we are installing them after, we have allocated some money to the initial blinds we want installed and getting a few prices at the moment. Plantation shutters appear to be from $1,000 to $1,500 for the size we are looking at There is a company in QLD that do plantation shutters cheap only catch is you have to put it together your self and maybe stain them I think. We are thinking of using them in our bathrooms. http://www.shutterkits.com.au/shutter-kits/ Forum thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22300 Re: Building a Santorini 26 in the heart of victoria! 20Aug 25, 2009 5:31 pm Shelz Did any of you find that M@tricon doesn't advise you of all your options when signing? For instance the one flaw that I do think our Santorini has is that the Master bedroom is quite wide but not very deep. I only found out a few weeks ago that we could have paid an additional $1600 or so to extend the master by 600ml. Its not a huge increase but i would have definatley paid the extra for it. Yeah, we nearly got caught by that. We had already paid the initial deposit and signed off on the plans when we visited another display home and realised that the San 26 was even shallower than the San 29, and that every display home had that wall pushed out. We measured it up and realised that our current bedroom furniture wouldn't even fit! It was then that we found out about the option to extend. Being first-timers, I guess we didn't really realise the extent to which you can play and change standard floorplans to suit. We're home!!! Site start: 13 Aug 09 Handover: 29 Jan 10 Hubby & I are building the Santorini 26 with M3tr!con My thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20570 For reference, this is the Austlii reference. My take on this is, that they would be breaking the law denying access to a homeowner in Victoria, or their agent from having… 1 9094 Hey everyone Not for me or anyone I know, just generally interested. For a single allotment house, are you allowed to take the fence on both sides of your house and… 0 20889 |