Met9icon building - canal

coljacqld · Nov 14, 2007 4:02 pm

As promised in my intro, I look forward to sharing our disappointments and joys in our quest to build our DREAM HOME

We settled on our block of land on Bribie Island (approx 1hr from Brisbane CBD) on May 30 this year. The block has a canal frontage and we were after a design that would take full advantage of the aspect. After looking at soooo many display home and plans on the web, We went and had a look at the Grandview 36 display home with Met9icon and promptly fell in love (first big mistake) :roll:

We signed up with Met9icon the day the land settled.

We thought we would set ourselves a very realistic target (we thought): to be in the house 12 months from the day we signed up: so the count down to May 30 2008 began

We have heard lots of horror stories about building and were very keen to get the paperwork right. Our perliminary contract was first due on July 24th. After pushing back the date numerous times in finally arrived on Auguust 15th, with many errors. We also had lots of questions, questions that apparently no one had ever asked before. After getting a brush of response from our sales consultant I sent an email detailing exactly what we wanted, we waited over 2 weeks with very little response.

I decided to visit the display home that is closest to where I currenlty live to ask what the complaint process was and promptly burst into tears. The sales consultant Melissa was fantastic. She has since become our sales consultant. I was given details of the sales manager and had a number of discussions with him. I must say that not all ours questions were answered but I felt we were getting somewhere.
We then requested a second preliminary contract to correct the errors in the first before we paid them anymore money. I was told we would have to wait another 3 weeks for this then about six weeks for the proper contract.

So, another phone call was made to the sales manager with the following demands:
PC 2 by then end of that week
Contract by October 20th
reduced building time of 150 days from 187 days
what they agreed to and we go was
PC2 by October 3
Contract on October 18th
build time of 160 days

We were happy when these promised eventuated. While the PC2 still was not exactly what we asked for (attention to detail errors mostly) The time frames were adheared to.
We are currently awaiting approval from the certifier and the bank to value it as built. We are hoping this will be in the next 7 days. So all going well we will be given a start date somewher in December.

Knowing or luck it will probably rain for 5 weeks straight[/img]

arkraider · Nov 14, 2007 4:28 pm

A lady bursting in to tears is always going to get what she wants, I love that about women...

Well done for putting your foot down and standing firm with your plans of schedule. Even though they aren't quite the same, good for you for improving what they were offering....

looking forward to seeing some pics, not only of the block, the canal, updates of the building but also where is the boat???

loveanarchitect · Nov 14, 2007 4:45 pm

Hi coljacqld,
Just wondering if I may, why didn't you choose an architect to design & oversee the building of your "dream house", it obviously means so much to you? I am interested if anyone could enlighten me as to why they chose the volume house over that of a unique individual design that can be financially very rewarding as an investment?

stonecutter1309 · Nov 14, 2007 5:22 pm

Why go with an architect to design a home if you've found a design from a builder that already is perfect?

at least you can walk into a display home in your design and really see what it's like - can't do that with a one-off.

aaurora · Nov 14, 2007 6:22 pm

stonecutter1309

Why go with an architect to design a home if you've found a design from a builder that already is perfect?

at least you can walk into a display home in your design and really see what it's like - can't do that with a one-off.

I agree. Also I think the very thought of an architect brings forth an image of $$$$ (I know it does for me). But then, if you can afford a canal frontage at Bribie Island, I don't think the $$ would be a problem :lol:

Lucky you...yes, show some pics

HomeReview · Nov 14, 2007 6:24 pm

Good design doesn't cost huge $$$

I can be done on any budget provided you have a talented designer who can make the most of the budget allowed. You may need to rethink the needs and wants, but the end result is a much nicer building.

coljacqld · Nov 14, 2007 10:56 pm

Gee I didn't realise that my little bit would have so many responses already!!!!!!!!

$$$$$$$$ were a big deciding factor in our choice of home and builder. On average even when we looked at smaller builder it would have cost us in excess of $50000 to use a smaller builder. My parent have recently gone down the road of an Architect. It cost a small fortune and the quotes from the builders are more expensive than our home and our house is at least 40% bigger.

As for not having to worry about money if we could buy the block (I wish). We spent a couple of month looking at everything priced under $800000 for sale on the canals at Bribie. There are 2 canal systems one Pacific Harbour is very well known and pricey then second at Bongaree is smaller, started it life more that 25 years ago and we bought a block there, we are the second owners of the block.

The house design we choose is as close to what we wanted for that fitted in our budget. Most of the houses we looked at were 10 plus years old and about half the size of what we are about to build.

At the moment I am a stay at home mum with 2 little boys, extending our selves to build a fancy massive and expensive home would put that at risk. We have worked very hard in the years prior to having children so that I could stay at home with them at least until school age.

If our house ends up anything like the display home I will be very pleased indeed.

When it comes to photo, I am still trying to workout how to put them up - if anyone has any hint please let me know.

We currently have a 19ft Aussie Whaler that is on a trailer, we can't apply for a pontoon until the house is on the block.

We are waiting for our house to sell in Brisbane and will then rent on the island until the house is complete. Would be nice to be living close when the house starts but we do need to be up there by the end of Jan as my oldest starts school.

Yak_Chat · Nov 14, 2007 11:08 pm

House and land sounds supurb.

Quote:

We have worked very hard in the years prior to having children so that I could stay at home with them at least until school age.

This is even better - kids need lots of love and time with their mum at this very tender and impressionable age in their life and child care is nothing like having a loving caring mum near them. Some very intersting stuff being discovered in this area at present. so do it as long as possible and all the ebst with the house.

re posting pics.

Open and account at www.photobucket.com

Then post your phots there, then copy the link that the photo bucket provides into a thread here and then put the IMG tags around it.

More detailed info here.

http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=1272

Cheers Steve

rerob1 · Nov 14, 2007 11:38 pm

Awh Steve, you say the nicest things sometimes

I agree about staying home with bubs, I am doing some work from home (consulting Project Mgt stuff mostly) but I am due back in my full time job in Jan....having very serious thoughts about resigning and trying to make a go of it working from home!

Coljacqld, all the very best with the new home...looking forward to the pic's!

loveanarchitect, I work with architects on commercial projects a fair bit and find that they get totally carried away with designy things that are impractical and this has given me a biased (often negative) view of them, so unless you can find one you have great rapport with (and a bit of extra $$) then its just not worth it...IMO

Cabinfever · Nov 15, 2007 7:48 am

Don't want to get too OT here, but the phrase "architect-designed" usually means silly angles, mixed materials, garish exteriors, impractical layout, fashion-before-function, and massive expense. They have completely lost their way.

Your own design and a level-headed draftsman (and perhaps a civil engineer) is a much better combination. Either that or a slightly tweaked "off the shelf" design.

muzzman · Nov 15, 2007 8:43 am

Hi coljacqld

Can I just ask what kind of questions were you asking that they had never heard before?

Helen · Nov 15, 2007 8:46 am

Some people have more time. Some have more money. Some can visualise a house more easily than others. We had our own (simple) plan drawn up by a draftsman and went the owner-builder path. Our friends needed to see exactly what they would be getting before they could commit to anything. Whichever way you go, it's going to be a huge project that will stress you out, keep you up at night and make you giddy with excitement. You need to do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Agree Cabinfever. We know a kitchen builder who marks up his kitchens by 30% if they are architect designed because he knows it's not going to be straight forward and countless changes will be made.

Adrian B · Nov 15, 2007 10:20 am

Completely agree with Helen. Peoples comfort levels vary, hence different situations for different people. we built with a volume builder because our design suite our area, our needs and our budget. Friend of mine are building one they designed themselves, and ther house woes not fit on my block lengthways. They have specific needs, and went through some dramas due to council. They helped the draftsman get around the issues, but have not had much in[put dfuring the building process. Their lifestyles do not allow much input atm

Yak_Chat · Nov 15, 2007 12:48 pm

Quote:

Awh Steve, you say the nicest things sometimes

Only sometimes ? :wink:

Must take my medication LOL

Quote:

I agree about staying home with bubs, I am doing some work from home (consulting Project Mgt stuff mostly) but I am due back in my full time job in Jan....having very serious thoughts about resigning and trying to make a go of it working from home!

Ruth,
There are some very intersting studies being done that have discovered that when a child under the age of 4 is out of sight of their mother (Not father) they then feel abandoned and withdraw within themselves.

Hence why they cry as you walk out ot the room, why they hang around your legs and will play in the room beside their mother, and not in the other room, wil sleep in the room next to you but not the other end of the house etc.

It's actually and aura thing that they sense with the mother that is a very strong primal link.
Do not break it too soon, and ensure that they receive your full love and attention and physical contact.

There are some very radical and new (old) discoveries being made worldwide re the brain that the medical world has not even listened to as yet. Bit like how they thought about chiropractors in the 60's.
They think this stuff it's all hogwash.
Watch this space but make sure your children gain from it today.
Steve

VJ · Nov 15, 2007 1:47 pm

Hi coljacqld,

Grandview is a lovely house... congratulations on your choice.

We wanted to build it on our block.. but because it doesn't have the stagger on the sides, it was not approved by our land developer.

Keep us posted of any developments.
Hope you have your own blog.. I'm starting mine now.

coljacqld · Nov 15, 2007 3:59 pm

VJ - we were very lucky that the covenant on our block is very very broad. In fact we were not even bound by it as our contract didn't stipulate it. Met9icon insisted we get approval anyway so as not to hold up council/certifier approval. One of the things I am most looking forward to in the house is what they call a butler's panrty. basicly I have 2 kitchens in the walkin panrty on one side is shelves on the other in a bench with overhead cupboards and a sink. Whne people come over all the messy stuff stays in the panrty and my kitchen is clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock:

Being thinking about a blog - will have to investigate!!!

Muzzman - we asked specific questions and were only given general answers when we wanted details (as they say the :evil:

is in the details) for example:

1.We have an N3 wind rating and we wanted to specificly know what we got for the $3600 they are charging us. Their answer "Substantial upgrade of bracing walls and booker rods." Because my husband deals with contracts all the time he felt a more detailed explanation should be given.

2. 'S' class slab is standard our came back as a 'M' with P (the ones given to us by developer was a 'S'. Again we wanted to know what we got for the extra cost ie how much closer together are the concrete bits between the wafflepod slab and how many piers we get. Apparnelty we will be given this on the final plans when they come back from the certifier??????

The reason we wanted to know this is so that during and after the process we know we got what we paid for. All in all we had 36 questions and errors that came from our Prelim Contract and a couple of things we had asked for (in writing) had been missed.

One item missed was that we had requested 4 controllers for the dux hot water system. The general estimate when I brought this up was $600. I had checked and each controller was $190 (trade price) let alone the cost to install. Obviously some one had pulled this figure out of their backside (I said a much in my dealings with the Sales Manager) low and behold when we got our second prelim contract the price was over $1600. My hubby will be installing these after.

There were also a number of items that in our book should have been in the base price so we wanted justification

fish_boy79 · Nov 15, 2007 4:02 pm

hi coljacqld,

I'd also be interested to know what sort of questions you were asking of m3tricon.

My wife and I are considering building the Liberty and having a costing done with the sales consultant next monday. any advice would be much appreciated.

chris

fish_boy79 · Nov 15, 2007 4:11 pm

ok maybe i posted too late.

thanks coljacqld

coljacqld · Nov 15, 2007 4:11 pm

Thanks for the words of support Steve. I am very lucky to have the opportunity, not everyone does.

Everyone has there own comfort level when it comes to building, being first timers we were happy to be able to see the design in the flesh (so to speak). That has also made choosing tiles and colours a bit easier.

We have tried the owner builder road before for one of our reno's. Luckily my hubby is a sparky and also very very handy so most of the items he did himself. The ones we needed to get other to do - kitchen and shower screen were terrible (it took them 3 times to get the shower screen right!!!)
I also have a little less time on my hands with 2 little boys so having someone else do it this time is good. Mind you with the issues we have had so far there has been many an hour spent on the house already and it hasn't even started yet :roll:

coljacqld · Nov 15, 2007 4:34 pm

Sorry Chris only just read your question. The main thing would to be very aware that the price they give you at walk through will change. The site costs is what got us. Even if you have an S class soil they hit you up for things like surface drainage that is complusory. In my book it should be included in the base price. You will slo spend more money at Studio M , Beaumont Tiles and with the electrical so add lots for this.

Also what ever date estimate they give you for your PC1 will be wrong. We were told July 24th first of all and it didn't arrive until Aug 15th. They seem to be very very behind in the office.

Part of me wants to say run for the hills but I am hoping things from here on in may get better

What part of Brissie are you building in?

Anne