Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 24, 2008 8:09 pm Hi all, I've only just discovered this forum via a link from another site that had a thread that was generally bagging M3tric0n. We're at the stage where we are technically within the construction period, with all permits approved, but they haven't scratched the ground yet. Maybe this week.
We're building the Montego 28 with some mods such as extended outdoor room, kitchen upgrade etc. I should point out that we are building in regional Vic but they have an office nearby in Traralgon. They are busy enough here to constantly employ the same contractors which seems like a plus for us. Good points so far: Staff are friendly, easy to get on with and easily contactable. The sales rep is reasonably knowledgable. They look after all connections INCLUDING phone. Initial site plans were accurate. Their colour selection & electrical centre gave plenty of choice and was a simple process to go through. Further options were clearly explained. The contract only had to be revised once and did not take longer than promised. The whole permit process only took them a little over a week. They organised the lot. What helped though with permits and contracts was our eagerness to collect and sign off paperwork instead of sitting back and letting it go through the system. I can only surmise that if paperwork takes "months" it is due in some part to lazy clients. They did not put up their prices, which they were entitled to do after 150 days from initial deposit, even though it took longer due to the drawn out process of settling our block. Of course, there have been some bad points: The mark-up for building here, even though they have a local office situated just 10 km from here and 100km from the metro area is about $17k. All other metro builders that we were interested in (Rawdon Hill, Aaron J, Waverley Homes) only added between $5k - $9k. There was an allowance of $6750 for builders range carpet included. We have organised our own carpet of superior quality to be installed after handover for about $5500. According to the bloke in the carpet store, builders range should have only cost us $3500! What a ripoff! Lucky we were tipped off. It was extremely hard to get accurate quotes until the penny finally dropped with them that our request for tinted windows didn't necessarily have to be 'ComforTone' which is what they provide on their higher range homes. We were continually told that it was impossible to get tinted windows without optioning up to wooden frames when we knew otherwise. All due to confusion with brand names. We ended up paying big bucks to have all the downlights fitted when it would have been far cheaper to get extra batten holders installed, then convert them over myself (I am a sparky, albeit an industrial one). But I was worried that all the batten holders would be screwed into battens and it would be impossible to cut a circle where they were mounted. It wasn't until too late that I found out that ceilings no longer have battens above them! It's been fun so far, a tad stressful ocasionally, but I still have the idea that I should be able to go on holidays for 5 or 6 months now and collect the keys when I get back. O.K., stop laughing, everyone smirks when we say we're building, they wish us luck, and wouldn't do it themselves. To us it's an adventure and something to be proud of. Next chapter soon. Re: Our M3tric0n story 3Feb 24, 2008 9:50 pm Welcome to the forum, Eager!
We're also building with M and very eager to get the keys! Hope you have a wonderful experience building your house. Is this your 1st one? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Our M3tric0n story 4Feb 24, 2008 10:04 pm Hi Eager glad your having positive results with your adventure so far... yeah i know when you tell people your building they think your crazy and say what are you doing that for And say why dont you buy established. Who cares i say.. i love watching my house come together and planning something form scratch and putting what i want in it.. its mine and hasnt been anyone elses Re: Our M3tric0n story 5Feb 24, 2008 10:10 pm Quote: yeah i know when you tell people your building they think your crazy and say what are you doing that for And say why dont you buy established. Who cares i say.. i love watching my house come together and planning something form scratch and putting what i want in it.. its mine and hasnt been anyone elses same here... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Our M3tric0n story 6Feb 25, 2008 4:23 pm VJ Welcome to the forum, Eager! We're also building with M and very eager to get the keys! Hope you have a wonderful experience building your house. Is this your 1st one? This is the first time we've built, yeah, but our third home overall. Can anyone tell me why we have to disguise the word M3tricon here? Re: Our M3tric0n story 7Feb 25, 2008 10:00 pm Because the site admins are easily frightened by building companies. Which is all quite hilarious, and like almost all censorship, totally counterproductive. You don't see this sort of ridiculous paranoia anywhere else on the web. Re: Our M3tric0n story 9Mar 06, 2008 6:02 pm Wow... that's the start!
You'll be looking forward to visit your site every day to check out any progress ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Our M3tric0n story 11Mar 13, 2008 7:42 pm Further progress today. Pipework has been roughed in. At first glance I thought that they had installed a series of bird baths!
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I'm not sure about the name of the hire company for the portaloo - maybe it's an instruction as well?? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ More later. Re: Our M3tric0n story 12Mar 21, 2008 9:18 pm Great progress in the past week. The base was prepared on Saturday....
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and the waffle pods done on Wednesday.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and by Thursday arvo we had a slab! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This pic of the slab shows the outdoor room and its extension. The area this side of it to the corner of the house will also be part of the alfresco area, making its total area approx 35m2 in all, eventually to be decked. I'm looking forward to this area come to life. The idea to me was to have the original outdoor room quite sheltered, plus the extension under the roofline but exposed on the sides, plus the section to the corner of the house totally exposed but under a pergola frame. Total versatility! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Our M3tric0n story 15Mar 22, 2008 4:46 pm Thanks, vpande!
We've been told to expect the timber for the frame to turn up on Tuesday, and they will actually begin to erect the frame up on the same day! It could be a bit wet next week though so we'll see what happens (remember rain? ). We've also heard that there could be a possible small delay with the bricks, so if any time is lost next week with the frame due to the weather it wouldn't really matter. Re: Our M3tric0n story 16Mar 22, 2008 8:25 pm Hi Eager,
Congratulations on your slab! I'm sure you're very excited now. We were once there... but now nothing is happening. Compared with vpande, our delays were due to issues with the slab and frame. I hope you won't have any issues with your slab once the frame is erected. Keep us posted! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Our M3tric0n story 17Mar 31, 2008 8:43 pm Time for a bit of an update. The frame is 'mostly' done, with just the beams across the garage and outdoor room, the remainder of the bracing, and some other finishing off to do. The windows arrive tomorrow, and the trusses next week apparently.
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I'm actually quite impressed with the frame. There is not one stud spacing more than 450mm anywhere, except for under/over some windows where it doesn't matter anyway. I've seen some other builders try to get away with 600mm spacing wherever possible. We've actually got some walls with 300mm stud spacing where it didn't seem necessary, so it should all be pretty solid once done. The only real error we've found is that the rebate taken out of the framework to accept the shower base in the ensuite was still made at 900x900, but our shower base will be 1200x900. It seems that the chippy didn't read the plan! No probs said the supervisor, easily fixed. Same with the omission of the extra circuit in the meter box for the air-con. But as long as the sparky puts it in when he comes back for the wiring rough-in, no probs. And apart from some roughly installed noggins which will be fixed, it's all good. The only other slightly disappointing thing was learning that the window in the child's retreat/study is not centred. We widened the adjoining laundry (to accept an opening door with adequate clearance past the washing machine space, instead of the standard sliding door) by 200mm at the expense of the study, and assumed that the window would be moved by half that amount to centre it. It won't, because moving the window slightly will upset the course of bricks outside. Fair enough I guess. The following pic looks through the meals room, past the kitchen to the open plan study. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ A pleasant realisation was to learn that the frame erection went ahead, while we were away for a few days, before we had a chance to pay the bill for the slab! Technically they didn't have to so it's good to know that there's a decent amount of mutual trust between us and M. Our supervisor is new to the job too and in fact our house is the first that he's looked after entirely from Go to Whoa. He's very accommodating and we've already built up a good relationship with him. No real stress yet, and today is only 'scratch-of-dirt' plus 25 days, including some inclement weather. Geoff - Decophile. Re: Our M3tric0n story 18Mar 31, 2008 9:59 pm Quote: I'm actually quite impressed with the frame. There is not one stud spacing more than 450mm anywhere, except for under/over some windows where it doesn't matter anyway. I've seen some other builders try to get away with 600mm spacing wherever possible. We've actually got some walls with 300mm stud spacing where it didn't seem necessary, so it should all be pretty solid once done. Wow, that's great! That's one of our major problem... most of our frames have more than the allowable spacing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Our M3tric0n story 19Apr 01, 2008 9:07 pm VJ That's one of our major problem... most of our frames have more than the allowable spacing. Geoff - Decophile. Re: Our M3tric0n story 20Apr 12, 2008 3:23 pm There's been a bit of a delay lately, apart from a bit of ******* weather apparently the wrong trusses were ordered which held things up for a week or so. The windows arrived on time but the builder didn't want to install them until the trusses arrived so that he could keep the job moving. However he was convinced to install them yesterday, with the trusses due to arrive sometime Monday. Fascias/gutters will be next after trusses, followed by roof tiles and bricks. All have been ordered and are sitting somewhere ready to go, so with a bit of luck they will be able to make up a bit of lost time if they are delivered at the correct times and the job can 'flow.'
From the pics you can see the colour of our window frames (Colorbond Deep Ocean) and the look of our tinted windows. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We decided not to get the front door sidelights tinted to match the bedroom windows because we figure that it will always be comparitively dark under the portico, but time will tell. We can always apply tint film later if need be. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Obscure glass window fitted to bathroom. The same glass is also used in the toilet and ensuite. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ View along the north facing side of the house showing the alfresco extension. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Geoff - Decophile. Hi, We have a single story MacDonald Jones house, on a waffle pod slab with steel frame. Are we able to build a second story extension? Other info is we are 900mm from… 0 8615 We bought land in Tallawong Schofields NSW size 30m X 12.5m and planning to get double story house build around 350 sqm. We are thinking about having premium inclusions… 0 4152 of course there are legal avenues. You've already mentioned it. Sue them. I find it odd that lawyers wouldnt be willing to take on the case, given CCT evidence and… 1 23977 |