Metricon Liberty 45 in Ryde NSW

Hello everyone,

We have started our journey with Metricon to knockdown rebuild. The plan we have chosen is the Liberty 45 in the Nuvo fascade.



There were a few changes we made to the plan to customize our house, mainly to suit the north/south aspect of the house.



UPDATE 2/6/17: Our updated plans are on page 18.

The changes include:

- using 2 large stacker doors to open up to the Outdoor Room (We thought about bi-fold doors but decided against it because of the price and we wanted to have fly-screens to let the air in but not the flies.)

- moving the sink from the island bench to the side bench so we have a full clear island bench to prepare food and eat there

- adding an extra window at the front of the house so we can see who is standing outside the front door

- double entry doors

- changing all cladding to brick except the cladding for the balcony (we didn't like the horizontal cladding - personal preference
)

- adding a window high up in the garage for natural light and ventilation

- moving Bedroom 4 to the back so that both Bedroom 3 and 4 windows can take advantage of the view into the backyard instead of the neighbours' houses

- turning the space between Bedroom 3 and 4 into walk-in robes for those Bedrooms and moving the linen to outside Bedroom 2

- putting the toilet into the bathroom upstairs

(Credit goes to VistaDream for sharing his plan and inspiring our last 2 items above.)

Some of the things I've learnt so far are:

- (Sarking to roof and thermal wrap around house) It is not a standard inclusion in NSW but there are some benefits to having this
- (Rebating stacker doors/bi-fold doors into slab) This reduces the drop-down into the Outdoor Room. However, we didn't do this for the upstairs balcony
- (Full tiling to bathroom wall) It costs extra to tile the bathrooms up to the ceiling
- (Acoustic soundproofing) Think about what type of sound insulation you need for walls between bedrooms, between bathroom and bedrooms, for a media room, and bedroom facing a neighbour's driveway or house. Apparently there are different types of acoustic materials e.g. acoustic plaster, acoustic insulation etc.
- (Stove and oven) Decide whether you want a one-piece stove and oven or whether you want a streamlined look be embedding the stove into the benchtop. Also, you have the flexibility of moving the oven into a cabinet tower instead of having it underneath the stove. Of course, the standard inclusion is a one-piece stove and oven

UPDATE 12/8/17: There are some more observations on Page 38.

We are now finalising the contract and once signed, we look forward to choosing colours and materials for the house exterior and interior.

Great plan, congratulations. Glad we've helped you in some small way.

Love love your floor plan. The master/study is phenomenal. Wish we had something like that!

Thanks MrsJM.

On another note, it has been difficult finding demolishing and landscaping people. Orph has given us some good landscaping recommendations, but we are still on the lookout for both demolishing and landscaping people as we would like to get at least 2-3 quotes for each.

If anyone has any recommendations, please let us know.

At the moment, I'm trying to stay awake reading the contract that M has sent us.

Matthews Contracting for demo, excellent and very professional. Ask for Kane, tell him we sent you

Thanks VistaDream, we'll look into it.


Metricon Liberty 45 in Ryde NSW
viewtopic.php?t=82846

Hi we are in the building process in Ryde too. Have your plans been past at council yet. We lost 6 months on just a rubber stamp.

We found democorp pretty good, like everything each company does it differently. Some include a fence, and gas and/or electric disconnect. Some will also take trees away some dont. Ours damaged the footpath and was a really battle to get them to fix it.
Good luck.

Thanks bavshan, the time it takes to obtain DA approval is a real concern for us. We are not at that stage yet but it makes it difficult to time when to give notice to our tenants to move out, and any extended delays will result in additional costs as M is entitled to pass on increased costs to us if we don't start the build by a certain date.


Metricon Liberty 45 in Ryde NSW
viewtopic.php?t=82846

Yes timing is always an issue. If you are going thru Ryde council then your plans will be approved online a week earlier than the letter informing Rawson. The council normally requires changes to the plans, this took a week for us. After that the construction certificate is requested and fulfilled. That's two more weeks. I'd only look at demoing the house once the DA is approved. As for the tenants best to keep them on a very short leash and make sure you have a lease contract, otherwise you must give them 90 days notice. I've made that mistake.

Rawson Edge 39 MKI in Ryde, Sydney

We took just under 6 weeks for our approval from Ryde. Your Metricon CSC can ask for a scanned copy of the approval about a day after its approval online (so you can get working on the changes to the plan as soon as possible

Thanks for all your comments, it's all really helpful Unfortunately, I have to give my tenants 90 days notice so will probably have to do it as soon as the contract is signed so it doesn't hold up the demolition and build.


Metricon Liberty 45 in Ryde NSW
viewtopic.php?t=82846

Just found your thread - nice plans. Cool having a study in the master. That WIR in the master is gonna look amazing.


viewtopic.php?t=78985

Hello everyone,

We have finally signed a contract with M

It has been quite a stressful 4 weeks as during this time we had to:
- review and finalise the contract terms;
- update site plans with some final changes; and
- update contract items due to some oversights from M (not unexpected though).

There were a few key issues we had to resolve with M, it maybe something that you might come across too:

(Windows facing the back of the house) We wanted the bedroom windows on the first floor facing the back of the house so they would have a nice view of the garden rather than the neighbours' houses on each side of the house. In the end, there was a lot more work than expected to make this happen - decreasing the angle of the roofline, reducing the size of the eaves, increasing the height of the first floor. So its good to ask specifically whether your plan can accommodate this, even if your sales consultant draws it into your plans.

(Garage setback) Our council required the garage to be setback 1m behind the main house setback. We only found out when the plans were drawn up for the contract so we had to make a decision whether (a) incur additional cost to extend the front of the main house, or (b) reduce the length of the garage. If you are going through council, be prepared for these council requirement quirks.

We'll keep you all posted once we have final drawings. But now it's onto the Studio M appointment to finalise externals.. and undoubtedly there will be eye-watering decorations with an "upgrade" price tag attached to all of it

Congratulations on signing contract Q ! Good luck with all the external and internal selections. Look forward to following your build

Congrats Q now the exciting part of selections begin. Apart from
moving in selections was the most enjoyable part for me.


viewtopic.php?t=78985

Good luck with all your selections! Looking forward to seeing pictures


viewtopic.php?f=31&t=81978

Hi all,

So we went to the Austral Bricks brickyard today and the staff there were really helpful. We went around looking at the different brick walls and narrowed it down to the following bricks (top to bottom):

- Bowral Brahman Granite
- Urban One Pepper
- Ultra Smooth Rhythm
- Symmetry Asphalt

Stacked up in the order above, the bricks looked like this:



We were also given a list of homes in the area that used those bricks so we could see how they looked in a built house in light and shade - it also gave us some good ideas around colour combinations and materials to use with each of those bricks. After driving around to half a dozen houses we eliminated the Brahman Granite (too dark especially under trees) and the Symmetry Asphalt (a bit too green/grey in light).

And then there were 2. We really like the Ultra Smooth Rhythm but as it is a Cat 4 brick, the additional cost was around $22.5k on the Liberty 45. We couldn't justify spending that much to upgrade bricks so we are opting for the Urban One Pepper.

I suppose Off White mortar is the usual choice but we were interested to find out more about what people thought about the mortar finishes. There appears to be 4 types of mortar finishes:

- raked
- ironed
- struck
- flush

We eliminated raked and struck mortar finishes as they created too many shadows. Ironed is the most common mortar finish but has anyone used flush mortar finish ? Because the brick we have chosen is not smooth, would an ironed mortar finish have a lumpy look when viewed from an angle in light ?

Iron will match well cause the brick is not smooth. It will create a wave like feel.
Usually flush is to create a whole wall feature that feels smooth, flat and straight.
Just my 2 cents thought.

It looks like a wire cut brick (I think?!), we have flush white mortar with a wire cut brick. I'm not at home to get a pic but will grab one later on if it's still light when I get home from work.
The brick feels a little textured but looks smooth when you step back from it.
I love flush mortar, we'll be having it again next build.

I prefer an ironed finish as it creates depth and interest to an otherwise boring and flat brick wall.