Page 1 of 7
We never meant to buy a block of land...
Living in Melbourne, regular visits to our fave place Torquay were frequent over Summer. On a quick Winter visit back in July 2014 we chanced upon a new estate. Only dreaming, we went to the Estate Agent just for a look-see at the prices- we liked the estate, loved the views over the valley to the ocean.
Funnily enough, a block in the estate was left unsold. It was a corner block on a fair slope and it had just become available due to the previous purchaser's finance falling through. We knew it was an offer too good to refuse, was about $30K off its original price. A $500 deposit was all we needed to hold the block and we did this quickly without too much further thought.
The search for a new home to build oour land was on.
Display home visits, internet searches... our visit to the Duxton 39 display took only a few moments to decide that this was THE ONE. The moment our kids (all four of them) walked in and each found a bedroom made the decision easier.
Little did we know...
Our land was due to title in a few months, which meant that we needed to move soon enough. A price estimate, initial plans and 3D drawing of the house on our site were complete. We were quite lucky that we decided NOT to proceed at this stage. We felt a little uneasy without the land title, reading the Metricon contract draft a little closer informed us that we would be up for a certain percentage of the total contract should the building not begin within the next three months.
We are glad we waited. Constant problems with the land developer, title estimates that came and went. No action on the roads etc... So we waited...and waited...and waited...We would have been up for about $40K if we had signed the original contract with M due to the delays.
Action finally started on the roads to the estate. How many times can you visit an empty block of land?
Then it all halted, apparently the developer wasn't paying the contractors and they refused to do any more work unless they were paid up front for the remainder of the contract. Not. Happy. Jan....
So we waited...again.
Official notice from our Conveyancer had arrived. Finally.
We returned to Metricon in Mount Duneed to finalise our plans in March 2016. We had sold our house in Melb and moved around the corner- at least we could be near the coast if we couldn't have our house just yet!Despite M originally informing us that the price would rise significantly in the time since our first draft in 2014, it wasn't too bad. Besides, there were updated features and current upgrade packages on that we wanted to make the most of. We kept the whole plan pretty much the same as the plans we originally looked at without too many adjustments to the structure of the house.
The sales guy at M display was great. Incidentally he was building in the same estate only a few doors down! He suggested many upgrades or improvements to the house that we hadn't thought of. Some of these were:
* Soft close toilets
* Splitting the walk in robe in our master, making a his and hers robe
* Soft close drawers and doors to the kitchen
* Satin finish to the cupboards in the kitchen (in hindsight this was fantastic and looks great!)
* Adding eaves to the house (suprised this wasn't standard!)
* Increasing the height to the upstairs ceiling and door frames
* Putting a sliding door on the pantry. We went for the timber/ glass option
* Increasing the size of the island bench to the kitchen
* Changing the windows to awnings
* Air con to the bottom floor rooms (we later took this out)
* Recessed tiling in both showers for holding shampoo etc
Unfortunately, in the time taken between our original quote, the Coastal Facade option was no longer available. We were a bit unhappy with this, though settled on the Isla Facade. This was a compromise, still giving us a balcony even if it wasn't the same 'look' that we wanted near the coast. Funnily enough, a few days later we received an email from the sales consultant. Due to other houses in the immediate area using the Isla Facade (namely his own!!), we could have the Coastal Facade at no change or extra cost.
Nice.
Our site costs were going the be the biggest hurdle for us. Our land had a fall from the top left to the bottom right of over 3.5 metres. This meant significant cutting in to the hill and then careful planning of the piers etc, so we left $50K for this. Cost a bit on a tight budget, but we loved the block and the location.
Metricon had a Value Selection Pack that we were pretty happy with as it included some of the things that we were going to upgrade at a reduced package price. This included:
* Upgrade to 900mm stove top and rangehood, stainless steel
* 20mm stone to kitchen benchtop- we upgraded this to 50mm for the kitchen bench, glad we did as it looks great.
* Overhead kitchen cupboards
* Soft close pot drawers
* Concrete driveway (we upgraded this to exposed aggregate, 50/50 look)
* Free standing bath
* Remote control garage door
* Tiled base to ensuite shower (we added this to the bathroom too)
* Timber look flooring
* Carpet
This all was an extra $9K. We did some comparisons and saved approx $10K with the package.
In addition to the Value Package, we opted for some of the Choices package, including:
* Colorbond roof (Monument color)- no charge
* Bathroom and ensuite stone benchtops- $600
* His and hers double vanity in the ensuite $1050
* 1200mm wide shower $260
* Laminate laundery cabinet (didn't bother with stone in the laundry) $335
* Feature front door (Newington) $450. We wished we opted for a better door, but didn't have the cash.
* Timber look garage door $1600
* Security system $910
* Downlights Pack (20 LED) $1650. We added an extra one at our electrical appointment
Due to our site, costs started to add up a little:
* Retaining walls- timber and brick (brick beside garage). We were going to ask M to construct others we require. We were advised not to get M to do them as they charge through the roof, better and cheaper to do so when we move in. In hinsight this remains my biggest headache to date, worrying about the 2.5 metre high retainers I need to build along the left side of the property.
* Upgrade to slab- it's quite high at the front of the property near the portico
Other upgrades required:
* Steps leading to the front of the house and from the laundry (these were removed later so we can do them ourselves cheaper)
* Galvanised lintels due to being near the coast (wthin 2 km)
* Stainless steel brickies hardware
Due to the height of our land and the house, the angle of the roof needed to be reduced slightly, to 22 degrees.
Some other extras:
- Timber landing in the garage (garage floor signficantly lower than house height)
- Brickwork above garage (dislike the timber so good move)
- Feature window in kitchen- we went for the glass window splashback
- Extra windows- one in dining room to take advantage of morning sun. Due to our garage dropping about 750mm we decided to add a long window above the garage/ in the upstairs study to balance the front of the house. This is my favorite inclusion as it takes in the view of the water.
- Key locks to all windows
- Deadbolts to external doors
- Flyscreens on all openable windows and doors
- Upgraded ballustrade to balcony, opting for glass panels
- Upgraded staircase instead of standard, which will be stained
- Cupboard under the stairs, entry from garage instead of inside house
- Bulkhead to the upstairs leisure room
- In-built book shelf to the landing at the top of the stairs
- Extra cupboards on the family room side of the kitchen benchtop
- Upgraded taps, nicer sinks, under mount sink in kitchen, better shower heads
- Cavity sliding doors in walk-in-robe and pantry
- Translucent glazed doors to main bedroom
- Roller blinds to all windows- double roller blinds with shear blind and block-out blind. Our last house build took us ages to place blinds on all windows. Even though a more expensive option (over $6K), takes the hassle out of doing it later.
- NBN package
In all, we didn't realise that the standard inclusions of things like taps etc are VERY standard and cheap-looking. The prices soon add up. I know others go further than this, but our total inclusions/ upgrades were just shy of $100K.
We were a little over our budget so if we upgraded bricks, tiles and carpet, so we opted for standard inclusions and upgraded the underlay. In our previous house, we upgraded each of these over time so can do the same.
Colour appointment- 28 April 2016
We were a little in the dark leading up to the colour appointment. We should have visited Studio M beforehand to help with our selections. Nonethless, it was a great day as we had made quite a few decisions leading in to the appointment. The staff at Studio M were terrific.
Here's some of the colour selections to external areas:
The carpet and timber floor selections were the most time-consuming as it took a while for us to make up our mind. Given we didn't want to upgrade, standard carpet is a bit average. We also have carpet for the entire second floor, except wet areas, which in hindsight isnt the best idea. We went for the timber look in the middle as it will match dark stain on the bedroom doors and staircase.
Electrical:
Our electrical appointment was after lunch, one I was looking forward to. There were a few things that I wanted to include, pretty basic, but ones we didn't have in our previous house. This included:
- External powerpoints- outdoor room; balcony; front of house x 2. This will allow us to connect tv, garden/ deck lighting etc.
- Fan in the outdoor room
- Connections for tv/ pay tv in outdoor room.
- Internal connections/ conduit on inside walls for tv's
- Ethernet connections
- External lighting, plenty, including spot lights and pillar lights at front of house
Hindsight being wonderful, should have added:
- 4 socket powerpoints in areas such as study (didn't know these existed)
- Charging points for ipads etc
Electrical upgrades were $20K all up. I could have spent ages doing this and a hell of alot more money. The electrical consultant was so patient!
After almost two years to the day, our M sign went up on the block!
Kids were excited, so were we.
5th August 2016
Took a spin past the block, fingers were crossed that something was happening as the wait was painful!
To my suprise, the cut out of the land had begun. Large cut out on the top left of the land started worrying me already. Retaining walls required. The cut is also mighty close to the footpath.
10th August 2016
Pipes are in. Never thought I'd like the sight of PVC pipes so much!
19th August- slab foam delivered.
22nd August- slab framework complete
23rd August- slab poured.
The slab is very high at the front- caught me by suprise in reality!
24-25th August- Frame begins
All system's go at this stage!
26th August- Second floor begins!