Merricks 45 with Metricon

In Truganina. Did you have studio appointment?

Been a while since I posted here. We have completed colors appointments and a compilation of variations is under progress at Metricon. Bench top stone is Ariel most part of the house.

I am trying to get a Balamaine/ Sovereign kitchen look with open shelf , rear pot drawers and a overhand at the side. This would be complimented by kdhw ceiling.

Is Metricon Victoria allowing any external inspectors or are they restricting to selected inspectors.

Hello which flooring did you choose? As far as im concerned external inspectors are allowed

Flooring only for wet areas going with M. White 600x600 polished porc. You done your colors?

Ok no not yet ours in March. So you doing yours post handover? Which flooring are you going for if you dont mind me asking. Planning on doing our post handover but have no idea who to choose to.

How much were the porc in wet areas with M?

Ok no not yet ours in March. So you doing yours post handover? Which flooring are you going for if you dont mind me asking. Planning on doing our post handover but have no idea who to choose to.

How much were the porc in wet areas with M?

I will give you the number of tile later. Upgrade to porcelean tile would cost a minimum of $60 per square m2 as a thumb rule with Metricon. It would go up as per the tile we chose.

Thank you, much appreciated.

The tile is Super White DC Porc Poli (1000949). This is mainly on the floor of wet areas. Few areas I used Bora Marble, Bora Marfil and Marvel Pietra as a feture wall in one on suite.

Your floor plan is divine. Can’t wait to see this all come to life!

Thanks, slowly creeping towards contract signing.

For cabinets finish, Metricon mentioned - 50% (Silk) Gloss cabinetry finish to cabinets. I heard Silk finish , but what could be 50%?

My initial contract signing appointment was cancelled. I requested the CSC to send me documents at least a week before. She could not send. She kept on promising I will send soon. I did not get them at a day before appointment. She continued to say that they will be ready by appointment time. I told her to defer the appointment. She could not send until 3 days later. That is how the things work at admin stage.

When we received the contract estimate and plans, we found lot of issues. Which I raised to CSC. She told they will be fixed by variation and not through correcting the contract. So we went to appointment. The contract signer is really good. He noted down all the errors in plans and also estimates. Took almost 3 hrs to go through these errors. He told it will take another 3 hrs to go through the contract signing process. So we made another appointment next week to complete signing.

He told that the errors will be fixed through variations only. If I wish these mistakes to be fixed in original contract docs, then the entire file goes back into que and it takes 3 months to redo. However, fixing them through variation is faster because these files are treated with different priority. Not sure if this is the case. Any comments from you guys?

I told in advance that I will opt for Method 1 payment method. He told that is fine, but cautioned that this will delay build process. The reason being, in this method, they need to complete 100% in each stage to move to next stage. If they could not finish or fix something relating to that stage, they won't be able to move to next stage and then come back to fix the pending things. Further, sometimes, the house could be left unattended for some days (as they wait to tradies to come and fix issues already found). This unattended house could be at a risk of vandalism, theft, graffity etc...Of course, there is insurance to cover this. However, this could disrupt build process and delay the things. I felt he got some points. I told I will take a decision by next appointment. What are your thoughts please..

Stick with the Method 1 schedule. Whilst it might delay the build (this mind you comes down to how quickly you want it done) you hold the cards. Money is all builders know and/or care about (which is fair). In the end, if something isn't done to your satisfaction, you at least hold the cards in your hands to not pay up until it's rectified.

Trust all SM's with the 'we will fix it later' with a grain of salt. It's a classic stalling tactic and you lose any power you have.

It is true however about the contract vs variations. Just make sure every variation is signed and your receive a counter signed copy. Also make sure that the final variation (they increment them up to the Final) has everything all inclusive on it, there should be one Variation each for Flooring/Kitchen/Internals/Externals (you also may have things like site costs/traffic control etc, CDC etc). Each one of these variations will be numbered. Make sure that they carry over the variations you want approved from one to the other (they didn't do this with ours, and we had to go back and get it amended, taking more time)

Once the final variations are signed off, they should appear on your Statement that you should receive after Contract signing.

In Freedom Specifications list, it says the shower screens are semi-framless shower screens. Are they giving these?

We went with semi frameless in the kids bathroom and powder room, bit fully frameless in the ensuite. If we needed to cut nore cost, the semi frameless would be fine in the ensuite too...

They'll have both in the Studio M to compare them - the prices are quite different from memory

what I was trying to say was semi-frame less should be a standard inclusion. Are they giving it free of any additional cost..

I am going for exactly the same look. For the ceiling I am opting for Black Japan. Is there something that I need to ask interms of stain to get a display home look, like number of coats...etc?

Semi-frameless is standard/included for Freedom builds.

Not really, Black Japan is the colour - the depth of colour comes from the number of coats...

If you know which display home it is, tell them that's the colour depth you want...

Thanks Zooch84 for your input, much appreciated.