Metricon Merricks 42 Clarion - Melbourne

Hi everyone,

This is my build thread. Thanks to all that have gone before me, I have profited greatly from all the information on this forum.

[Updated 2018-12-20: we have changed to the Merricks 42 Clarion, and tried to upgrade everything to match the designer range that we had chosen with the Vantage. I have left this post intact, as most of the information is rather the same. New house plans will be included below when I have them]

Our floor plan was the Metricon Vantage 48, and we've chosen the Plantation façade and rendered Hebel construction, as it is very nice and also suitable for the area in which we're building. The area is subject to planning overlays that govern the 'neighbourhood character', and the council have advised against submitting plans that include brick veneer.

Our land has a moderate slope, but the sales consultant has advised that the build will be feasible with the caveat that site costs will be elevated. We're waiting for the soil test and neighbourhood character survey results which were carried out last week, to update our budget for the fitout appointments.

From the standard floorplan we included some standard options: shower to Powder, large Laundry, and workshop extension to Garage. Also, we reconfigured WIL spaces to enlarge the Butlers pantry and create a WIR for one of the upstairs bedrooms. See my sketch below:



Our options/upgrades:

• 40k upgrades for 10k (promotion)
• Hebel & render construction (promotion)
• 450 mm eaves to whole house (as displayed at Greenvale)
• 1200 mm wide front door
• 2700 mm downstairs / 2550 mm upstairs ceiling heights
• increased height of doors and windows throughout
• provision for recycled water connection to toilets and garden taps
• standard variations to Laundry, Powder, Garage
• custom variations to Butlers pantry, upstairs WIRs
• rebated aluminium stacker doors to Outdoor room
• cavity sliding doors to Living room, Study, Ensuite, Pantry
• windows above Stair void and Dining void enlarged to 3m tall
• stained stair treads with painted risers/rails/posts and stainless balustrades throughout voids
• under stair storage with door, painted plaster finish and light
• tiling to ceiling height on all walls of wet areas, stone benchtops and floating vanities throughout
• full length tiled wall niche to showers
• mirror doors to bedroom wardrobe
• engineered timber flooring downstairs, carpet with 10mm underlay upstairs
• cold water, waste point and gas connection to Outdoor room
• cold water point to refrigerator position
• evaporative cooling upgrade and 7 outlet points

Options we have had quoted and decided to remove, or do later:

• Hebel subfloor
• security system

Options that I'd like to squeeze in if the budget allows after site costs and fitout:

• solar energy generation & storage
• gas log fireplace in Living room
• refrigerated cooling

Welcome r_13, up goes another monster, so many similar upgrades to my build. You have great taste

Love the void spaces you have.

I see on the plan it looks like you have a shower downstairs. Have you considered adding doors to the living or study, even pocket sliding doors? If somebody has an accident and can't use the stairs, you have a shower downstairs and a room that could be closed off for sleeping in.

Good thinking iwanttobuild - yes, we've added cavity sliding doors to both the Living and Study. There was a standard M option for flipping the Living/Study and opening a doorway through to make the Powder also into a guest ensuite, but we decided we didn't need a permanent 5th bedroom as our 4th bedroom is already a spare bedroom. So, we'll probably put a sofabed in the study for those times when we have a house full.

Rebated stacker doors? Does this mean that it will appear flat on the floor? Rebated into slap?

That's right. I'd like to make sure that the door sill is flush with the interior floor, and we'll build up the outdoor room deck to flush also.

We too asked our sales consultant and he said Metricon don't do it. What was the upgrade cost. Was it for a 3m stacker door?
We are looking at the aluminium 300 series.

At this stage it's listed as a non-standard option allowance of $500 to be confirmed at the next estimate. This is for two stackers rebated.

R13 that's great. We have 4 doors but will do two.

I had a one on one tour today at Metricon. It was great and the consultant was able to supply some approximate pricing and had some new ideas I didn't consider. We won't be upgrading our windows to fit the new ceiling height but we can lift the windows instead. Really makes no major difference as most windows will be covered by curtains.

Looking forward to our preview appointment at Studio/M this coming Wednesday.

Went to Beaumont tiles on Sunday to try to find bathroom tiles, and found it really hard to choose! Started thinking that we wanted darker tiles in the bathrooms, but when confronted with the displays the charcoals seemed perhaps too dark when planning for all walls, floor-to-ceiling. So, have gravitated more toward ash colour or grey in 600 square size.



Then, just down the road at Carpet Court, it suddenly was very easy to choose the wood floor for downstairs and carpet for lounge/study/upstairs!

Hickory Floors - Madeira

Well done! So exciting when the choices all start coming together I think it is best to keep to lighter tiles when using them across floor and all walls - you don't want the room closing in on you!

We are still deciding between a couple of tiles choices for the upstairs bathrooms - not sure if we will go with the light tiles we are using throughout downstairs, or if we go with a slightly darker option for ensuite & main bathroom. Decisions decisions!


I see you are in Melbourne - the flooring supplier to M for carpet is Carpet Call (not Court).... I hope you went to the right store

Also, I think the timber supplier is Perfect Timber Floors, or something similar? Fingers crossed you can still get your selections through these suppliers.

Thanks for the tips on the suppliers for M. We did go to Carpet Court and not Carpet Call. But, actually the carpet is so generic I think we could be happy with any supplier.

I hope that Perfect Timber Floors is not the timber supplier after reading the reviews on Product Review!

Possibly at this stage we are looking at removing the flooring items from the contract, and rather asking for the skirting boards to be cut to size and painted but not installed, allowing us to do flooring and skirting install after handover.

We are getting M to the tiling but taking the carpet out of the contract - as I work for Choices Flooring head office, so I will get the carpet at cost form our suppliers and have it installed after handover. A bit of mucking around, but can either save $$ or get a much better quality carpet for the same money quoted by M.

Just checked the Studio M selection doc - yes timber floors are from Perfect Timber Floors!

Yikes @ Perfect Timber Floors reviews...

Choices Flooring you say... will look into it

We don't supply to M though.... so if you go through M for your carpet, you will need to choose one of Carpet Call's products. Many products are available at various carpet chains (Choices Flooring, Carpet Court, Carpet Call etc), but some are exclusive to only one). You may want to check the carpet you have chosen is available at Carpet Call. Good luck!

Loving the ash tiles, will be so timeless. It’s so over whelming having to make these decisions so quickly. I feel for you. We have charcoal in powder room downstairs but not all walls to keep it calmer. Think it will look great, not over powering. Upstairs wet areas light greys and white. That timber is so rich, if I were going timber throughout downstairs, that would be one of my top pics. Overall I think your choices so far will look great.

Thanks stoff17

I found the Beaumont tile simulator that I saw shokel1975 had posted some pics from before. These are pics of the ash tile with the charcoal on the floor, and vice versa:

I think both options look great. You would need a lighter vanity to break up the dark tile on the walls (I know this one in the pic is just from the simulator). Great choices!

Love both options. Win win