Metricon Merricks 42 Clarion - Melbourne

Studio/M preview appointment was yesterday. Excellent and very knowledgeable consultant took us through all the different showroom sections, and gave ballpark prices on just about every upgrade we could think of. She was right on the money too, as some of the upgrades we knew already as they were included in our estimate.

She also was good with our questions that fall somewhere outside of standard supply from M. For example: could we ask that the skirting boards are cut to length and painted, but not installed so that we can get flooring done after handover and install the skirtings ourself thereafter to have no scotia/quad. Response: official 'company line' is no, and typically finished engineered floorboards ($140-170/m2) will be installed last to avoid damage during construction, requiring quad transition between the floor and skirtings/cabinetry. Alternative proposal: M offers some options of wood floor that have raw surfaces ($230/m2), which are installed before all cabinetry and skirtings, and polished after, therefore not requiring the quad. My reaction: probably make a deal with SS to leave the skirtings off, or replace them myself after, anyway, since I have already read the reviews online for Perfect Timber Floors who M subcontract for this work...

Anyway. Small hiccup with construction plans, some items on our subdivision planning permit (storm water drainage, vehicle crossover, driveway clearing) are not done yet. Checked Sec. 32 and yes, they are our responsibility. So, rushing to get quotes and handle those things so that we don't hold up the tender process.

During this process I will probably get quotes on levelling the block, since the soil test came back with Class P soil due to one of the boreholes being over a filled in swimming pool which is on a slope overlooking the back of the house. I think if we excavate that, and re-test, we might get away with Class M since everywhere else on the site only has old tree roots to deal with. So much for leaving the landscaping until after we've moved in! No time like the present...

What ever M agrees with you on, they will have to guarantee it. Will PM you.

Yeah we had the same problem. We want timber in some of the rooms downstairs and didn’t want quad, but as we were doing them after the build was complete
M only had 2 options. We leave them off, not cut to size or painted, just left in garage in a pile for our own guys to do or they can fit all skirting and we would then have quad.
We went with option 1 to leave them off, but then with much debate ending up deleting leaving them off and get them to do there job.
We chose this way in the end as they are not throughout downstairs, just 3 rooms where when fitted out with furniture and curtains/blinds the quad won’t be that visible. Good luck

Long time since the last update.

Last time I posted, I talked about levelling our block, which has now been done, and the buried swimming pool with all its wonderful contents is gone. The new soil test results show that the whole site is hard, old clay, which seems like it should be solid footing for a big house -- the engineer quoted "if significant excavations are planned at this site, it is possible that rock breaking equipment and/or blasting may be required". But, the site is now level within the build footprint for the house we want to build, so we should have covered a big chunk of the preparations already.

In the meantime, we have had long discussions with M and changed our design plans! Instead of the Vantage 48, we're now changing to a Merricks 42 with everything upgraded to match the features we had previously chosen. Features that swung us in this direction were the straight stairway of the Merricks, and the 4 m x 4 m bedrooms. Sad to lose the grand dining room ceiling void from the Vantage, because it is so impressive and becoming. But, having visited the display home a few times we noticed that from the upstairs lounge it was possible to clearly hear people talking in normal voices in the kitchen downstairs, and therefore we opted for a cleaner isolation of the upstairs/downstairs. The price difference when all is said and done is not much between the upgraded Freedom home with similar features and finish to the Designer range.

Design assessment appointment this evening, hopefully we'll get an idea of the final site cost estimate before we head to Colour and Electrical appointments at Studio/M mid-December.

Colour selections and Electrical appointments marathon is finished. It was a long couple of days since we scheduled them back to back on consecutive days, but having done a lot of groundwork for the decisions, the colours appointment took 5 hours and electrical took 4 hours.

Colour options:

Doe/Malay Grey Hebel render
Charcoal colour-through flat roof tiles
French Grey Oak engineered timber flooring downstairs
Monument cat 3 carpet to living/study and upstairs
hardwood stairs with MDF risers, black feature iron balustrade
extra-wide pivot front door with four glass panels and sidelights
extra-wide wooden stacker doors with brio screens
all wood in Black Japan stain
all aluminium windows to awning style in Monument colour
all windows double-glazed including stacker doors
all windows to 2100 height on ground floor
all cabinetry in Charcoal laminex suede finish
all benchtops in Yukon silestone natural finish
undermount kitchen sinks with detachable gooseneck
kitchen island to maximum depth 1650 with additional cupboards facing family room
moved microwave to butlers, making room for bin cupboard in island
frameless shower screens
square sinks with gooseneck faucets
modern interior feature doors, chrome handles everywhere

Electrical/comfort options:
8 zone reverse cycle air conditioning
13 W downlights throughout
many, many extra double power points and USB doubles in the kitchen
data points in study and WIR 1A (will convert to office)

solar PV provision
gas fireplace provision



Options deleted:
evaporative cooling (replaced with reverse cycle)
gas fireplace (the price was about 6x what we expected)
security system (options were too basic)


Unfortunately the tiling appointment could not be done on the same day as colours, so will have to schedule that at Beamont at a later date. I think we already know a beige grey or ash colour that will work pretty well in the generally cool grey/charcoal theme we have going.

Let's start over:

Hi everyone,

We have changed to the Merricks 42 and tried to upgrade everything to match the designer range that we had chosen with the Vantage.

Our floor plan is Metricon Merricks 42, and we've chosen the Clarion 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 initially advised against submitting plans that include brick veneer. Since then we've had further discussions with the Council based on documents we found on their website, and they told us they hadn't even seen them and they are very old fashioned regulations(!).

Our land had a moderate slope, and after first soil tests we spent about $25k on excavation to level the build area and prepare the site access and add water and electrical services to the block. The second soil tests came back nevertheless with a P class result and consequently M have upgraded the slab to include piering under filled areas at a $30k upgrade cost.

From the standard floorplan we included some standard options: shower to Powder, large Laundry, and workshop extension to Garage. Also, we increased the kitchen island to maximum size, and moved the microwave provision to the Pantry to make space for a bin drawer in the island. See my sketch below:

Updated floor plans showing variations to Merricks 42 standard layout



Our options/upgrades:

• Hebel & render construction (promotion)
• 450 mm eaves to whole house
• 1200 mm wide front door
• 2700 mm downstairs / 2550 mm upstairs ceiling heights
• increased height of doors and windows throughout
• extra wide timber stacker doors with flyscreens to Outdoor Room
• provision for recycled water connection to toilets and garden taps
• standard variations to Laundry, Powder, Garage
• reversed ground floor rear to swap Dining and Outdoor Room
• reversed ground floor Living and Study
• sliding doors to Living room, Study
• additional doors to all WIRs, Ensuite
• all ground floor windows enlarged to 2.1m tall
• stained stair treads with stained rails/posts and wrought iron balustrade
• 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
• full length tiled wall niche to showers
• added wash basin to upstairs WC
• engineered timber flooring downstairs, cat 3 carpet with 10mm underlay upstairs
• cold water, waste point and gas connection to Outdoor room
• 8 zone reverse cycle climate control
• provision for solar panel and inverter installation
• provision for gas log fireplace between Living and Study

Guess what I did mostly similar changes/upgrades.

Yeah wow, they are a lot of similar choices, I was just reading through your thread again
Hope all is going well with your build.

The façade will look something like this, from the selection documents. The render colour for the main house is Doe, with Malay Grey to accent the balcony and front corner. The front door is Black Japan stained, and the windows, balustrades, gutters, downpipes in Monument, and the roof tiles will be Boral Striata Twighlight, concrete path around the house perimeter will be colour through Charcoal.

Drainage works have been completed for a big stormwater detention system that was required as part of the subdivision plans for our block.

One remaining aspect of that drainage plan which we have to account for is a 8000L water tank that must be connected to catch all the water from the roof... it is a challenge to find a decent tank of that size which suits the house, since we have windows all around. We've made enquiries to Kingspan (etc) about a custom very tall square water tank so that we can achieve the required capacity but not take up a huge footprint.

Town planning drawings received last week, and planning permit application submitted.

There are options but your builder may not be allow you to have them. For example, you have said that you have a moderate slope, will you also have a retaining wall? Check out the link below that has a product that combines water tanks with retaining walls.

https://www.landscapetanks.com.au/

You could also incorporate some 'thin tanks' that also serve as a privacy wall or consider having more than one tank.

I assume that the 8,000 L tank is a detention tank, what part by volume is for retention? In an earlier post, it stated that you were also having a recycled water connection to toilets and laundry. Why are you having recycled water when you will be collecting rainwater? This makes me question as to whether the 8,000 L tank will even have a retention compartment.

Does the detention system incorporate a control pit? If so, what is the holding volume?

Also, why have they already completed work on the drainage when it isn't known what tank/tanks you will have or have they dictated where a single tank must be sited?

Thank for your reply SaveH2O - your questions are on point, and I'm glad to answer:

We are indeed planning to have retaining walls, and I had not previously seen the landscape tanks product that you linked. This is a really attractive option, and I think we have a lot of scope for including something just like that in our design.

Thanks for picking up my incorrect terminology for 'recycled' vs 'rainwater' from the earlier post. Our build quote contains an option "provide connection only to developer's recycled water system" which includes connection to toilet systems, and water taps to back yard and perimeter, as a pricing guide. In practice, our lot does not have a recycled water connection and we will use rainwater to supply the garden taps and toilets, with mains water failover.

The 8000 L tank reserves 4000 L for detention storage: I'd be happy to share the specifics with you if you're interested. In summary, there is now a large pit on our block, containing 2 pipes 600 mm ID x 10 m long and a 1500 x 1300 orifice pit, which connects to easement. The neighbouring Lot requires 2x tanks 4000 L and 5000 L with combined 1750 L retention to be installed in prescribed locations relative to existing dwelling. Our 8000 L tank is to be connected to all downpipes of the new dwelling, unspecified location.

Thanks again for your information.
Cheers, r_13

It's been a long time between updates. The "short version" of our year-in-admin is as follows.

Prior to planning permit application, we discussed our plans several times with the desk staff at the Council, who were very helpful and approachable. They provided advice regarding neighbourhood character based on our facade and preliminary drawings, and facilitated plant substitutions on existing landscape plans. It seemed to make sense, and the Council staff had a very can-do, common sense approach! They acknowledged our house could not be seen from any road so effectively we could build any facade or house type, and furthermore our proposal anyway fits within the neighbourhood character overlay guidelines on their website (which were also said to be quite out of date). We submitted our planning permit application in February, fairly confident that it would pass quickly and we could move on with the project.

Within two weeks, we received a Request For Information (temporary rejection) from Council, which indicated that none of our discussions with Council were taken into account, and our proposal was judged noncompliant with neighbourhood character, and furthermore that M had not provided us with all the needed documentation, so the application was incomplete and we were directed to respond before mid April.

We engaged Clement-Stone Town Planners to represent our permit request, and started to assemble the missing information. We engaged a landscape architect to provide a new landscape plan, and an arborist to provide a report despite there being no trees on our land. We drove around the neighbourhood and took photos of all the double-story rendered concrete houses nearby, and photos of our build site as seen from neighbouring properties, and wrote up a document of evidence that our house design indeed fits the neighbourhood character. This was sent to C-S and M.

After an initial flurry of action between us, M and C-S, things slowed down and there were long periods of 'radio silence' from our CSC. The deadline for responding to our RFI became uncomfortably close, and C-S applied for a 30-day extension which was granted by Council. Then another one a month later, and a further one the month after that.

After I noticed that our CSC name had changed on the my.metricon dashboard, I went back to our SC at the M display home where we placed our initial deposit, to see if I could get some answers or action. He was great, as usual and helpful. Explained that our existing CSC had been promoted (!) and I should contact the new one listed in my.metricon to progress the project. The new CSC turned out to be a lot better, more responsive and reactive.

We managed to get the RFI response submitted in June. The response crafted by C-S was a work of art, extremely well presented and argued, and the Council anyway rejected the response, which we did not hear about for another 3 weeks, second-hand, via our landscape architect who was working directly with M and C-S by this stage.

A few more extensions, and a few more episodes of having to ask for updates after weeks of radio silence, and the Council accepted our responses and advertised the Planning Permit in August. No objections were recorded, Council took another month to prepare their report and the planning permit was awarded - subject to various documentation updates.,The ensuing back-and-forth between M, C-S, and our landscape architect took another few weeks.

M took another month to prepare final contract documentation, which we signed yesterday...

Unfortunately no matter who was nice, the only person who counts is the planner who appraised your plans. Any advice needs to be in writing to hold water. I went through the same thing. The timeframes for decisions is on their website and usually will be at the end of that time.

Just Wondering roughly how much all of those extra/changes cost to the standard
Price

Thanks

Hi loren

Our total project cost comes close to 1.7 times the base price, including selections and site costs.

That list of upgrades was our starting point, prior to Studio M selections: our original estimate of upgrades on a Vantage 48 came to about 60k.

For Merricks 42, we added 240k in upgrades and site costs:

• 70k of upgrades from base Freedom to Designer specs on most things;
• 100k for that list in my post, including Studio M upgrades to heating/cooling, doors/windows, flooring, electrical;
• 70k of site costs.

Cheers, r_13

Merrick is a great design. I really like the flow from garage to WIP and kitchen and outdoor room. It's a good price too and you have wir for each bed room.
What is the reason you selected timber stackers instead of aluminium ones?

Thanks macher !

We selected the timber stackers because we wanted to include retractable flyscreens (BRIO) which weren't available on the aluminium stackers.

At the time we discussed with the windows/doors selection person and they reasoned that to get stacker flywire doors on top of stacker aluminium doors would have been more expensive.

For interest sake, our timber stackers with screens and double-glazing came to about 4k apiece.

Hi Guys,
We are currently building the Bentleigh 45, which was a promo version of the Merricks without any upgrades, or any flooring.
Just thought you might like to see our changes from the original which include the following:

• Reconfigure Living, Study & Laundry
• Move Powder room to WIL, Linen Cabinet will be in Laundry
• Replace Powder Room with Mud Room, to give us access to Garage rather than through the pantry
• Remove all voids that weren't required
• First Floor we changed this to resemble the Bentleigh 48, but scaled to fit as the Bentleigh 45 is 1m shorter in length, this is so we could have 5 bedrooms
• Master WIR shortened to accommodate extra bedrooms
• Retreat shortened to allow us to fit a bath in Ensuite
• Extended Garage width, needed to add window and step out to pass design guidelines.

We have made no upgrades to joinery as I am a cabinet maker and will be replacing the kitchen before we move in, also will be doing the pantry (where we have added a window and water points) Laundry, Mud room, Robes.
Will also be doing Banquette Seating on the bottom side of the dining room that the kitchen will butt into,

I'm not sure how this picture will turn out, I can add individual ones if needed.

Thanks for sharing your plans juddy29

It's interesting to compare the original and final versions. Your changes look great, creating the entry to garage and understair storage, plus a 5th bedroom and a huge laundry.

Look forward to seeing it come to life!