Well, having taken another week to consider everything we wanted included on the structural side of things (admittedly, this wasn't exactly a lot over the week, as I was in Adelaide and Sare had many more important things to take care of at work!) we met with Jamie on Saturday morning to finalise our floor-plan requirements.
Firstly, we've chosen the facade we want. We've gone with the classic, which isn't to ostentatious. We won't initially be rendering or adding a stacked stone feature, so have decided to upgrade the bricks to the facade a little.
With a minimum of fuss, the kitchen has been changed to almost match the display version, with the island extended to the wall, the fridge moved into the pantry and extra cupboards incorporated. The window in bedroom four has been moved to the rear of the house, and some doors have been modified. Nothing too significant from the original plan, but some nice touches that will give us what we really want.
Now it's up to Metricon to complete the soil tests and draft the plans. Apparently it's then off to Studio M again, this time for our real life appointment to customise the decor of the house. Fingers crossed that one won't cost us too much more money!!!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Show me(tricon) the money
With the block of land sourced and sorted, it was time to make a decision on what to build on our little patch of paradise. Looking through the estate covenants, it quickly became apparent that the developers weren't going to be too happy with my initial idea to pitch a tent and camp out. So, a proper building it was going to have to be.
Having looked through display homes of all varieties in suburbs such as Keysborough, Point Cook, Lyndbrook and Cranbourne North, we eventually settled on the design that first took our fancy.
The Hayman 29 by Metricon with the Classic facade was the final choice. It offered us four Bedrooms, two living areas, big kitchen, al fresco living, double garage and a whole host of other things we'd never have been able to get from the houses we were originally looking at. We're going to try and flip it so that the living area is north-facing on our block, but the below floorplan is essential what we'll get.
After plenty of consideration of what features we required and negotiating with the Metricon sales consultant, we placed our initial $1k deposit on the build on May 21. At this stage, we've gone with wooden floors, raised ceiling and door heights, colourbond roof, caesarstone benchtops, 900mm duel fuel cooker, and most importantly, soft close drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. There are going to be plenty more decisions to be made over the coming months, and we're looking forward to being able to designing our home to suit our requirements, rather than having to adjust our requirements to suit the house...
The Hayman 29 Floorplan
Having looked through display homes of all varieties in suburbs such as Keysborough, Point Cook, Lyndbrook and Cranbourne North, we eventually settled on the design that first took our fancy.
The Hayman 29 by Metricon with the Classic facade was the final choice. It offered us four Bedrooms, two living areas, big kitchen, al fresco living, double garage and a whole host of other things we'd never have been able to get from the houses we were originally looking at. We're going to try and flip it so that the living area is north-facing on our block, but the below floorplan is essential what we'll get.
After plenty of consideration of what features we required and negotiating with the Metricon sales consultant, we placed our initial $1k deposit on the build on May 21. At this stage, we've gone with wooden floors, raised ceiling and door heights, colourbond roof, caesarstone benchtops, 900mm duel fuel cooker, and most importantly, soft close drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. There are going to be plenty more decisions to be made over the coming months, and we're looking forward to being able to designing our home to suit our requirements, rather than having to adjust our requirements to suit the house...
The Hayman 29 by Metricon with Classic Facade
The Hayman 29 Floorplan
I like to move it, move it
Of course, buying a block of land and building on it would be far too simple for Sare and I. To increase the degree of difficulty, we were required to vacate our little rental home by the new owners by the middle of May. Where to go quickly became a question of where would have us for a few months. Not wanting to sign a 12 month lease only to potentially break it half-way through, we took up the short term option of moving into my vacant grandma's house.
It's old, it's cold, and the resident possums in the roof are noisy, but we've managed to make it quite comfortable and will surely cope there for a few short months before moving again into another family property until our home is built.
All we have to do is survive with half of our possessions with us, and the other half in a storage unit. It's going to be a bit of bad luck if we remember we packed something away at the bottom of the stack of boxes in storage...
It's old, it's cold, and the resident possums in the roof are noisy, but we've managed to make it quite comfortable and will surely cope there for a few short months before moving again into another family property until our home is built.
All we have to do is survive with half of our possessions with us, and the other half in a storage unit. It's going to be a bit of bad luck if we remember we packed something away at the bottom of the stack of boxes in storage...
A date that will live in infamy...
April 30, 2011, a date that will live in infamy, an action took place that would set in motion a series of events that will no doubt turn out to be one of our greatest adventures yet...
We bought our block of land in The Avenue estate in Cranbourne North.
This story begins a little earlier, with my lovely wife (the far better half!) and I renting in Glen Waverley. Our home of nearly three years was put on the market by the landlord and we were left to wonder whether it would be sold to an owner occupier or an investor. Either way, it turned out to be the spur we needed to start making a move on buying somewhere we could treat as our own and call home.
Over a period of weeks that felt like years, we spent weekends shuffling from one hovel to another, questioning how some people manage to live in such filth. Some of the highlights included a Mount Waverley address where my first reaction upon exiting was to feel the desperate need to shower, another where the agent's most positive thing to say was that a living area could probably be divided into three bedrooms, and one where the entire backyard was covered with every household item usually located inside and the tenant lying half-naked on the couch playing video games.
It had reached the point where we were seriously considering putting in an offer on a compact (tiny!) two bedroom unit on a main road just to get it over with.
On the weekend we had decided to take a break from looking in an attempt to restore our sanity, I suggested on a whim that we take a look at a couple of display homes in Keysborough. One wander through the houses and it was almost a fait accompli that we would decide to buy our own block of land and build. Several more weeks of looking at display homes, working out what size, design and location led us to a patch of land in Cranbourne North.
Following a brief negotiation period (Offer at 11:00, counter offer at 3:00, sold at 3:30) we had what we wanted at a price we were willing to pay. Finance approval was obtained followed by me handing over the third biggest cheque I've ever had and left us waiting for settlement 6 weeks later.
Of course, this has been only the beginning...
We bought our block of land in The Avenue estate in Cranbourne North.
This story begins a little earlier, with my lovely wife (the far better half!) and I renting in Glen Waverley. Our home of nearly three years was put on the market by the landlord and we were left to wonder whether it would be sold to an owner occupier or an investor. Either way, it turned out to be the spur we needed to start making a move on buying somewhere we could treat as our own and call home.
Over a period of weeks that felt like years, we spent weekends shuffling from one hovel to another, questioning how some people manage to live in such filth. Some of the highlights included a Mount Waverley address where my first reaction upon exiting was to feel the desperate need to shower, another where the agent's most positive thing to say was that a living area could probably be divided into three bedrooms, and one where the entire backyard was covered with every household item usually located inside and the tenant lying half-naked on the couch playing video games.
It had reached the point where we were seriously considering putting in an offer on a compact (tiny!) two bedroom unit on a main road just to get it over with.
On the weekend we had decided to take a break from looking in an attempt to restore our sanity, I suggested on a whim that we take a look at a couple of display homes in Keysborough. One wander through the houses and it was almost a fait accompli that we would decide to buy our own block of land and build. Several more weeks of looking at display homes, working out what size, design and location led us to a patch of land in Cranbourne North.
Following a brief negotiation period (Offer at 11:00, counter offer at 3:00, sold at 3:30) we had what we wanted at a price we were willing to pay. Finance approval was obtained followed by me handing over the third biggest cheque I've ever had and left us waiting for settlement 6 weeks later.
Of course, this has been only the beginning...
The Block
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