You turn your back for just a few days...

And all of a sudden, there is a frame on the slab that is on your block of land!!!

It's been a hectic couple of weeks since we got back from holidays, and we've barely had time to stop to smell the roses, let alone watch the progress of our home.  Apart from a quick visit shortly after getting back, Sare and I have been busy with work, birthdays, and just catching up on everything that needs to be caught up on.

It was with huge anticipation that we visited our block this afternoon, and we were thrilled to see the progress.  Before going into detail on that, it's worth updating on the build administration going on while the real work happens in Cranbourne North.

We hadn't been in touch with Metricon since our return, thinking that we would leave it to them to get in touch if they wanted to issue the invoice for the slab.  Lo and behold, on Wednesday afternoon I had a phone call inquiring whether we'd received the invoice.  Bingo.  Since nothing had arrived in the mail, I requested that they forward it to me again so that I could pass it on to the bank.  Easy.  Upon passing it to the bank I was advised that they were still awaiting a copy of the building permit to proceed.  Not too difficult to arrange, but it would have been nice to have been asked for it, as we received it over a month ago.  With a bit of luck, everything should be sorted early this week.

The second phone call received from our builder this week was in relation to, wait for it, another one of their oversights.  This time they had forgotten to include in the contract the plumbing for our recycled water that is one of the estate covenants.  Quite how this had been missed not only by Metricon but also the developers when they gave their sign-off is quite beyond me.  Needless to say, the only way to deal with this was through a variation (number 9, and counting) and of course an extra cost to be added to the build.  My enquiry as to whether this should have been included in the fixed site costs was rebutted with a simple 'No'.  I guess that's not negotiable then!

The third and final call this week was from our site-supervisor.  He gave me a quick run down of the expected progress over the next few weeks and promised to call each week to update me.  It will be interesting to see if he follows through or not!

Anyway, on to the more exciting developments now.  The slab was finished on October 5 and looked absolutely huge when I went out and visited it.  Everyone has been telling me how the slab is supposed to look small compared to the finished house, so it may be that our home is going to even bigger than imagined!

 The slab, in all it's glory.  From the rear of the block, the bathroom plumbing centre left and wood for the frame at the far end.

Over the space of the last week and a half, the entire frame has been put up and the chippies were putting the finishing touches on the roof trusses.  With the guys still there doing their works, we decided not to venture on to the site to explore any further.  There will be plenty more opportunities in the weeks ahead.  The expected progress is that the fascia will be done on Monday and the roof shortly after that.  Then it will be on to the bricks, which we're both really looking forward to seeing the end result of our choice of colour!  The windows had all been delivered as well, so it won't be too long until the house is looking like a proper house, at least from the outside.  

 The view from the street

 Down the left side, with the windows in the foreground and the side al fresco jutting out

 The front entrance.  Garage on the left.

 The view from the rear of the block.

With this rate of progress, we may even be in by xmas.  Okay, that's way too optimistic, but at least it's full steam ahead at this point in time!!!

May the house be with us (one day...)

Well, it's out of our hands now. The house selections are done, it's now up to Metricon to build our house as quickly as possible so that we don't have to wait any longer than we really have to.

Saturday was shaping up as a really big day. Following on from our contract and electrical appointments, we had our tile appointment at Beaumont Tiles on Saturday morning and the big one, our remaining colour and fitting selections at Studio M in the afternoon. Although we'd been to Beaumont's three or four times previously, we still hadn't settled on our final colour schemes for the wet areas in the ensuite, bathroom and laundry and splashback for the kitchen. Typical of us both, we managed not to stress too much about it, and within an hour we'd sorted out everything we wanted and were pretty happy with ourselves. Neutral tones won the day, with slate grey floor tiles, white wall tiles and 'Donkey Grey' as our kitchen splashback tiles.

(from bottom) floor tiles, laundry splashback tile, bathroom/shower tile and kitchen splashback

Having taken less time than anticipated with our tile selections, we were able to run off and have some lunch before steeling ourselves for the anticipated five hour epic selections appointment with Studio M.


I think we must have set some sort of record, as the majority of our selections were completed within an hour! We'd picked our bricks (Maldon), Colourbond roof and fascia (Woodland Grey), garage door (Dune) window frames (Woodland Grey again) and front door (merbau stain) within ten minutes of arriving at the studio. No arguments, just get it done seemed to be the best approach.


Next up were the door handles, which took all of about one minute (prior preparation prevents poor performance!) before moving on to the kitchen. I tell you, if when this place is finally built the kitchen is not the most impressive one ever built, I think we'll have to sell and build another place! Added to the already planned 900mm upright cooker, extended caesarstone island bench (in ice snow) with undermount sink, pot drawers, soft close hinges and walk through pantry, was the parchment coloured gloss finish wrapped vinyl cabinetry. We encountered our first proper moment of indecision when it came to the handles for the cupboards and drawers before finally deciding on the satin chrome coloured square set ones. I promise that the first dinner party that we cater will be a cracker. I've already been working on the menu...





Next up was the ensuite and bathroom fittings. Another little luxury I'd been angling for was the rainfall showerhead in the ensuite. For some reason, Sare didn't put up any resistance at all to this one, but ominously warned that she "was going to pick her fights". I figure it will nicely complement the extra large shower with the tiled base. The square inset basins were already planned and will match the bath nicely, which will have the floor tiles extended up and around it. The last touch were the mirrors, which are nice simple satin chrome framed ones.



The final part of our selection appoint revolved around the floor coverings. This one proved more tricky than the rest of the house. With several wood colours to choose from and a carpet that needed to nicely match, we spent almost as much time deliberating on this as we had on everything else combined. Finally we committed to the Ironbark coloured wooden floor to complement the Surf coloured carpet for the bedrooms, rumpus and rear hall.


And with that we were done. Six long months of looking for houses, deciding to build, buying a block of land and deciding on our house had led to all of the design features and colours we have now committed to over the past week. Next steps are to get that finance approved and let the fun and games of the actual build commence.

Oh, and to get onto the plane for New York in five short weeks for our long awaited honeymoon!!!

How I learnt to stop worrying and love the contract.

Finally. It is done. Well, mostly!

After nearly six weeks of sitting around watching the grass grow on our block and having nothing of any real note happen (well, there is now one fence up, but that's about it) we've finally signed our contract! This of course, was not without excitement on Sare's and my behalf. Chantell had sent through a copy of the contract with the drawings in advance of signing the contract, and after careful inspection, we identified several things that were, shall we say, not quite right.

Instead of the site costs we'd been advised of, there were extra charges of $8k! Other minor details included our verandah not appearing on the drawings, no door in the garage, the window on the studio not being increased in size and windows and sliding doors being reversed. To Metricon's credit, Chantell and Jamie acted rather quickly and ensured that all items had been adjusted as variations for when we signed the contract.

After we'd managed to sign the contracts (every page of the document, in triplicate) we started to feel like superstars having to sign our autograph for the fans. Of course, the only fans in this case were Metricon, as we've just committed a sizeable chunk of NAB's money and our next thirty year's earnings over to them.

Thankfully after the contract was signed we managed to complete our electrical appointment with a minimum of fuss. Ensuring that plenty of powerpoints were added was the priority, although the additions of Cat 6 Data cabling to four different points of the house was also pretty important (to me at least!). The dream is to have the entertainment completely integrated, although that's probably going to take a little more effort down the track. At the cost of not getting the house completed with downlights, we will have the speakers wired throughout the house, which will definitely make Sare happy as she won't be tripping over wires everywhere!

So all in all, some pretty good progress. NAB has been provided with a copy of the contract now, so hopefully there won't be any issues with getting it all approved. All that's really left now for us is to complete the tile and Studio M selections appointments on Saturday. How exciting!