Its Starting To Look Like Home

So the cladding isn't finished, they are waiting for some more brick capping to come before they can do more but what cladding there is has been painted along with the sofits. There was a solitary painter on site who was kind enough to let us in so we could check on progress.

When Sandy when for the site meeting yesterday the tilers weren't actually given a lot of information as to what goes where and which tile is which (that's worrying!) so she gave them our tile samples showed them which tile was which and also gave them our plans from the Tile Studio which were much more detailed. That way they have no excuses for any potential stuff ups.
The wet areas floors have been tiled (we are having floor to ceiling tiles so there is a lot for them to do)  and thankfully we are happy with the colour choices as the tiles used for the powder room will be the same as we are having for the entry, hallway and family kitchen dining spaces so they are going to taking up a lot of square meterage. They have laid the shower areas in a diamond layout which I'm not that keen on but its really hard for them to get the fall right if they lay the tiles square and you can end up with water pooling in all the wrong places. I'm sure once the shower screens are on and the other tiles are done it'll look fine. The splash backs in the laundry and butler's pantry have also been done, hopefully the butler's pantry gets more tiles than are currently there as two rows looks quite stingey. We went for white in the laundry and a greyish tone in the pantry which looks very smart. In the kitchen the island bench is completed and the upgrade sink is in (nice). In fact I think all the sinks in the bathrooms have also been fitted. ( I had a super fast whiz through the house as the painter was getting ready to go home and I didn't want to hold him up).

The study doors have been hung, they are the same style as the front door but with translucent glass and of course they look fantastic, I should think so too the cost enough!! Initially we are planning to use the study as a playroom for our son so all his mess can stay in there and be hidden away with one swift slide of the door.
Under the stairs the framework has been started for the space to be boarded, the SS told us a few weeks back that they will put a door on here so we can use it as a storage cupboard will have to keep an eye on that to make sure it happens.

I think that's pretty much it for progress thus far, I can't believe how much they have done..... the bill for lock up will come shortly and as they have done so much inside they next stage will be completed almost as soon as we pay for lock up so it's going to be bills, bills for us.
Are we pleased with our build? Yes. Have we been happy with Metricon? Yes. We have no complaints and everything has been handled swiftly and professionally so far. Let's hope we can say the same once the build is complete.
Warning Lots of photos again:

Powder Room - These Tiles Will Continue Throughout Most Of Downstairs

Stud Work Prior To Boarding Under Stairs

The Island Bench

Kitchen Sink

Laundry - Plain White Tiles

Butler's Pantry Splashback - Will It Only Be 2 Tiles High?

Study Door - Fixed and Sliding Panels

Caution!

Ensuite Vanity With Sinks and Extra Holes for Electrical Socket

Ensuite Floor Tiled Note Diamond Pattern In Shower and Cut Outs for Smart Tile Wastes

Looks Like the Cornice Has to Go

Dark Tile (left) For Shower Wall and Brown Tile (Right) for the Rest

Colour Schemes

Interior and Exterior Design - The Colour Schemes

Thought it was time to share what colour scheme we have gone for. As you will see it is mainly greys and browns accented with whites and off whites. We have purposely kept it quite simple so we can add splashes of colour after the build is complete with things like feature walls, wallpaper, soft furnishings, artwork etc etc.

• Carpet sisal circuit (from carpet call at studio M) similar to this one

Range Sisal Colour Ciruit

Laminate for kitchen benches and butler's pantry 

• 2 Pac laminex polar white for base cupboards along outside wall

• island bench, appliance tower, over head kitchen cupboards and laundry blackened linewood natural finish (as above picture)

• bench tops and island waterfalls ice snow caeserstone, this will also be the bench top for powder room, bathroom and ensuite

• laundry bench top laminex stipple seal

• powder room, ensuite and bathroom brescia

• paint colour taubman crystal gazing (off white)

• glass splashback Bristol Mortar 

 

• glass wardrobe taubmans abstract metallic

• timber stairs and door frames walnut

• exposed aggregate driveway bushfire



• exterior metropolis stone bricks, charcoal linea roof tiles, monument gutters and facia, dune downpipes and garage, dune water tank and cladding, silver window frames (had orginally decided on black but then felt they would look too dark against the off white walls from inside the house).

Exterior

External Colour Scheme

Pictures from our trip to studio M showing tiles, laminates, handles, paint colours for walls, splash backs and glass wardrobe.

The Interior Colour Scheme

Kitchen

Tiles

The pale tiles are for the floors, white for the laundry splashback, the browns for the walls in ensuite, bathroom and powder room with a similar one for balcony area, the dark grey is the feature wall in the showers.



Kitchen handles red label upgrade additional $12 each (sorry about the flash glare)

 

Yellow Label handle for laundry and bathrooms (standard range)

Bathrooms



Tile samples



Our Tiles

Variations - What We Spent at Studio M

Budget, what budget?

It's hard to know how much all those lovely upgrades and finishes on display at Studio M will cost. You go on Saturdays and spend hours going around saying oh that looks good, I'd like to have that, is that an upgrade or standard and most important of all how much extra will it cost. Now the ladies at Studio M are very helpful and knowledgeable but no one seems to be able to give you a price, not even a rough idea so you are pretty much in the dark on selection day and even then they can only estimate what the final price is. It is not until your post contract variations are generated that you get the final tally.
We have decided to list some of our variation costs to prevent those of you in the planning stage from having heart failure when you are doing your selections.

• rebate slab edge to recess bi-fold door frames   $240
• off white colour mortar for brickwork   $2400
• grey tinted glass to front elevation   $325
• deadbolt lock for rear garage door   $95
• upgrade front door handle add   $145
• pedestal vanity with ceramic tile kicker add   $66
• chrome pop up wastes to vanity basins   $50
• chrome waste for bath   $35
• towel rails   $70 
• toilet roll holder   $50
• towel ring   $55
• 2 Pac gloss for part kitchen   $2015
• upgrade handles for drawers and cupboards   $324
• metal kickboard   $270
• duct rangehood externally   $380
• 2 Pac for butlers pantry   $1100
• upgrade handles   $72
• upgrade to wide architrave   $594
• external paint colour for cladding   $165
• upgrade hot water system to 360L***   $825

*** Hot Water System Comment
Look closely at your house plans, they show you have a gas hot water system included in your build. However, what it doesn't tell you is that is is a tiny tiny tiny system (18L) that would only provide enough hot water for a house with one bathroom. So if you are building a bigger home this system is woefully inadequate and unless you want to be running out of hot water all the time you have to upgrade to a larger system. Now you would think that Metricon would be aware of this and would provide a suitablly sized hot water unit in your base price and it would then be your choice if you wanted a much bigger system or one that uses solar or a heat pump etc. But no you don't find this out until the colour selection appointment and then have to choose from the upgrade options adding yet another unexpected additional cost. Hmmm.

I hope that you potential home builders find this useful as you go through your planning stage as it is so easy to get swept away by the lovely displays and finishes on offer and then before you know it you've spent so much more than your budget can stretch to.
We found that some of the standard finishes were excellent whilst others were very cheap and plasticy or just didn't look that nice. It pays to go to Studio M as often as you can before your selection appointments that way you can ask lots of questions, take your time and be prepared. But even then Metricon will find a way to surprise you with the unexpected (like the hot water system).

Colour Selections at Studio M

So following straight on from tiles we headed over to Studio M for a 3 hour colour selections appointment. Again the sales consultant had all the paperwork prepared in advance and was organised, helpful and very efficient.

Started with bricks and roof which was no problem as we already had them chosen and included in our final contract. Austral metropolis stone for bricks and Linea charcoal roof tiles. Decided to go with off white mortar which is an upgrade of $2000. (Have not had the final price variation yet so everything at this stage is an estimate).
Standard gutters in monument and down pipes in colourbond dune. Rain tank also dune. Standard wide board cladding in you've guessed it ... dune. Panel board garage as standard yes its going to be dune. Outside done.
Bi fold door runners recessed into floor so you don't stub your toes or trip $280 each.
Grey tint to all windows front elevation $25/sqm. There is around 15sqm glass so works out to $375.
Getting a price for concrete and driveway so we can compare. I think we looked at Bushfire? for the colour.
Then we moved on to doors - walnut stain on all wood doors and stairs.
Handles as per promo but upgraded front door handled to the 750mm as the standard one was pretty small. Guessing an extra $350.
Deadlock for rear garage door $90.
Taps, basins, shower, toilet all as promo.
Kitchen 2 pac on part approx $3500-4000
Kitchen sink was wrong one in contract so I guess that will also be more money - we only knew this because the consultants confirm your choices by showing you pictures from the catalogues which we thought was excellent as that way you get exactly what you wanted.

We had already decided on all our laminates and caesarstone so that too was easy.
Timber stairs changed from cantilever to just timber saving around $3000
Carpet upgrade to silver range with best underlay an extra $20/sqm totalling $3220 went for a sisal effect in a mid brown tone called circuit.
Not much to go now....
Glass colour for robe in master bedroom and an off white paint colour through out. Yeah we made it!!

Another drink voucher and 30 mins for lunch later the paperwork is ready to sign off.
Oh but by the way the hot water heater that is included as standard is only good enough for one bathroom so you need to upgrade to a bigger system hmm I wonder how much that will be. Surely if they are doing plans for such a big house a suitable hot water system should be included in the base price?! I think she said it would be another $700 to have the storage heater that we opted for.

Guessing we have spent around $8500 in Studio M.

We were hoping to only spend an extra $15,000 in total for tiles, colours and electricals. Given that we have spent at least $9000 so far that would leave us around $6k for lights along with the $10K allowance we have included in the contract ($16K budget for electrics). Its going to be really tight as looking at our rough plans for lighting, sockets, and switches we both think we'll need more than that especially as we want a security system and possibly home network as well.

I will do another post with all the colour choices etc soon once I have paperwork and pictures seeing as we are mid house move so it is a little hectic right now and I'm not even sure which box they'd be in!!

Tile Selections

Our tile appointment went really smoothly, we had made all our choices in 40 minutes. We picked all our tiles from the standard range included in our promotional package creating our look with shades of grey and brown throughout.
The consultant was very helpful and had all our plans marked and highlighted in different colours so we could see which was kitchen, floor, bathroom etc. After showing her a few photos on the laptop she knew exactly what we had in mind and was able to offer suggestions.

Colour Scheme for Bathrooms

The only things we upgraded was the edging strips to chrome (12 in total) and the grout as the standard colour is not that pretty.
As it was going to take an hour to do up paperwork we were given a tea/coffee voucher for the local cafe while we waited.

Once all paperwork was completed and signed we were given a copy and samples of the tiles we had selected.

Total spend approx $650

A Day Out Making Selections

What a huge day, our minds are fried from all the decision making and high level concentration required to do tile and colour selections plus electrical plans all in one day. We set off at 6.30am to be in Robina in plenty of time for our 8.30am start so Sandy and I could chat and finalise details over a cup of tea before getting started. Contracts, plans, samples, photos, magazines, sketches and laptop in hand we had come prepared, we wanted today to go as smoothly as possible. After a lovely pot of peppermint tea at the local cafe and a few side bets on how much of our budget we were likely to spend we were ready for 7 hours of planning appointments.

Thankfully all went brilliantly even our electrical appointment. The team at Metricon were very professional, easy to work with and extremely well briefed. They had checked through our plans and contract prior to our arrival and had everything prepared for each appointment, filling us with confidence that they knew what they were doing and what we would need.

A very tiring day as we didn't get home until 6pm so I will post more tomorrow once I have had chance to process everything and have a look at how much we have spent.
Oh and a big thanks to my Mom for coming over to take our boy out for the day would never have been able to do our selections with a 4 year old in tow!

Studio M Selections Booked

The CSC called today to inform us that we can do our tile and colour selections in the morning on the 1st April and the electrical appointment the same day in the afternoon. Wow now it's getting super exciting, she even thinks that it shouldn't take too long for the building approval to go through! We have been allocated 2hr 30mins for tiles, 3hrs for colour selections at Studio M and 2 hrs for electricals. Sounds like we are going to have a big day.

Now we'll get to see if all our careful planning and preparation pays off, we are even taking the house plans and the laptop on holiday so we can go through the electrical design again! Now that's dedication. I wonder if we can come in on budget? Allocated $10K in contract price for lights, power points, etc, etc,etc but it sounds like we may need to spend more than that.

Hmm what shall we have?

Really hoping we get some good consultants who will be able to offer suggestions, ideas and assistance when needed to help us achieve the finishes and look that we are after. Lots of decisions to make and we certainly don't want to get it wrong.
I've heard some shocking stories about the electrical appointments (pun intended!) so let's hope it doesn't turn in to some big April fools joke!!

North Lakes Display



Kitchen and Butler's Pantry

 I think we are becoming obsessed with houses as we couldn't help but pop in to the new Metricon display at North Lakes on the way home from visiting family on the Sunshine Coast. There are 2 single storey homes including a Belize, a double (sorry can't remember which one) and another double a Franklin to be completed in March. This display is gorgeous the homes are beautifully presented with the most amazing furniture thanks to those clever interior designers and feature all those wonderful upgrades which sell the dream so perfectly.

Sandy and I used this opportunity to get a detailed look at the lighting, checking out configurations and seeing where it looks too dark, the walk in robe areas seem to suffer from a lack of light so I think we'll be opting for an extra fitting or two to compensate.




Powder Room



Landscaping

The sales staff were marginally more helpful than our last visit but have a total lack of interest once they either find out you have not bought a block of land yet, you are not after a house and land package nor are you wanting to build at North Lakes. Cynically we figure it's because there is no commission in it for them so why waste their time when there is so much fresh meat ready to buy and to upgrade to anything because they have fallen in love. At least I scored a new brochure today, the old one is only holding together by shear will power and much sticky tape after being thoroughly explore from cover to cover.



Family Room

Floor Tiles (definately an upgrade)



Heathwood Display

Another fact finding mission to the display houses at Heathwood near Forest Lake. The displays here show more of the standard finishes such as aluminium windows, basic cabinets, shower frames, doors and handles. Not much in the way of fancy CaeserStone, timber windows and flash upgrades but it's good to get an idea of the differences in quality and what you get for the money.
We have specifically come to look at the Newhaven as it has the timber, cantilever stairs which we have only seen n photos so far. When looking to invest $8k in something I want to give it a test drive first.

Entrance

The Newhaven has been done to a higher standard than the other 2 houses on site and has the exact carpet we have picked out, shoes off let's see how it feels. Soft and warm but not very plush, in fact it feels like walking on concrete. Oh how disappointing, craftly lift a corner of carpet up to check out which underlay they have used, it only has upgrade rubber 1 which we thought would be ok but after walking on that we will be investing in the best underlay we can afford.

The stairs look smart but I don't like them in the pale finish and now I'm concerned that the balaustrade in the leisure room may end up looking like a cage due to the stainless steel bars. Must see if I can find photos of that to put my mind at ease.



Master suite wall with niche





Rendered portico - like the colour?







Stairs and stair lights

Recessed shower shelf



Colours and Laminate Samples

Back to Studio M to go through more colour selections, will have to pluck up courage to face all those laminate samples again today. Best to start in the Tile Studio I think.

Tile Studio
There are 13 colours to choose from in the standard range, both the floor and wall tiles look more than suitable, we'll be able to create a fantastic look with those. We considered upgrading for a split second until we found out it would cost $50-$150 per sq meter to do so. Gulp!
Tile consultant explains most people choose their cabinet and paint colours first then do the tiles around that so there is no more putting it off laminex samples here we come.

Studio M
It's nice a quiet when we arrive so the atmosphere is much more relaxed and we can take our time to confirm our choices, make our way around each section and ask questions when confusion sets in. So this is what makes the list today:

• Gutters, fascias and downpipes - Monument (colorbond)
• Garage colorbond Dune
• Cladding not sure if we can choose a style but will want to paint it similar colour to Dune
• Carpet - sisal. Have 3 colours we like a lot will need help deciding. Will upgrade underlay to rubber not sure which grade
• Confirm happy with promo taps, door handles
• Wall hung vanities continue to look gorgeous and Sandy just "simply must have them"

How we choose cabinet colours - one goes off and picks all the laminex and bench top samples they like whilst the other sits and watches DVD's with the kids then we swap, if we have both picked the same sample it makes the top 10 and those that are single picks are left to be defended, justified and campaigned for once we get home after hitting the beach. Pretty simple eh?

Cabinet and Paint Colour Contenders

What Shall We Have? A Trip to Studio M

Time to get serious about what finishes and colours we want to put in the house as surely the preliminary contract would be ready soon. Nice drive down to Robina, found Studio M really easily where we were greeted with a warm welcome and as this was our first visit the young lady showed us around explaining which finishes and products were standard, upgrades or included in the Neo Dusk promo. She was quick to point out that she didn't know any prices and that would be covered in the colour selection appointments. I found that both frustrating and disappointing as I like to have all the facts at hand before making a decision. Might as well put a kid in a toy shop, tell them to choose anything they like and hope they have enough pocket money to cover it when they got to the check out. It could end in tears!
After the whirlwind tour my partner and I were slightly shell shocked we'd spent so much time designing the interior that we had given no consideration to how the exterior might look. No one said there would be bricks, roof tiles, window finishes, gutters and downpipes to decide on. First time house builders naivety had just struck!

Bricks: nothing in the standard range grabs us, picked 3 options in different upgrades so will need to go to Boral and Austral to get a better idea of how they look.
Roof Tiles: oh those flat ones are lovely. Another upgrade. Charcoal grey
Garage: slimline in a colorbond finish. Dark or light which will it be? Yeah at least this is standard.
Gutters and downpipes: standard to match roof or garage
Window frames: is that all the choices? Not impressed better go for black then.
Glass: clear is standard wonder how much to get grey tint.
Carpet: the promo carpet is not great and will need replacing in 3-5 yrs. Will cost about $2500-$4000 to upgrade. At least the carpet guy could figure out approx square meters and help us with costings
External door, taps, basins, toilets all promo. Well that's an easy choice then.
Wardrobe doors: mirror in all bedrooms plus one set of glass for master suite. The frameless ones look nice but how do you open them. Finger prints all over them and a couple of chipped nails and presto I have them open. Nice looking but zero points for practicality.
Baths: upgraded to extra deep and long baths
Floorwastes: upgrade to smart tile
Basin wastes: upgrade to chrome pop-up
Staircase: has to be the timber finish and yes you've guessed it that will be another upgrade

That just leaves the kitchen and bathroom benchtops, cupboards and vanities and paint colours. Not much then!!! We have been here 3 hours already and I am losing the will to pick up yet another laminex sample so quit while we're ahead. (Having a touch of deja vu and design fatigue after only having done this for the business 6 months ago). So with heads in a spin we take a very tired and fed up 4 yr old to the beach as promised what a great way to unwind.

Can't recommend enough how important going to Studio M as much as possible prior to your colour selections is. Otherwise you could find yourself super under prepared and in for a lot of very fast decision making. Give yourself the chance to make considered choices that you know will work for you before hand rather than making snap decisions you could regret.

We will definitely need to come to Studio M again as there are all those laminates to go through before we can narrow down exactly what we want for the kitchen and bathroom finishes. Also can't make up our minds whether to go browns or greys at this stage.