The Clock is Ticking

From waiting to rushing

It is 2 weeks until our tentative start date and the time seems to be getting away from us. We are waiting for the bank to finalise our construction loan, the valuer came out on Thursday to value the land and our investment property so fingers crossed that all went well. Once the loan is agreed just need to sign the papers and send the information to Metricon.

Also trying to get everything organised with our pool builder. Apparently unlike when we had a pool done before it is up to us to organise temporary fencing and removal of soil. Not sure when the pool excavation will start so its a bit hard to book anything at this date. Tiny bit frustrated that this has ended up being our responsibilty.

And to top it all off the solar hot water at our apartment is stuffed. Its ok if the sun is out as the panels still work but we have had rain rain and more rain with heavy cloud cover so all we have is cold water as the electrical booster is broken. Have beed advised to replace the whole system as the tank is so old it has rusted out and is leaking. Had a guy out to give us a quote but he was so pushy it completely turned me off! Now I have to get someone else out and continue taking a sponge bath/shower with hot water from the kettle. Funny (not)

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).

Ready.......Set....GO!!!!

Slow and steady wins the race

At the last minute before closing for Easter Metricon provided us with a start date!!!

Friday 13th May (dah dah daaaaaah). It's a good job we are not superstitious.

The bank have to finalise the construction loan before anything can proceed but seeing as start date is 3 weeks from now that shouldn't be a problem.

Guess we'd better pay the rest of the deposit as well.

The Variations Have Come

After what seemed like a long wait the variations arrived yesterday afternoon. I opened the e-mail attachments with baited breath and trepidation as we were about to find out if we'd gone totally bonkers at Studio M. Phew after a quick read through it looks like we won't have to sell a kidney or send our 4 year old out to work to fund the project.

What's the damage then?



Essentially we spent $650 on tiles, an additional $6200 on electricals ($16,200 in total but we had a $10k provision in our contract), $3200 on carpet and roughly $7000 at Studio M. Giving a grand total of...........$17,000 extra on the contract price. We had estimated more like $20-22k so we feel we have done really well.

After getting some rough quotes for concreting the driveway, portico area and some pathways we have decided to go with Metricon as they were only going to charge a couple of thousand dollars more. Our reasoning for justifying paying the higher price is that it will all be completed without the need for us to wait until the house is finished, we don't have to organise it and Metricon will be responsible for any problems or issues that may arise. Sometimes the easier option makes more sense to us than the cheaper one.

OK so what is the build going to cost? We had budgeted/estimated that we would need $485k just for the house and the final contract price comes in at $472k which with the inclusion of the driveway/concrete totals $489k.
We are pleased to be so close to our initial figure which we came up with after much guess work. There were a few things that we had overlooked in our budget calculations plus some additional doors and upgrades which we put in along the way so we were relieved to have actually spent less than the budget on the house and not blown the overspend out more than this by opting for Metricon to do the driveway.

There will be further costs for the swimming pool $30k, hard landscaping $12k, fencing $16k (includes glass pool fences) and lawns $10k - estimate an additional $70 to $75k. I had originally factored a cost of $100k for all this including driveway and concreting so hopefully we can bring the completed house and garden in under what we were prepared to spend. Hmm might be able to buy some new furniture after all (wishfull thinking!?).

Metricon have suggested that we may hear about a tentative start date today!!

We Have Building Approval

Got notification that Metricon have received our Building Approval - yippee! It has been checked for conditions by the Compliance Department and two items were found that need attention so there will be more variations to include these items. The first is rotary roof vents (whirly birds) and eave vents are required to ensure appropriate ventilation to the upper level because we are having a steel frame and roof sarking. The second item is to delete the rumble pit and connect the surface drains to the storm water line as requested by the certifier. Too easy but I guess that will cost us more money!

Sandy is off for a meeting with the bank today to look at our options for financing the construction loan. It'll be good to know exactly where we stand financially. Once all the variations arrive (yes we are still waiting to know how much we spent at Studio M!) we can finalise the loan and provide Metricon with all the necessary paperwork.

Hoping to hear about a tentative start date soon. Can't wait.

Waiting Waiting Waiting

It has been over 2 weeks since we did our colour selections and we are still waiting for the variations to be produced, costed and signed off. I emailed our new CSC who told me it normally takes 10-15 working days for them to generate the variations so it would be anytime now. Can't finalise the construction loan without the final figures so it looks like that won't be happening to after Easter now - shame as we were really hoping the build might start the end of April - born optimists see!!! I'm sure everything will unfold in its own time but it would be nice to have an indication of a start date.

Electrical Diagrams

For all of those of you out there who like looking a drawings here are our electrical diagrams. Nice looking plates of spaghetti eh!?
Click on the diagram for a bigger view.



Ground Floor




Upstairs