So the 31st will be our first PC - Prelimary contract meeting for about 1.5 hours with Anthony from Metricon.
Were quite excited to get the prelim details of the house which we will be changing the windows for the bathroom to make a feature wall.

We now know the house will be aprox 267sq mts which means once we get the final draft I can sort out the finances and legal stuff with the bank - here's hoping that there's another rate drop :D

On another note I had to return one of the dome black and white 3/4 lights as it had nasty scratched on the inside - it looked like it been open before several layers of regular tape on top kind of gave it away lol (unlike the other which was sealed with one single packing tape)

Anyway Beacon (nunawadding) are ordering me a new replacement - I think I will need to follow up on this as no reference number was given to me for the new order and they didn't seem to keen to get one in for me. They where suggesting I go to hoppers crossing store which is much father away and impossible for me to do as I work full time and  I work in Box Hill I can easily pickup lights from that store before they shut on weekdays.

I have been looking at pebble's for the garden and side steps next to the house (from ebay -scopetp)
 70-90 mm  IVORY WHITE BEACH PEBBLES -- 20 kg AU $19.00

I was thinking I might use some black pebbles in feature places but cant find ones as much as I like the shape and textures as these above.


I like the idea of these lights near garage/garden to light up paths etc but very expenive if you have to buy 3.. I was looking for the best price but its still a bit $$$ this is the cheapest price I could find..

NEW Monaco LED Bollard in Graphite UA7325GP - AU $149.35 (ebay : wayfair_australia)

So the pots arrived!! and guess what they look just as good if not better than the photos on ebay were both very pleased and the white one hexigon pot is larger than the picture looked so its great for one of the corners of the back yard. I'm still looking for a slab of teak sandstone paver 40-70mm thick to go under them and probably black stone paver of some sort under the white pot.

I'm thinking of putting a Red flax plant in the white pot.

First contact from Customer Support Metricon :-)

So I had a call from Elise from Metricon today who is going to be our Customer Services Support Coordinator for our build. Which from what I asked included our HIH contract and build!
She mentioned that Anthony would get in contact with us for prelim contract meeting which we need certain details about the land sub-division.

Updates... and LIGHTS!!

So yesterday Marie and I went down nunawading furniture/hardware/lighting shops ' I think they call this 'the golden mile' - or somthing like that.

I went looking for honed sandstone (teak) pavers to my disapointment most of the stone shops where closed and bunnings hardware store only had 20mm thick when I propabably need 40-50mm thick for my bubble pots which some will arrive in the next day - the others will be delayed until new stock arrives in.

We ending up going into Beacon lighting where we need to get our lights from - although its might not be the store which we will need to go to pick the main lights as metricon have preferred beacon suppliers close to them but to cut a long story short they where having a pretty big sale - 30% off your 2nd light which is neat because lights are expensive! especially feature ones.

We purchased 2x $129- and the other at $90.30 = $219.30

$129.00

$90.30

$129.00

$90.30

Inside 1 Light 3/4 Dome Pendant in Black/White
These will be above the Kitchen bench (L Shaped)

 

And this is the other main center dining room Light! (see below)
It's hard to get the details of the drum pendant light so I looked up the patter matertials on 'mayfield's' website: http://www.mayfieldlamps.com.au/
Althought being the last one and getting a discount, these lights are kind of expensive
but they look far better quality than most other look-a-likes.

What got us is that we thought it was a 'whole package' depsite there being 3 tags on the lights
one for each component the suspension/conector, diffuser (the white shad below the bulb) and the key compoent the drum.

So of course there was confusion and we didn't end up getting the suspension/connector and the diffuser which was bit more $$ the sales rep at beacon had made the mistake for also thinking that it was a set so she's going to get in a new 1.5 suspension and new diffuser with what she said I would get 15% off for the mistake we will see how it all goes!
I will triple check when I pick up :-) I had to have this light its so nice!

 C2 Starburst (inside)
Ours seems to have some blue as well as these base colours! Blue, grey, white with a splash of yellow - All our colour scheme in ONE! :-)

C3 Black Soft Pleat (outside)
This looks softer on the outside than in the swatch.












I would have loved to go shopping for down lights but it wouldn't be wise as electrical plan meeting hasn't happened yet!  I know it may be cheaper but we might end up with not enough or too many lights but that's okay will just wait for Metricon to sort it.

Contracts, designs and facade problems...

Sorry I haven't updated in weeks been very busy and sick .. sick for about 2 weeks :(
although work has progressed!!
While I have been waiting for contracts and modifications to be draw up I have been keeping myself busy with landscaping!! yes I know it's early but I know exactly how the house is placed on the land and where the fence will be after receiving back the land placement and land surveys.

On a side note were not having  the Kingston facade as this will push back our house and cause issues with the 'free open space' :( sad but it just means I can spend a bit more $$$ else where on stone work etc.

So this is my design so far I'm sure it will be modified slightly with the drive way etc but it's pretty spot on so I know how much I will need to buy for materials.

I purchased these pots from a seller on ebay which I will probably put at the front of the house where the two pots are currently shown on the picture or along the back wall where some wood cladding will be - this design is so easy so I will follow this with the blocks of stone to raise them up!

We don't have too much room for a luscious garden but who wants that these days anyway? and since tenants will be renting the house for a few years even if they kill the plants I can easily replace them and not spend too much $$$ but still get a great look :)  (ebay seller is if you want the same item : marks_quality_products)
All these are fiber glass pots so they wont corrode and can be washed down.

Large 380 dia Round Black Indoor Outdoor Planter Home Garden Plant Pot Box - AU $139.00 380mm diameter x 760mm high

430 x 430 x 660h mm - Round Indoor Outdoor Planter Fiberglass Home Garden Office Small Large Plant Pot -AU $116.10 (on sale) + $40 for white colour


I love the hexagons on this funky pot in white - paid extras for the white it looks so much better!
I'm going to see how good they when they arrive and order more quantities if needed.

The vertical gardens by Fytogree

Florafelt F12 Greenwall Growing Panel $150 each
Florafelt F12 felt pocket greenwall growing panel with root wrappers, coreflute backing and attachment tags. Made from 100% recycled PET plastic felt.
Mounted to a rigid plastic panel.
Simply Hang from the Nylon Tabs and Grow.
Includes root wrappers and 2 rows of drip irrigation. Grows 12/24 plants (not included).
800 x 600mm. WEIGHT: 3kg (about 11kg planted)

This is what I want to imitate near the kitchen window but horizontal.

A smaller scale of this on the wall..

Designs, Structural Modifications and Marie's request list...

So were well on our way with the structural modifications with a proposed Study upstairs which will be 3.2 x 2 more long than wide but that fine with me and I don't see there will be much of an issue with council because the room keeps in-line with the current line of bedroom 3.


I wanted the study because it can be marketed as Study/Guest bedroom as its big enough to place a pull out couch/pull out bed at one end  and a desk as you walk in it adds value to the rent-ability /sell-ability of the place.. that and it comes in handy for washing that hasn't been folded yet or that exercise bike that never gets used.. :P

But in all seriousness when a person is going up the stairs instead of small space funneling off to each bedroom there will be a lovely open room bringing light and a feel of more open space upstairs section of the house and when its being used a sliding cavity door will give that privacy for what ever purpose it is being used for either that be study/work or a guest who needs privacy.

Also another structural change were looking at is the small included veranda behind the family room, which is a waste since out fence is about 2m away so instead and extension (which has yet to be priced) will bring out the family room making a huge room where windows will now be - excellent for a TV and entertainment cabinets to go.

This will allow the bi-fold doors to be placed where our open/free space is :-)
Were waiting to see the cost for this modification but we don't think it will be too much as the supporting pillars are still be used in the same way - it will be interesting if it effects the roof line at all.

Another not so major modification is the bulk head as you are walking past the powder room into the kitchen/family room(see arrow).
This is being looked into also but it depends what structural support is in that doorway space. This is where is comes in handy to read the building blogs have done prior to my build.. one thing I took away from one of them was a door way is not just a door way and cannot be removed without seeing structural advice before contracts and done and dusted.

Land Surveyor and Sample feature Tile ready for Pick up

So today is the Land Surveyor is going out to survey the land which he should be doing right now since there isn't any issues with the weather. The land/soil surveyor should be giving me a call - hasn't happened as yet to the the surprise of the Land Surveyor- to go on premises and do his bit for the pre-build requirements.

On another note the feature tile for the bathroom sample came in from Oakleigh Beaumont tiles - Marie's hopefully gone to pick this up as I'm at work and wont be able to pick it up.

Idea for Flooring Materials and which Rooms.

This is the idea I had for flooring for the new house:

Playing with Envisage Room Deisgn

There is a few things I would change as the stair case is going to be metal and glass railings with stained wood stairs but I was not able to change this in envisage.
Room is very similar in size to and dimensions as ours with the same staircase.

Parkswide Tree removal and payment for it's value

Well I had a call from Parkswide - Council today and our guy Greg the aborist has got back to me very quickly which is fantastic!

He had already gone out and evaluated the tree and in a nut shell said it isn't going to be a problem to for us to remove it and he's okay'ed it which means full-steam ahead on our plans which is awesome!!

Then we discussed the cost I would have to pay so he calculated the cost and that would be 5k.. yikes expensive but it it full grown tree + 600 removal by them (which a bit $$$ since we recently had some trees removed) but it will have to be done! :-)
I'm pretty happy with the fact because I know they doing what we need so very happy in the end.

First Studio M Tour

Well we had a field day with so much to look at and materiel's to choose!
We looked as much materials and with there swatches as we could starting with the Kitchen setting the tone for most of the house as we knew out base colours and staying far away from the brown spectrum.

Here is some of the swatches and material we choose
Caesar Stone bench tops:
I knew that what was required was white for our project as Marie had requested majority white.
Which will be a running theme for this project.

So we end up seeing a great bench top colour 'Osprey' which had some really nice very small flecks of stone of greens, yellow, blue and saw a much white fine grain colour 'Snow' as the stone on the bench tops of the bathroom.





We thought that we would have the 'Osprey' in the Kitchen bench which will need to be a 40mm with waterfall effect (which means sides on the Ceasar stone bench)

We select two Laminex Finishes but this one one out due to being more subtle and in real life it has a little more blue toning in the grey flecks.
I think this will date better than some of the other swatch I picked up.


I this will be the island bench backing.
It may also be the facings in the bathroom bench to lift the white.

Our bench will look like this but with the kick board - blackended linewood.

The cabinetry will be white enamel - 2 ply high gloss treatment technology - instead of laminate (Marie was sold on it) as seen above image.


I found we might have too much white so was ponderning over using the Laminex on some of the cabinarty but Marie like the white as seen above - thats when I remebred I had seen industrial dome pendants on the 'the block' kitchens in 2011 or 12 which to me might be a way taking away to much white starkness and adding a bit of class to the kitchen.
Tying it in again with the white inside the white Marie loves.

Beacon light: Lucci Décor

Lucci Décor

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

$103.20

WAS $129.00

SAVE $25.80

PRICE $103.20      WAS $129.00  SAVE $25.80

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

I think it looks pretty stylish ;D

_____________________________________________________________________




 The bathroom stone selection is 'Snow'















Marie and I where looking at tiles that we can source from Beaumont Tiles

This is one I saw it really caught my eye but the website didn't mention the name of the tile which was odd since it had for the other room ideas - this found on the en-suite ideas section.
http://www.beaumont-tiles.com.au/RoomIdeas.aspx?room=Ensuites

This will probably be our feature tile just like this setting.
I rang Beaumont tiles Oakleigh  which is the store we need to go to pick the tiles to get the details of this tile which happens to be a new range the guy there is ordering a sample tile for me- very helpful again which he will ring when it comes in wed-thursday.

White Marble Interlock Mosaic Tile
300x300 mm

model no: 189539

We will need to pick another tile for the rest of the wall and bigger stronger tiles for the bathroom/laundry tiles.


___________________________________________________


Colour Bond Steal Colour Choice
Ironstone which looks more Blue than online colour swatch

Cross overs (Road Reserves) aka~ Driveway entrances, Naturstrip trees and all the other shenanigans...

So I have had a busy few last days speaking to council about tree removal / replacement.
The questions asked by the council departments are always hard to answer at this stage because drawings aren't finalized but we know in order to finalize them we need to get tree removal approval and drive way moving and relocation approval - which ours will need to be a double to service the existing property and service the new property also.

As it happens I need to deal with two departments that don't necessarily work hand in hand.
For the Whitehorse Council two departments are your main concern for these two things:

1. Parkswide -

This is the department for tree evaluation by Arborist (aka tree guy) to come out and evaluate the street tree and then decide it its okay to remove *(certain trees are add to the area look so cant be removed)

The guy I have been dealing with is pretty nice guy Arborist from the council - I have spoken to him the past.  He left me a voice message saying he would get back to me on Monday with an answer as he's been working in a different department but will be back in office on Monday


I was recomended to an external Arborist opinion on the tree which was also a nice guy who recommended with the tree size we have it may not need him to evaluate it due to the tree not being very wide or very high about 2.5-3 m and less than 30cm in circumference  and that it might be prudent to just see what the council Arborist says because they have to evaluate it anyway to gauge the value I have to pay to remove it.
But he did give me the price to evaluate and the report $275inc gst and that he can remove it - which is nice to have if needed.

Our First Metricon Official Meeting!

So last week we had our first official appointment with Metricon. I had many emails back and forth earlier for other properties we where looking at but didn't proceed with for various reasons.

Anthony (our Metricon rep) who I met at the Caufield duplex open day helped us with design on the corner block that were going to build on and helped recommend a design from the duplex range that would fit on our new subdivision land area a couple of recommendations where made to us the existing house which is a 50's weatherboard is going to be kept.

Because keeping the existing house there was quite a few factors to consider such a free open space and garage and drive way space for two cars which needed top be factored into with council requirements for the area.

The winning design for us was the Windsor 25 (duplex range) and was the bigger of the two recommended to us with the subdivision allowance of 19.01m D X 18.2 m W(approx) - minus the 3-3.5m for existing property carport and open space.

This is to be confirmed with surveyor and land/soil testing plus other geo requirements which we just paid and cost $4k which is included in the total cost you pay for the project which its nice to know it isn't on top of the total project costs.

This process is said to take about 8 weeks with drafting etc before we receive a Preliminary Contract.

I am getting it drawn up with the Kingston Facade with balcony which I'm hoping won't cause too much issues with council requirements - town planning was okay for non balcony facade here hoping that the extra facade can go on the front and not require the property to be pushed back into out  tight open space yard.

Below is placement of the Chateau design..

23/08/2013       Trees, Trees, Trees

So last week we finally had tree removal on the property done but it was a bit of a saga..
Words of advice :  " Don't pay more than the required deposit to a trade before completion of a job - especially when they don't belong to large business and work for them self - it will just end in tears"

Happy that they are finally complete now we can move on to our meeting with Metricon Stage.

23/08/2013    Getting Idea's and Open Home Inspections

This my first post about out subdivision and build in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne with Metricon homes.

We initially attended one of the duplex open homes newly build in Caufield South which features on Metricon's website and Facebook page and in these happy snaps I took while on tour. We were very impressed by some of features in that home and the good use of space with the block size.

Through the tour I took lots of photos to get an idea of what we wanted and looked intensely at paint work and general standard of the work on the frames, floors, doorways and ceilings to get an idea of Metricon's finishes etc.

Here is a few pictures I took to get an idea of what we would like in our new house.

 Love the floating cupboards for bathroom this is definitely going into our designs as well as the square Kado lux square basins.
Not sure about the color though in some lights it looks a purple and others coco/chocolate color. In our project we will be staying far away from brown toning's and opting for the blues/greys and warm yellows such as the floor boards in the picture  and fresh whites for walls etc.

Lucky that recently a best friend of mine had just built a home with Porta Davis so I did a little compare work with the finishes which were pretty good also but needed a bit tweaking but that's to be expected.