Lock-up

And then the call on Thursday arvo - we're basically at lock-up, which was confirmed on Friday.

The site supervisor has told me he's looking to try to get someone to do the first layer of render before the Christmas break, and is also looking for a painter who's willing to work over the break so we can continue to have at least a bit of progress in those three weeks or so.

Achitraves have been installed, and of course all of the external walls are finished; small issues with the door locks also fixed. Most significantly it looks like cabinets will be installed on Monday and Tuesday right throughout.

One thing I've noticed is the glass that's on the front door - it doesn't appear to be what was ordered.  I was reluctant to have glass on the front door as because of the design of the house it would mean you could see straight down the entire length of the house - so I wanted some kind of translucent or frosted glass.  It looks like what's currently in the door is regular transparent glass, so I'll mention it in the coming week or so - it's entirely possible they already know about it and it's going to be replaced at some point... though I kinda think unlikely.  I'm not too keen on on people being able to rock up to the front door and see exactly what's going on inside.

Lastly, the camera company are still having fun with the delivery company - those cameras that were missing?  They sent a replacement package, and that package too was claimed as having been delivered but never showed up.  We've checked the security cameras here 30 minutes either side of the time the driver claimed to have delivered them, noone came in to the street, let alone near our house.  Not only that but the driver never showed at the depot that night or the next morning for more pickups.  That's gonna be a funny story to see played out.

Since it's now getting to the point where stuff is getting installed inside, I might start delaying posts by a week or two - just in case there's any opportunistic types who go "ooh, a blog telling us when everything's getting delivered that we can rock up and pinch".  Because we know how popular construction sites are for break-ins.

Anyhow, progress photos.

Oh yeah, the photos are 16:9 now because I switched away from the god-awful iPhone 4S to a Nokia Lumia 920.

Face change

While I'm at it, this is roughly what the façade colors effectively changed to.  I'm really not sold on the Western Myall, and am really thinking about changing it to Shot Over.

Of course there's also only just a basic vertical pillar, not the whole arched render, and effectively everything left of the between the pillar and the garage disappears.

Some color scoping - facades

With an appointment booked for Studio M on Tuesday, I went and looked around to get some final ideas before going in and picking colors.

The house I thought was the one that interested me didn't actually have the same colors as I thought - but there was one just down the road very similar which I very much like.

On the next street over from my block is this house - certainly works quite well IMO.

And finally, something we drew up in Metricon's 'Envisage' tool a few weeks ago.

Oh, and there were many, many photos taken for internal color selections.

The main problem with the above color schemes is that they tend to rely on there being multiple faces and levels for the front façade.  The traditional façade, as it's been drawn up for my house, doesn't have a lot of that going on, as shown below:

Not getting updates

There's not a lot to update on - at least, not a lot that's resulted in positive progress.

I fired off an email to my customer support rep before the weekend asking for updated copies of the floor and electrical plan, as I only have printed copies - no reply.

The plan had been to drop in to the new Serenity 22 display home Metricon have set up out Epping way, but after racing the final round of the state series, and pulling off just enough points to win the series (humble brag), I was too wrecked to make the trip.

I had to chase up the finance broker yesterday, but they're still trying to get a response from NAB to have them look over Homeside's contract.  A tad annoying that they hadn't given an update without having to call them.

And lastly Metricon called me today to confirm my colour appointment for Tuesday; at the same time I checked if there were any openings for the tours, but that's pretty much booked out until mid May.

So yeah, really nothing to report :(

In the meantime I'm trying to find out what decorative bricks cost to add to either peirs or any other front surface of a home - like what you see in the façade photo here:

Noone can really give me an answer - including anyone from Metricon that I've asked.

Oh, and because the walls are to be Hebel, it'll have a rendered effect most of the way around, rather than any brick - somewhat like below:

I still have to decide on colours, but there's a house up by the route we do our training rides in Berwick that I want to go take some sneaky photos of, as I'd like to consider using that colour scheme.

Some color ideas

Even though it's been over three weeks signed I paid a deposit, I still haven't heard from Metricon's team for an introduction and to book times for color selection and the like.  We'll give it a while before putting too much pressure on them, but it is definitely already outside their own timeframes they give.

In the meantime I've been trying to get ideas for color selection when it comes to that stage, so spent a bit of time out at display homes today.
One thing was for certain though, the sales rep at the Metricon display I went to for these ones simply didn't want to know me at all after I told him why I was there and that I'd already made a purchase.  Even asking questions the attitude was completely "go away".

 This bathroom color selection I liked the look of, unlike some of the white top, brown base ones that were around and just didn't seem to work at all.  The small black tiles work quite well.

Here's the lounge and dining area of a Delta 24 in a much whiter style.  Obvious changes here - the very large folding door at the back of the house, and an alfresco area to the side. The 21 has a narrower and shorter lounge.

One of the tile colors I quite liked that were used in the laundry on the splashback.  They're the same tiles as the bathroom shot above, but in a nice shiny silver.

 Don't mind this wallpaper.  This was in the sitting room of a display Ascot 24, if memory serves me correctly. 

This was an interesting little modification we saw to the shower area of one display home, which I'm keen to investigate the viability of.

 Down the side of the house if you're building on a block the minimum size of what is required, this is pretty much all the space you'll have down one side of the house.

This was a nice little touch, though it merely adds cost and little in functionality.  You'll notice on this one the whole house has been rendered - oh, and if you're wondering how to tell the difference between whether a house is rendered or uses Hebel, just give it a knock with your knuckles.  If you feel like you could break a bone with a light tap, it's rendered, because right underneath that layer is prick.  If it's Hebel, it will sound slightly hollow, and you could even go as far as to say it feels lighter - it won't feel as solid.

 The Ascot 24 with a Chateau facade.  This is actually the facade I'd ideally like to have, but noone can seem to tell me what I'd be spending to do it up the way I want before committing to anything in particular.  In this case they've used large tiles instead of the deco bricks in some of the promo shots.
The colors are also somewhat similar to what I might like to consider for the render effect of the Hebel.

The hallway, study, and all bedrooms will be carpeted - I want to find out about this one we saw in one of the displays.  It's a nice patterned carpet that's not terribly thick, and being a dark colour you won't have every speck of dirt show up like someone's gone at it with a highlighter.

Lastly, tiles.  These were quite nice - some other places had glossy white tiles, and as soon as you put downlights above them you end up with spot lights reflecting off them.  Here you get a better effect and none of that glare.
The entry and living areas at base are timber look vinyl, so going to tiles would be a fair upgrade, but these might be ones to consider for the laundry and bathrooms.

Picking the facade (and build deposit paid)

Made an appointment to finalise things on the way over to Adelaide - that means that while I was over there I'd have plenty of time to read through glossy brochures for tiles, roofs, bricks, electrical plans, and a few other bits and pieces.

At this point the biggest part of it all was picking the façade.  This is where it gets a bit confusing though.
We had worked out a few options for an alternate façade based on some of the estate requirements - eg, that it needs to have a 4m^2 portico minimum for example.  That means that by going to some different façades, it would then only be a small amount more than if we put a complete one on a traditional façade.

What most people don't realise is that if you look at some of those screenshots they give you for certain facades, there might be anything up to 40 grand worth of extras on there, maybe even more.  Cladding, render, decorative brick - basically anything that isn't basic brick - that's all extra.  What you're actually paying for is the shape of the house and the window positioning, not the construction material.

With it explained this way it actually makes my job a lot easier - the master bedroom in the Delta 21 is already plenty huge, and doesn't need more space.  You might get an additional 50cm length by going to a different façade.

At this point another option was given, as it was currently available as a promotion - using Hebel instead of brick.  This would allow giving a rendered look to the entire front of the house (and the rest of the house - more on that later), at 1/4 the price.

So for now, that's what's been put in the budget.

On the way back through on Sunday I'd have to finalise any structural changes.