Pics of other Cedar properties and inspiration Pics.

The Cedar is not on display anywhere, our Metricon sales rep took us through another that had the frame up  and very few of the internals (not the one in pics below) it was difficult to tell at that stage how it would turn out. It wasn't until after our slab was down and everything rolling that I saw this one advertised for sale on realestate.com.au much to our delight we were able to go through and have a look at a "real" one. Overall we were really happy with it. The Leisure room is a bit bigger than we had anticipated, as is the balcony off the main bedroom. 

This one is the inside of the one for sale. Ours will have similar colours, but slightly different window set up. 

We wont be having the cladding on the balcony but have opted for an aluminium balustrade, and also not having render, ours will all be brick at the front and the same bit of cladding down the side. This one looks like they have used the expensive Blue Rio brick as a feature at the front.

 From the back, again no render for us, all brick.

 They upgraded their "outdoor room" roof, ours will just be plasterboard, we seemed to spend money elsewhere.

This is a pic I stole from the Austral website with Urban One pepper bricks.

This is our inspiration for our powder room, we are having the same high tiles with mirror wrapped around. I don't know that ours will look as nice as we have a window behind the toilet, but hopefully it will still be nicer than a standard powder room. 

Windows and doors 18/02/2012

Windows and doors have arrived

The windows and doors have been delivered and some of them in, but this last week really seems to have come to a bit of a stand still. The vacuum guys have been (after I pointed out to the SS that this might be a good idea!!!) We are having fun with the air con NOT. We are doing the ducted air con externally to Metricon to save a few thousand dollars, but it turns out they are not (in our case) very welcoming or accommodating  to external contractors and have been making things difficult, which is resulting in a bit of angst and me being in the middle trying to keep the peace. But never mind, hopefully it will be sorted soon one way or another.

We were out shopping and bought a new clock so decided to stop in at "the block" and check that it would fit right in the space we figured it would go.

Tinted glass at the front, still one more window to go in on the right....not sure why it isn't in, it is just sitting upstairs along with the ensuite window which isn't in either. I am a shift worker so we have gone with tinted glass in the front, the rest of the windows are regular clear glass.

Front Door

Roof and Fascia 09/02/2012

Roof is on - and just in time for more rain! We again now have a free pool in the back and a moat around the house, wish this bloody rain would stop for awhile! The roof is on now so if anything mother nature timed it well.

From the front

Whirly bird

Downstairs living/dining/kitchen

From the back patio/"outdoor room"

The Frame 30/01/2012

Frame is up - woo hoo

Somehow between all the rain in Feb they managed to get the frame up. 

                                                          Ground floor done!

                                                            From the front on the side

                                                     From the back on the side

                                                       Looking from the back

Top floor hallway

                                                                  Front the front

From the back

Main bedroom ensuite - Rick in the toilet

Got Slab 20/01/2012

Getting Started Slab Down!!


Well what felt like months (and it was!) in the second week of January 2012 after the xmas break we finally got things underway, Slab was down late January, much to our delight, there was actually something to see when we went to the block :-)
Metricon have done screw piering due to the very "clayey"? soil (H1 I think is the term) So our site costs are pretty high but I would much prefer to pay extra now than have cracks and movement beyond repair later.
In our current townhouse I have been fighting with the builders and BSA for 8 years and only in the last
two or so months has it sort of been resolved....I am waiting for more mould to appear to see if it is still leaking, I know for fact some water is still getting in but it is now a slight dribble when it pours as opposed to a flowing stream coming into our bedroom and laundry/garage. So lesson learned do what you can now to save heartache and headaches which can really be migraines later!

Why we received an early delivery of bricks I have no idea!

Free moat! lots of localized flooding in Brisbane, thankfully when they are finished building we will have lots of yard gully's and the water will flow away from the house when they put the dirt back around the edges so  it doesn't pool and actually have somewhere to go.

Just to give you an idea of how much rain we had here are a couple of pics of one of the roads at Toombul

Colours and Selections 21/10/2011

Selections List:
The  below selections are after our visit to Studio M

Roof: Colourbond Monument
Fascia: Colourbond Evening Haze
Garage Door: Colourbond Evening Haze
Bricks: Urban One Pepper - Upgrade 1
External Balcony Balustrading: Vivica Ultra silver
Front Entry Door: Upgrade DuceD64H with Cathlite glass
Benchtops: Caesarstone Ice Snow
Splashback: Dulux Vivid White with metallic finish
Cabinets: Espresso Ligna
Powder room: Tiles with frameless edge mirror around walls
Tapware throughout: Dorf Jovian range
Main wall colour: Dulux Grand Piano Half
Carpet: Silver selection (upgrade 1)
Internal Staircase: Metricon to install standard, we will change to glass afterwards due to the crazy cost provided by Metricon.
Pics
Bricks - Urban One Pepper Upgrade 1
Mortar:  Off White with white sand
Brick Joints: Ironed

Main wall colour: Dulux Grand Piano Half (effectively a beige colour)
Cupboards: Laminex Espresso Ligna

Floor Tiles: Will come back to this with the numbers etc. Floor is a white with beige lines through it
Feature Wall tiles: Mushroom

Stones to go at the back of the shower recess - Love these!

These are the Pendant lights I bought from Buyster, there are 3 to go above the kitchen bench. The living/kitchen dining just has down lights so we wanted something to break it up a bit.

This one will be our main feature light, it is going above the stairs sort of near the entrance. I can't wait to get it out of the box!!!!!

Floor Plans

Floor Plans

The original floor plans can be found here:

http://www.metricon.com.au/queensland/homes/cedar/floor-plans


Our modified floor plan is a bit like this:

Our Metricon Cedar in Brisbane - Overview

Hmm where to start! Well we are building for the first time, and have chosen Metricon Cedar 32 with a slightly modified floor plan making it Cedar 34. I am a bit late starting the blog and have never blogged before but will give it a shot, please be patient if things don't end up where they should! 


We signed the contract on the block of land 450sq in inner north Brisbane on 19/08/11 and settled on the 27/09/11.
The block was originally 1 house which the owners purchased, removed the house and completely cleared the block and then sold the two blocks separately. We chose the one next to the newer house and also because of the street number as it happened to be Rick's favourite number so we took that as a sign, not that I/we are really into that, but it seemed appropriate. 


Some of the pics throughout our blog you will see the house next door being built too, they started a few weeks before us but we seem to be catching up :-) It is also handy/interesting for us to see what is coming/what to expect next.
So far we have had a change of SS and about 5 or 6 different CSC's. I don't mind changing CSC's so much, but our first SS seemed really good our current one as at 26/02/12 which started just after the slab went down we are not keen on at all!!! Communication is bare minimum at best, our first experience was abysmal, might go into that another time. But what can you do :-( 


I am more than happy to answer any questions about pricing/process/Metricon experience etc. The one thing we struggled with early on and the first few months is getting pricing from Metricon is like extracting teeth, and I think with dental advances these days and Ricks experience extracting teeth is easier!! 
We really really needed to know pricing for everything as we had spent more on the land than we had originally planned but were able to get something closer to the city so that was the trade off, but we were also cutting it very fine to be eligible for the QLD govt 10K building boost grant. so every dollar and therefore every choice mattered a LOT! 

The above photo is the 'Vogue' facade which is what we are having but with the 'Plantation' balcony