Internal Selections

I'm late in starting this blog and am keen to bring you up to date with construction details so will complete this at a later date.

Our Plans

The Old House

In 2007, a couple in their early thirties named Dave & Nat did what many young couples do - returned to Sydney after a stint overseas, got married and ventured into the property market. We purchased our first home - a 1950's post war fibro 3 bedder with a north to rear aspect in a leafy suburb of the St George area in Sydney. Sure it had 4 different floor coverings, 3 different wallpapers, a tiny porch and pokey living areas, but we knew that over time we could spruce it up and live happily for a number of years.

We proceeded to strip wallpaper and paint the interiors, move some walls to help the flow of the living areas, polish floorboards and lay carpet, install a new kitchen and open out the living areas. The biggest project was building a huge deck. All of this was done with a lot of help from family who we can never thank enough for all their hard work.

Well then along came a couple of kids. Our rate of progress on the renovation front slowed down and we ran out of space faster than we could ever have anticipated.

We met with a local architect and discovered that our budget would be about $150k short of where we needed it to be. So we went looking at project homes.

We started looking at single storey 28 square homes and boy did we like what we saw.

We spent the next 6 months visiting a number of display homes but the one we kept returning to was Metricon.

The New House

We are now building a double storey home that will end up around 42 squares. Welcome to our version of Metricon's Phoenix 38.

Ground Floor

First Floor

Some of the structural modifications we made:-

Ground Floor

• Increased front door to 1200mm
• Added cavity sliders to guest room (originally a sitting room but this will be the home office)
• Added a shower to the powder room and changed the linen cupboard to a separate WC
• Added linen cupboard to laundry and increased benchtop and tiling to run entire length of wall (not shown in drawings above)
• Made the study a little wider into foyer and increased length by removing family room alcove. Changed windows to full sash awning
• Increased width of garage and added door to rear and internal
• Added largest possible stacker doors to rear of dining and family and side of dining.
• Dining room shows a highlight window but we later removed this

First Floor

• Changed Bed 5 to Dressing Room (WIR 2) for the master
• Moved master bedroom door to suit.
• Increased side of ensuite shower
• Added cavity slider to ensuite

We will be adding the outdoor room after handover. For us, having the extended roof over the outdoor room would darken the family and kitchen areas so we decided to add a deck and roof later. If the budget allows we will go for a louvred roof however we will probably have to settle on something a bit more budget friendly initially.

External Colours

The external colour appointment with Metricon was a nightmare (which is not uncommon from other blogs I have read), We though we were prepared however realised that we each had very different ideas of what "we" wanted. And our consultant had other ideas again - such as that we cannot have a surfmist garage door as it will be too stark. After a heated discussion between ourselves we agreed to review our selections at home and finalised them shortly after. I'm not sure we have matched the correct tone of our colours however I figure the garage door and cladding colour can be changed after handover if they really look terrible against the bricks.

I used Metricon's Envisage tool to create a visual of what our facade will hopefully look like. While the design is not quite the same it's kind of similar.

Plantation Facade

Our Colours & Finishes using Envisage

On the left is our chosen facade - the Plantation. It's definitely got a coastal feel and I think our colours reflect this also - light bricks and timber facade features contrasted with the darker roof. We also need the dark roof to disguise sap and mess the local gum trees leave all over our roof.













Our selections are:-
Bricks - Austral Metropolis Alabaster with off white mortar and ironed joints
Downpipes/meterbox in Dulux Arava to match bricks
Roof/Gutters - Colorbond Woodland Grey
Fascia - Colorbond Surfmist
Cladding - Dulux Linseed
Timber on facade - Cabots Rich Walnut (front door/facade windows/gable slats)
Windows & stacker doors - Colorbond Surfmist
Garage door & rainwater tank - Colorbond Evening Haze

Demolition

Our old home was a  1950's post war fibro home with vinyl cladding,. Land size 600sqm. Fall is approx 3mtrs front to rear. Demolition commenced late December 2014. The digger enjoyed Christmas resting on our block then finished the job in the new year. There was asbestos buried under the concrete driveway which added 10% to the costs. While we were expecting to be nostalgic about it, in the end we were ecstatic to see it go as it marked the start of a new chapter. Here are before and after pics.

Before

Cladding & fibro removed

Roof tiles removed

Demolished

View from front to rear

View from rear to front

love our neighbours tree behind the digger

Background

This is a blog about Dave and Nat's adventure building a Phoenix 38 with Metricon in Sydney. The above picture shows the Plantation facade of Metricon Liberty which is similar to the Phoenix. We hope our home will end up looking similar to this.

Although a little late getting into the blogging game, we know that it will be a great record of our experience, an easy way to keep friends and family up to date and a way to help out others who may build in future. We have read (time and again) many building blogs and found their information invaluable.

Having just received Council approval for the build,here is a timeline of what's happened to date.

14/07/13 First inspection of Metricon display home
14/12/13 Request for tender and paid initial deposit
20/01/14 Preview estimate signed
18/02/14 Tender / Preliminary contract meeting
26/03/14 Re tender received (switched house design)
01/04/14 Preliminary contract signed and further deposit paid
30/04/14 Contract meeting
30/04/14 External colour appointment at Studio M
19/05/14 Contract signed and 5% deposit paid
26/06/14 Contract signed with Demolisher (to remove old house on block)
15/07/14 DA for new home submitted to council
31/07/14 Internal appointment at Studio M
14/08/14 Electricals signed
15/10/14 DA for new home, decision deferred by Council
19/11/14 DA for new home approved by Council

We have already learnt a huge amount to date with all of these experiences and intend to to complete this back story and cover the intended demolition of old house by Christmas 2014. We anticipate that 2015 will be an exciting time documenting the construction.

Please let us know what you think and ask any questions you want.