I have to laugh when I think back to our sales consultant telling us with great confidence that we would be in our new house by this Christmas. Ha!!
Thankfully the actual build isn't dragging anywhere as much as the planning/paperwork part of the experience did..
And we can only look forward to NEXT Xmas when we will be well and truly in, settled and enjoying a relaxed holiday season in our gorgeous house.
Image courtesy Craftily Ever After blog
Now if this rain would kindly move on we can all get on with the important business of building our houses!!!
Spare a thought for us. We didn't get started until almost 15months after signing up. Due to retaining wall design and approvals which blew out proportion, we were also slugged with cost escalation on building costs. Did Metricon impose any price variations on you?
ReplyDeleteI can't complain about the progress though. It's been fast only 4 months, and almost done.
15 months?! Argh - that must have been very frustrating..
ReplyDeleteNo, luckily we escaped any cost increases - the first few months things dragged on Metricons side of things then we had to wait to have a pre-lodgement meeting with council to discuss plans and it just felt like forever between signing and starting!
Because of the time of year we signed we JUST scraped in at 2009 prices and avoided the new year increase. Our site costs were over-estimated in our contract which was great because we ended up with credits when the council made Metricon do a step up in the house rather than one flat level :)
Your place is flying along - must feel great after so long!
'Here, here' to the rain moving on!! We will definitely be able enjoy Christimas 2011 in our beautiful new homes :)
ReplyDeleteWe promised the extended family last Christmas, that we'd host this Christmas in our new home...whooops. Not unless everyone wears a hard hat LOL
You got a credit!? That's great. Since we signed 6 months ago the price has ever been increasing with all those little and bigger things that add up.
ReplyDeleteWe are just past our contract deadline now and still stuck in council due to neighbours objections. No luck for us as Metricon decided to charge the extra 0.5% per month delay ;-)
Rachael - now that could make for an interesting Xmas! LOL
ReplyDeleteChristophe we got a credit - initially we had quite large site costs as we have a sloping block and Metricon had made the house one level all the way through. That meant we had a big step down into the garage, about 6 steps down from the portico to the front ground level, deep drop edge beams, LOTS of fill etc. When council came back to us and informed us we would be exceeding the cut and fill limits, and that the house would be over their limit for height of finished floor level above natural ground level it meant our plans changed to incorporate a step up in the hallway, just past the stairs into the back of the house.
This meant less steps at the front, less steps into the garage (and we got to delete a landing we had to have in the garage), not so deep drop edge beams, much less fill etc.
SO - many things cost less and we got a credit for a lot, but we ended up with a step in the house.
Dont worry - we had plenty of costs added along the way so the change in floor level was a huge win for us in the end!!
The only cost reductions we had so far are credits for errors I found their calculations ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe have a sloping land too (sloping down from the street). But we asked for the steps inside the house at tender because we wanted the outdoor room to be level with the backyard. Despite of that we still have some fill and dropped edge beam because the slope goes diagonally.