With most warranty issues resolved, and only minimal follow up work left, we are very close to putting our issues and concerns with Metricon behind us. Not a moment too soon either, as I am over having the tradesmen showing up just as we’ve got the baby to sleep, only to have him wake again.

We raised the issue around scratched glass in our windows and doors and, as of yesterday, all windows and doors have been replaced. All of these were the result of the cleaners that Metricon hired, using dull razors to scrape away the dark oak stain from the glass – something that ended up costing Metricon a pretty penny.  It appears that this is a common issue in new homes too – a neighbour of ours who also built with Metricon had similar issues. He too had to fight to get these replaced. Frustrating, but a worthy battle to fight. We’ve even had a home here at Stonecutters Ridge that had to have ALL their tapware replaced, after the cleaners used an acidic cleaning solution that caused it all to rust.

So with warranty issues more or less behind us, we can start to look at other projects around the house. We’ve recently had retaining walls built in our front yard built (pictures forthcoming), and had plans drawn up for a veranda. There’s a lot to look forward to now!

I’ve been slack on updating. Funny how life can shift your priorities. Bryce is growing like a weed – smiling, giggling, and just bringing a whole lot of happiness to our lives. Things all of a sudden feel like they’re in fast forward. Unfortunately, addressing the outstanding warranty issues feels like it’s progressing at a snails pace.

Over a month later, we still have a lot of the issues we brought up with Metricon outstanding. The Christmas holidays brought things to a screeching halt, and all the rain that Sydney has been getting caused numerous delays. Even a bit of bad luck delayed the replacement of our ensuite mirror (On their way here, the driver went over a speed bump too fast and the mirror broke!). But with that said, a few items have been addressed.

Continue reading “Outstanding warranty issues: Update” »

We moved into our house in November of 2010. It’s almost 2012, and we’ve still been “working” with Metricon to address the outstanding issues from what was originally supposed to be our 90 day inspection (Side Note: A 90 day inspection is typically when the inspection is held, but lord knows when the issues are actually fixed.). Finally, after complaining posting on Twitter  (Kudos to Metricon for managing their social media channels!), Metricon contacted us directly and scheduled a time for their NSW Building Manager to meet us and inspect the final issues we had that were related to the initial inspection (hence the lack of updates lately…). Were we finally getting somewhere?

Continue reading “Metricon warranty issues: resolved (sort of)” »

One year ago today, we received the keys to our new Metricon home. Looking back over the past year, we really have done a lot. Between landscaping, painting, and the odd project here and there, we’ve been successful in making our house a home. While we’re happy with the product that Metricon provided, their follow up on outstanding concerns has been lacking.

In a nutshell, one year on, and we’re still waiting for over half of our concerns from our 90 day inspection to be addressed. What’s worse, is that we haven’t heard from Metricon in over a month, despite regular emails and calls to the head office.

Continue reading “One year on…” »

It was only natural for us to try and document our entire build process online. My family lives a good 7,000km away in San Diego, California and I wanted a way to share in our experience and adventure of building a home.

Maybe it’s because I had never even thought of building a home before, or perhaps it’s just a sign of the times, but there seems to be literally hundreds of home building blogs scattered around the internet these days. A good majority of these seem to have been left for dead just a few months into them. Whether it was because it just became to monotonous or too time consuming we’ll never know, but if you look hard enough, you’ll find a few gems that really stuck with it and documented the entire process in great detail. Here are three great Australian home build blogs (other than ours, of course) that we found helpful when we were still building.

Continue reading “Three great Australian home build blogs” »