Day 144 – Lock up and lining boards

Lock up happened. Officially.

The cladding is all done – now that the second shipment arrived. The facade is taking shape. I can’t wait for the scaffolding to come off. The front balcony wire still needs to go on, but you can start to see the style.

We chose this facade site unseen as it has not been built in Victoria before. We had only seen some pictures and artist’s impressions. I’m glad we took the punt – we love it. It has a real coastal feel and looks unique – unless you are in Torquay (a surf town where every house seems to have a sloped roof!)

The lining board look can be poorly done on some house renovations – can look really cheap – but we are thrilled with the progress so far.

We have another site tour very soon so I’ll be able to show all the work that has been going on internally.

 

Day 129 – Cladding

The cladding has taken a day to put on. The sides and rear have been done. Just the front to go. Hard to see from this picture, but it certainly tidies up the house. Will post more pictures when I can. They actually ran out of cladding, so the front will need to wait.

Monday is staircase day and kitchen cabinet day. We are booked in for a major site tour this week so get ready for a photo-bomb!

Our site manager says we are in super-February. He says it is the most concerted and action packed month of the build. The success of this month will determine how close we are to moving in.

I am also pleased to announce that a few locals have taken an interest in our build and that Metricon have got a few sales leads form us. Happy to hear that. I work on a very reasonable commission and I am happy to offer site tours etc for a small fee! 

Yes folks we are officially at lock up as well. That means another mountain-like invoice will be sent to me next week. The lock up invoice is 35% for us, on method 1 progress payment schedule. That is an eye watering amount. I’ll be on the phone to my friendly bank on Monday to pre-warn them!

As an aside, I found method 1 to be slightly more attractive than methods 2 and 3. You are actually able to change payment schedules, but it is not something that is commonly known and not something openly offered to you. Know your rights when it comes to payment schedules. For me personally, I found method 1 to have less upfront and more later on in the build. But do your own research.