There is no easy way to find the suitable design for your future home than to visit all the display homes. Only few of us are good with visualisation and I am certainly not one of them. I must say there are some brave ones out there who can sign off just on paper design they certainly know how to take risk.
My first stop was clarendon display center in Kellyville, I
went through all the designs took notes, compared all the inclusions, made
several spreadsheets and finally shortlisted two.
1.
Fairmont
2.
Sheridan
Fairmont ticked most of the boxes , did I tell you that I am
a bit obsessed by a single spine staircase so for me this was it , if I had to
sacrifice a room in order to get this wow factor I would do it .
Downstairs it was open plan with pantry and laundry connected I thought that was intelligent, most of the times I am in the kitchen keeping an eye on my laundry so very practical. Upstairs, I thought rooms were a bit squeezed which is 3.0 by 3.2 but then you can use it for study instead of main bedroom.
Sheridan had also caught my eye and I was getting serious
about this design , the floor plan was brilliant but didn’t quite like the
staircase especially when you are paying top dollars you want to have the ‘WOW’ factor and few things can give
you that such as Façade , Staircase, High Ceilings , spaciousness , Floor tiles there are plenty others
which are non essential whether you have or not doesn’t make a big difference.
Well I was ready to make the decision, I went and met the
sales consultant , she was over confident in a flash she gave a price estimate
faster than I could process in my mind . Now I think this is where ‘clarendon’
went wrong with a serious buyer. I liked their designs but I wasn’t that far
ahead in my research so overwhelming me with the floor plans , dimensions and
quoting me incremental prices for things such as ‘ grand alfresco’ ‘ façade ‘ ‘
adding shower in the powder room’ I actually got put off especially because I
had just visited the display and I was wondering why am I being charged
additional for the alfresco. Low and behold , I made this mistake of asking the
sales consultant for why such discrepancy between standard and display , you
wont believe what she said , she asked me to go to the management myself and
ask that question because she can’t be bothered , she actually said her job is
just to sell and all these questions can go to the management.
That was it ………….this is from ‘ WoW’ to ‘ Nothing’ . If a sales person is getting flustered in the first meeting what will happen once we go down the track .
Now , I had spent two months researching their designs and
increasing my budget to suit the design that I like , let's not forget the
countless visits to their display homes I was not ready to call it quits , so I
tried one more time. I contacted another sales person so that I can move
forward but he reverted me back to the same old person who I think is under the
illusion that they are unbeatable. Well, that was really the end of it . I was
disappointed in the process of house building and I didn’t want to visit any
other builder.
After a month of holiday and routine work , I stumbled upon
some reviews on Metricon I had never visited them before even though they were
in Homeworld Kellyville just associated them with another M builder and didn’t
think they were the right ones for us .
So one fine morning I drove to the display center and just casually
walked into Metricon display center.
Well what can I say , the homes in display were amazing I
could instantly imagine myself walking in one of their homes in future .
Compared to Clarendon they had less clutter of designer furniture and they kept
it minimal and still classy. Am I sounding biased, I hope not. I am only
narrating my experience as a customer. Well after the initial walk through I
knew i am at the right place atleast by now
I was sure of my requirements and
budget so there was no time to muck around. I met one of their sales consultant
and he with no sense of urgency gave me 3 hours of his time on our first visit
and went through the design , walked me through the house , took notes of all my requirements , didn’t
try to sell or oversell , didn’t impose company’s direction on me which some
home builders do by calling a particular design as a promotion. All in all this
was such a pleasant change to my previous experience and I was left wondering
how come I didn’t consider this before and wasted so much of my time.
I requested for the floor plans so that I can research
further on the dimensions and difference to the display home , had several
questions after that and all were answered . Even if it was a company line it
didn’t come across like that.
Now about the design , I selected Glendale 34.
Glendale was a popular design and most talked about on
homeone website , there was so much information that it was very easy for me to
visualize the final product. The floor plan was brilliant , it had the wow
factor as discussed earlier “
Staircase “ , kitchen layout , pantry the bedroom sizes . Everything had fit in
perfectly. I can’t believe that there is one company who got everything right
even though they have a major market share and they are building hundreds of
these houses every year but they have been able to maintain a certain standard.
So this was it ……..i had long forgotten about clarendon and Metricon was the way forward.
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