The Changes to the Floor Plan

This is the Floor Plan for the Phoenix 35.  Some of the more major changes we have made include the following:-

- Downstairs powder room had a shower added and is now a third bathroom. We thought this would be useful for the pool, future value of the home generally, and allows us to present the downstairs study as a more realistic bedroom 5/study).  This required a minor compromise on the size of the laundry, shortening of the powder room sink, moving the toilet and adding a small window.  The shower is now to the left of the door.
- Internal fitout of the laundry with benchtop, broom cupboard and under/overbench cupboards.  Metricon includes only a freestanding tub and washing machine provision on their standard inclusions for the laundry and this was wholly insufficient, particularly given the size they are allowing for the laundry.
- Double french doors on the study - to keep children out of the work area, and assist in presenting the room as a possible bedroom 5.
- Removed the rear windows from the back of the lower level and extended the stacker doors.  We wanted to be able to open the back of the home widely for entertaining and maximise light into the back of the house.
- For the same reason, we inserted a window splashback in the kitchen.
- Upstairs the only major change was bedroom 5 becoming a dressing room for the master bedroom.  The door for bedroom 5 was relocated to inside the master bedroom.  The walk-in-wardrobe is thus removed completely, making the master "suite" very large.  This also leads back to the earlier changes to the downstairs powder room and study to make the study seem more realistic as a study OR bedroom 5 to replace the bedroom lost upstairs by our dressing room.
- The traditional facade has been upgraded to another facade (similar to the traditional facade on a Metricon Duxton or Glendale) to give it more of a bold appearance - this is not a balcony facade.  It also extended (further) the size of the master suite behind it.

Our last home ended up being very dark and we were paranoid of making the same mistake given the presence of a retaining wall along the back of the property (same as our previous property), hence the large doors on the back of the house and glass splashback. Our previous master bedroom was also much too small, and we have certainly remedied that issue here!

The pool, outdoor area and landscaping are being done after handover.  Metricon simply do not do, nor will they facilitate, these arrangements.  I must admit this was disappointing to hear after being through all their display homes, which have pools and outdoor decking, then they tell you they won't do any of this and you're on your own.  The pool, ok that's fair enough - but the wooden decking I really wanted to blend well from inside to outside and now it's a handover matter.

The fitouts that are being completed after handover are the overhead kitchen cabinetry (Metricon's standard is underbench only, a point of serious debate in our finalisation of the plans) and the butler's pantry shelving (Metricon do only a benchtop, underbench cupboards and a sink as standard). The fitout for the dressing room is also being done after handover.  There are a few reasons for this, mostly that Metricon's prices for cabinetry are very expensive and we were not even game to ask them to quote the dressing room, so we decided that if the dressing room can wait until after handover, so can the rest of the butler's pantry and kitchen.  On reflection, we could have considered this for the laundry too, but when benchtops are involved I would rather them just go in during construction and deal with pure cabinetry later.  We also might want to consider some further cabinetry in the alcove areas (again, these are not standard inclusions), so again we thought it best to wait to get into the house and see what we need in terms of cabinets throughout the house before committing.

I hope so far this assists anyone considering the Phoenix 35.  The process of blogging/documenting the changes made over 9 months of back and forthing with Metricon is really helping me to solidify the vision of the final home. We cannot wait to see how it all turns out!