Posts by Hurrow • Home Renovation & Building Forum

Re: Paying for QuotesGeneral Discussion

18 May 2017

May 18, 2017 2:53 pm

I think it's fair enough to charge for a quote on doing some work, the builder presumably has to come out and take a look at your property, figure out what you want done and then calculate what it's going to mean in terms of materials, costs etc. Depending on how much work is involved and at $250k-$...

I think it's fair enough to charge for a quote on doing some work, the builder presumably has to come out and take a loo...

Re: How long do the estate's "design guidelines" apply?General Discussion

3 April 2018

Apr 03, 2018 1:12 pm

Hi all! We are currently building on land we purchased from an estate. Of course the estate comes with some design guidelines - ranging from house design guidelines (how many colours, what kind of materials, etc) to types of driveways allowed to design guidelines for the front yard and limitations ...

The length of the restrictions should be in your land contract. I think with ours for things like the fence at least we...

21 December 2016

13785

Dec 21, 2016 6:07 pm

Hi, Short term lurker, first time poster here! We've just signed up to build a Kew 28 with Porter Davis, with a bunch of options like study, corner al fresco and extended kitchen. We went with the Dream Life Design Collection upgrades to Indoor, Outdoor and Flooring as well. I wanted to check what p...

Hi, Short term lurker, first time poster here! We've just signed up to build a Kew 28 with Porter Davis, with a bunch of...

21 December 2016

13787

Dec 21, 2016 6:45 pm

Hi Hurrow. We also had the Dream life promotion for our access home, is the Kew also an access? If it is then you might want to pop into my blog, I had my color selection just this Monday, in a couple of hours I will post the last part of my visit which is the electrical selection.. We ended up spe...

Hi Naama, The Kew is an Advantage home, not sure what the difference is between that and Access. I had a read of your b...

21 December 2016

13789

Dec 21, 2016 7:20 pm

Thanks Naama, that's reassuring! Looking at what we have included it seems to be at least some of the stuff you have listed so that's good. It seems we have the silestone and splashback as part of the package, what is the Colonial square profile that seems to have cost you a lot? Also what is the ov...

Thanks Naama, that's reassuring! Looking at what we have included it seems to be at least some of the stuff you have lis...

21 December 2016

13791

Dec 21, 2016 7:39 pm

Strangely we seem to have a 600mm oven and cooktop in one upgrade and then a 900m upright cooker in another upgrade. I'm not sure how that works, I'm hoping it means that we get a credit against one of the packages rather than having two ovens!

Strangely we seem to have a 600mm oven and cooktop in one upgrade and then a 900m upright cooker in another upgrade. I'm...

28 December 2016

13799

Dec 28, 2016 10:47 am

Hi Hurrow We are building an Advantage home too. This is a pretty basic range compared to the others, I feel you will h...

Re: Vancouver -Porter DavisBuilding A New House

11 January 2017

457

Jan 11, 2017 9:25 am

Our electrical came to $2,500 (not including the $1,600 for nbn) we are doing downlights after handover. We just added lots of power points and some outdoor lights. If anyone wants a break down let me know. If you've got a breakdown on the electrical that would be great!

If you've got a breakdown on the electrical that would be great!

28 December 2016

13801

Dec 28, 2016 1:44 pm

Hi again Hurrow. The LED lights were about 140 for the strong light and 120 for the weaker lights, the electric consultant knew we were working on a tight budget and made sure we don't go overboard with the extra lights. The double power outlets were about 50 each. We placed extras in the bedrooms,...

Hi Naama! I'm not sure what we'll be doing with the internal lights, no doubt Mrs Hurrow will let me know in due course...

28 December 2016

13804

Dec 28, 2016 2:44 pm

We were forced to get double glazing to whole house to pass the 6 star rating. I think it will be worth it in the long run anyway. If you don't alter the base floor-plan then PD ensure a 6 star rating. If you make changes, which most of us do, then you have to wear the cost of selected upgrades to ...

Hmm, I didn't realise that if you did upgrades then it's up to you to pay for making sure it's 6 star. We're making pre...

1 person likes this.

Re: Porter Davis Upgrades and CostsBuilding A New House

3 January 2017

550

Jan 03, 2017 8:09 am

Hey Guys, We've been looking at a bunch of different builders and due to the holiday season, it's been a bit difficult getting numbers. We've been looking at PD, M and Boutique. With PD, we really like the Bermuda 23. However we also really like the Kitchen, Games, Rumpus upgrade. We also like the ...

I would just send them an email and ask how much the upgrades are? It costs you nothing to get a quote prepared, and th...

3 January 2017

13834

Jan 03, 2017 1:52 pm

Yeah it's really hard as no one is able to give you pricing only tell you which is what category! We haven't had the best experience with the contracts being wrong over 10 times! Also the WOS was so hard as they rush you to each department for only around an hour (which isn't long enough to pick th...

Reading your blog it looks like a bit of a nightmare process so far, I'm really hoping that it goes a bit more smoothly...

3 January 2017

13837

Jan 03, 2017 2:22 pm

I hadn't even considered the hebel before but it looks really nice now that I have looked at it, from the website it looks like a single storey in the lifestyle range is $4,999. Single storey in the advantage range is $3,999. My wife didn't like the brick colours in the standard range at WoS so we'...

My wife didn't like the brick colours in the standard range at WoS so we're probably going to be upgrading either way. ...

9 January 2017

13856

Jan 09, 2017 5:32 am

Does anyone know how PD work out the tile costs?? When we ewnt for a look last week, we were looking at tiles, the lady there was really helpful. I asked how the pricing works with upgrading tiles, she said you pay the difference in the price between the standard inclusion tile and the one you're u...

Is it possible to go to National Tiles yourself, buy the tiles there, and have Porter Davis install them? Ideally PD wo...

9 January 2017

13858

Jan 09, 2017 6:46 am

Hurrow, you'll have to ask your Bc. Your safest bet is to say that you want a tile that they don't have and go to Beaumont tiles or another company and say you want something from them and if pd can allow you to buy the tiles and give them to install. Hi Naama, I actually meant my response more as ...

Hi Naama, I actually meant my response more as a suggestion to niki than as a question for myselfl. My wife went up to ...

9 January 2017

13870

Jan 09, 2017 3:30 pm

if it makes you feel any better, we made so many changes to our east facing home... huge window upgrades facing the west and we has a $0 cost to upgrade ours to 6 star!!! we were very shocked as i was overseeing everyone costs and panicking :( ... they made a mint from us in the end anyway We decid...

We decided to go with Hebel which will hopefully help with both the energy rating and the bushfire allowance, no change...

Re: Vancouver -Porter DavisBuilding A New House

11 January 2017

460

Jan 11, 2017 10:33 am

I will post the breakdown of what we got we got from them when I get home, but they don't list prices on the final document, only the total (weird I know) but i kept a list of what everything cost as we went along. Feature light Outdoor x 3 $207 NBN & Elec Cabinet $1148 (I thought this was expe...

Thanks, that's very helpful! We've got an allowance in our quote for some NBN stuff (enclosure, cable, phone, data and ...

Re: Vancouver -Porter DavisBuilding A New House

11 January 2017

462

Jan 11, 2017 12:57 pm

We already had the NBN in our quote as well so this is not included in the costs we spent yesterday, we had 1 light in the alfreco included and 1 outside the laundry included but we upgraded the one at the laundry and added an extra flood light at the back of our house (we had a large block so figu...

Hmm, I was hopeful that there wouldn't be any extra money to be forked out for the NBN. We'll have to see what the go i...

12 January 2017

13878

Jan 12, 2017 9:38 am

Hi Guys, Is there anyone here who did not pay the 3% at tender. (I think I remember someone saying they made another agreement).. We cannot access our mortgage as the bank won't release any funds without an actual contract signed. I've tried telling our BC this but I honestly think all her emails b...

I haven't heard anything about 3% at tender? Our arrangement as far as I know is: $2k at quote to lock in the price 5% ...

12 January 2017