Vancouver -Porter Davis

Thanks for the heads up. We asked to be contacted when we went through the display a few weeks ago, but no call yet. Suspect we won't get one now.

I look forward to following your build. Wish you well and as few issues as possible!

hmm not a great start... defiantly going in to see one of them at the display itself might be easier, esp face to face.

Thank you!!! so do i.... things have flown (build part only) however since our SS left three weeks ago everything seems to have stopped we are meeting our new SS on site on Wed and hope we can get some form of timeline from now.

I suspect we are still looking at Feb handover

met with our site supervisor last week... phew he seems to have everything on track, irrespective of the lack of contact
stone and sinks have gone in or going in this week.

paint and tiler should be done before xmas!! which means once xmas is done we will have our fit offs and the last few things and its complete.

heres hoping to an end of jan handover, however we are still saying feb
blinds have been quoted
and furniture is starting to be layby or ordered.

finally seeing the finish line!!!

We have just started the process with PD, also building the Vancouver 33, reading this thread now has me very concerned and certainly less excited about he process...

We are doing a KDR, we'll kind of, the block we purchased had an old house knocked down which we have to remove. The block will be clear and flat ready for PD to build but they have given us an estimate of 50k for site costs!! Seems crazy money! Will definitely be asking for a break down of the costs. From what I have read here also it seems to just thousands more at tender stage! We have only just paid our 2k deposit a few weeks ago.

WOS appointment is booked for 10th Jan. They gave us an April site build date, also from others experience here is this likely to be later?

The sales consultant we have been dealing with is fantastic and always seems to be working, late night emails and so quick to respond to any questions, hopefully we can get a BC that's even half as good!

We are building in Koo Wee Rup, the block is 1011 in size, but the block size shouldn't affect the site costs should it?

Hi there!
exciting but yes i def don't envy the position your in... we hopefully will be finished by Feb taking us from Dec 2015 to Feb 2017 we are well and truly over this long drawn out process, its almost taken the fun out of the 'new home' feeling. Don't let that deter you though, as your experience could be very different.

Firstly i think even though you still have a knocked down home you'll more than likely still incur the site costs for a KDR, as the knock down part/cost is all on you. And the rest is all PD costs. Our demo cost about $9k from memory and that's not factored into our $50K+ with pd.

Just to give you an idea (our land is 615m2) flat block, no rock, no obstacles,

Extra distance surcharge $10K
Excavation $2400
slab upgrade including Screw piles - $35,800 ( 100% can guarantee this will apply, they added screw piles to us after tender even though they found no further issues )
Services 3000 ( which i imagine is all applicable on your block due to a home being present)
OH& S $4800 ( which is all a load of rubbish)
legal point of discharge pump $15K

I guess its all about being prepared, and hopefully your sales consultant has given you are fairly reasonable indication of costs to come. We also found that alot of information from sales, was very different at tender, and after we met our BC. Our BC was fantastic who was recently promoted!!! that makes a huge difference.

And our first SS was fantastic, not once did we feel concerned, everything went up so quickly! he was contactable and to be honest it was for the first time in 9 months we felt at ease.. We got to lock up in about 2 months.... now.... unfortunately he has left.. things are now slowwwwwww and now stuck with an SS who takes over a week to respond to the simplest of questions. And a BC who just pushes emails around...

I really hope your experience continues to be positive one and feel free to ask anything!!
Look forward to hearing how you go after your selection appointment.

(sorry for the essay)

Thanks for your reply.

I guess it's just a waiting game at this stage to find out costs!

How far ahead should I be applying for permits and things like that?? I don't even know what I need to apply for or if PD look after permits etc! We plan to have the block cleared and ready by end of Jan even though PD can't start until April as they are fully booked until then.

I want to be as prepared with everything as I can to avoid any delays possible as like I'm sure was the same for you paying rent and (part) of a mortgage is not going to be easy for a long term.

This thread has provided me so much information to help me better prepare for our build.

Just got a call from our BC to introduce herself, it's all starting to become real now!!

Having read that some of you guys got terrible BC's I'm hoping I got a good one, she sounded nice on the phone but that's not to say how good she will be if there is a problem! Fingers crossed.

I just can't wait for it all to be finished and we can move into our lovely Vancouver 33

Yep it sure is.

Id have to ask my husband he did all of that. I'm pretty sure you do that, but double check with your BC they should be able to advise.

For sure, we were told a May site start, ended up being September so dont worry you can be as prepared as possible and still face issues which i suppose is just expected. We were paying two mortgages! we were also going to rent out the place we bought to knock down, however figured that 6 months was probably too short to let.... Knocked down in march, as per PD instructions then it sat there for another 6 months..so a year total... We were so annoyed!.

hoping to go around tonight to see some paint work! fingers crossed

Yep it sure is.

Id have to ask my husband he did all of that. I'm pretty sure you do that, but double check with your BC they should be able to advise.

For sure, we were told a May site start, ended up being September so dont worry you can be as prepared as possible and still face issues which i suppose is just expected. We were paying two mortgages! we were also going to rent out the place we bought to knock down, however figured that 6 months was probably too short to let.... Knocked down in march, as per PD instructions then it sat there for another 6 months..so a year total... We were so annoyed!.

hoping to go around tonight to see some paint work! fingers crossed[/quote]

Oh that's exciting!! How did it look?? I can't wait for that part, seeing things actually happen!!

Oh that's exciting!! How did it look?? I can't wait for that part, seeing things actually happen!![/quote]

We didn't get there! hopefully over the weekend we can peak through the windows, while we are finishing our fence!

Slowly getting there. We have paint!!!

Hi Everyone,

I've just had a look at our preliminary soil test results and its says our site is classified as 'P' due to abnormal moisture conditions.

Anyone know what this means (especially in terms of site costs?)

We are a KDR and the site has not been cleared yet, they had initially told us to allow for 50k site costs. Obviously I would love to go under this amount, but we really can't afford to go over!

this sounds familiar! ill check out contract.. we have 500mm of fill ontop of our ground.
Yep we got P aswell with upgrade to Ph2 class waffle slab. I think ive mentioned the cost already but ours was $35,818
our slab also slightly 2 squares smaller than the 33 also.

Exciting reading through this thread again now that we are getting closer to our WoS apt. 10th of Jan. I think I am as prepared as I can be for it. Then we have tender 01/02/2017 the contract 28/02/2017.

Can someone tell me if the butlers pantry comes with any cabinetry?? Or what is the standard layout, we are having a sink in ours. Also does anyone have pictures of the bathroom cabinetry that comes with the Vancouver?

So far our BC hasn't been much help and not great with responding to emails

These are photos from the Vancouver display at Traralgon for anyone who didn't get the chance to drive all the way out to it.

It is beautiful! I just wanted to move in. Loved the paint colour so that has made one of my decisions for tomorrow. I also loved the wall panelling on the entry and lounge walls but they said that costs $2,500 + so much cheaper to do after handover!