Porter Davis homes

I remember your post about your Tender appointment. Hopefully your contract appointment goes smoothly, come back and let us know how you go?

I have updated the blog with some pictures of inside our house

I love your house - it has such an open feel to it, it is really nice and I like your colour selections. That book wall is BRILLIANT. What a great idea!

I have a couple of questions - did PD do the lighting under the cabinets in the kitchen? I imagine those lights would be very helpful at times! And your tiles... MAXFL12.. something?! haha! Are they the porcelain ones? They look lovely

Thanks ftdt. The tiles are MAXFL136 - Stratos Wet Cement polished porcelain 300x600. I completely freaked out about this selection after our tile appointment, and was very close to calling the next day to see if we could change it. I'm glad we didn't, because they look great - the sample we took home after our tile selection definitely doesn't do it justice! We will be putting the external version of the same tile in the alfresco and portico to give a nice inside/outside flow.

The lights under the kitchen cabinets were done by PD. I'm not sure if the pictures on the blog show it well, but they're not like the ones you see in displays where the lights are mounted into the bottom of the cabinet - apparently they had issues with those overheating . They're a separate unit mounted underneath the cabinet (if that makes any sense?!). It's not as "clean" a look, but you're right, they do come in VERY handy!

Oh yes I went searching on your blog and found your tile selections We are looking at almost the same tile, just lighter in colour (MAXFL 124) http://www.porterdavistileboutique.com. ... 5517_1.jpg. I love the polished look, how are you finding it in terms of cleaning etc?

Hmmmm... I might need to add under cabinet lights to the wishlist!!

Fleur

We considered the 124 as well. In the end we went with wet cement as it was more of a brown tone as opposed to the bianco which was more grey. But they were the last two in front of us on selection day! Cleaning is a bit of a pain TBH. I just remember that they're no dirtier than the wooden floors we've had in the past - it's just easier to see it. I'd have to clean them either way We vacuum and mop once a week, and spot clean inbetween (mostly under the high chair and in the kitchen). We've just bought a stick vacuum to help with the in-betweens. By Monday (mopping day) you can tell they need a clean, but it's not "ewww, disgusting" or anything. The bathroom could probably stand to be mopped more often, but that's because it bears the brunt of the toddler immediately after dinner (or, more specifically, the yoghurt he has for dessert). It's not the tiles' fault

Stick vacuums are the best! I got a little handheld stick Dyson a few months ago. GREAT for those little spills and a quick tidy

Will be keen to hear how it went

We had our pre-tender appointment earlier this week and did not finish as the drafts people had gone home. We had initially opted for an afternoon session as I thought that it would provide more allowance if we ran over time...clearly not. So now we have to wait for another pre-tender appointment and in the meantime all the other dates (Hopetoun, National Tiles, Contract) have to be moved out....sigh

Can't blv that staff just go home when they are in the middle of a $$$$$$$$ deal...

they are not selling cheeseburgers

Totally agree Its frustrating as we now have to take additional time off work and reschedule leave again for all the other appointments. If our second tender appointment does not complete on time I will certainly be making them well aware of my dissatisfaction! We have already asked for them to send through the tender documents (unpriced) so that we can check over all the details and hopefully then spend the time in the meeting effectively.

I still can't understand why PD doesnt give you the tender documents before the meeting. Would save time.

Last week I had my 12 months maintenance inspection and the inspector was a top bloke, every defect I mentioned he agreed and organised to fix. the maintenance team called me promptly and organised all the trades for next week.

Really happy with my PD experience so far.

That's fantastic news, you've had a great run with PD the whole way through - it's great to read how responsive they have been with your build...
I'd love to know what kinds of defects you have to be fixed????

-switch for exhurst fan not working
-gap in door jamb on pivot door
-cloak room door not working
-crack in quad
-little mortar patchup around air-con

other small such which I can't remember now.

We really should have insisted on a second tender appointment rather than just pressing on and trying to fix everything afterwards. Our tender was such a bad experience. Still, the staff at PD did rally in response to my very forceful and vocal complaints resulting in a much better contract experience.

The contract meeting took just under six hours and aside from a handful of concerns it was actually reasonable.

It took a lot longer mostly because we had to fix a few leftover issues from tender and make sure nothing slipped through. There were a few bits and pieces that annoyed me that could have been avoided, but our BC did an admirable job of moving past those past challenges.

A couple of biggies though...

Our network pack for NBN was either incorrectly selected at electrical (pretty sure it wasn't), incorrectly built into our house & land package (possible) or just poorly understood by PD (probable) which has our price bumped up by about $2.5k. It'll get fixed in a few days as a post-contract-variation, but I'm not pleased.

The option to include a spa bath in the ensuite turned out to be a waste of time and money. We've been pushing for drawings and details for many weeks now without success, but now we have the full details it turns out that the designers failed to leave any space for a towel rail in the ensuite! Every single wall is covered, excluding a short 50cm stretch behind the shower door which happens to be right beside the toilet. So we've had to revert to the standard bathroom design. This is a shame, because we really wanted the spa, but is also a serious financial issue because we now have to pay for the drawings to be updated and a fresh 6 star energy report to be put together. The spa upgrade was $1,800ish, and apparently the re-draw back to standard configuration will cost us $1,200. So we'll be spending almost as much to remove the spa as it cost to put it there in the first place! Grrr!

Oh, and still no commencement date. A ballpark indication (verbally) but nothing firm to rely on.

Beyond those few hassles things went well and we're signed up. My feeling is that things have to go more smoothly now since there are fewer opportunities for confusion. It's all on paper, nice and clear.

I'll post a new thread in a minute to see what ideas people have about towel rails just to keep us on topic in here.

Ugh u have been really lucky so far... mine has ranged from excellent to bad to excellent to bad.... repeat cycle endlessly

the plasterers came in today and plaster the walls and ceilings even though there are still outstanding issues from pre-plaster report. has anyone gotten PD to remove plaster walls to show evidence of defects being repaired? I highly doubt any tradespeople came to fix things between 4pm yesterday afternoon and 7am this morning to enable the plastering to happen at 8 am this morning

just had a look at ur blog. I made sure that the butlers pantry rangehood vented outside as well.

Yeah.. that was the plan.. until some "genius" decided to place the pipe almost 1.5metres away from the external vent so now the rangehood vents to NOWHERE!!

You know HEAPS about construction,do you know how PD would ensure the toilet exhaust fan for the downstairs bathrooms actually connect to the external vents? it seems a looong way to randomly shove a pipe and hope for the best when the ceiling is already installed

they will only listen to their inspectors reports. per building regs the stages which must be approved are:

pre-slab
slab
framing
compliance at the end, roof plumbing, plumbing, electrical, water proofing and energy rating.

the rest are the other inspections are irrelevant to builders (pre-plaster, fixing, PCI), actually not required.

As a customer you need to ensure that work is per the regs and 2007 standards & tolerance.

I'm sure that PD will do the right thing, they want to build quality homes. If your SS is refusing to confirm that errors have been fixed, speak to the construction manager at head office.