Porter Davis homes

I don't know about your estate, monkeypantz, but in ours you can't have the same facade within I think six houses in any direction. Hopefully yours is the same!

ok, thanks all.

We had to to pay to get the powder room and laundry exhaust fans vented out. The kitchen range hood is vented out. If you add an extra rangehood to the galley. They will charge.
Did the say they do it as standard for the powder?

Yeah, we have the facade rule too. In our estate there are 3 Waterside facades (including ours), 2 Urbane, 1 Gable, and this new one (the only one that is in our facade "exclusion zone") will be a Seaside. I find the other two Watersides very noticable, but I think they catch my eye because they are the same as ours, I doubt anyone else would notice, especially once everyones landscaping is done (currently we are the only Waterside with a garden).

Doesnt mean the paper its written on.

When we moved in to our street, 2nd house, we had full choice of facade and colour. Our rules were colour (render) and facade.

In my street, there are 3 houses, spread across 6 properties, with the same facade, including two of them with the same render colour of me. Developer refuses to address it.

Since we moved in 18 months ago, 2 houses have also changed their render colour to ours, making 6 properties same colour render in our street.

We've got our contract on Monday. We've asked for the price of a bench (laminex) to go in the pantry and have been quoted over $700. We're building the Drysdale. I've had a quick look through the costs and upgrades thread and can't see the price there for this item. Can anyone please tell me what they paid for the bench to be put in the pantry. $700 seems a bit excessive for a bench - I know that it has to be cut on a few angles and such, but really???

We are having the bench in the laundry going over the washing machine, but they say that the gap they allow for the machine is 800mm - our machine is 600mm so I'd prefer it to be closer to 600mm than 800mm. Anyone know why this is when you can have a dishwasher fit snug into a cabinet, why not the washing machine???

BTW Backpocket - I asked about a walk in shower and we've been told that having the shower floor flush is not something they do. I don't know whether this is b/c it should have been done at tender (structural - change the slab kind of thing???) or if they just don't do it... But keep pursuing it, it's a special need you have - they surely must be able to cater for accessibility needs.

Thanks inglewood, we go to tender on Monday fingers crossed we get a positive answer. Love the house but I am sure there are other builders who will cater for disabilities if PD won't.

We are having a stone benchtop but in our pantry with a 40mm edge and that is $1300. $700 does seem a bit excessive for a laminex benchtop - we are also putting in a 2040mm high double door cupboard in our pantry, I can't remember how much it was exactly but I think it might be on par with your benchtop! I will check my tender document tonight and let you know the exact pricing for our pantry options.

Tender and Contract Appointments

We have noticed that there has been some ongoing discussion about the Porter Davis Tender and Contract process and we’d like to outline why we follow the procedures we currently have in place.
Porter Davis has been building homes for many years and we believe face-to-face meetings deliver the best and clearest mutual understanding of each client’s needs. We are also aware of the detail and complexity of the documents and drawings and feel it is important to have expert drafts people and estimators on hand to help resolve any detailed questions on the spot.

Your Tender appointment is the most critical appointment and we would encourage you to ensure that any amendments that you want included are put in writing by Porter Davis at this appointment. If for some reason you don’t believe your tender documentation reflects what you want in your new home, then we’d encourage you to not sign it.
One of the main issues mentioned on this forum is the providing of documents prior to the Contract Meeting for clients to read through and we believe your tender documentation should fulfil this role as your contract is based on the contents of your approved Tender. There have been some rare occasions, where PD have allowed documentation to be taken home from a Contract Meeting but this only happens in highly unusual circumstances.

Your Contract appointment is essentially a verification of what you requested at your Tender appointment. At your Contract Meeting we are able to show you the working drawings that demonstrate what was in your Tender and provide you with a final cost. In reality, there shouldn’t be major changes required at this time, although we acknowledge that there could be some minor adjustments required as not everything you have previously requested may be interpreted correctly 100% of the time. Once again, you should not sign this document until you are satisfied that you fully understand the contents and any requested amendments have been made have been included.

Please be assured, we are not trying to make things more difficult, and the last thing we want anyone to feel is pressured or locked in with no way out. There is a 7 day cooling off period following the signing of the documents and there is also the opportunity to make changes via a Post Contract Variation and we encourage people to use this time to ensure they are completely comfortable with their decision. We hope this clarifies PD's position on this matter but should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your BC to discuss further.

Hi Inglewood

We were charged $715 to add a 32mm thick x 600mm deep laminate shelf to the pantry. We thought it was excessive at the time too but it was something we really wanted to we just went with it.

In regards to the washing machine cavity, we have a 700m wide gap written into our contract so they should be able to make the gap any size you want. My only suggestion would be to measure a few other machines available in the market place and ensure you have left enough room should you need to replace your washing machine in the future.

Hi PD

We appreciate you responding to our posts in regards to contract signing. I don't dispute anything you are saying in this regard and agree that a face-to-face meeting to go through the contract and the drawings is the best way to work through the documentation. That said, the face-to-face meeting should not be INSTEAD of taking the contract home. We should be allowed to work through the contract with you and also take the contract home to pour over the details in our own time. After all, we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on our home.

At no stage in your comments above have you actually explained the rationale behind the decision to prevent us (your client) from taking the contracts home to look at. Why are PD so reluctant to provide an explanation to us? Instead you are providing excuses as to why we shouldn't need to take it home. Clearly we do need to take it home otherwise this would not be such a topical point.

Please understand that I'm not trying to be negative here but as a business manager I would never dream of denying a client request to take a contract home.

PD

I don’t agree that the contract appointment is simply a verification of the tender appointment. In my case there were three appointments between the tender and contract appointment that include the
colour, tile and electrical. These appointments had the potential to create a huge variation between tender and contract, yet the only time I would have to see and analyse the complete outcome (particularly on cost) of my changes is when it is presented to me at contract.

I’m uncertain how you can make amendments during your critical tender appointment when you only get presented with options at the other appointments after your tender appointment?

I just checked on our Pantry options - Our stone benchtop with a 40mm edge in the pantry is costing us $1113. We are also having a double laminate pantry cupboard put into our WIP for $556. (as our WIP runs off the kitchen and into the laundry so we don't want to have shelves and then close it off). Base cabinets to the WIP are costing $785.

We had our tile appointment on Saturday. All went smoothly, didn't take us that long to select what we wanted as we had been in to the PD Tile Boutique a couple of times already. The only thing we struggled with was the vanity feature tiles! I think we were in and out in an hour and a half and that was with a 20min coffee break whilst our consultant put together the pricing and 10-15 mins for browsing through the feature tile range.

Yes, very excited our Site Started today - even though there is a little rain about in Melbourne.

Exciting! Can't wait to see all the updates on your blog.

There is a bit of rain about and it is rather chilly too! Heater time!!!

Back from our contract appointment. We didn't sign a thing today - but that was only because they were having technical issues and couldn't print it. So they will post it to us to sign. But the appointment went well. Only surprise was now we have to pay an extra $2000+ to have dining and living room windows double glazed to get the 6star energy rating. We were able to bring home a copy of all the elevations to look over. Very pleased with how the appointment went. Our presenter was helpful and we were out of there after just over an hour.

Well done - 1 hour, I can't believe it - a record! Enjoy studying the elevation plans.

We had our tender appointment today, well we tried to. The tender we were given had more than half our requests missing, as Inglewood said the technical problems meant that we could not get the tender corrected. So now it means another day off work when they get it all working again. Not the best day I have ever had. At least we were able to talk about the disability access issues.

So are you able to get the walk in shower? Can they accommodate your requests?