PD Access Range - Which add-ons to choose ?

Hi everyone,
We have benefited a lot from this forum...thanks!!!
We are going for Cumberland and are about to sign contract with PD in two weeks time. We need some advice...what low cost additions can be considered to add value to our new house? We already got an Alfresco and Rumpus added in the back (South East and South West). We also got a cool window in the Kitchen over the cooktop.
Is it worth going for 8' 6'' high ceilings?
How about Skylight? where is it best suited?
Is there anything else we should consider??
Thanks in advance

I didnt build with PD so I dont know much about their upgrades but IMO higher ceilings are worth it, ours are 9ft high and we love them - however, whether they add the equivalent monetary value to the house as they cost you in the first place is dubious.

As to skylights - they are best suited to a dark area without sufficient light - if you have such an area in your house.We had 2 skylights in our old house and they were wonderful but we dont have any in new house as design of house is such that everywhere is getting enough natural light from the windows.

Have you been through Hopetoun for your colours appointment?

We choose the door to the garage. Highlight window to living area (too many walls). Coolum facade. Frosting to bathroom windows.

We considered 2550 ceilings, but it was too pricey to justify.

That house design would benefit from a skylight in the bathroom, as there's no window. Find out what the price would be, and then check how much it would cost to add one later - it may be cheaper.

As for higher ceilings, that depends entirely whether you want them... if you do, you're going to have to pay whatever the price is, as it's not something you can add later.

Things like evap cooling, feature lights and extra cabinetry can be done later, so those come down to budget.

Thanks all for your responses.

Lisanne, we already had our colour, tiles and electrical appointments. Did not upgrade much except for few things like tiles in the hall way & meals, off white mortar, trilock, etc.
We went with Jarrah cat 1 bricks, C/B Dune for render, Baramundi roof tiles and monument for Gutter, Fascia and Downpipes & Classic cream for Garage door. We went with standard biege colour floor tiles and Bone colour for interior walls.

ALL: One more thing: We have a burning need to move-in before Christmas...and have lined up everything for early start except PD's consent...not sure how to manage this. As we are in house & land package deal do you think we can look outside PD if they do not meet this criterion?

That all depends on what you've signed and paid.

A move in before christmas would mean you have land titled and settled already with a site scrap within the month. Where are you building?

What site start month have they quoted you ?

We are building in Alamanda (Point Cook) and have our land settled already. $1000 initial deposit is made to PD...building contract appointment is due in a week. They have tentatively quoted us Nov (end!?) start.

PD only do a certain number of builds per month, I would imagine you will need to stress to your contract presenter that you require an earlier start in which case they will flag your file, usually vacancies come up due to land titles being delayed, however I would imagine they won't guarantee they can start earlier unless they already have had to postpone some site starts......Why don't you call your sales consultant to find out ?

We just signed with PD to build in Alamanda.

We don't get our title until November and we have been given a max start date in Feb. We stressed this so we could get our grant. However, we were the last to get that start date?

I imagine that Nov would be the start date

I'm pretty sure you are going to be stuck with November. When we went in to sign our contract, we found out they only do a specific number of jobs each month and it gets assigned to you when you give them your deposit. We found out that July some how got oversold by about 10 houses. So now they are really flat out trying to accommodate everyone.

If you look for another builder, you're unlikely to get an earlier site start anyway. First you have to find a design you like, then go through the whole sales/tender/colour selection process again, and I'd say you'd be looking at a minimum three months to complete all that. It would be early October by then and even if a miracle happened and the new builder could begin immediately, you'd still not be in by Christmas.

It always takes longer than you think it will.... If accommodation is an issue, I suggest you start making alternate plans now. With one thing and another, we ended up 8 months behind our initial estimate. That threw a few spanners into the works, but we survived. Just.

Thanks for all your replies .
We have our contract appoinment with PD tomorrow . As we are going for their house and land package, just wanted to know if anyone has any tips for us.
Also, can we do anyomore structural variations at this point ?

Thanx in advance.

Congrats on your upcoming build. We also built with PD 2 years ago. I would strongly recommend getting your own inspector to do your own inspections as the build progresses.

You may still be able to get some contract variations done at this stage but it will depend what they are...we had some done while our house was being built but they were minor - finishes on cabinets...laundry cupboard placement, etc. You'll probably find anything major at this stage that requires drawings, etc, will delay your start time. But if you want them done, now is the time to change it before you sign the contract.

Some extras we got done in our house included: doors to all toilets, ensuites & WIRs (you'd be surprised how many people don't put them in); our house originally had an open study & formal living space which we closed in & added doors; sound proofing & insulation to all internal walls & between floors; double glazing; lights, lights & more lights (makes a big difference in places like the kitchen); upgraded hot water system & air con unit to cope with the large size of the house & the times we have visitors who all want to use the shower at the same time; heat detectors in the kitchen & garage in addition to the smoke detectors (we had these in our previous house as well - they were brilliant because it means the alarm will go off if there's a fire in these areas but not if you just have a lot of steam from boiling veges, smoke from burning the roast etc). I wish we'd also got the electricians to add covers over all the lights in the roof space to stop them heating up the insulation in the upstairs ceiling (we've already had a near-fire). I also would have liked to have had water tanks incorporated into the waffle pod - would have made a much less ugly way of collecting rainwater (we weren't aware you could get them when we were building).

Also...the one thing we've learned from our build is *do not* complete handover until you are completely satisfied with your house. Yes, you may have a date you have to move by. Yes, they will promise everything will get finished. No, it will not be done promptly. We are still waiting for some things from handover to be completed 2 years after the house was "finished." Just a word of caution.

Good luck!

If by Contract appointment you mean the "Tender Appointment" then yes. After that appointment and you sign they say "no further structural changes will be permitted after this time as your contract drawings will have been ordered"

PD Access houses don't go through Tender, only contract