Building The Forsyth 35 With Porter Davis

Hiya! So after a lot of run around and searching, we decided to build the Forsyth 35 with Porter Davis and paid the deposit in August 2016. We just finished tender appointment and will have our contract appointment next week Our land will title this month and our build will start in June 2017.


House Model: Forsyth 35
Facade: Ludstone
Estate: Woodlea
Builder: Porter Davis

Exciting times, when are you due to start building?

We are building the Vancouver 33. Waiting for a second soil test now and then on to council approval. Hopefully that won't take long!

It really is, Nikil and we're really hoping for a pleasant building experience. it's our first build as well. Just a little disappointed with a few unexpected increase and additional cost during our tender but so far we're happy with PD and our house choice

How's your build so far?

So far our experience with PD has been great, our site costs are expensive but that's normal for a KDR. Also just found out our electrical out is going to cost almost $5000 but there's not a lot we can do about that.

Can't wait for the actual build to start so we can watch the progress. We are moving to a rental on the same street we are building on.

Hey Phoenix! We're building Vancouver 33 also the same as Nikil. We also have our contract appointment next week, on Thursday!
Our block titles in May so hopefully build starts around June-July 2017.

Pretty happy so far, stressful sometimes but its been a good experience so far.

Yes, when it comes to cost we can just complain and whinge but it will always be whatever the builder says.. Are you finished with your tender and contract appointments already?

Yes we had both in Feb, if you have a look at my blog all the details are in there. There was no surprises and everything went very smoothly.

The electrical pit is actually nothing to do with the builder it has to be done with you electricity provider, Ausnet for us. Unfortunately where we are building everyone still has over head power to their houses so our electrical pit has to come from a power pole on the other side of the road which is why it's so expensive as they have to go under the road.

Our contract appointment is on Wed! We are on the same timeline...yay! We would have love to build a single storey like Vermont/Vancouver but because of our lot shape we need to build a double storey to get the space that we want. We are nervous about our 6 star energy rating cost, we did a few structural changes such as higher ceilings 2740mm, added 2 windows in living room, added 1 window in family room, changed the dining room window to a bigger picture window, added a picture window in kitchen as splashback, added window in galley as splashback and made 2 bedroom window bigger

Have you got your 6 star energy rating cost already?

I hope our contract signing will be the same and with pleasant surprises on some cost as well. They asked us to give them a copy of soil compaction report from our developer to review our $29K site cost and I hope 6 star energy rating will not be too much. These cost just kept on eating up my budget for upgrades and I don't want any more cut-downs


I visited your blog and it's interesting that you also considered Carlisle Homes like we did! We actually signed up and paid deposit with CH first

Thankfully there was no charges for us for 6 star and we changed a few windows and added a window to the splashback and a window in the galley.

I know what you mean, the site costs annoyed me too because it's money that I would much rather be spending on upgrades and interiors. Thankfully our SC was good from the start and told us to expect around $50k for site costs.

What suburb are you building in? I hope your contract goes well and you get some $$ back!

Good on yah, Nikil! I hope there won't be anymore 6 star charges for us as well

Our SC's site cost quotation was just $20K including local gov't requirements and ended up $28K site cost plus $2.5K for local gov't plus $2.5K for additional bracing for high wind zone area. So, we were really disappointed. By the way, we also have bushfire cost! So a lot of extra cost really...

We're building in the west, in a new estate called Woodlea. It's in Rockbank but they will rename our suburb to Aintree.

How about you?

We are the other side of the city out in Koo Wee Rup (I really hate the name of the area haha)

A lot of people seem to be getting hit with the bush fire costs, which would be really annoying as all the areas will soon no longer be classed bush for zones as they are building so much.

We had extra site costs because we a in a 1 in 100 year flood zone so we require extra fill on our block.

My morning is being spent reading your blog, It's really good! Did you really get your block for $53,000????

Looks like we have very similar style tastes, How beautiful is the Hamptons Style Waldorf!

We've been to the Porter Davis displays at Woodlea, I love the big park the estate has near the display village!

I've really enjoyed your blog, great job documenting it all!

Hi Nikil, I wish, but we got our block for $242K, the $53K was the price increase after a couple of months since our purchase.

It's really beautiful and so elegant and calming...

Hi Hurrow, it's really a well planned community and we're so happy with our developer. They will open 2 more parks this June, and one of them has 2 footy ovals and 10 tennis courts We're lucky to get a block in the early stages as the new ones are getting very expensive already.

Do you live close by?

We live in Geelong and will be building near there as well. Woodlea is about an hour or so from us, we've been to lots of display villages though to see various house designs and get ideas for decorating.

All the best with your design. We built with PD with this last house we are in. It's now known as the Waldorf. But they changed it around a bit.

We are now going to upgrade with M as we needed a big home as we have a large family. And we are starting to need more room as kids are older now. And we have more since moving in here.

I love Woodlea. Such beautiful parks and estate. We Would have loved to get a land there. But we bought in allura before we even knew about woodlea. Can't believe they are changing the name. Woodlea is a nice name I reckon. I just took the kids to that park the other day. They love it there.

Is the house your getting is it that the display one they have there? That big double story?

I know what you're saying we've been to a display house village also in Armstrong Creek when we were considering Carlisle Homes lol. Display village visits have been our preoccupation since last year. We live in the west but we've visited PD display in Cranbourne East several time to get the look of the display that we want also.

Hi Nikil,

Koo Wee Rup is a nice place and the name sound cute too..

Now we know that when we choose a block we need to ask if it is in a bush fire zone, flood zone, high wind zone and aviation zone (Are there more? ha, ha, ha) . An officemate of mine is building in Diggers Rest and she was charged 8K for sound insulation as she's in aviation zone..

Cheers!