Building a Porter Davis Hillside 34

inexp_user · Jan 12, 2017 6:20 pm

Hi Jacinta, Thanks for letting me know about Autumn Views. We haven't been out to Romsey for a couple of months, I'll have to check it out. I wonder what the land prices are liken comparison. We still haven't titled but we have been advised it is on track for 2017 first quarter!.

Yeah for your land title, so exciting. Now you will have to mow

Who are you building with now? What design are you building? What happened to your last builder?

We have had a few hyssops along the way. We may not be building the hIllside anymore. We have had a few issues with Porter Davis and have engaged another builder. Porter Davis are trying to work things out but I am not sure if we will proceed. We had a Tender appointment even though they had incorrect plans and costings and a couple of months later when they emailed the Tender documents through we were not happy with a number of things (the biggest being our site costs doubled to over $40k even though they had site report in May and never mentioned it to us until November). We refused to sign the Tender and are currently not proceeding.

Jacinta.C · Jan 12, 2017 8:23 pm

I haven't been able to find much info on the new estate. I found one block for sale and the prices were pretty much the same as Lomandra.

Our reason for changing builders sounds very similar to yours. The whole process was very, very slow. We were sitting at 8 months with no contract, no communication, and mistakes all over our floor plan. We did attend a colour appointment and informed them that our house plan had been structurally changed 5 months ago ( they still had the wrong plans).

We cancelled (2 months later), but they still sent someone out to do soil tests. Suprise, suprise the wrong house plan was still on the soil test reports lol. Glad we got out of that mess.

That is very poor communication from PD in terms of site costs. We think our site costs are going to be very high too. We had a very bad soil report ( fill and clay - with a H2 soil).

Which builder are you considering now? We are now building with Boutique. Communication has been great. Price wise - they seem a bit expensive compared to other builders. However, we do feel confident building with them. Our colour appointment isn't until the end of February, they are fairly booked out.

We are building the Barcelona 28. A bit different to our last plan, however I think we will still love it. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

inexp_user · Jan 12, 2017 8:50 pm

Nice house design! I like the idea of the home office and the kitchen os a good size with those extra cabinets leading to the laundry.
It is a pity you couldn't get into colours sooner as you are ready to roll with your land being titled.

We are considering Henley. The Palace Lux Q1. I have an English husband and he issued to a double storey house. He has fallen in love with this design but I'm still in love with the Hillside. I just don't know if we can get over the issues. Time will tell.

inexp_user · Jan 15, 2018 12:55 pm

It has been a long time but we are finally ready to build!! This is our very first photo of activity at site.
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Who knew you can get so excited over the appearance of a portaloo and driveway protection?

inexp_user · Jan 15, 2018 5:03 pm

Went back today to check if anyone was onsite using our new portaloo and look what I found!! I don't understand why there are different levels but I am sure they know what they are doing.

So far I'm impressed with the communication as I received an email this morning saying today is our official start date and then I received a phone call from our base supervisor. This afternoon i went to site and found work was well and truly underway.

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Charly6s · Jan 15, 2018 7:22 pm

inexp_user

Went back today to check if anyone was onsite using our new portaloo and look what I found!! I don't understand why there are different levels but I am sure they know what they are doing.

So far I'm impressed with the communication as I received an email this morning saying today is our official start date and then I received a phone call from our base supervisor. This afternoon i went to site and found work was well and truly underway.

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Hi Ixenp_user

Who did you decide to build within the end? I remember reading that you did not sign your tender doc's because the site costs had gone up to 40k. And where looking at another builder. Did you sort it all out? Is that was coursed your delay? So many questions - I don't mean to be too nosey

Cheers
C.

inexp_user · Jan 15, 2018 9:51 pm

Hi Charly,

It has been a long process... You are right, we walked away from Porter Davis at tender but we did go and start the process to build the Palace with Henley. It is a beautiful 2 storey home and my husband fell in love with it. When the site costs came back they were fairly similar to PD (Henley maybe 5k less) but it was a 2 storey house and I don't think it would have suited the area. I wanted a more country feel. To cut a long story short, Porter Davis sorted a few of our issues out so we decided to stick with them and build the Hillside.

The actual process with Porter Davis could have been a lot better. They clearly have trouble retaining staff as we have been through a few Building Co-ordinators. There have been many process issues but I think a number of them were caused by the house design not being in the system. They made the '34' for the Lomandra estate where the display home is in Romsey. It wasn't in the system when we went for our WOS appointment and they used the '35'. Between tender and contract they converted our file to the 34, which meant a new job number. We received the contract 4pm the day before our appointment and we spent the night going through it with a fine tooth comb. It was obvious the transfer between jobs didn't go smoothly as the drawings, WOS docs and tender document were a wish mash of mistakes. We went in with pages of errors and they found errors during the appointment too. The contract wasn't signed... It took months to clean up the contract ready for signing. They would send through a few updates and then we'd go back with another list of errors. They'd send back a few more. It was like pulling teeth.

But... we finally had contracts signed in November and were due to head to site in December. The week we were to go to site they said they didn't have our signed mortgage documents although we provided them months prior. They had the offer from the bank, an email from the construction team from the bank saying it has been set up with the payment amounts for each but now PD informed us it wasn't enough because it wasn't the signed documents. They liaised with our bank manager who told them it is all done electronically and not 'signed' as it is done through online banking and they had provided PD with their documentation. Apparently it wasn't good enough and we had to sign an 'authority to commence construction form' and have the bank sign it and then send it back to PD! My opinion is they did this so the delay would be on us rather than them because we didn't go to construction before Christmas.

I am just very happy to finally be at site!!

How is your build going?

SP

Charly6s · Jan 20, 2018 9:16 pm

inexp_user

Hi Charly,

It has been a long process... You are right, we walked away from Porter Davis at tender but we did go and start the process to build the Palace with Henley. It is a beautiful 2 storey home and my husband fell in love with it. When the site costs came back they were fairly similar to PD (Henley maybe 5k less) but it was a 2 storey house and I don't think it would have suited the area. I wanted a more country feel. To cut a long story short, Porter Davis sorted a few of our issues out so we decided to stick with them and build the Hillside.

The actual process with Porter Davis could have been a lot better. They clearly have trouble retaining staff as we have been through a few Building Co-ordinators. There have been many process issues but I think a number of them were caused by the house design not being in the system. They made the '34' for the Lomandra estate where the display home is in Romsey. It wasn't in the system when we went for our WOS appointment and they used the '35'. Between tender and contract they converted our file to the 34, which meant a new job number. We received the contract 4pm the day before our appointment and we spent the night going through it with a fine tooth comb. It was obvious the transfer between jobs didn't go smoothly as the drawings, WOS docs and tender document were a wish mash of mistakes. We went in with pages of errors and they found errors during the appointment too. The contract wasn't signed... It took months to clean up the contract ready for signing. They would send through a few updates and then we'd go back with another list of errors. They'd send back a few more. It was like pulling teeth.

But... we finally had contracts signed in November and were due to head to site in December. The week we were to go to site they said they didn't have our signed mortgage documents although we provided them months prior. They had the offer from the bank, an email from the construction team from the bank saying it has been set up with the payment amounts for each but now PD informed us it wasn't enough because it wasn't the signed documents. They liaised with our bank manager who told them it is all done electronically and not 'signed' as it is done through online banking and they had provided PD with their documentation. Apparently it wasn't good enough and we had to sign an 'authority to commence construction form' and have the bank sign it and then send it back to PD! My opinion is they did this so the delay would be on us rather than them because we didn't go to construction before Christmas.

I am just very happy to finally be at site!!

How is your build going?

SP

Hi SP

Sorry for my delay, it's been a busy week.

Oh, the pain you went through, it must have been awful going backwards and forwards. I know we did a lot of that (and still are.) I think the worst is when you ask for something to be changed, it eventual is and then a few version later it reverted back to the old way, you have to keep checking and double checking everything over and over again.

We had our contract meeting on the 1st of November and only just got the Construction drawings on Thursday, 2 days ago. So we are hoping to go live on the land this month.

We took a drive out to Lomandra estate today to go see the Hillside. I love this house and would have loved to build it. But a Lot with a 32m frontage close to the CBD isn't going to happen. Maybe one day it will be the house we retire into. Anyway, even though there was a sale lady in the office, there was a sign on the door saying it was appointment only. She saw us but made no move to come out and talk to us.
We saw 2 other Hillsides, one built with a guy mowing his lawn in front of it and the other at plaster stage. Is your neighbour also building a Hillside? (Not to be stalkers of anything!) Will you guys have matching facards? I know in our estate that matching facards have to be a min of 5 houses apart but every estate is different.

I'm excited for you, to have site scrape and be starting. Now all the stress can melt away and the fun bit begins... at least I hope that's the case.

Cheers
C.

inexp_user · Jan 21, 2018 1:46 pm

What is with the plans reverting back?! That happened to us with our downpipes too. It makes me worried that we may have changed something but it has reverted back in later plans and we've not picked it up. Time will tell, I guess.

The display home at Lomandra has actually been sold. I'm not sure if they are still taking people through it. There are a few Hillsides in the estate. One on the main road with a traditional brick facade, one in the estates with hebel, the one you saw at plaster and ours. The one at plaster has same facade as the display house in hebel. Ours is a colonial facade, brick and one gable. The windows are different as well. We got developer approval prior to signing to make sure the differences were enough. There is nothing the same except the positioning of the windows.

We have our peers and a powerbox installed now. There has been action on the block everyday this week which is exciting. Hopefully the build will be less stressful than the contract process!

Charly6s · Jan 21, 2018 3:45 pm

inexp_user

What is with the plans reverting back?! That happened to us with our downpipes too. It makes me worried that we may have changed something but it has reverted back in later plans and we've not picked it up. Time will tell, I guess.

The display home at Lomandra has actually been sold. I'm not sure if they are still taking people through it. There are a few Hillsides in the estate. One on the main road with a traditional brick facade, one in the estates with hebel, the one you saw at plaster and ours. The one at plaster has same facade as the display house in hebel. Ours is a colonial facade, brick and one gable. The windows are different as well. We got developer approval prior to signing to make sure the differences were enough. There is nothing the same except the positioning of the windows.

We have our peers and a powerbox installed now. There has been action on the block everyday this week which is exciting. Hopefully the build will be less stressful than the contract process!

That is exciting - Yes I am hoping that the build will be less stressful than the tender/contact process as well. God, I don't think I could handle it if it was more. I hope that it's just exciting with no stress but I think I am fooling my self.

Charly6s · Jan 21, 2018 3:48 pm

inexp_user

Went back today to check if anyone was onsite using our new portaloo and look what I found!! I don't understand why there are different levels but I am sure they know what they are doing.

So far I'm impressed with the communication as I received an email this morning saying today is our official start date and then I received a phone call from our base supervisor. This afternoon i went to site and found work was well and truly underway.

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The different levels are because the garage, front portico and alfresco sab hights are lower than the rest of the house, but the slabs are still the same thickness, so they have to be cut down into the ground more.

inexp_user · Feb 02, 2018 12:54 pm

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And we have a slab!! Well, it was being poured when I stalked the block this morning.

inphaze · Feb 02, 2018 12:56 pm

Hooray, you’re finally on your way to get your house built
Fantastic news

inexp_user · Feb 02, 2018 1:05 pm

Yesterday was our pre-pour inspection. Hubby and I went by in the morning and walked around our block checking out the boys boxing out the slab. Our Supervisor came over and introduced himself and gave us bit of a run down of proceedings. I have been very impressed with his communication by phone and text. I never had to wonder what was going on, he always kept me informed. He communicated direct with Darbecca and pushed the inspection out a couple of hours.

We met the PD inspector on site as they hadn't quite finished. He asked if we'd booked a private inspector as well. He did tell us he was there to make sure the house wouldn't fall down and would pick up anything major and our private inspector would pick up all the little things as well 'because that is what you pay the big bucks for'. I said I just want a slab built to Australian Standards. After that he softened and said hopefully he and our inspector would pick out the same things.

We hired Darbecca to do our inspection. He was very polite and told us the base supervisor was very friendly and accomodating. There were only a few defects and the concreter fixed all of them on the spot. He said it was a very good job. After receiving a report I got a text from our Supervisor stating he got the report and was happy to see they had rectified all issues at the time of the inspection and advised the pour was all set for the morning. Some may prefer a phone call but I much prefer a text (that way I can forward on to hubby too).

All in all we are very happy with Porter Davis so far in our build. Very good communication and apparently a very good pre-pour inspection. Hopefully we will be saying the same after each of the stages!

inexp_user · Feb 02, 2018 1:06 pm

inphaze

Hooray, you’re finally on your way to get your house built
Fantastic news

It all feels so real now! Is it too early to start buying furniture? lol

inphaze · Feb 02, 2018 1:25 pm

Never too early to start buying furniture, Charlotte and I bought 2 new couches at Nick Scali because they had a very good deal. And we haven’t even started construction yet

Debbie.A · Jul 31, 2019 1:25 pm

Hi, did you have photos of your finished house? Love your colour selections!