Porter Davis homes

I think 13k is good for site costs and if its fixed then great! I have also heard some bad stories about PD, as you have read here Liz has had nothing short of a nightmare! I have also heard plenty of good stories so I guess you can never tell. Our experience so far with them has been positive but we haven't started building yet! We are signing our contract on Tuesday and hopefully building in April.

The house price seems to jump regularly. There has been 2 price increases on our house since we first looked at it late last year!

I think most people have fairly positive experiences, it's just when things go wrong is when we complain. When things go smoothly we are quiet. Human nature!

Liz has had a not so great (understatement!) build but many people have had good builds.

Every company has the same issues with some people very happy, most people content and a small proportion very unhappy.

We chose PD and are happy so far although not completely smooth sailing. We didn't come in expecting a perfect build and expected road blocks and situations along the way which has made us more accepting when things don't go perfectly. My husband is also a lawyer so that does bring some comfort as legally we are very aware of our rights and he is very capable of getting issues sorted pronto. PD know his profession as well (they asked what he did at contract as clearly he knows what he is talking about!)
We also have no experience building but have tried to educate ourselves as much as possible with this forum, blogs and asking friends. Also an independent inspector (Darbecca)This is a must!!!
We also didn't have a tIght budget so when expenses pop up we are relaxed about it.
So far we have no hesitation in recommending PD but admittedly only at framing stage (ohhh see new photo!)

Also yes to price hike, our PlazaB is 50K more than we paid (contract was July I think!) and also the inclusions with the 'dare to dream' package no where near as good as when we signed. Free Hebel, aircon, great free upgrades..all gone!
Thankful we signed when we did.

Completely agree sunshine83, I wouldn't say we have had completely smooth sailing by any means, but I think it's also about expectations.

Your build is coming along well, what facade did you go with.

We almost (finally) at lock up.

We've chosen Hampton facade, I wanted all light grey but husband wanted the Berwick Hamptons so we went with that.
Yours looks great! What facade is it?
We are expecting an October finish although they've said August. Keeping expectations low

Hi Sunshine, Has your build started yet? I know you were having the pool installed not long ago. How does it look?

Yes! It's in framing stage. Photo is about 3 posts above of the framing.
The Darbecca independent inspector was happy with the slab so that's a good sign so far.
It's moving pretty quickly, slab was 2nd week Feb & framing started last week.
Once the slab is in that's when things start to move, very exciting!

Sorry, I did actually see that post! Very exciting, I'm hoping that once they start then I will know of a end date, until it actually starts you can't really be sure.

that looks great sunshine83, we also went with the Hampton facade and played safe with colours by sticking with the standard colouring in the picture. http://www.porterdavis.com.au/~/media/h ... rop=1&as=1

Those are the colours I wanted! I thought you'd chosen Hampton but hard to tell until colours up.
Did you do white garage?

You don't have a rough timeline do you of what happened with your build ie Dec slab, late Dec frame?

Trying to guesstimate how long it might take

Hi Guys,

Can anyone tell me if they received these documents at contract time?

Council approved plans (stamped plans)
Builders Insurance contract of works.
Builders Public liability Insurance.

The bank require these documents before we can proceed with the mortgage.

I have just asked our BC and she said they won't be available until they commence the build?

She said that they are not available until they receive the building permit, The building surveyor won't issue the building permit until they receive developers approval.

I don't know what she means by developers approval? We are doing a KDR not building in a new development.

These documents are not available until we receive the building permit, this is available when we commence construction.mflksafkj

Garage is white (near white anyway as you can't get white) like the picture too, we played safe.

Hope this helps, we slipped a lot with the framer, they didn't have enough people on the job, its complex with the beams and side projections and he was pedantic (not necessarily a bad thing!)

Mid September – Site Cut
Mid Oct – Slab pour
Late Oct – Frame Start
Mid nov – first floor frame complete
Late nov – second floor frame and upper roof complete
Early Dec – Frame Inspection and windows installed (our inspector and the frame still wasn’t 100% complete)
Mid Jan – Downstairs hebel
Late Jan – Upstairs hebel
Early Feb – Upstairs render

This week – Side projection roof and upstairs cladding
Early Mar – Lockup (fingers crossed!)

Remember what happens when you try and guesstimate!!!

Our contract completion is end of June and we had a chat with our S/S last week about our concern to hit this date, he said that his estimate is still to finish around mid May, more fingers crossed.....

Hi nikil

We had exactly the same issue as you which was made worse as we needed to get rid of trees during the demo of the original house that we couldn't do until we had approved build plans that you don't get until just before they go to site, which they won't do till the house was gone!!! I hope you don't need to get rid of trees.

You will get the two insurance docs as part of the contract.

Our bank approved the mortgage and had it ready to go subject to final approved plans by the surveyor that PD use, hope this helps

Hi, the council approved plans came through a couple of week before going to site and the insurance docs came in the mail, the week works commenced. You don't need developers approval. We used our own funds to cover the cost of the demo as the mortgage funds would not be released by the bank until they had the stamped plans. We did the demo in November and transferred to site in January. We didn't need to provide the insurance docs to our bank just the council approved plans. I don't think they will put the plans in to council until after the second soil test which can't be done until the house is demolished.

Yes we also used our own funds to do the demo. I can see where you are coming from if you are wanting to use the mortgage to cover the demo

We have only just been told this today so we weren't aware that we needed any of these things. It's annoying but we will have to figure something out.

Our demolition guy is now taking the *** as well I don't know what he's up to but he's certainly not working!

That is a similar colour of our current home.

Has anyone got recommendations for a site clean up company? we have rubbish and some concrete thrown on our block and need this cleared before site.

thanks,

Can anyone also recommend a good demolition person in case ours leaves us in a bad way?

Do you know who did it? If so you can complain to your council and they can try trace it and get them to remove.