Porter Davis homes

Waldorf_Grange_Build · May 04, 2017 7:41 pm

Hurrow

Waldorf_Grange_Build

Hurrow

We're sorting out our application for developer approval at the moment, as part of that we have to say what letterbox we are going to have, what type of driveway, and a landscaping plan with at least 20 plants and one tree apparently. Who on earth gives much thought in advance as to what kind of letterbox they are going to have? We had a drive around the estate last night to look at what other people have done with their landscaping, I didn't see too many people with 20 plants and very few with a tree! Why would I want to plant a tree in front of my house? Argh!!!

We had quite strict estate guidelines to adhere to. This included specifying the exact letterbox, and designing our entire garden front and back which required 3 X advanced (3m) native trees in the front, 5 X advanced (3m) native trees in the back and 20 native plants.

Very hard to decide a year out from even being in the house.

That's a lot of trees, hopefully they don't have issues with the roots!

I think it'd be a lot easier to decide what to do with the landscaping when we can actually see what the house and yard looks like, I guess the developer wants to be able to say that you have agreed to doing something decent with your front yard at least so it has to be done in advance.

We actually kind of * and made the trees this type of pencil pine down the side of the driveway and down the side of the backyard. It is a native and doesn't take up a lot of room allowing us to still have the freedom with the rest of the yard.

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lizbf85 · May 05, 2017 10:10 am

nikil

lizbf85

nikil

Latest update from our BC.

The drafting team is currently working on the drawings, once complete the plans will be issued back to council for approval. At this stage the plans generally take a minimum of 5 weeks for approval.

Did you call the council as well to get their SLA on current applications?
I imagine the drafting team is where they make slab amendments, and it sounds like they could be. I'd be also asking when the final costs would be determined, as they should know this before it gets sent off.

Its a pain that they cant even give you a time frame on that.

Hi Liz,

I responded to her asking when we would find out if there was any change to the site costs. I haven't got a reply on this yet.
They contacted our broker this morning to get confirmation of our unconditional loan approval too.

Thats the beauty of calling rather than email becasue they have to answer your questions. so slack of them!
Well that is a good sign, if they are wanting to finalise approval and amount then perhaps nothing has changed which is fantastic for you

nikil · May 05, 2017 10:11 am

Yes as much as I was hoping the cost would go down I'm just relieved it hasn't gone up.

I've called plenty of times but always get voicemail, which she responds to by email..

Waldorf_Grange_Build · May 05, 2017 10:17 am

nikil

Yes as much as I was hoping the cost would go down I'm just relieved it hasn't gone up.

I've called plenty of times but always get voicemail, which she responds to by email..

I prefer email so I have every conversation in writing to refer back to.

Hurrow · May 05, 2017 10:31 am

nikil

Yes as much as I was hoping the cost would go down I'm just relieved it hasn't gone up.

I've called plenty of times but always get voicemail, which she responds to by email..

I go with both. If my BC responds with a phone call and we discuss anything of substance then I ask for it to be sent to me in an email as well so I have a permanent record of it.

lizbf85 · May 05, 2017 10:34 am

Waldorf_Grange_Build

The picket fence and front door sound lovely. We are not allowed to have front fences in our estate. :-(

Are you getting a real fireplace or a gas fireplace. We opted for gas in the end but I love the smell of an open fire.

Now for the style, its a tough one. I think once our door is finished we will be able to pick.
Oh thats a shame, are you in one of the new estates?

Gas, of course the real fire smell is amazing. We chose a pretty large realistic unit so i cannot wait to see it. Minus the smell ha

lizbf85 · May 05, 2017 10:37 am

nikil

Yes as much as I was hoping the cost would go down I'm just relieved it hasn't gone up.

I've called plenty of times but always get voicemail, which she responds to by email..

Absolutely!

yeah that is slack.

Yes Waldorf so do i, we usually used to email then call. Although i must say our initial BC was great. She has since been moved to a manager role.

way2funky · May 05, 2017 11:57 pm

Waldorf_Grange_Build

Hurrow

We're sorting out our application for developer approval at the moment, as part of that we have to say what letterbox we are going to have, what type of driveway, and a landscaping plan with at least 20 plants and one tree apparently. Who on earth gives much thought in advance as to what kind of letterbox they are going to have? We had a drive around the estate last night to look at what other people have done with their landscaping, I didn't see too many people with 20 plants and very few with a tree! Why would I want to plant a tree in front of my house? Argh!!!

We had quite strict estate guidelines to adhere to. This included specifying the exact letterbox, and designing our entire garden front and back which required 3 X advanced (3m) native trees in the front, 5 X advanced (3m) native trees in the back and 20 native plants.

Very hard to decide a year out from even being in the house.

Hahaha and i thought my developer were strict, wow this is military compound style like.

The funny thing is many of people present a taj mahal landscape plan just to get the permit then you see them a year later with mulch front yard and one small half dead tree. i guess the permit time is the only time the developers can flex their muscles.lol

Hurrow · May 07, 2017 4:27 pm

way2funky

Waldorf_Grange_Build

We had quite strict estate guidelines to adhere to. This included specifying the exact letterbox, and designing our entire garden front and back which required 3 X advanced (3m) native trees in the front, 5 X advanced (3m) native trees in the back and 20 native plants.

Very hard to decide a year out from even being in the house.

Hahaha and i thought my developer were strict, wow this is military compound style like.

The funny thing is many of people present a taj mahal landscape plan just to get the permit then you see them a year later with mulch front yard and one small half dead tree. i guess the permit time is the only time the developers can flex their muscles.lol

It'd certainly be interesting to know how much they can and can't do if you don't follow your plan or have at least some decent landscaping in place. I can see why they want people to have something nice, if you're trying to convince a bunch of people to buy into a new area you want to be saying that everyone is going to have to have a pretty nice garden out front rather than a bare front yard, but I think it'd be difficult to force people who have leveraged up to the hilt to buy their house to then come up with another couple thousand bucks to put in a front yard beyond the basics.

thejuros · May 07, 2017 5:40 pm

Hurrow

way2funky

Waldorf_Grange_Build

We had quite strict estate guidelines to adhere to. This included specifying the exact letterbox, and designing our entire garden front and back which required 3 X advanced (3m) native trees in the front, 5 X advanced (3m) native trees in the back and 20 native plants.

Very hard to decide a year out from even being in the house.

Hahaha and i thought my developer were strict, wow this is military compound style like.

The funny thing is many of people present a taj mahal landscape plan just to get the permit then you see them a year later with mulch front yard and one small half dead tree. i guess the permit time is the only time the developers can flex their muscles.lol

It'd certainly be interesting to know how much they can and can't do if you don't follow your plan or have at least some decent landscaping in place. I can see why they want people to have something nice, if you're trying to convince a bunch of people to buy into a new area you want to be saying that everyone is going to have to have a pretty nice garden out front rather than a bare front yard, but I think it'd be difficult to force people who have leveraged up to the hilt to buy their house to then come up with another couple thousand bucks to put in a front yard beyond the basics.

We get $5000 cash back from our developer if our front landscaping is done within 3months of handover.
It's a good insensitive for everyone to get it done and make the estate look 'finished'

Waldorf_Grange_Build · May 07, 2017 6:03 pm

thejuros

Hurrow

way2funky

Hahaha and i thought my developer were strict, wow this is military compound style like.

The funny thing is many of people present a taj mahal landscape plan just to get the permit then you see them a year later with mulch front yard and one small half dead tree. i guess the permit time is the only time the developers can flex their muscles.lol

It'd certainly be interesting to know how much they can and can't do if you don't follow your plan or have at least some decent landscaping in place. I can see why they want people to have something nice, if you're trying to convince a bunch of people to buy into a new area you want to be saying that everyone is going to have to have a pretty nice garden out front rather than a bare front yard, but I think it'd be difficult to force people who have leveraged up to the hilt to buy their house to then come up with another couple thousand bucks to put in a front yard beyond the basics.

We get $5000 cash back from our developer if our front landscaping is done within 3months of handover.
It's a good insensitive for everyone to get it done and make the estate look 'finished'

Wow that sounds good. I'd love it if ours did that.

Hurrow · May 07, 2017 6:11 pm

thejuros

Hurrow

way2funky

Hahaha and i thought my developer were strict, wow this is military compound style like.

The funny thing is many of people present a taj mahal landscape plan just to get the permit then you see them a year later with mulch front yard and one small half dead tree. i guess the permit time is the only time the developers can flex their muscles.lol

It'd certainly be interesting to know how much they can and can't do if you don't follow your plan or have at least some decent landscaping in place. I can see why they want people to have something nice, if you're trying to convince a bunch of people to buy into a new area you want to be saying that everyone is going to have to have a pretty nice garden out front rather than a bare front yard, but I think it'd be difficult to force people who have leveraged up to the hilt to buy their house to then come up with another couple thousand bucks to put in a front yard beyond the basics.

We get $5000 cash back from our developer if our front landscaping is done within 3months of handover.
It's a good insensitive for everyone to get it done and make the estate look 'finished'

Or to put it another way, the developer has increased the price of the land by $5,000 but will give you that money back if you do some landscaping!

The estate near us has that same scheme.

AnnPerkins · May 07, 2017 8:07 pm

We had a look at a PD Waldorf that is on the market in Glen Waverley yesterday. Very nice. I think it will go for $2mil. :shock:

thejuros · May 07, 2017 8:51 pm

Hurrow

Or to put it another way, the developer has increased the price of the land by $5,000 but will give you that money back if you do some landscaping!

The estate near us has that same scheme.

Yeah exactly right! we were thinking of buying a block in another estate and for land that is slow to sell they put a $5000 'free' landscaping incentive on it to try and sell them before the next stage releases.
So we knew we were technically paying for it in the land price and it wasn't really for free.

way2funky · May 09, 2017 10:31 am

Hurrow

way2funky

Waldorf_Grange_Build

We had quite strict estate guidelines to adhere to. This included specifying the exact letterbox, and designing our entire garden front and back which required 3 X advanced (3m) native trees in the front, 5 X advanced (3m) native trees in the back and 20 native plants.

Very hard to decide a year out from even being in the house.

Hahaha and i thought my developer were strict, wow this is military compound style like.

The funny thing is many of people present a taj mahal landscape plan just to get the permit then you see them a year later with mulch front yard and one small half dead tree. i guess the permit time is the only time the developers can flex their muscles.lol

It'd certainly be interesting to know how much they can and can't do if you don't follow your plan or have at least some decent landscaping in place. I can see why they want people to have something nice, if you're trying to convince a bunch of people to buy into a new area you want to be saying that everyone is going to have to have a pretty nice garden out front rather than a bare front yard, but I think it'd be difficult to force people who have leveraged up to the hilt to buy their house to then come up with another couple thousand bucks to put in a front yard beyond the basics.

9528 · May 09, 2017 10:51 am

Had tender last week. Couldn't sign it off due to quite a few discrepancies. I wasn't told anything regarding what's going to happen next.
Has anyone got similar experience?

nikil · May 09, 2017 10:52 am

What were the discrepancies?

Hurrow · May 09, 2017 11:24 am

9528

Had tender last week. Couldn't sign it off due to quite a few discrepancies. I wasn't told anything regarding what's going to happen next.
Has anyone got similar experience?

I'd reach out to your BC and ask them what's happening. If there are a bunch of small discrepancies like not having quotes updated or plans from KC/electrical etc that just need to get sorted out but the house as a whole will be fine when that's done then it's no big deal. If you came across some deal breakers as part of your tender, then I guess you and PD will need to figure out if anything can be done to fix things. In any case you need to talk about it with your BC and figure out who needs to do what.

9528 · May 09, 2017 11:26 am

nikil

What were the discrepancies?

Several items I was promised and quoted by Sales, but they told me bluntly that it was either impossible or I was given wrong information.

9528 · May 09, 2017 11:29 am

Hurrow

9528

Had tender last week. Couldn't sign it off due to quite a few discrepancies. I wasn't told anything regarding what's going to happen next.
Has anyone got similar experience?

I'd reach out to your BC and ask them what's happening. If there are a bunch of small discrepancies like not having quotes updated or plans from KC/electrical etc that just need to get sorted out but the house as a whole will be fine when that's done then it's no big deal. If you came across some deal breakers as part of your tender, then I guess you and PD will need to figure out if anything can be done to fix things. In any case you need to talk about it with your BC and figure out who needs to do what.

Hi Hurrow, thanks for the advice. I'm going to contact me BC and see what would be the next.