Porter Davis homes

lizbf85 · Aug 17, 2017 12:06 pm

nikil

Finally some good news for us today. We have been waiting for final drawings to be finished and sent to us for signing. Got an email from BC this morning saying this should be done by late next week... awesome another 2 weeks waiting. Then at lunch time I got 6 emails with all the drawings and variations to sign! And the icing on the cake was a $3,500 credit as the slab requires less work than planned so that's brings our site costs down to $41,500 instead of the original $50,000 that was quoted.

So now we have to wait for an email from the construction team with dates for starting. I hope this won't take long

horray!! so happy for you.. you can now move on from this delay and start your new home

make sure you invest in a third party inspection company ( best decision we ever made)

update for us: we just had our 3 month inspection with absolute ease. I think i mentioned only a few minor fixes, he completed the works over two days
We had our ceiling repainted yesterday by a lovely old guy. They simply wanted to do it so that " it looked nicer" so we took it haha we also had several patch holes in our ceiling from our installation of our down lights ( post handover) that he too nicely patched up and repainted. Score!

Their post handover for us has been a breeze in comparison to the build itself... I feel this is heavily due to our inspector picking up everything during the build.

Laura Ireland · Aug 17, 2017 9:41 pm

Hello,

Newbie here.

We paid a $2,000 holding deposit to PD and had pur WOS appointment today. I noticed there were a few things we asked for not on the plan that we duscussed with the sales agent. Apparently it's going to cost us $1,200 as they are structural changes. Such as centering the sink in the bathroom, adding a sink to the galley, double doors on theatre room and a window that is not on the plans but when we were walked around was told that window was included.

Our next appointment is a contract appointment. Apparently we don't get a copy of the plans or contract prior and we have to sign it there and then and hand over the 5% deposit. We have only seen rough plans (i.e cut and paste in display centre) & have only just sighter the real plans today. However they would not give us a copy.

I feel somethings not right????

Others keep mentioning "Tender appointment". We don't have this.

nikil · Aug 17, 2017 9:49 pm

Laura Ireland

Hello,

Newbie here.

We paid a $2,000 holding deposit to PD and had pur WOS appointment today. I noticed there were a few things we asked for not on the plan that we duscussed with the sales agent. Apparently it's going to cost us $1,200 as they are structural changes. Such as centering the sink in the bathroom, adding a sink to the galley, double doors on theatre room and a window that is not on the plans but when we were walked around was told that window was included.

Our next appointment is a contract appointment. Apparently we don't get a copy of the plans or contract prior and we have to sign it there and then and hand over the 5% deposit. We have only seen rough plans (i.e cut and paste in display centre) & have only just sighter the real plans today. However they would not give us a copy.

I feel somethings not right????

Others keep mentioning "Tender appointment". We don't have this.

What house are you building? The things you mentioned do sound like extras except the sink in the bathroom, what do you mean by centering it? Your sales guy should have included the things you wanted in the sales quote.

Laura Ireland · Aug 17, 2017 10:57 pm

nikil

Laura Ireland

Hello,

Newbie here.

We paid a $2,000 holding deposit to PD and had pur WOS appointment today. I noticed there were a few things we asked for not on the plan that we duscussed with the sales agent. Apparently it's going to cost us $1,200 as they are structural changes. Such as centering the sink in the bathroom, adding a sink to the galley, double doors on theatre room and a window that is not on the plans but when we were walked around was told that window was included.

Our next appointment is a contract appointment. Apparently we don't get a copy of the plans or contract prior and we have to sign it there and then and hand over the 5% deposit. We have only seen rough plans (i.e cut and paste in display centre) & have only just sighter the real plans today. However they would not give us a copy.

I feel somethings not right????

Others keep mentioning "Tender appointment". We don't have this.

What house are you building? The things you mentioned do sound like extras except the sink in the bathroom, what do you mean by centering it? Your sales guy should have included the things you wanted in the sales quote.

We are building the Charlton 33 but with quite a few upgrades. Grand Master ensuite, Princess Ensuite, seperate wc, extended kitchen living and dining, switched powder and laundry, galley and seperate pantry, grand alfresco.

I took this photo today. I just want the sink centred on the vanity.

I just thought we would get the opportunity to view the plans and make changes.
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Laura Ireland · Aug 17, 2017 10:59 pm

I don't mind paying for the extra stuff but I think it's unfair to charge us a fee for structural changes when we haven't had a chance to view the plans in the first place

Waldorf_Grange_Build · Aug 18, 2017 5:35 am

We have our pre-paint/fixing inspection with Darbecca today. Wish me luck 🤞🏼

- View my blog at www.waldorfgrangebuild.wordpress.com

KushD · Aug 18, 2017 6:07 am

Waldorf_Grange_Build

We have our pre-paint/fixing inspection with Darbecca today. Wish me luck 🤞🏼

- View my blog at http://www.waldorfgrangebuild.wordpress.com

All the best mate. Hope it all go well.

nikil · Aug 18, 2017 6:44 am

Laura Ireland

I don't mind paying for the extra stuff but I think it's unfair to charge us a fee for structural changes when we haven't had a chance to view the plans in the first place

Laura with that many upgrades is ring your BC and insist on a tender appointment so you can go through all your plans and make changes like this. Give them a call and see what they say. The tender appointment is where you get to review all the plans and make changes.

goldencrumble · Aug 18, 2017 9:07 am

Hi Laura. Another newbie here, also building an Advantage home as a KRB. So far we have only paid the $2k deposit.

We have a tender appointment scheduled for next month. Did you get a copy of the Procedure of Purchase? Ours is:

Stage 4 - Tender (site costs and finalising structural changes
Stage 5 - WOS and interior design
Stage 6 - Contract

goldencrumble · Aug 18, 2017 9:09 am

Waldorf_Grange_Build

We have our pre-paint/fixing inspection with Darbecca today. Wish me luck 🤞🏼

- View my blog at http://www.waldorfgrangebuild.wordpress.com

Hope it goes smoothly for you! I have also just engaged Darbecca for our build as well.

nikil · Aug 18, 2017 9:16 am

We are also going to use Darbecca. Thanks to this forum I think it would be silly to not get an independent inspector.

Hurrow · Aug 18, 2017 9:34 am

Laura with regards to the sink we moved it to the centre as well, we discussed this with Kitchen Culture at WoS and they (eventually) took care of it. Everything else you are talking about sounds like you have already discussed and it will be on the plans, you just haven't seen it yet. I would be asking for your BC to send you over the plans ASAP, you should definitely be getting this well before your contract appointment. If everything is as you want then happy days and you might be ok going straight through to contract, if not then I'd be asking for a tender appointment.

Laura Ireland · Aug 18, 2017 9:38 am

We have our Kitchen Culture appointment this morning so I will ask about the sink again with them. The costs are adding up quite quick. Even things like toilet roll holders and fans in bathrooms aren't included. This is new to me. Last time I built these sort of things were included.

Ashik_09 · Aug 18, 2017 9:38 am

lizbf85

Ashik_09

Waldorf_Grange_Build

So when I went out to visit my house the other day I noticed a plaster bulkhead in the void was not installed. The site supervisor said it was never on the drawings so they didn't put one in. I pulled up my google docs and showed him we were charged for it in our tender documents. He said they will have to add it in but the scaffolding has already been taken away and will now need to come back. They are due to start painting next week so lucky I spotted it now. Please go over your tender with the drawings right before the build and ask if you think something is missing. This is not something I thought of originally when I went through the drawings. Hard to know what should and shouldn't be on there.

- View my blog at http://www.waldorfgrangebuild.wordpress.com

Good you found it on time

I think they should provide a 3d walk through as well,...

We had asked for 2 sets of hangers on LHS of the WIR and a single on RHS.. The hanger line on left was at 6ft and 5ft on the right in the contract drawing.. and I was like ??????????????? and the BC goes, because there is a bulkhead.. and when I asked why.. didn't know why there was a bulk head.. and took 2 hours to remove the bulkhead and sync the hanger line heights

All of this happened on the contract day.. now am looking at my contract documents and I am seeing some serious issues which we have address with bulkheads, renders, render paneling and window styles.

Just wait till you actually build and mistakes are still made..

. we had several issues where things were not completed to plan.
We found it very frustrating when we spent months perfecting contracts and drawings causing delay and trades still coudln't follow them. So long as they are right before you start they will have to fix them.

Good luck

I know liz, the amount of trouble you had to go through. this would at-least prepare us a bit more. We have set our expectations low and mentally ready (assuming) to face the dramas.

Ashik_09 · Aug 18, 2017 9:45 am

Laura Ireland

Hello,

Newbie here.

We paid a $2,000 holding deposit to PD and had pur WOS appointment today. I noticed there were a few things we asked for not on the plan that we duscussed with the sales agent. Apparently it's going to cost us $1,200 as they are structural changes. Such as centering the sink in the bathroom, adding a sink to the galley, double doors on theatre room and a window that is not on the plans but when we were walked around was told that window was included.

Our next appointment is a contract appointment. Apparently we don't get a copy of the plans or contract prior and we have to sign it there and then and hand over the 5% deposit. We have only seen rough plans (i.e cut and paste in display centre) & have only just sighter the real plans today. However they would not give us a copy.

I feel somethings not right????

Others keep mentioning "Tender appointment". We don't have this.

Hi Laura,

you are supposed to have a tender appointment - ABSOLUTELY, unless you have requested to skip and hurry it up. Please make sure you fine comb through the plans, the drawings and the inclusions. Well PD, doesn't really care if the double charge, but we need to make sure wee don't get unnecessarily charged. $1200 sounds good for the structural changes, our structural changes and other additions came up to $10K, and the site cost was $30K for a pretty flat land.

You can ask your WOS person to email the plans through to you. We changed few things within 2 days of WOS and kitchen culture, argus electrical and tiles guys did the changes and sent through the updated plans.

At the tender, a detailed breakdown of cost and plans were provided, where we noticed few things not aligning to our request.. And fixed them. Even had to finalise stuff during the contract.. And now looking at the drawing, I see more inconsistencies.

ask for it.

Laura Ireland · Aug 18, 2017 1:31 pm

Ashik_09

Laura Ireland

Hello,

Newbie here.

We paid a $2,000 holding deposit to PD and had pur WOS appointment today. I noticed there were a few things we asked for not on the plan that we duscussed with the sales agent. Apparently it's going to cost us $1,200 as they are structural changes. Such as centering the sink in the bathroom, adding a sink to the galley, double doors on theatre room and a window that is not on the plans but when we were walked around was told that window was included.

Our next appointment is a contract appointment. Apparently we don't get a copy of the plans or contract prior and we have to sign it there and then and hand over the 5% deposit. We have only seen rough plans (i.e cut and paste in display centre) & have only just sighter the real plans today. However they would not give us a copy.

I feel somethings not right????

Others keep mentioning "Tender appointment". We don't have this.

Hi Laura,

you are supposed to have a tender appointment - ABSOLUTELY, unless you have requested to skip and hurry it up. Please make sure you fine comb through the plans, the drawings and the inclusions. Well PD, doesn't really care if the double charge, but we need to make sure wee don't get unnecessarily charged. $1200 sounds good for the structural changes, our structural changes and other additions came up to $10K, and the site cost was $30K for a pretty flat land.

You can ask your WOS person to email the plans through to you. We changed few things within 2 days of WOS and kitchen culture, argus electrical and tiles guys did the changes and sent through the updated plans.

At the tender, a detailed breakdown of cost and plans were provided, where we noticed few things not aligning to our request.. And fixed them. Even had to finalise stuff during the contract.. And now looking at the drawing, I see more inconsistencies.

ask of it.

Thanks. We made about $75k in structural upgrades and addons. I mean a $1,200 fee to change anything structural.

nikil · Aug 18, 2017 1:35 pm

Hi Laura,

Did you speak to your BC about a tender? It will make things a lot easier for you as once you sign on contract day then you cannot make any more structural changes and any other changes will incur a $500 admin fee as well as the cost of the change.

Ashik_09 · Aug 18, 2017 2:36 pm

Laura Ireland

Ashik_09

Laura Ireland

Hello,

Newbie here.

We paid a $2,000 holding deposit to PD and had pur WOS appointment today. I noticed there were a few things we asked for not on the plan that we duscussed with the sales agent. Apparently it's going to cost us $1,200 as they are structural changes. Such as centering the sink in the bathroom, adding a sink to the galley, double doors on theatre room and a window that is not on the plans but when we were walked around was told that window was included.

Our next appointment is a contract appointment. Apparently we don't get a copy of the plans or contract prior and we have to sign it there and then and hand over the 5% deposit. We have only seen rough plans (i.e cut and paste in display centre) & have only just sighter the real plans today. However they would not give us a copy.

I feel somethings not right????

Others keep mentioning "Tender appointment". We don't have this.

Hi Laura,

you are supposed to have a tender appointment - ABSOLUTELY, unless you have requested to skip and hurry it up. Please make sure you fine comb through the plans, the drawings and the inclusions. Well PD, doesn't really care if the double charge, but we need to make sure wee don't get unnecessarily charged. $1200 sounds good for the structural changes, our structural changes and other additions came up to $10K, and the site cost was $30K for a pretty flat land.

You can ask your WOS person to email the plans through to you. We changed few things within 2 days of WOS and kitchen culture, argus electrical and tiles guys did the changes and sent through the updated plans.

At the tender, a detailed breakdown of cost and plans were provided, where we noticed few things not aligning to our request.. And fixed them. Even had to finalise stuff during the contract.. And now looking at the drawing, I see more inconsistencies.

ask of it.

Thanks. We made about $75k in structural upgrades and addons. I mean a $1,200 fee to change anything structural.

Was the $1200 for structural changes post contract?

lucy-b · Aug 18, 2017 10:48 pm

sencillez · Aug 20, 2017 9:38 pm

Hi, to anyone who has a retaining wall in their site costs, at which stage will it be installed? Our slab is complete but there's still no retaining wall?