Joles. I get what your saying.. however it will become a issue considering Austral are stating one thing (discontinuation) and PD are saying another (here is the quote/tender for $4141 for your cat6 bricks Mr. Humble) if it is proven (and that will be easy enough to do..) that Austral have advised PD and PD are still quoting it, then that is a problem.
At this stage, my CSC has gone quite. Thats ok, she is a busy girl... ill wait and see...
Porter Davis homes
Page 107 of 862
I don't think that it will be their intention to mislead you. If they are quoting you, they will genuinely believe they are available. Humble, the builder is not your enemy, yep they stuff up sometimes and they drive you mad and you will have to be on top of them, but they are not sitting at the office trying to figure out ways to screw people intentionally.
Joles comments are 100% correct !!!
We're building with Lifestyle and had similar problems with Boral. I posted details on this on a previous post but in short we were told to choose a different brick on the day that the original bricks were meant to be delivered due to our choice being suspended.
After visiting Boral we quickly realised that all similar colour bricks were also suspended and that we would have to choose a different colour which meant that there would be a colour clash with our installed window frames !!!!
However, after explaining our situation to Boral, the sales woman there did her best to re-source our choice of brick by going through existing forward orders. These forward orders would then be supplied at a later date.
After 45mins in Boral's office we had our chosen brick again. When I phoned PD to tell them that I had managed to source them they were very surprised !!!
Once the home is finished we intend to go back to Boral's office and give the Sales woman a big bunch of flowers for her help !!!
Anyway, bottom line is don't just rely on PD. If you go to the supplier and explain your situation they may be able to help.....
Good Luck.......
Chorlton
We're building with Lifestyle and had similar problems with Boral. I posted details on this on a previous post but in short we were told to choose a different brick on the day that the original bricks were meant to be delivered due to our choice being suspended.
After visiting Boral we quickly realised that all similar colour bricks were also suspended and that we would have to choose a different colour which meant that there would be a colour clash with our installed window frames !!!!
However, after explaining our situation to Boral, the sales woman there did her best to re-source our choice of brick by going through existing forward orders. These forward orders would then be supplied at a later date.
After 45mins in Boral's office we had our chosen brick again. When I phoned PD to tell them that I had managed to source them they were very surprised !!!
Once the home is finished we intend to go back to Boral's office and give the Sales woman a big bunch of flowers for her help !!!
Anyway, bottom line is don't just rely on PD. If you go to the supplier and explain your situation they may be able to help.....
Good Luck.......
Chorlton
I don't think that it will be their intention to mislead you. If they are quoting you, they will genuinely believe they are available. Humble, the builder is not your enemy, yep they stuff up sometimes and they drive you mad and you will have to be on top of them, but they are not sitting at the office trying to figure out ways to screw people intentionally.
Oh I agree. Bricks have been a challenge, and after finally working through those challenges to have this pop up is immensely frustrating. We are stuck with Austral, and there is really only 2 bricks in there range that suit us, one of them being spot on.
My biggest issue, is I spent all weekend finalizing our colors before going on 3 weeks of travel with work. Only to now have to go back and re-visit the whole externals of the house again. That is frustrating. I wont even be in Melbourne for the next 2 weeks let alone be able to drive around and pick a new brick. We have looked at every Austral brick from the outside, done in excess of 150km driving over weekends just looking at bricks.
To have this pop up, well what was a happy day made very very ****. Its not PD's fault per see, but I shouldn't need to find out from a internet forum that something has been discontinued and then confirmed by the supplier, especially on the day of tender. I doubt PD has 500,000 hawthorn bricks put aside for those who may want it.
If this is the case then its a real problem, as we have wasted precious time chasing something for nothing, and time is not what I have on our side. So already, I am settling for second best. Awesome.
I do understand, the same thing happened to us. The one thing set in stone, from the second we decided to build was... black windows and Night Sky (true black) guttering. Night Sky was then discontinued and I didn't like how Monument wasn't true black when close to the black window frames. I nearly had a complete meltdown... there's a thread somewhere here showing the true horror.
Everything I envisaged and had worked everything around had to change, I was devastated.
It's funny that I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was so stressed out about it.
Everything I envisaged and had worked everything around had to change, I was devastated.
It's funny that I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was so stressed out about it.
I don't think that it will be their intention to mislead you. If they are quoting you, they will genuinely believe they are available. Humble, the builder is not your enemy, yep they stuff up sometimes and they drive you mad and you will have to be on top of them, but they are not sitting at the office trying to figure out ways to screw people intentionally.
Oh I agree. Bricks have been a challenge, and after finally working through those challenges to have this pop up is immensely frustrating. We are stuck with Austral, and there is really only 2 bricks in there range that suit us, one of them being spot on.
My biggest issue, is I spent all weekend finalizing our colors before going on 3 weeks of travel with work. Only to now have to go back and re-visit the whole externals of the house again. That is frustrating. I wont even be in Melbourne for the next 2 weeks let alone be able to drive around and pick a new brick. We have looked at every Austral brick from the outside, done in excess of 150km driving over weekends just looking at bricks.
To have this pop up, well what was a happy day made very very **** Its not PD's fault per see, but I shouldn't need to find out from a internet forum that something has been discontinued and then confirmed by the supplier, especially on the day of tender. I doubt PD has 500,000 hawthorn bricks put aside for those who may want it.
If this is the case then its a real problem, as we have wasted precious time chasing something for nothing, and time is not what I have on our side. So already, I am settling for second best. Awesome.
Hey humble, I feel for you. Building a house is an emotional experience which can’t be described.
I had a conversation with a friend the other day and was tell him that it’s easier to buy an existing house then to build. Most people buy a pre-existing house for the area or for what they can afford and don’t really care about the colour of the bricks, roof tiles ect. They learn to live with what they have and change things as they go. When you are given a choice, such as in building your very own house, you go crazy with selections. Your house is an individual statement and you should be able to get it built the way you want. But I think in this situation you will need to compromise. I have a feeling that there will be enough stock of your brick if you start in July.
Hi joles,
Will keep that in mind. But we have only gone to Tender. Contract is 16 June. But we need to try just like you did. I'm sure there will be alot of disappointed people as this gets out and maybe in numbers and if we make a song and dance about it, something can be done. I know we will walk if we don't get or find the right colour brick we want. Some people will find another brick but there will be some that wont. We won't settle for 2nd best. I don't know why they can't accomodate people in situations like this and yours. We have been driving around suburbs for the last few months on our weekends looking at homes with the bricks we liked. Now it's all been for nothing. We're tired and we're stressed. We only have till Wednesday to pick our bricks. We don't have anytime to drive looking at other possible bricks between now and Wednesday and we don't even like the others they have. And with the new bricks coming out they don't have any homes built to show us because they are new. We can only look at them glued on a 6 slab sheet. This our second home and the last home we will be living in to the day we die, or until we go to a retirement village / nursing home ... lol.
Will keep that in mind. But we have only gone to Tender. Contract is 16 June. But we need to try just like you did. I'm sure there will be alot of disappointed people as this gets out and maybe in numbers and if we make a song and dance about it, something can be done. I know we will walk if we don't get or find the right colour brick we want. Some people will find another brick but there will be some that wont. We won't settle for 2nd best. I don't know why they can't accomodate people in situations like this and yours. We have been driving around suburbs for the last few months on our weekends looking at homes with the bricks we liked. Now it's all been for nothing. We're tired and we're stressed. We only have till Wednesday to pick our bricks. We don't have anytime to drive looking at other possible bricks between now and Wednesday and we don't even like the others they have. And with the new bricks coming out they don't have any homes built to show us because they are new. We can only look at them glued on a 6 slab sheet. This our second home and the last home we will be living in to the day we die, or until we go to a retirement village / nursing home ... lol.
I tend to agree, but we had to go back to the estimator today to get something priced up, either the hawthorns are available, or there is a real comms problem.. just really concerned, we chose the bricks based on what we want from the house, this is our 20 year house... So it is important.
Its stuff like this that really gets my goat up. Grr.. As the expectation is set, we have had to have the internal debate about spending the extra 4k will we, wont we, nah we will only to have that all taken away is extremely frustrating. We are both busy professionals, and really do not have the time to be playing funny buggers with bricks.
Eli, amen to that!
There is also a fundamental flaw.. We are spending over 250k, and they cannot even communicate a change in suppliers and discontinuations. Thats a worry. We went to carpet court, went to austral, drove around for k's on end, and really I could have been at the footy, or relaxing at home. Anyhoo, ill wait for my CSC to advise.
Its stuff like this that really gets my goat up. Grr.. As the expectation is set, we have had to have the internal debate about spending the extra 4k will we, wont we, nah we will only to have that all taken away is extremely frustrating. We are both busy professionals, and really do not have the time to be playing funny buggers with bricks.
Eli, amen to that!
There is also a fundamental flaw.. We are spending over 250k, and they cannot even communicate a change in suppliers and discontinuations. Thats a worry. We went to carpet court, went to austral, drove around for k's on end, and really I could have been at the footy, or relaxing at home. Anyhoo, ill wait for my CSC to advise.
Sorry Humble, I feel horrible to spoil your day, but I thought I should put it out there. Like tlstr1a said you may have a good chance of getting your Hawthorn bricks if you get your order in. Talk to PD and see if they can organise to put the bricks aside for you. I read a note at Austral Deer Park counter that they can hold bricks for 3 months instead of the 1 month. I hope it will all work out for you.
Sorry Humble, I feel horrible to spoil your day, but I thought I should put it out there. Like tlstr1a said you may have a good chance of getting your Hawthorn bricks if you get your order in. Talk to PD and see if they can organise to put the bricks aside for you. I read a note at Austral Deer Park counter that they can hold bricks for 3 months instead of the 1 month. I hope it will all work out for you.
No thank you for sharing. I would rather know now, so I can have some time to try and look at some of the other bricks.
Hey Humble,
I have been looking at this company to do the driveway - 1300 Driveways. I like the slate impression concrete. There is a place on the website you can do an online quote and they show you how to measure the area. They also do exposed aggregate and coloured concrete.
http://www.1300driveways.com.au/slate.aspx
I have been looking at this company to do the driveway - 1300 Driveways. I like the slate impression concrete. There is a place on the website you can do an online quote and they show you how to measure the area. They also do exposed aggregate and coloured concrete.
http://www.1300driveways.com.au/slate.aspx
I agree with everything you said Snoofie, I just wish I could say the same things in terms of having a positive experience. In all this we have been painted as some kind of freaks who expect our home to be entirely pristine, without so much as a fiber of carpet out of place, when nothing could be further from the truth! Our SS actually made the comment that perhaps we ought to go and buy a house in Toorak if we expected such good quality
I know your post wasn't meant as a rebuff to those of us who have had a less than stellar experience thus far and I can absolutely appreciate that credit ought to be given where it is due, but the less rational side of me does feel a bit of a sting when I read posts like yours. I can assure you we've done all the right things, we have been extremely patient given the problems we have had, we have compromised over things we should not have had to compromise over, paid for things we should not have had to pay for and through it all I've contained myself immensely in the few posts I've made on the forums here, if I allowed myself to rant about it and really said it all it would be a wall of text that went on for multiple pages
All that aside, we had a meeting with whom I think is the manager for Lifestyle East today. As it turns out it wasn't an official PCI, we will still have to go and do another one in a couple of weeks I think, sign the paperwork and then wait at least another week for handover. I'm not fussed by that, I just want them to get the job done properly and if that means taking a month instead of a week, for example, then so be it.
The manager seemed very nice and reasonable, I was a bit reserved at first as the first thing he did was start a spiel about how things that our independent inspector said should be fixed were usually just him being overly fussy and not really necessities. We ran out of time to really go over the paintwork, one of my main areas of concern, because of the fading light and he said he would return and give it a thorough inspection himself on Thursday. I would have been dubious about this, but when he clarified that we would still do another PCI prior to handover it didn't seem to be an issue.
He seemed to have a much better attitude to the job than some others we have dealt with, as though he took pride in the job done even though it wasn't his home. I was very pleased that he himself marked the visible plaster joins in the walls to be fixed in some areas because I'm not happy with them but hadn't made a fuss over it because I didn't think it was something they would fix.
I really hope it's at least relatively smooth sailing from here on in.
I know your post wasn't meant as a rebuff to those of us who have had a less than stellar experience thus far and I can absolutely appreciate that credit ought to be given where it is due, but the less rational side of me does feel a bit of a sting when I read posts like yours. I can assure you we've done all the right things, we have been extremely patient given the problems we have had, we have compromised over things we should not have had to compromise over, paid for things we should not have had to pay for and through it all I've contained myself immensely in the few posts I've made on the forums here, if I allowed myself to rant about it and really said it all it would be a wall of text that went on for multiple pages
All that aside, we had a meeting with whom I think is the manager for Lifestyle East today. As it turns out it wasn't an official PCI, we will still have to go and do another one in a couple of weeks I think, sign the paperwork and then wait at least another week for handover. I'm not fussed by that, I just want them to get the job done properly and if that means taking a month instead of a week, for example, then so be it.
The manager seemed very nice and reasonable, I was a bit reserved at first as the first thing he did was start a spiel about how things that our independent inspector said should be fixed were usually just him being overly fussy and not really necessities. We ran out of time to really go over the paintwork, one of my main areas of concern, because of the fading light and he said he would return and give it a thorough inspection himself on Thursday. I would have been dubious about this, but when he clarified that we would still do another PCI prior to handover it didn't seem to be an issue.
He seemed to have a much better attitude to the job than some others we have dealt with, as though he took pride in the job done even though it wasn't his home. I was very pleased that he himself marked the visible plaster joins in the walls to be fixed in some areas because I'm not happy with them but hadn't made a fuss over it because I didn't think it was something they would fix.
I really hope it's at least relatively smooth sailing from here on in.
Well, I'm disappointed (but not terribly surprised) to report that things have not improved in the slightest.
On Tuesday it will have been two weeks since our second "PCI" (and FIVE weeks since our first) and once again we have not sen or heard hide nor hair of anyone resembling a PD employee. We visited our build today to see that the only noticable thing that has been done in all of that time is that a new mirror has been put up in our bathroom (and the wall has been damaged in the process). All of the markers we put up during the second PCI almost two weeks ago are still there, showing that none of the work has been carried out. Once again our SS has not answered or returned calls, with the exception of the eleventh hour message he left my OH on Friday to say that he was finishing up for the day and as such we would not be able to contact him and that he would contact us on Monday about how the house was going.
Among other things we will be asking our CSC what the process is to make a claim for late building works since our final contract date is next Friday.
We will also be putting together a complaint of all of the problems we have had thus far (and this will take me a long time to prepare), so if anyone has any contact details for those that are higher up in responsibility within the company I'd really appreciate if you could PM them to me. I'm sick of having all of our complaints fielded by the lower levels and neither of the people who have contacted us after making complaints have been any better than those we were complaining about.
With 5 days to go until our contracted build period expires, I'd still take it all back and start from scratch with another builder if I could. Never ever ever do I want to have anything to do with PD ever again
ETA I just thank god that we didn't listen to our CSC and SS ages ago when they told us, on multiple occasions, that we would be moving in well before now and give notice on our current rental, had I done that we would be out on the street right now!
Hi Jewelbaby,
It is truly disappointing to hear that you have experienced such difficulties throughout your build and that you are disappointed with your service from your BC and SS. PD really need to know about your troubles so I will pass on your feedback to the PD office. Please know that I am here to assist you where I can. Regards, Ebony
Hi Ebony,
It would be lovely if you could get someone to contact us, our SS didn't call today like he said he would and as per usual did not answer or return our calls. We would really just like to know what is going on
Hey Humble,
I have been looking at this company to do the driveway - 1300 Driveways. I like the slate impression concrete. There is a place on the website you can do an online quote and they show you how to measure the area. They also do exposed aggregate and coloured concrete.
http://www.1300driveways.com.au/slate.aspx
I have been looking at this company to do the driveway - 1300 Driveways. I like the slate impression concrete. There is a place on the website you can do an online quote and they show you how to measure the area. They also do exposed aggregate and coloured concrete.
http://www.1300driveways.com.au/slate.aspx
Thanks Rups looks like a great price. I wonder if I can convince him to come out west, he looks south eastern suburbs only. $99sqm for aggregate is really really good!
I did call them to enquire further and they had no problems with Point Cook. The lady was super helpful.
I did call them to enquire further and they had no problems with Point Cook. The lady was super helpful.
Sweet as!
I've heard good things about 1300 Driveways. Humble, that price was for about 50m of 1.6m high wood fencing. We had another 33 m that the developer put in for us on the reserve boundary. We paid approx 10k for 50 sqm of aggregate, 50 sq m of coloured concrete, cut and removal of soil as the area to be concreted at the back was bigger than the site cut.
PS: sent you them pics.
PS: sent you them pics.
Hey karmaz,
any news from the ACCC regarding the leaking balcony? Keeps us updated as we are all on your side.
any news from the ACCC regarding the leaking balcony? Keeps us updated as we are all on your side.
Humble, if you want to get quick answers ring the office. I'm building in the western suburbs, so I've been calling/dealing with the western office. Don't bother calling your CSA as you probably won't get a quick response because we actually know about this more than they do. We've had a few calls back from the Western office today. I must admit they have been on their toes and trying to help us as they were in shock and didn't know about the discontinuation of bricks until they made futher phone calls up the ladder.
Prestige Western Office 8331 2500
Prestige Eastern Office 8781 9600
Prestige Northern Office 8467 1200
Prestige Western Office 8331 2500
Prestige Eastern Office 8781 9600
Prestige Northern Office 8467 1200
Positive post! Lol
My dealings with PD has been so far really good
My SS has been communicating, my CSR calls every weds with an update!
I am also finding that the house build is progressing super quick!
Humble - when u made brick selections did u have 3 options just in case?
Karmaz - how is the balcony thing going?
Joles - I loveee your wisdom on building & learn a lot from your posts
Mel
My dealings with PD has been so far really good
My SS has been communicating, my CSR calls every weds with an update!
I am also finding that the house build is progressing super quick!
Humble - when u made brick selections did u have 3 options just in case?
Karmaz - how is the balcony thing going?
Joles - I loveee your wisdom on building & learn a lot from your posts
Mel
Yay Mel.. Thats good news.
Well considering tender was yesterday we did have the three selections, but we moved stuff around (cut out some structural change) to get the bricks.. arrgh! Ill wait for a reply. But I will be seriously miffed if I can have the hawthorns. Even now, I am cranky, as I really want them bricks! they look fantastic!
Well considering tender was yesterday we did have the three selections, but we moved stuff around (cut out some structural change) to get the bricks.. arrgh! Ill wait for a reply. But I will be seriously miffed if I can have the hawthorns. Even now, I am cranky, as I really want them bricks! they look fantastic!
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