Porter Davis homes

Sorry Meowy I too am waiting for some of my kitchen upgrade costs and told will be given during contract. Its next Tuesday. If that's not too late I can try and find out how much vinyl wrap could cost?

We had our contract appointment a couple of weeks ago. Where we had been quoted prices at our colours, electricals and tiles, those prices remained the same. We were waiting on pricing for a couple of things and they came in pretty much as expected. There were 2 things we were not counting on; 1) adjustments for 6 star energy rating. We needed to add R2.5 batts to the external walls to meet the 6 start energy rating and this cost $660; and 2) we added extra tiles to our ensuite wall. Although we were quoted for the extra tiling at our tiles appointment PD added further costs to allow for structural bracing (additional studs and compressed sheet lining in lieu of standard plaster board ) to the wall to cope with the extra weight of the tiles. This cost $770.

In addition, there were a few pricing errors - some things were added that were part of a package but these were picked up and corrected during the appointment.

My suggestion for the contract appointment is to take a tick sheet that contains all pricing and a highlighter and tick off everything as you go. You also need to check all drawings to make sure they are correct. Don't just check the items you have changed. Check everything! Some things that we did not change were wrong in the drawings.

Ooooh a walk in shower - didn't think of that! That will be soooooo nice! I wonder how much they would cost! Shouldn't be too different b/c the shower bases are tiled anyway and it would be easier (one would think) to tile a walk in shower than tile a shower base, it would just be a different type of screen I'm guessing. Wonder if it's not too late for us to request that option too. Contract is in two weeks.

Here's a pic of a walk in shower for those who aren't sure what they are:

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Oh good luck back pocket. I really hope it goes well for you and your mum. Tinker, thanks for keeping it in mind. I'm sure you will have your hands full on that day but if you think of it I would be interested to know!

We are building the hoffman39E with the lounge converted to a guest suite downstairs for mum. We are also making the study a sitting room for her.

hey all.

we just had our PCI last week. and everything that we brought up then seems like they're getting addressed this week. We are looking to have handover this friday! Thank you to Helen from TEAMPD who managed to get us in contact with a building manager regarding our powder room tiling issue. We accepted the statements from our SS and the building manager in the end. It was a good debate with PD but I guess we're not trying to be difficult customers. After all, they're building a HOME for us. So thank you PD mgmt for the clarifications and assurance.....
Really looking forward to moving in! Can't wait!!!

For all those interested..Prestige inclusions 2012 package has shower screens standard as Stegbar Softline. NOT Stegbar Grange..
No pop up basin plugs installed on Caroma Undercounter cube 500 sinks.
Bravis Heating/cooling don't get tested the day you receive your home keys (handover) they have to be commissioned by the heating/cooling company a couple of days after handover.
Good luck to those still in the midst of their build!

Thanks jnkbids.

I really owe it to the great PD staff and team.
Especially my new SS who came on board when my previous one left 2 weeks prior to the scheduled handover.
New SS was organised and had a very systematic approach. Excellent bloke.

Ours are like that wherever there is tiled skirting - so bathroom, WC, ensuite and laundry. All other doors the stoppers are on the walls. I assume they can't fix the stoppers to the tiled skirting .

We had our tender yesterday and after an issue at the beginning with the siting/site costs, we got there. Our tender took around 5 hours, with a 30 min coffee break (which is when the tender went to the estimators to be adjusted). The massive surprise for us was our site costs which have blown out to $30k (our allowance was $20k), mainly because our land hasn't titled and they are basing them on the way the land was when they saw it about a month ago, but it is still being engineered. We are budgeting for the worst case ($30k) and if it comes in lower that would be great. Basically our site costs now are based on 2m of fall and 1.8m of random fill but when the land will be finalised, it will only have 600mm fall and will come with a compaction report for the fill. I'll be really surprised if it doesn't come closer to $20k again. Our sitings are also based on the current layout of the land so we can't see exactly how the house will look on the final block.

We had no major price changes apart from our splashback ($900 more) which was for the Starfire and more length as our SC had not quoted on the full length of the kitchen. There were only a few small changes ($2, $25 and a couple of others) here and there, but nothing to worry about. Everything else was spot on.

Anyway, it was a smooth process and kudos to our Tender Presenter for being really helpful and suggesting a few things. She also said we were pretty switched on for first home buyers (I credit this to a lot of you here!!!) which was nice! She also said we've done everything right in terms of the house orientation etc so all that research paid off too. It was a long appointment but I was happy with how it went

My tips for those going to tender or just about to pay their $1k deposit:

1. Make your tender a morning appointment - our tender took us almost 5 hours and the afternoon people were delayed (I did feel a bit bad) but we needed to make sure things were right.
2. Get as much as you can into your sales quote before you pay your $1k deposit. They basically pull the tender from this document. We found that any changes that were made after the sales quote (which were meant to be recorded) weren't included/subtracted from the tender, but I knew straight off the top of my head what they were, so that was easy.
3. Take your quote along with any requests you have made since you paid the $1k deposit. I had a pen and highlighter and was making as the tender presenter went through the tender.

Phew! That's all from me for now!!!