Porter Davis homes

Congrats.. let the fun begin

Thanks, that's handy to do some calcs.

Our finance is organized by another broker.

In our case land is all sorted but construction is subject to sale of current house, which is already in market.

I'll check with our broker next week if we should take a bridging loan till house sold and settled.

There are always news questions, lol.

Thanks guys for being so helpful here.

My understanding was that the $1000 initial deposit is the non-refundable portion. The rest of your deposit may be returned minus costs that PD have already incurred e.g. soil tests etc. Best to speak with your BC on this and have it clearly stipulated during your contract presentation.

thanks, i will check out this with SC on sunday.

if you have paid your $1000 deposit you should be able to get your mortgage broker to get started on the valuation and basic loan approval before you even have your tender meeting - our's was able to get loan pre approved and valuation done by the time we had our tender meeting be prepared however for the valuation to be not what you hoped - for a build + land of 485k the bank only valued it at 425k even after a second valuation...which meant to avoid mortgage insurance we had to put in 145k ourselves

My panic mode is on

I think it's time to kick start construction loan process. My broker is such a relax cool guy. Sometimes he made me real nervous but at the end he always comes back with approval. What a top bloke.

So what exactly do I need from PD for bank process?

We have prices of almost everything we want to go with this house. (thanks to our SC Vanessa, very helpful).

we were in a similar situation - we bought the land but couldn't build till we sold our house - lucky for us that took only 10 days to sell - but knowing that we didn't pay our initial 1k deposit an do sales quote until after our buyers offer was unconditional, we then scheduled tender appointment for after settlement of our old home so we knew we would have enough for contract and tender etc. once we had sales quote and first basic drawings from our SC we were able to get loan and valuation started.

I personally wouldn't sign anything till I knew my house was sold if you know that is a prereq from the banks...

Update
We were on holidays for some of june so read back some catch up...
had colours and electrical on 19th June like tender and tiles both appointments were done in about an hour 15 mins - it helped tremendously to know what we could afford to upgrade ahead of time and so happy to have our beautiful French black on our kitchen benches
the only thing I changed on the day as far as what hubby and I had agreed to (he had to stay behind with the 5 kidlets as we were technically away in phillip island still) which was the kitchen tap - my mum pointed out the flexi sprayer thingy in the promo would be awful to clean as usual she is right about these things so we downgraded back to the normal one.
Electrical was good and came in 600 under budget and got more additions than I had anticipated - helped heaps to have the $counter on the screen...

our contract was 25th of june - luckily 2 days after we arrived home - all done in 2hrs with only 2 mistakes that our presenter was quick to pick up on - I had noticed but wanted to give him a chance and he noticed before I said anything - have to say he was fantastic! ( not sure if we are allowed to mention names)

Contract came in $200 under what I had bucket mathed as best case scenario so walked away super happy - have had a couple of emails this week from our BC inc copy of building permit and council approval so very much hoping we will be started by 31st July but pretty happy at the moment regardless if its a week or 2 after that.

Great work, that sounds fab.

hi Tai27

First one rubber seal has to be done by pd as it is a building standard as stated by our inspector. only doors that dont need to be done are ones from say a garage to hallway or similar.
and the no holes our ss told us they dont do that due to the different ways they can be piped which is fair enough. not hard to go to bunnings and get a 80mm+ hole saw and drill through if i do it i know its going to be nice not butchered and covered over.
We have the 1500 series in our place will check what they are like on thursday.[/quote]

Thanks for that seashoremontague21,

I'll get in contact with my BS today and see what he has to say about the rubber seal.

Let me know what happens with your mixer plates as well, according to our BS it's the way they are and are meant to easily come off if "physically pulled". The one for our bathtub "spins", but isn't easily pulled off but the ones in the showers (especially the one in our main bathroom) is simply coming off.[/quote]


Hi Tai27

Just checked our mixer plates and both are firm to turn and tried to pull off but wouldnt budge hope this help also ring reece plumbing they will know how it should be. Also just check it has the black rubber On the inner bit of the backing plate

Cheers Rhys

thanks mate, much appreciate your advise. we thought about it again and again today. also had discussion with broker and estate agent.

our final decision is to wait till this house will be sold with unconditional contract. seems like we will have to sit on land for few extra months before we can start construction.

Half way through our build, we have hit Lock Up. Extremely efficient build. SS believes we might be finished in around 3 months - Yippee!
Updated blog.

I love your blog Mumma DJ - we went with the hebel too and paid the bit extra to have eaves the entire way round aswell - so think you have great taste!

Thanks Claire. Looking for super efficiency in the house. Here is hoping. Look forward to following journey also.

it's looking fantastic now. seems like almost finished from outside.

whats the cost for sound insulation?

We added:
R4.0 Glasswool Ceiling Insulation - $238
R2.0 Soundscreen insulation batts to Rumpus Internal Walls - $612

You won't regret the R2.0 wall insulation. We added it to almost every single wall (interior walls too) which is probably overkill but even half finished the soundproofing is noticeable. We also added SoundStop plasterboard in most areas... I like my quiet!

Quit reasonably priced for what it is, and damn near impossible to retrofit so it was something we either did during build or missed out on.


HD

Our quote reads:

"R2.5 insulation batts to ceiling and sisalation to walls (excludes Garage and Alfresco). SEAV 6 star energy rating compliance."

Do we have to ask for upgrade during tender process for R 4.0 insulation for ceiling to make it 6 star energy efficient?

What the upgrade level for walls insulation beside soundscreen?

Another question from double stories owners, did you build a store under staircase or left it just empty?

Advice from others has been to wait for Tender to see what the 6 star energy rating is for your particular house. Every house is different and depends on any changes that you make and I believe the orientation of your house on your block. I think then at Tender you can then ask for quotes to upgrade any of your insulation. Our 6 star listed R3.0 glasswool ceiling which we upgraded to R4.0. Also listed R2.0 glasswool external wall insulation with sisalation foil, so we didn't need to upgrade the external walls as it was already part of the 6 star. You might want to do a search on H1 regarding insulation and see what advice others give on different topics.
The staircase in our house design already has a storage room under the stairs.