Porter Davis homes

mirz · Aug 01, 2013 10:45 pm

Lurgen

Big progress to report - today we saw the air conditioning system get installed along with tiles and the garage doors! Better still I have a handover date scheduled, and it isn't next year!!

It'll be very interesting to see if we hit the target dates for both PCI and handover, they're not too aggressive but are definitely a few weeks ahead of the initial schedule. That said, we didn't get hit by any weather delays and there were only a handful of items that had to be re-ordered or fixed.

Still waiting on carpets, floor boards, kitchen appliances, electrical fitout, feature walls (painting), tiles (they're halfway), splashbacks, some cabinets, showers, toilets and sinks. Not all that much compared to the original list of hundreds of items.

I gotta say, despite the office staff being a bit of a pain to deal with my site supervisor has single-handedly salvaged this build. He has consistently proven his commitment to handing me a quality home.

That's good to know some quality and dedicated staff there in field.

Sambogirl81 · Aug 01, 2013 10:50 pm

[quote="Lurgen")

I gotta say, despite the office staff being a bit of a pain to deal with my site supervisor has single-handedly salvaged this build. He has consistently proven his commitment to handing me a quality home.[/quote]

This is exciting to read, congrats Lurgen

YoungStar · Aug 02, 2013 10:08 am

Back Pocket

YoungStar

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie here; although have been stalking this forum for a while, I haven't been able to offer anything yet. Thanks for all of your great stories and sharing of information; been a great help to get my head around.

We have a block of land in SE Melbourne and want to knock down re-build a two storey 43-45 sq home. We are now in the builders short listing stage. After much of research and display home viewing, we narrowed our preference to PD and Carlisle; due to Carlisle unable to build second floor outside by bricks, PD seems to be a real stand out. ( also thanks to our friends referral and some of the relatively positive reviews).

As much as we have the confidence of PD' s work, a main concern for us is PD' floor plans. So far we can not pick any one of its floor plans that makes us instantly fall in love. Waldorf seems to be the closest one; because it offers spacious Master Bedroom, living area and a second kitchen,etc, but not quite really ...

Now I have a few questions that hope can get some assistance, thanks:
- we would love the stairs NOT to be seen soon after entering the main entrance. The ideal stairs position would be very much like Brooklyn, or even Bristol. We know PD can offer to "tweak" the stairs bottom bit a little, making it look like facing different direction, but can they offer to move it back behind the hallway wall?
- We would love the Master bedroom in the front upstairs, facing street. But Waldorf' s one is at the back. Can this be changed by any means?

Has anyone had any experience successfully making such changes to your preference?

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

The PD Hoffman has both of these features. We have up sized by extending the lounge and the Mayfair faced which gives the master upstairs at the front a balcony the width of the master bedroom. We made a few other changes as well. Ours is 46sq now. Can I ask why 43-45 sq? You really need to look at features e.g. 3 living areas, 5 beds etc find the floorplan and then make rooms bigger if you need to. My DH loved the Waldorf but we both don't like the current idea of opening the front door straight into the staircase.

Good luck with it!

Hi Back Pocket,

Thanks a lot for your information. Had a look at Hoffman and yes surprisingly it almost ticked all the boxes! Thanks

The reason we haven't paid attention to Hoffman is we have been looking the Prestige range all along. We were under impression that the Lifestyle range is not as flexible as the Prestige range, eg some items not available and the inclusions aren't as great, etc. Can I ask if your build has been the case, eg. Do you have any items that you can't access because it is in another range?

You mentioned the room can be made bigger, can I ask how, by squeezing the other areas inside the building, or by extending the whole building' s width? It would be ideal if the building width can be expended by 1 metre, as our land is 17 metres. For a 14-metre building it would seem not wide enough.

In regards to the size of the building, it doesn't have to be 43sq of course. In fact, yours 46 is really a good number! I would imagine you've extended the lounge and get an alfresco, etc; have you been able to make some area of the building wider?

As for facade, Mayfair is indeed a beautiful one; very nice choice! For us, it is just we prefer the facade with brick works. To be honest, Waldorf' s Hyde Park is our dreamed facade; but pity we won't be able to get it.

Another thing for Hoffman is the garage doesn't have internal access to the building. it would be nice if this can be changed. I think at some point we will go to the Hoffman's display and talk to PD face to face then might have more ideas.

Thank you so much again and all the best wishes to your building!

clairemumto5 · Aug 02, 2013 2:22 pm

Backpocket is right it is better to find the right layout rather than the range the house is in. You can change nearly anything inc width of building, from what we were told you can't change location of stairs and wet areas, although u can change the size and layout, we changed the location of the trough in the laundry for example.

Funny enough we wanted the marina 41 instead of the marina 42 as the skinner design meant better access to the backyard even though we could fit both on the frontage block with 5 kids i had to think about them all being in cars someday and where they could park etc

tinker · Aug 02, 2013 2:28 pm

YoungStar

Back Pocket

YoungStar

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie here; although have been stalking this forum for a while, I haven't been able to offer anything yet. Thanks for all of your great stories and sharing of information; been a great help to get my head around.

We have a block of land in SE Melbourne and want to knock down re-build a two storey 43-45 sq home. We are now in the builders short listing stage. After much of research and display home viewing, we narrowed our preference to PD and Carlisle; due to Carlisle unable to build second floor outside by bricks, PD seems to be a real stand out. ( also thanks to our friends referral and some of the relatively positive reviews).

As much as we have the confidence of PD' s work, a main concern for us is PD' floor plans. So far we can not pick any one of its floor plans that makes us instantly fall in love. Waldorf seems to be the closest one; because it offers spacious Master Bedroom, living area and a second kitchen,etc, but not quite really ...

Now I have a few questions that hope can get some assistance, thanks:

- we would love the stairs NOT to be seen soon after entering the main entrance. The ideal stairs position would be very much like Brooklyn, or even Bristol. We know PD can offer to "tweak" the stairs bottom bit a little, making it look like facing different direction, but can they offer to move it back behind the hallway wall?
- We would love the Master bedroom in the front upstairs, facing street. But Waldorf' s one is at the back. Can this be changed by any means?

Has anyone had any experience successfully making such changes to your preference?

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

The PD Hoffman has both of these features. We have up sized by extending the lounge and the Mayfair faced which gives the master upstairs at the front a balcony the width of the master bedroom. We made a few other changes as well. Ours is 46sq now. Can I ask why 43-45 sq? You really need to look at features e.g. 3 living areas, 5 beds etc find the floorplan and then make rooms bigger if you need to. My DH loved the Waldorf but we both don't like the current idea of opening the front door straight into the staircase.

Good luck with it!

Hi Back Pocket,

Thanks a lot for your information. Had a look at Hoffman and yes surprisingly it almost ticked all the boxes! Thanks

The reason we haven't paid attention to Hoffman is we have been looking the Prestige range all along. We were under impression that the Lifestyle range is not as flexible as the Prestige range, eg some items not available and the inclusions aren't as great, etc. Can I ask if your build has been the case, eg. Do you have any items that you can't access because it is in another range?

You mentioned the room can be made bigger, can I ask how, by squeezing the other areas inside the building, or by extending the whole building' s width? It would be ideal if the building width can be expended by 1 metre, as our land is 17 metres. For a 14-metre building it would seem not wide enough.

In regards to the size of the building, it doesn't have to be 43sq of course. In fact, yours 46 is really a good number! I would imagine you've extended the lounge and get an alfresco, etc; have you been able to make some area of the building wider?

As for facade, Mayfair is indeed a beautiful one; very nice choice! For us, it is just we prefer the facade with brick works. To be honest, Waldorf' s Hyde Park is our dreamed facade; but pity we won't be able to get it.

Another thing for Hoffman is the garage doesn't have internal access to the building. it would be nice if this can be changed. I think at some point we will go to the Hoffman's display and talk to PD face to face then might have more ideas.

Thank you so much again and all the best wishes to your building!

Hi
Garage does have an internal access door to the house. Near the powder room.

YoungStar · Aug 02, 2013 4:39 pm

clairemumto5

Backpocket is right it is better to find the right layout rather than the range the house is in. You can change nearly anything inc width of building, from what we were told you can't change location of stairs and wet areas, although u can change the size and layout, we changed the location of the trough in the laundry for example.

Funny enough we wanted the marina 41 instead of the marina 42 as the skinner design meant better access to the backyard even though we could fit both on the frontage block with 5 kids i had to think about them all being in cars someday and where they could park etc

Hi clairemumto5,

Thanks a lot for comments; knowing that the building itself can be widened makes me feel much better now. Wow, you really have got a GOOD team in your family, well done!

With Hoffman the standard, we will have to flip the floor plan, which will make the kitchen facing north. The ideal position would be kitchen facing south. Not sure if this can be achieved.

Thanks

YoungStar · Aug 02, 2013 4:44 pm

tinker

Back Pocket

The PD Hoffman has both of these features. We have up sized by extending the lounge and the Mayfair faced which gives the master upstairs at the front a balcony the width of the master bedroom. We made a few other changes as well. Ours is 46sq now. Can I ask why 43-45 sq? You really need to look at features e.g. 3 living areas, 5 beds etc find the floorplan and then make rooms bigger if you need to. My DH loved the Waldorf but we both don't like the current idea of opening the front door straight into the staircase.

Good luck with it!

Hi Back Pocket,

Thanks a lot for your information. Had a look at Hoffman and yes surprisingly it almost ticked all the boxes! Thanks

The reason we haven't paid attention to Hoffman is we have been looking the Prestige range all along. We were under impression that the Lifestyle range is not as flexible as the Prestige range, eg some items not available and the inclusions aren't as great, etc. Can I ask if your build has been the case, eg. Do you have any items that you can't access because it is in another range?

You mentioned the room can be made bigger, can I ask how, by squeezing the other areas inside the building, or by extending the whole building' s width? It would be ideal if the building width can be expended by 1 metre, as our land is 17 metres. For a 14-metre building it would seem not wide enough.

In regards to the size of the building, it doesn't have to be 43sq of course. In fact, yours 46 is really a good number! I would imagine you've extended the lounge and get an alfresco, etc; have you been able to make some area of the building wider?

As for facade, Mayfair is indeed a beautiful one; very nice choice! For us, it is just we prefer the facade with brick works. To be honest, Waldorf' s Hyde Park is our dreamed facade; but pity we won't be able to get it.

Another thing for Hoffman is the garage doesn't have internal access to the building. it would be nice if this can be changed. I think at some point we will go to the Hoffman's display and talk to PD face to face then might have more ideas.

Thank you so much again and all the best wishes to your building!

Hi
Garage does have an internal access door to the house. Near the powder room.

[/quote]

Hi Tinker,

Thanks for the heads up! Just hopped onto your blog and found the entrance, thank you. Actually your floor plan really is a nice work!

All the best with your build!

Cheers

Back Pocket · Aug 02, 2013 9:05 pm

YoungStar

Back Pocket

YoungStar

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie here; although have been stalking this forum for a while, I haven't been able to offer anything yet. Thanks for all of your great stories and sharing of information; been a great help to get my head around.

We have a block of land in SE Melbourne and want to knock down re-build a two storey 43-45 sq home. We are now in the builders short listing stage. After much of research and display home viewing, we narrowed our preference to PD and Carlisle; due to Carlisle unable to build second floor outside by bricks, PD seems to be a real stand out. ( also thanks to our friends referral and some of the relatively positive reviews).

As much as we have the confidence of PD' s work, a main concern for us is PD' floor plans. So far we can not pick any one of its floor plans that makes us instantly fall in love. Waldorf seems to be the closest one; because it offers spacious Master Bedroom, living area and a second kitchen,etc, but not quite really ...

Now I have a few questions that hope can get some assistance, thanks:
- we would love the stairs NOT to be seen soon after entering the main entrance. The ideal stairs position would be very much like Brooklyn, or even Bristol. We know PD can offer to "tweak" the stairs bottom bit a little, making it look like facing different direction, but can they offer to move it back behind the hallway wall?
- We would love the Master bedroom in the front upstairs, facing street. But Waldorf' s one is at the back. Can this be changed by any means?

Has anyone had any experience successfully making such changes to your preference?

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

The PD Hoffman has both of these features. We have up sized by extending the lounge and the Mayfair faced which gives the master upstairs at the front a balcony the width of the master bedroom. We made a few other changes as well. Ours is 46sq now. Can I ask why 43-45 sq? You really need to look at features e.g. 3 living areas, 5 beds etc find the floorplan and then make rooms bigger if you need to. My DH loved the Waldorf but we both don't like the current idea of opening the front door straight into the staircase.

Good luck with it!

Hi Back Pocket,

Thanks a lot for your information. Had a look at Hoffman and yes surprisingly it almost ticked all the boxes! Thanks

The reason we haven't paid attention to Hoffman is we have been looking the Prestige range all along. We were under impression that the Lifestyle range is not as flexible as the Prestige range, eg some items not available and the inclusions aren't as great, etc. Can I ask if your build has been the case, eg. Do you have any items that you can't access because it is in another range?

You mentioned the room can be made bigger, can I ask how, by squeezing the other areas inside the building, or by extending the whole building' s width? It would be ideal if the building width can be expended by 1 metre, as our land is 17 metres. For a 14-metre building it would seem not wide enough.

In regards to the size of the building, it doesn't have to be 43sq of course. In fact, yours 46 is really a good number! I would imagine you've extended the lounge and get an alfresco, etc; have you been able to make some area of the building wider?

As for facade, Mayfair is indeed a beautiful one; very nice choice! For us, it is just we prefer the facade with brick works. To be honest, Waldorf' s Hyde Park is our dreamed facade; but pity we won't be able to get it.

Another thing for Hoffman is the garage doesn't have internal access to the building. it would be nice if this can be changed. I think at some point we will go to the Hoffman's display and talk to PD face to face then might have more ideas.

Thank you so much again and all the best wishes to your building!

Hi again! Your post just hit all our points when I read it because we too wanted to look at prestige because of inclusions. We built our current house with PD five years ago and we were impressed with the build quality and the process once we got to site. It was a prestige house so we looked for a house in the same range. We found PD would not make any of the changes to the Brooklyn to put the master upstairs or anything else. Our SC was great she basically said to us that lifestyle is a lower base and you can then option it up to the same level as a prestige with the things that were important to us. In reality, she was proved right. We were able to get the things we wanted added to the Hoffman.

This is a bit weird because we also hate render. We have removed all render APART from the middle section of the balcony which is actually blue board so it has to be rendered.

The hoff also has quite a number of different variations available, guest suite for lounge room, different layouts for the ensuite etc. We have guest suite in the lounge room downstairs which PD have made "disabled friendly" then made the study downstairs longer to turn it into a lounge room and removed bed 2 upstairs completely, made bed 3 and 4 bigger and a study upstairs. We also have a three car garage and a grand alfresco. There is a lot you can do to personalise what you need.

In relation to making it bigger PD will usually allow you to make a house longer but not necessarily wider as roof trusses come in standard widths.

Hope that this helps. PM me if you like with any questions. If you have not spoken to a salesperson I can recommend the lady who helped us, she was brilliant

Cheers

YoungStar · Aug 02, 2013 10:42 pm

Back Pocket

YoungStar

Hi Back Pocket,

Thanks a lot for your information. Had a look at Hoffman and yes surprisingly it almost ticked all the boxes! Thanks

The reason we haven't paid attention to Hoffman is we have been looking the Prestige range all along. We were under impression that the Lifestyle range is not as flexible as the Prestige range, eg some items not available and the inclusions aren't as great, etc. Can I ask if your build has been the case, eg. Do you have any items that you can't access because it is in another range?

You mentioned the room can be made bigger, can I ask how, by squeezing the other areas inside the building, or by extending the whole building' s width? It would be ideal if the building width can be expended by 1 metre, as our land is 17 metres. For a 14-metre building it would seem not wide enough.

In regards to the size of the building, it doesn't have to be 43sq of course. In fact, yours 46 is really a good number! I would imagine you've extended the lounge and get an alfresco, etc; have you been able to make some area of the building wider?

As for facade, Mayfair is indeed a beautiful one; very nice choice! For us, it is just we prefer the facade with brick works. To be honest, Waldorf' s Hyde Park is our dreamed facade; but pity we won't be able to get it.

Another thing for Hoffman is the garage doesn't have internal access to the building. it would be nice if this can be changed. I think at some point we will go to the Hoffman's display and talk to PD face to face then might have more ideas.

Thank you so much again and all the best wishes to your building!

Hi again! Your post just hit all our points when I read it because we too wanted to look at prestige because of inclusions. We built our current house with PD five years ago and we were impressed with the build quality and the process once we got to site. It was a prestige house so we looked for a house in the same range. We found PD would not make any of the changes to the Brooklyn to put the master upstairs or anything else. Our SC was great she basically said to us that lifestyle is a lower base and you can then option it up to the same level as a prestige with the things that were important to us. In reality, she was proved right. We were able to get the things we wanted added to the Hoffman.

This is a bit weird because we also hate render. We have removed all render APART from the middle section of the balcony which is actually blue board so it has to be rendered.

The hoff also has quite a number of different variations available, guest suite for lounge room, different layouts for the ensuite etc. We have guest suite in the lounge room downstairs which PD have made "disabled friendly" then made the study downstairs longer to turn it into a lounge room and removed bed 2 upstairs completely, made bed 3 and 4 bigger and a study upstairs. We also have a three car garage and a grand alfresco. There is a lot you can do to personalise what you need.

In relation to making it bigger PD will usually allow you to make a house longer but not necessarily wider as roof trusses come in standard widths.

Hope that this helps. PM me if you like with any questions. If you have not spoken to a salesperson I can recommend the lady who helped us, she was brilliant

Cheers

Hi Back Pocket, thank you!! Wow that is a great deal of information that you shared, thanks a lot.

Now I got more and more ideas. You're right, the next step is to sit down with a sales consultant. I will PM you shortly, do you mind letting me know who your consultant is? I will speak to her directly!

Going through all the designs again and Chadwick seems to be a good one too.

Same like you, we don't like render, so perhaps will end up getting a similar facade like yours!

Thank you and enjoy your weekend

Dunes33 · Aug 03, 2013 11:56 am

Hi all,

I am a new member and this is my first post. We are building the Dunes 33 with Porter Davis in Williams Landing (expected Dec 2013 start date). Can some of the members who have finished building or in the process of building commend a building co-ordinator/site supervisor in the western suburbs? We are ying to see if we can get one of our choice so we avoid issues later on.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Lurgen · Aug 03, 2013 6:38 pm

Getting close... just ordered the main portion of my window coverings which means they'll arrive just a week or two before handover! Exciting times.

MummaDJ · Aug 03, 2013 8:08 pm

Lurgen

Getting close... just ordered the main portion of my window coverings which means they'll arrive just a week or two before handover! Exciting times.

Hi Lurgen, we are probably about 6 weeks away from finish. Am about to start the search for blinds. In your experience, how much time do you need between ordering and delivery?

Lurgen · Aug 03, 2013 9:14 pm

MummaDJ

Lurgen

Getting close... just ordered the main portion of my window coverings which means they'll arrive just a week or two before handover! Exciting times.

Hi Lurgen, we are probably about 6 weeks away from finish. Am about to start the search for blinds. In your experience, how much time do you need between ordering and delivery?

No experience to go with yet, but the supplier says 3 weeks roughly. I'm using iseekblinds.com.au, since Birk (PDs recommended supplier) is ridiculously expensive and refused to give me a proper quote unless I put money down.

Now would be the time to start the search. I'm getting them delivered to my current place and will move them with my furniture. They're ones I have to install myself but that's easily done.

HD

mirz · Aug 03, 2013 10:27 pm

That's great Lurgen, time to organize movers

We bought blinds from freedom last year for current place and installed just by ourselves. Quality is pretty good and installation was very simple. Price wise it was 30% at that time and I believe freedom is 20% now from racv members. Worth checking if someone in market for blinds.

MummaDJ · Aug 04, 2013 10:04 am

Thanks Mirz
I just looked at iseekblinds.com and saw a product they have "Temporary Blinds". $35 for pack of 3, you can use when we first move in and then sort blinds. I might do this???

inglewood · Aug 04, 2013 10:18 am

MummaDJ

Thanks Mirz
I just looked at iseekblinds.com and saw a product they have "Temporary Blinds". $35 for pack of 3, you can use when we first move in and then sort blinds. I might do this???

That's a great idea! Beats hanging up sheets ::dizzy::

rellie · Aug 04, 2013 11:24 am

We used these as temporary window coverings. $59.95 for 6 and free shipping. They come in light filtering (white) and blockout (black). I was really happy with them.

http://www.ezyblind.com.au/

belle10 · Aug 04, 2013 12:22 pm

Would just like to thank everyone for sharing their experiences with building with PD and their ideas. It has been a great help for us. We are building the Chadwick 41 and should be at lock up stage next week. We have had a great experience so far with PD. Our BC has been excellent and our SS has been true to his word and seems genuinely interested in delivering a quality build.

[img]

MummaDJ · Aug 04, 2013 1:45 pm

rellie

We used these as temporary window coverings. $59.95 for 6 and free shipping. They come in light filtering (white) and blockout (black). I was really happy with them.

http://www.ezyblind.com.au/

Thanks Rellie, good to hear a review. We only need them on the bedrooms really for just a few weeks, a great solution.
I will have a look at these also.

Mumtomonkeys · Aug 04, 2013 9:52 pm

MummaDJ

rellie

We used these as temporary window coverings. $59.95 for 6 and free shipping. They come in light filtering (white) and blockout (black). I was really happy with them.

http://www.ezyblind.com.au/

Thanks Rellie, good to hear a review. We only need them on the bedrooms really for just a few weeks, a great solution.
I will have a look at these also.

Hey mummadj

You can get the same blinds at bunnings for $6 each