Porter Davis homes

Lurgen and Belle! Your homes look fantastic! It is so exciting to be getting to the point where you are about to move in!

Our tender appointment is in 1.5 weeks!

Just wondering what down lights everyone's has had installed? We were quoted 149 dollars per down lights by the sales consultant.

Our building coordinator told us the downlights were Telbix 301. 8 watts, non-gimbal...
We've also received a few quotes from other electricians and they're apparently the cheap kind you can install for 50 dollars each. Just seems like a big difference in the price. I understand Porter Davis has to make a margin etc, but feeling a bit ripped off if that is the amount for those down lights. Not sure if the sales consultant just put in a large allowance or whether it is 149 for down lights you can get installed for 50 dollars outside of porter davis...

We are also emailing our building coordinator to clarify at the moment but just wanted everybody else's experiences...

We had normal battens installed in most areas, downlights just don't appeal to me (too much heat, high running costs, higher installation costs) despite them looking quite good.

I have el'cheapo downlights in my current rental and they fail all the time. Gets expensive replacing them so often.

We went with recessed lights in a few areas where it was looking a bit too busy on the ceiling. Because we added quite a few lights this helped us break things up a little. We also went with lights under the overhead benches in the kitchen. Little triangular things. They looked OK at Hopetoun but to be honest I found them to be a bit ugly once they were installed.

Just bear in mind that all the PD options have a hefty markup. You're paying for more than their margin, you're paying for the warranty they provide and the convenience of it being done before handover. I found it unhelpful to directly compare numbers between PD and installers because the installer quote didn't factor in the hassle of them actually doing it after the build (hopefully that makes sense, I've been packing my house for a week solid on top of long days at work and might not be quite as useful as normal!)

Hi happystarz, if you go up a few pages you would see my questions to the forum about a week ago as well regarding this issue. We were quoted 106 per downlight at electricals which imo was still too expensive. We were advised at electricals to go get them done outside. We just paid the offset charges at electrical to move the standard batten to a corner. I have not talked to any electricians yet to get pricing but am quietly confident that regardless of price quoted, it will come in below 106 even with all the wiring, material and labour cost per light. It does quickly add up because we are having downlights in the bedrooms as well. The only downside to this is because it has to be fitted post handover, it does not tag onto our loan amount. We are now looking at getting downlights, an alarm and intercom fitted post handover.

oh we are building a single storey as well which makes it easier to have anything done to it post handover

Ours is also the Balmain facade, shows you the difference in full render (hebel). We didn't want a front balcony.

Good question! I'm pretty sure it is closer to the middle but still a bit more towards the outside wall, so it's not right in the middle. lol if that makes sense . To be honest I didn't even think to have it moved right into the middle, but it's ok where it is anyway. I think those colours would go really nice together, we chose a grey, black, brown and red theme which has turned out really nice, but I just hope it looks as good with all the furniture we have picked out. What colour are you thinking of making the splashback? Have you been to Hoptoun yet to check out their options? We went nearly every weekend and had finally thought we knew what we wanted but when we got the the appointment they would show us some colours or options that weren't on display and it made us second guess our decisions, especially when it came to upgrades and their prices.. We only looked at the Montague display in Taylors Hill and fell in love with it, even though our layout is pretty different different. Did you visit a few different Montague display homes before you decided?

And that's the problem with a double storey It just becomes too hard to do any changes to wiring to the ground floor post-handover. I wanted to do the alarm and downlights post handover but quickly came to the conclusion that it would be too much hassle. Even something simple like a doorbell would be a nightmare threading the wire through all the floor joists!

Also as a side note, something I didn't realise until yesterday - I was told by my BC yesterday that for single storey homes, the interior garage walls are plastered but for double storey homes its exposed bricks.

We have a double storey and our garage is plastered, however this might be because we have hebel. I kept asking all the time at Tender and Contract - how with the inside of the garage be finished off. I did learn through my build that the internal wall between the garage and house (ie the hall way) is just plastered - no bricks or hebel there.

Hi all. Just came back from my tiles appointment. Question got raised during tiling discussions. Does the glass splashback for the kitchen extend to behind the rangehood area or is this an upgrade?

Ours extends behind the rangehood and was not an upgrade, but remember that PD does have a habit of changing the rules pretty frequently. Check your kitchen plans, the diagram should show where the splashback covers.

It'll be a separate piece of glass though, with the rangehood covering the seam.

Happystarz, we had the same problem with the downlights. I got three external quotes and basically none of them were comfortable to touch downstairs as they were concerned if we had battens put where we wanted the downlights that they might be on a beam.... If that was the case they couldn't put a downlight there. So, after much hassle, we decided just to get the downlights. It would also cost $65 for the batten to go where you wanted the downlight - and you had no choice but to pay that. It all of a sudden made the downlight option a lot better (if that is your preference). You do need more downlights with the 8 Watt and we were annoyed they weren't dimmable but they put them in a way where we had more switches with lights separate on them - so for example if we wanted to watch TV we could have the 3 front lights off and the back lights on etc. The DL were $126 for a white downlight and $135 for a gold one.

They are workable. And I have a friend who has the same LED lights who in 3.5yrs has not had to change one globe. And she thinks they are heaps cheaper than halogen downlights. So, I don't know. That is what we found...

Hi Hocm,

Our glass splashback extends behind the range hood right too the roof, if you can picture an upside down T, but as Lurgen mentioned we bought under PD 'brave new year' promotion but I cannot remember if this was part of that or not.

How are all your plans coming along and what hourse have you decided on?

Sam

Ours only goes up to the rangehood so a rectangle. The glass splashback for us was an upgrade. Maybe it depends on what range you are building with?

WOW WOW WOW!!!!
I am beyond mad. I can barely watch my language right now!
We picked out tiles on Saturday that are an upgrade, National tiles wants to charge us $72 for that upgrade. The tile costs $39.95 in their store. I tried to get an explanation to why is it that much more expensive than what the actual tiles cost, my BC requested an explanation and what they said is that the price of $39.95 is the retail price and the price of $72 includes charges associated with labour/installation, glues, grout, delivery etc.. REALLY? REALLY? REALLY? So my basic tiles would go on foot to my building site and install themselves???? and the basic tiles are so cool that they don't need any glues or grout???
This is beyond ridiculous!!!

My splashback is on the island bench, if you go look at the photos of the displays look at the Californian style, it has a seafoam (or something like that, I'd say turquoise) splashback on the bench, that is what I want to go for, gloss white cupboards and brown/cream tiles. If I manage to keep calm at my tiles appointment (which I doubt). We have been to Hopetoun twice, we are going for mostly neutral colours so I don't think we are going to change our mind much. I'm worried about the basins though because the only one we like has been discontinued. We have to be careful with the upgrade budget, so we need to allow some money for the tiles and the cupboards (gloss) and then we will see if we can afford anything else.
We saw 2 displays, the one in Officer and the one at Selandra rise. We went to see them about 5 times each I think and each time we had more and more questions, especially about the WIP. I'm happy with everything else. I'm just losing my mind over tiles right now and the upgrade price, I think I'll throw a hissy fit at my appointment.

Ally, I found a similar thing when we looked at tiles- we were looking at the Carrara Gloss which is a lovely tile, and although it was the same price in National Tiles it was going to be double the price of the Cat 2 tiles we ended up choosing. National Tiles told us the PD charge those prices.

So PD is saying NT is charging the difference and NT is saying PD is charging the difference?
Well someone will have to own up because this is just ridiculous! and I actually called NT, they didn't want to give me any explanation until my appointment. So rude!

Hey Meowsy - how's the build coming along - I keep checking for more pics

i have to say that even though the last few weeks have felt a bit slow going - my site supervisor and bc have been tops about it all - cant wait to meet our ss he seems like a great guy and the folks across the street spoke highly of him when I bumped into them on the weekend.

and on the build front - the roof trusses are almost don't probably 3/4 by the look of it - not sure about the balcony side of things, maybe they keep working on it afterwards like the garage and alfresco side of things...the lead carpenter did explain the second story window thing (I was confused as they were huge openings but he said once the fascia was on they do the second storey window frames so it meets the right height due to eaves etc.) nice of him to take the time to explain it.

Claire, thanks for asking The roof tiles are on, I am hoping some bricks will be delivered today! I will get a photo soon and post. It is looking great, it's a bit different to many of the houses you see around, with the surfmist fascia, which I love the look of. D@n on here gave me the confidence to go with the light fascia.

I wonder if we have the same SS? Ours seems great too, easy to communicate with and seems to be keeping an eye on everything well.

What size are the upgrade tiles you have chosen? If they are porcelain and/or 600mm x 600mm then they are more difficult to lay and can require two tilers, so this may possibly explain the additional charges?