Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 05, 2012 10:31 pm Hi! Well we have engaged on the mission of building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis. We signed our first Sales Order back on April 9th 2012 and today we have signed off the final construction drawings and building variations. Our file has been finally handed over to the construction team. So I thought it was time to create a new thread for our Kallara 33 to share our build experiences with others so that we can share our journey for others to learn from. Now the administration process has been long and at times down right tiring but I must say thanks to our sales consultant who used to work at Clyde North, I won't mention anyone’s name as I understand and respect people’s privacy, but she was the most lovely lady to deal with during all our phone conversations and sales quotes and honestly we may not have built with Porter Davis without her. If you ever read these forums thank you again! I'd also like to thank our BC who has been so friendly and patient in ensuring that every change was documented correctly and was who was also very accommodating with the many many changes and variations that we made through the process. I now understand that amount of work that is required to make a simple change and I think if anyone who is dealing with their sales consultants and BC's understand this and also works to build a good relationship with their BC/SC then they will be much better positions to negotiate and make changes. What I mean by this we had 5 sales quotes, 2 tenders (one was updated), 3 contract variations and 2 building variations and these were the final version, not even including the revisions between sales quotes, and tenders!! We did have some little annoyances with the administration process and the "system" but this is not a reflection on our BC/SC as their customer service is so good that we really have forgotten about these little annoyances. The administration process is finally over for us and I can feel just that little bit of excitement kicking in. We will now see how the construction side of Porter Davis goes. I'll start with our timeline so far to today as below, I'll also update with our final - final list of variations. There has been a lot of them! Mid-Jan 2012 - Revisit building idea 07 Feb 2012 - Holding deposit paid on land 12 Feb 2012 - Land Contract Signed 12 Feb 2012 - Land Crossover change requested 14 Feb 2012 - Found local Solicitor 04 Feb 2012 - Land Deposit paid 19 Mar 2012 - Title search paid to Solicitor 10 Apr 2012 - Initial Deposit paid to hold base price for Kallara 33. 25 May 2012 - Tender Appointment 8 Jun 2012 - Colour & Electrical Appointments 15 Jun 2012 - Contract 4 Oct 2012 - Land Titles 14 Oct 2012 - I find out from land developer that land has titled but they had forgotten to inform me. 15 Oct 2012 - Solisitor told settlement with in 14 days 25 Oct 2012 - Land Settlement 30 Nov 2012 - Construction Drawings Signed, Building Varition 1 signed 5 Dec 2012 - Updated Construction Drawings (2 pages) signed, Building Variation 2 signed, Colours signed, file passed to construction. Blog: http://pdkallara33.blogspot.com Build Thread: http://www.forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61439 Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis 2Dec 10, 2012 10:59 pm Well today we had good news. After visiting on the weekend and finding two new taps, we were told that our side cut had been completed and that they expect to have the slab completed by the 16th- 17th of this month. So we quickly went down to check out our newly dug piece of dirt and found this! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Blog: http://pdkallara33.blogspot.com Build Thread: http://www.forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61439 Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis 3Dec 11, 2012 10:08 pm Well went and visited our land again today to see what has been done, and our site has been "set out" e.g. we have lots of pegs around our lot now with nails in them. They are placed around our fence lines and are obviously used to measure for slab framing. We also have a fence today! WooHoo Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Blog: http://pdkallara33.blogspot.com Build Thread: http://www.forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61439 Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis 4Dec 18, 2012 11:02 pm Well we went to see our land today and we are now ready for the concreaters to come tomorrow. So exciting! I have updated my blog with a few more photos of the construction process. I did notice that the wood in the garage seems to slope down into the house a little bit. As in it drops down by about 5 cm from the look of the eye. Do they level the contreat to the top of the wood or below the wood line? (I'll try to get a photo) Plumbing Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Gravel Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Waffles Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Blog: http://pdkallara33.blogspot.com Build Thread: http://www.forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61439 Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis 5Dec 19, 2012 11:47 pm Slab Poored today YAY?! We went and had a look this morning to see the slab getting poored, unfortantlly we were to late and were only there to see them finishing off and removing the framing. It wasn't the best day to poor the slab as it was drizzling all day, and now 14hrs or so later it is pooring down. So I'm a bit more worried than happy about the slab getting pitting / dusty. Mixed feelings today.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Blog: http://pdkallara33.blogspot.com Build Thread: http://www.forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61439 Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis 6Dec 20, 2012 6:34 am Interesting day to pour.. it was always going to rain last night.. Enjoy the kallara, we love our modified 29. Our block was 20cm too small to fit a 33.. but glad we got the 29 regardless.. Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis 7Dec 21, 2012 9:22 am I would have preferred if it didn't rain obviously, I am yet to go back and check it out. No rush now because they are on holidays until the 7th of Jan. Might check it out on the weekend if per-christmas rush isn't to crazy. 20cm to small, in width or depth? I know in depth they can easily modify, but the width they are not really a fan of changing because all the roof trusses are pre made. How long did your build take? (We are hoping to get in before end of June) Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis 8Jan 17, 2013 11:57 pm We have had lots of progress this week after a delayed start. We were supposed to have our framing start on the 7th of Jan. Half way through the week I started calling PD only to find out that we have a temp SS while my other SS is on holidays until the 21st?? After speaking to the temp SS he informed me that the frame wasn't due to start to the 14th and finish on the 22nd. Monday we had about 1/4 of our frame up, the Master Bed, WIR, Ensuite, Bed2, Pantry, Study, and a bit of the Theatre. Was pretty exciting day I'll have to say, our DD was running around the house dancing! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Tuesday all the Walls were completed and the roof trusses were delivered, it was awesome to now be able to walk through the whole house and see the size of the rooms, see the window positions and how big they were we spent a lot of time taking photos! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Wednesday all of the roof trusses except the portico have been installed, now it is really starting to look like a house! We were also surprised to see that all our double glazed windows were delivered and they look great. One of them has a fairly big chip on the frame which I imagine they will fix/replace. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Today we went back not expecting to much more to be completed due to the 40 degree day we had. The portico roof trusses are now installed. The valleys in the roof were installed, and half of the noggins in the theatre roof were installed. We will head back tomorrow. Hopefully our Windows are installed For anyone following our blog, we have also updated it a fair bit, uploaded the sales quotes, sales drawings and heaps of photos of the slab and frame. Blog: http://pdkallara33.blogspot.com Build Thread: http://www.forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61439 Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Frame Stage 9Jan 18, 2013 6:05 am awesome start and loved your blog . great house Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Frame Stage 10Jan 19, 2013 9:17 pm Thanks for the feedback! We visited the site again today and all the window frames are in, Woohoo! They look great, and because they are double glazed they feel much more sturdier. The colour looks great too (Jasper). Our triple stacking sliding door is by far my favourite but was let down a little bit when we saw a 25mm paint chip in the frame. This won't be able to be fixed without replacing it unfortunately. Our SS is back on Monday so I'll raise it then. The house was tidied up a bit as well with all the wood inside the house removed. I noticed that most of the noggins had been installed. There was a questionable piece of wood used in the theatre raised ceiling that had huge knots in it. I'll ask the building inspector what he thinks of this. I also picked up that our Ensuite studs are not at 300mm spacing that is required for our full tiled wall and in our contract. , There have been no attempts at resolving the load bearing wall issue with the Theatre (Lounge) Issues so far to be raised/outstanding:
* Framing - Garage Framing Overhangs (Fixed by using Treated Pine cut to size, but is this acceptable?) (Pic to follow) * Framing - 1 x Roof Truss not secured down on Family Wall. * Framing - Theatre Room Wall built as Load Bearing. * Framing - Large Knots in the Wood Frame in the Lounge Ceiling * Framing - Kitchen Splintered Wall Bearer * Sliding Door - Chip on paint showing bare metal size of 20cent piece. * Concrete slab - Rear section of the building blow out. Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Frame Stage 11Jan 29, 2013 10:42 pm So frustrated!!! I went to visit the site again to find the only thing that has changed is the plumbing, that should be a good thing right? We are still waiting for our roof that I was told would be on last Thursday/Friday. We still have a large number of issues outstanding such as them making our lounge wall load bearing when it wasn't supposed to be causing extra stress on a slab that wasn't designed for it. I've had no feedback on this, large chip on my window frame, Framing not secured to floor. The ensuite is supposed to have stud members at 300mm but has them at 600mm. All the issues I've raised have not been address except a small bit of slab blow out. Now the plumber has come through today and put all the plumbing in based on the old construction drawings and not the BV2 drawings that I was assured would be used. This has been installed into the 600mm stud members so it looks like they have no intention of fixing this. Even though I raised this last Monday! Now we have taps where we should have mixers on a different wall. We have recycled water tap outlets installed instead of fresh water outlets in the toilets, obviously the plumber has assumed we were just "specific" about where our tapping for our toilets comes out of. But we paid an extra $125ea for these for electronic bidets.. I meet the SS on site last week and he assured me that it would all be taken care off, I gave him the Independent Inspectors report on Thursday and today had a chat, and he said was going to check out some of the items, but I really wonder if he has any intentions of fixing anything. And to add to our concerns there is a large pile of sand in the driveway obviously for the bricking, which makes me more concerned I am getting that "sure no worries we'll take care of it" and then just stream roll ahead and leave it all as is. I wonder how much happier I would have been if i visited and at least some of the items were fixed and the plumbing was at least done correctly.... sigh... Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Frame Stage 12Jan 31, 2013 9:01 pm After speaking with the SS the day before yesterday, he advised that the carpenter would be out today to fix the outstanding issues. We had a very long discussion about the load bearing lounge wall issue. After advising that the Building Inspector and I looked at the Roof Truss design it showed that the wall was required to be load bearing, but the Building Inspector said it may be an issue as the Slab design says that load bearing walls are to be only on the external of the building. The SS said that he was just going to trim the wall back and fix the issue but I’ve asked that he find out the right solution. After visiting the site not one single issue has been resolved we were also expecting the roof to be up today, but only the scaffolding has been done. It’s a shame because when I visited it was pouring heavily and the entire floor area was flooded by about 1cm all over! Our front door frame was also sitting in the garage flooded with water. Hopefully it doesn't affect the frame. I also noticed that the bricks were delivered. Now I'm really getting worried that none of the issues are going to be fixed. I took the opportunity while it was raining to decide on the c-bus light switch locations. Has anyone else had issues in the frame that need resolving? How long did it actually take for them to get fixed? Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Pre-Plaster 13Mar 03, 2013 11:08 pm It's been a busy month, we now have a roof, bricks, electrical and plumbing rough in done. We are just waiting for a few items to be fixed up like the ceiling levelness and a stacking sliding door that is chipped and some other minor items. I thought I better update my blog with our Colour selection so feel free to have a look. I've now have to catch up with all the previous months photos . Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Pre-Plaster 14Mar 04, 2013 6:48 am looking forward o seeing the updates Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Pre-Plaster 15Mar 11, 2013 11:54 pm Hi rocky, great to know someone is following! Gives me more reason to update it I've add some new posts on our Electrical Selections, plans arround C-Bus, extra data cabling, Home Theatre ideas, and the general issues. There are some new posts re bricking, plumbing etc. We are told that Wednesday they are installing the plaster and it will take them about a week to finish. I really think they will have 90% done in the first two days. It's a shame as I'll be in Perth the first night which is when I think they will have the first part of the sheeting done. Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Pre-Plaster 16Mar 12, 2013 12:28 pm Added some more posts showing bricking and insulation work, Nearly caught up with the blog. hehe. Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Pre-Plaster 17Mar 12, 2013 4:43 pm house is really coming along like your monitor too love the bricks Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Pre-Plaster 18Mar 19, 2013 11:16 am How did you manage to lay so many data cables in your house pdkallara33? I thought it would've void your building warranty if the owner goes onto the site. Haha. You must've worked through the night to lay those cables! Good job! RESPECT Re: Building the Kallara 33 by Porter Davis - Pre-Plaster 20Apr 09, 2014 8:51 am We realized our portico need tiles but not sure what is the best. Wonder what others have chosen. Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12984 Hi, Have used the Dulux 1 step, oil base on my walls(white set), out of can it’s already a more thinner product than a final coat paint Also in water base Water or… 3 5104 yeah i couldnt picture it issue either, but i could clearly picture what they were doing wrong haha 2 5341 |