Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis

Hi all, we are building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis and I thought I would start a new thread for those building the same house too.

http://www.porterdavis.com.au/homes/pre ... f%20grange

We have our World of Style colour selection appointment in early July so we are trying to spend weekends visiting display homes to get ideas in advance.

Planning on doing the Classic Hamptons theme.

We are thinking of doing the bottom floor in Rustic Stone laminate but no display homes in Victoria have it so it is hard to decide from a small sample.

We aim to start building in September but our land hasn't titled yet so we will wait and see how that goes. It was meant to title in April but has been delayed, which we knew would probably happen.

Congratulions and thanks for starting this thread . Waldorf grange is a beautiful luxury home. It's a dream home.

We were thinking of building a grange too, but are afraid of its upgrade costs. Where are you building? Would you be able to share your upgrade costs? Thanks.

Hope your land gets titled soon. Looking forward to getting updates of your build.

Thanks for your message. As it is a Prestige home in the PD range there are a lot of included extras as part of the house price. We also got a few promos that were on at the time. As far as upgrades we are currently deciding and have our World of Style appointment in July. Three weeks after that we get our tender appointment which will show us the final pricing. Once we have that we will know how much the upgrades cost.

At the moment we are trying to decide on tiles, benches, cupboards, carpets etc and it is up to us to pick from the included range or upgrade. Some things we see the value in upgrading, others we don't.

The tricky part is you like a bench for instance, and they say it is category 3, but you still don't have exact pricing until tender so it makes it a bit tricky to decide in advance if it is worth the upgrade.

Whilst the house is quite opulent out at the display we want it to be a lived in family home and for that reason are choosing a few 'comfort' features. Such as instead of the high gloss porcelain tiles throughout the bottom floor we are choosing a Rustic Stone laminate in the basic category with a 'beachy/relaxed hamptons' feel. This will save a lot of money.

I will keep you posted with updates along the way.

Thanks for the reply.

I do agree choosing the prestige range will save you some money in upgrades. What packages have you been offered? We have been to Wos twice too and yes it's tricky to get pricing before tender as the staff at Wos don't tell you how much the upgrades actually cost.

I like your idea of having a rustic stone laminate. That should keep the cost down and give you an opulent look. Hope your selections at Wos goes as intended.

Thanks again for keeping us updated.

We have just had our two day colour selection appointment at WOS. Here is what we have chosen so far https://waldorfgrangebuild.wordpress.co ... elections/

It appears you have chosen almost the same colours as us!!! It's going to look amazing!!!

Has your build started yet? We had scheduled for September but our land hasn't titled yet.

Has your build started yet? We had scheduled for September but our land hasn't titled yet.[/quote]

Hahahahah it's like ground hog day!!! No we are scheduled to build in August and our land also hasn't titled (however it is at the titles office now, just waiting for them to do their magical title office thing)

We are building in mickleham, I was going to start a blog and after reading yours I'm inspired to start one of our own!!

Oh that's great, post the link when you do. I find it is a helpful place to work out all my own decisions and choices plus a great way to keep family and friends informed and up to date when they ask.

What colours did you choose for cladding and render? Did you know the colour in the Porter Davis system for the Waldorf Grange render is incorrect? They call it Ashlite 1/2 but it is actually full. We took both samples to the Greenvale display and help them up against the wall. The staff member at WOS suspected the computer was wrong and gave us two render samples to confirm for sure. We let them know Tuesday and gave them the photo.

Your blog is amazing so are your selections. Can't wait for the pricing of your tender.

My land is titled already. Haven't signed up with PD yet. I have a budget of 500k-525k not sure if I would be able to cope up in that price range. I have been given a quote by PD which is less than 500k but I know there so many upgrades to be considered post the quote and I don't want to get surprised with another 100k on top of the quote.

Are you upgrading your heating and cooling?

Has your build started yet? We had scheduled for September but our land hasn't titled yet.[/quote]

Hahahahah it's like ground hog day!!! No we are scheduled to build in August and our land also hasn't titled (however it is at the titles office now, just waiting for them to do their magical title office thing)

We are building in mickleham, I was going to start a blog and after reading yours I'm inspired to start one of our own!!


Congrats for building waldorf grange. ☺ Please keep us updated with your build.

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I cant say how other peoples prices have gone however between our initial sales quote (our consultant said said it wouldn't increase much, if at all) and contract the price of the house went up in the order of $60,000.

I am not sure what Waldorf_Grange_Build has done and i don't want to hijack their thread however to shed some lights on the upgrade costs i can tell you that. We got the refrig cooling included as part of the promotion which meant they had to upgrade our heating to a medium efficiency unit (Brivis SP535IN.)This was due to the zoning requirements as no cooler could cool 50sq house efficiently... If we wanted to go High efficiency they were going to charge us an extra $1400 and that was only for a unit that was 5.6 stars as opposed to the 5 star already included. We opted to go for 4 zones instead of upgrading to the 5.6 star unit, this set us back ~$2200. we also got 2 of the new Brivis touch controllers ( http://www.brivis.com.au/controllers ) instead of the included network thermostat and they were $500 each (they are a lot simpler for my wife to use and just seem much more intuitive.)

I am going to have to speak to my BC then, because we wanted it exactly the same facade as Greenvale... Except we got a colourbond roof included for free which should be the only cosmetic difference.

Thankyou for this info

Show them these pics

We didn't upgrade the heating or cooling on ours but instead added zoning (just 2 zones) and we also upgraded the controller as well as adding a vent in the master ensuite so I think about $1500 all up.

We came in under our sales quote so far as the consultant put in a guesstimate for flooring, cabinets and electrical. After we got those three areas selected at WOS we were $25,000 less than the sales quote.

If you choose lots of their 'quality inclusions' you actually don't pay extra. For example for splash backs in spare bathrooms and tiles for balcony and portico we just picked from the standard range and it came up as $0. Same for laminate flooring throughout bottom floor. Carpet we went up to category 3 and will pay a price difference of $7/sqm. The only reason we did this is I wanted a grey and the colour selection in category 2 were creams and browns.

If you want the cabinets to have the profile doors in kitchen and galley etc this can be pricey. But you can choose plain doors and come in under budget.

So my question to you is how much of 'the look' of the display home do you want in your house versus how much do you like the floorplan and are happy to compromise on the decorative extras etc.

We still may have some surprises at tender as we do not know if we will be forced to get all the windows double glazed (to keep the 6 star rating) as others have had to if they have made structural changes to the floorplan.

Hope that helps.

By all means hijack the thread as everything we post here could help others considering building a Waldorf Grange.

Another thing I love about the Brivis touch controllers is we were told they are bringing out an app in the next few months where you can turn your heater on and off from the app on your iPhone or iPad. So if you are out at dinner you can turn on the heater when you are 10 mins from home and it's nice and warm when you get home. Or you can go to bed and read a book and then turn off from your app instead of using the control pad in lounge/hallway.

We drove out to the Brookwater display again today and have decided to copy the colour of the lining boards on the top half of the house which is Champignon ¼ strength.

That does look quite good, i want to go have a look its just a matter of getting time when my wife and i are off together (both shift workers.)



unfortunately you don't get energy rating information until contract appointment. It has something to do with the fact that it is expensive and you could make structural changes at the tender etc.

Also i finally put up our blog: https://waldorfgrange.wordpress.com/

Please excuse the mistakes etc. i have just had my wisdom teeth out and i'm on a lot of pain killers!

Great blog! You've made me reconsider some things for my build. Even simple things I didn't think of such as switch for WIR light to be on wall at entrance to robe instead of at bedroom door. And two way switch for facade lights in master bedroom.

I cannot wait to follow the progress of your build, your home will be absolutely amazing. I am building in Greenvale and drive past the PD displays and really love the look you are going for. Your blog is awesome too, and I can't help but feel I am on the journey with you!

J