My Journey with Porter Davis for Vancouver 33

After months of looking at various builders, display homes, plans, etc; we've decided on on a single storey house (Vancouver 33) with Porter Davis. Deposit has been paid and last minute finalization of structure changes are in progress.

Comments are welcome as I still have opportunity to fine tune it!



Changes that have been asked are -

Eaves

1. Provide 600mm wide eaves to lower storey of House and Garage.
NBN

2. Co Fibre-Optic estate pack including: Lead-in cables and conduit from Meter Box to WSC in garage, 1 WSC (Wired Services Cabinet) installation in garage as per specification, 1 RJ45 Data Hub within WSC, 1 Double GPO within WSC as required, 3 Data/Phone point.
Insulation

3. Provide R6.0 high performance Gold insulation batts to Ceiling in lieu of standard. Provide R2.5 Soundscreen insulation batts to all internal/external walls.
Bath / Bed

4. Provide 1200mm high x 1800mm wide Aluminium awning window to Bedroom 2,3,4.
5. Provide 350mm high x 1500mm wide Aluminium square set reveal awning window to Ensuite wall
6. Provide 325mm high x 1025mm wide x 90mm deep tiled niche to bed 2 ensuite and powder bath.
7. Provide 1No. 425mm high x 425mm wide x 90mm deep tiled niche to the Ensuite shower wall.
8. Provide relocation of bed 2 door to Bed 3 and Bath wall. ( creating 2nd Ensuite).
9. Provide quickslides including 2340 x 720 Mirrored doors in lieu of standard robe doors to bed 2,3 and 4.
10. Provide two 720 wide x 2340 high flush panel hinged doors to master ensuite in lieu of standard opening.
11. Provide 1500 high x 2400 wide Aluminium square set sliding window to kitchen rear wall in lieu of standard 200mm high x 2400mm wide sliding window.
12. Corner treatment
Living Area

13. Provide two 1800h x 1500w square set reveal windows to Family rear wall in lieu of standard sliding windows.
14. Provide 1200 wide x 2100 high square set awning windows to Lounge in lieu of standard 2400 wide x 1500 high sliding window.
15. Provide one 2250mm high x 3000mm wide Aluminium Boutique square set reveal sliding door (2No. panels) to Rumpus side external wall in lieu of standard 2100mm high x 2400mm wide Aluminium sliding door.
16. Provide 1800h x 2700w square set double awning window to rumpus rear wall in lieu of standard.
    Kitchen
17. Provide reconfiguration of the Kitchen Bench layout. Delete island bench and provide 3000mm x 1200mm kitchen Bench. Relocated sink and dishwasher.
18. Provide 1No. 600mm high x 3600mm wide Aluminium square set reveal fixed picture window to Kitchen side external wall in lieu of standard face brickwork.
Garage

19. Two meter garage extension with roller door at back.
20. Provide relocation of Garage door to the extension side. Provide additional 1800 high x 1200 wide fixed window to front of elevation of garage.
21. Stud and plaster finish to garage internal walls.
Heating

22. Decided to go with what is offered by PD. Will add 2 zones.
23. No cooling. If required will do post build.
Appliances

24. Apart from rangehood, the remaining appliances (diff. from PD supplied) will be installed post build. Will supply the specs to ensure the cutout is done by PD. PD appliances will be supplied in original

Wow looks like you are all over it and have asked for a lot of changes. Great work. I love how the master suite is so separated from the rest of the main areas.

Depending on what you plan to do in the back yard and who will be living in the house (kids? etc) you could make the back of rumpus a sliding door instead of window for rear access.

Also I saw on Three Birds Renos these lift up windows from kitchen to alfresco so it opened up the space like a breakfast bar which would look amazing but I have no idea if Porter Davis do them.

Good luck with the build.


- View my blog at www.waldorfgrangebuild.wordpress.com

Good luck with the build, you seem pretty well organised so far!

Thank you:-)

The structural changes are minimal - kitchen bench, garage extension, and bed 2 door relocation.

What I tried to do is keep the windows size consistent and avoid as far as possible different height/wide windows. Looked at having some symmetry on each face of the house.

Thank you for your comments.

Great stuff. We have also paid our initial deposit on the same house. Love he design.
Looks like you have gone with the waterside facade?

All the best with the build

Thank you! Read through your page. How exciting! Love your alfresco extension. Would it be possible for you to share on how much is PD charging you for that?

Happy to share. The price for the extension hasn’t been confirmed as we are yet to have our tender appointment, but we have been assured it is in the vicinity of 14k. That’s about 5 k for the grand alfresco option then 9k for the extension. Will confirm when we have our tender...whenever that is.

You have a very similar plan to me!!! We however got rid of the WIL and flipped our Powder Room to have the access from the Kitchen to save guests trotting down that area of the house....

The house is currently being built with Bricks half done. We went the Seaside Facade too! Let me know if you want any more info!!

Thanks Lucy.

In my plan, we have made bed 2 as ensuite as my kid wanted one! Therefore the shower+bath had to face inside for bed 3 and bed 4. We have chosen the waterside facade. Today, went to WOS to look at flooring. Liked the timber flooring but found them quite expensive. Still deciding how to manage that!

Yes I hear you!! We are doing ours after hand over along with a lot of other things that were expensive!

For those who have installed ducted vacuum - what is the ideal place to put the central unit? Also, if placed inside, is there any venting done to outside of house?

Thanks

Hi there. Are you still active on this forum? Just wondering where you built and if you were able to view a display home that had the alternate kitchen design, like you chose, beforehand?

hi there....no dropped my plan to build with PD.

Yikes. Anything we should be wary of??

would be good to know why you dropped the plan with PD ? We were looking at Vancouver 29 for ourselves...

Hi - decided to go with a double. Hence, dropped Vancouver / PD.