Porter Davis: - Rochedale 33 Build Thread

shane3340 · Mar 18, 2018 7:54 pm

Hello everyone,
We are building the Rochedale 33 with the Ludstone facade in Melbourne's west.

I want to write about our journey, so I'm going to use this thread as well as my blog https://pd-rochedale33.advancemm.com/ - if you have any questions on pricing, decisions we made etc. drop me a comment here or there. :-D

Below is an image of the ludstone facade which we have modified to reflect the two render colours we have chosen. (Colorbond Basalt and Dulux Brume).

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OZDemon · Mar 22, 2018 12:34 pm

Howdy! My family and I are building the same house and facade with the Master at the front and extensions to the wrap around windows (as pictured above). From our perspective, you get a lot of bang for your buck with this design and a few upgrades.

We have just completed the framing stage and are hoping to be in before October.

Looking forward to hearing how your journey proceeds!

shane3340 · Mar 23, 2018 6:29 am

OZDemon

Howdy! My family and I are building the same house and facade with the Master at the front and extensions to the wrap around windows (as pictured above). From our perspective, you get a lot of bang for your buck with this design and a few upgrades.

We have just completed the framing stage and are hoping to be in before October.

Looking forward to hearing how your journey proceeds!

Good to hear!
Yes, I think it was the windows which drew us in as well... Our floor plans will change due to our WOS changes, but you can see how we did our top floor with the windows. We would have had more wrap around on the bottom side but it would have had to be obscured due to the whole overlooking rules.

Hope yours goes well! Do you have a thread or any photos?

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OZDemon · Mar 23, 2018 7:21 am

Had originally intended to run a thread as I wasn't able to see anyone else building the Rochedale. However life got in the way and the rest is history...

Don't have many meaningful photos at this stage, although the following is a copy of the plans from our contract. I think we are up to 11 variations in total now, about a 50/50 split between requests by us and requests from PD.
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sammo79 · Mar 23, 2018 7:28 pm

Long time lurker, first time poster.

We are building the Rochedale 33 with Sinclair façade with PD, our 2nd build with them. 1st was the Granada 24, four years ago. We were 1st time builders & were happy with what we got in the end but decided to "right some of our wrongs" with this build. Apart from our site supervisor being incompetent and having no attention to detail whatsoever we got what we wanted & paid for in the end.

We were hoping for a better experience this time around. Oh how wrong were we... We paid our deposit in August '17 for a January '18 site start, WOS in October '17, contract signed in December '17 and we're one week from April '18 & we've been told we're still another 8-12 weeks from having a dispensation outcome let alone a site start date! It's been a very disappointing journey so far and an emotional rollercoaster for my wife and I.

It's great however to finally come across some others that are building the Rochedale 33. I will follow your builds with keen interest and keep you up-to-date with how we are tracking as well.

Cheers,
Sam.

shane3340 · Mar 23, 2018 7:30 pm

sammo79

Long time lurker, first time poster.

We are building the Rochedale 33 with Sinclair façade with PD, our 2nd build with them. 1st was the Granada 24, four years ago. We were 1st time builders & were happy with what we got in the end but decided to "right some of our wrongs" with this build. Apart from our site supervisor being incompetent and having no attention to detail whatsoever we got what we wanted & paid for in the end.

We were hoping for a better experience this time around. Oh how wrong were we... We paid our deposit in August '17 for a January '18 site start, WOS in October '17, contract signed in December '17 and we're one week from April '18 & we've been told we're still another 8-12 weeks from having a dispensation outcome let alone a site start date! It's been a very disappointing journey so far and an emotional rollercoaster for my wife and I.

It's great however to finally come across some others that are building the Rochedale 33. I will follow your builds with keen interest and keep you up-to-date with how we are tracking as well.

Cheers,
Sam.

Hello Sam,
Good to hear from you, and I hope things get better for you soon!

Charly6s · Mar 26, 2018 11:01 pm

Hi Shane

How did you change the render colours on the photo?

I would love to know what my house will look like, I to am doing thr Ludstone facarde but on a Forsyth 35.

Thanks
Charlotte

shane3340 · Mar 27, 2018 6:26 am

Charly6s

Hi Shane

How did you change the render colours on the photo?

I would love to know what my house will look like, I to am doing thr Ludstone facarde but on a Forsyth 35.

Thanks
Charlotte

Hello Charlotte,

Yes, we took the PD image and photoshopped it to be able to put our own colours in (both my wife and I have a background in IT and graphic design - so that makes it handy). If you have Photoshop I can send you the PSD file and you just paintbucket fill 2 of the layers with your colours (assuming yours is also 2 colours in the same areas).

shane3340 · Apr 01, 2018 7:21 pm

Hello everyone,

Just wrote a blog post about our experience with the new home selection. Worth a read if you are about to/going through this or have anything you want to add

https://pd-rochedale33.advancemm.com/20 ... onsultant/

sammo79 · May 09, 2018 4:42 pm

A quick update- after some fairly lengthy delays we finally had a site start over the weekend. Portaloo went in on Friday, site cut was completed on Saturday morning, temp fencing up Saturday afternoon, site pegged out yesterday and piering completed today.

We are so happy to finally see some action on our Rochedale 33 (Rochedale 40 in the end after mods.....)!

shane3340 · May 28, 2018 5:05 pm

sammo79

A quick update- after some fairly lengthy delays we finally had a site start over the weekend. Portaloo went in on Friday, site cut was completed on Saturday morning, temp fencing up Saturday afternoon, site pegged out yesterday and piering completed today.

We are so happy to finally see some action on our Rochedale 33 (Rochedale 40 in the end after mods.....)!

Hello Sammo,

How is the build progressing?

shane3340 · May 28, 2018 5:31 pm

Things are happening slowly on our end.... since signing contract on the 30/3, we have been spending a lot of time going back and forth fixing errors etc.

Now awaiting developer approval.... hopefully this comes soon.... trying to resist the urge to constantly pester our BC. Anyone else know how long it usually takes to get approval? Surely it shouldn't take long!

https://pd-rochedale33.advancemm.com/20 ... -approval/

sammo79 · May 28, 2018 6:40 pm

shane3340

sammo79

A quick update- after some fairly lengthy delays we finally had a site start over the weekend. Portaloo went in on Friday, site cut was completed on Saturday morning, temp fencing up Saturday afternoon, site pegged out yesterday and piering completed today.

We are so happy to finally see some action on our Rochedale 33 (Rochedale 40 in the end after mods.....)!

Hello Sammo,

How is the build progressing?

Hey Shane.

We had our slab poured last Wednesday. A week behind schedule owing to the rain the previous weekend.

Today we had crushed rock dropped off and spread up against the slab as well as the "termi mesh" installed.

No idea of when we're supposed to start with framing.

sammo79 · May 28, 2018 6:43 pm

shane3340

Things are happening slowly on our end.... since signing contract on the 30/3, we have been spending a lot of time going back and forth fixing errors etc.

Now awaiting developer approval.... hopefully this comes soon.... trying to resist the urge to constantly pester our BC. Anyone else know how long it usually takes to get approval? Surely it shouldn't take long!

https://pd-rochedale33.advancemm.com/20 ... -approval/

Depends on the developer. Ours turned it around within 24 hours.

shane3340 · May 30, 2018 7:41 am

We got our developer approval yesterday (albeit the render color locations on the facade are wrong) - waiting to see what the next step is from here....

Progress!

sammo79 · Jun 05, 2018 10:46 am

A quick update on our build-

Finally had contact from both BC & SS. After our slab pour occurred on the 23/05/2018, because of a shortage of available trades, our framing will not commence until 22/06/2018.

6 weeks of delays already.

sammo79 · Jun 14, 2018 10:10 am

Another quick update-

Kitchen Culture have screwed up our cabinetry drawings resulting in an unscheduled visit to World of Style Sunday just gone. All good now but something that didn't really need to occur nonetheless.

We had arranged to meet our SS onsite this morning. My wife has been OS and it was the first chance to meet our SS in person and ask some questions that we had. We were a little bit put off by the attitude we were given when we said we both work full time and therefore asked to meet out of hours but we compromised with a 7am meeting. Well he was a no show stating he forgot & didn't have his phone on him after missed calls, voice mails and text messages.

The sooner this house is built and we never ever have to deal with Porter Davis the better!

How's your progress shane3340?

shane3340 · Jun 14, 2018 8:53 pm

sammo79

Another quick update-

Kitchen Culture have screwed up our cabinetry drawings resulting in an unscheduled visit to World of Style Sunday just gone. All good now but something that didn't really need to occur nonetheless.

We had arranged to meet our SS onsite this morning. My wife has been OS and it was the first chance to meet our SS in person and ask some questions that we had. We were a little bit put off by the attitude we were given when we said we both work full time and therefore asked to meet out of hours but we compromised with a 7am meeting. Well he was a no show stating he forgot & didn't have his phone on him after missed calls, voice mails and text messages.

The sooner this house is built and we never ever have to deal with Porter Davis the better!

How's your progress shane3340?

Hmmm, hopefully your site manager gets his act together soon....

We are waiting on the BC to go through the final clarifications and issue us with final drawings... We got an email with the building insurance documentation, so hopefully not much longer. They don't like giving specifics on when things will happen so it is just a waiting game for now...

shane3340 · Jul 13, 2018 7:45 am

Quick update from me: Our final construction drawings have been issued, and after much stuffing around with our bank in getting the valuation done, we have been formally approved.

Now awaiting the loan contract, which I hope will come through today, and then we will be transferred to construction!

shane3340 · Jul 28, 2018 8:11 pm

We have officially started!

I'm very excited - only 305 days to go, lol

https://pd-rochedale33.advancemm.com/20 ... te-scrape/

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