I figure no matter which builder we'd gone with there would be issues. It sounds like there is always different expectations from us as customers and most of the builders don't do a great job of communicating what the process is going to be like and what needs to be sorted out at which stage, on top of which it is probably different for each builder and the process changes over time anyway.
Happily we haven't had any real issues so far (although we aren't even at contract stage yet so who knows!) but there are probably at least some things we would have done differently if I'd known then what I know now. The main thing for us is that we still love the design of the house, we've looked at god knows how many display homes and way more sets of plans and we still think the one we've chosen (well, with the added options) is still far and away what works best for us. If it ends up that we don't like the colour of the tiles or render or some such then that can be fixed up at a later stage, it's far more important to us that we get the layout right and we're pretty hopeful we've got that done.
You're absolutely right. And the Kew was one of the layouts we were interested in, it's a great layout!
Our problems really started at tender but all in all when I'm thinking of the amazing house that I'll get it definitely out weighs the bad things.