Floor Plans in brief

Many of you wanted to see our floor plans, here are the basic plans. PM me if you want more detailed ones. 

Post handover we will put a decking from dining room sliding doors all the way across alfresco area. The swimming pool will be along back fence area offset to the same side of alfresco. It should leave us still with several meters of cricket pitch or mini soccer field between house and pool (I hope). 

Contract meeting

What a pleasant relief that is all over. The climax of stress with the new house selections and colours, electrical, tiles etc stuff, extreme sleep depivation, our baby's hospital visits, the four kids challenging us all in their own ways and the demolition stuff was getting way too much.

We went into the meeting ready, fully prepared and aware many things may not be done but our building coordinator was great. Finally no one to handball to, answers right then and there. Things were done with ease and weren't difficult like previous encounters. Our BC completely changed our view of PD and gave us confidence they are there to help us get us what we need and want for our dream home.

The meeting reviewed the contract, first drawings, then the contract wording. Luckily I'm good at details so lots of little errors noted and corrected. Feature holes covered over, wording matching drawings, details and quantities correct, all areas correctly tiled despite completely missing from drawings. It took 5+hrs and we called it a day, still not signed but the following day I returned for a few more hours to review final corrected document and sign everything. 

The team behind the scenes, the estimator and draftsman we never saw but they work hard and fast. Would be nice to see them briefly to say thanks but they remain hidden. 

We are still waiting for final costings for a few things but will be added as post contract variations. The glass panel in shower, the tiling for a toilet forgotten on plans, add more insulation, the final site slab costings which can't be confirmed until after the second site survey completed after the demo team finishes (another saga, why they haven't finished is a good question) and a few electrical changes awaiting costing. 

We are so relieved that the bulk of the decision process is done. The relief in the house is great, kids party on weekend was a party of freedom from stress and to celebrate good health (bub almost better). 

Now back to demolition and those hiccups, waiting for electrical pit quote still,waiting for more fencing quotes and then got to finalise pool design and get that dug before PD start. 

Yippee a few steps closer to our own home.

Porter Davis new World of Style - Selection days

Well PD have done it again, we had confirmation letter and text messages confirming our appointments over two days. We were super organised and ready to start our selections as fast as possible as we knew there were huge amounts to do and we knew our stuff. I'd even done a complete electrical plan almost identical to the one we did with the staff member did. I rushed to get to the appointment in time, I left my sick baby in hospital with husband so as not to cancel appointment BUT guess what PD didn't have us in the booking system and weren't expecting us. I had to prove I had booking and wasn't there on wrong day. Wtf?? So I sat there for ages waiting. Really pissed by this point.

At last I started colour selections but apparently computer wasn't working so manual selections done. Still they couldn't tell us prices for it all up front, yet expect you to sign away. The lovely girl who did it with us doesn't do this job normally so again a bit of a screw up. The departments are all trying to get used to their new space and had no idea the flow of the day. They need to give a clear schedule to staff for each client. At one point we were waiting 1 1/2hrs on the couch for review with colours selections well past the scheduled end time. I thought hubby was going to explode at them as our baby was unwell yet we still came. 

The two days was stressful and rushed. They need to give more time to do colours and tiles, we truly rushed through them all, despite already having the codes for all our selections. If you have no idea what you want before your final meeting, good luck to you. They could spend less time at window furnishings and after review of each area give the document to owners to review as we had plenty of time in between meetings while waiting for one staff member to review final colours. Lots of prices we still are waiting for despite this we have 48hrs to review and alter then changes can't be done until contract or via BC. My prediction is our contract meeting going to be a real challenge. 

Hubby has done a mock up of our front facade.

Our other choices all set and I will put in electrical floor plan when I can.  We are also getting the kitchen culture department to quote on our custom bookshelves and study area. Awaiting quote from wardrobe team but he said he has to send it to BC and not directly to us. How can I review it and make changes if given this at contract?? 

The tile selection was ok but again none of the paperwork was there to do all of quote so our price doesn't include 2 of our toilets and our facade tiles. We have been asking for a quote of our facade tile choice since pre tender, hand balled to Tender appt then to colours selection then to tile selection and we still don't have quote. Soooo annoying. Now have to wait till contract, what is going in?

This whole process is laughable. Imagine going to a car dealership and saying I want car A. Sure you can just sign here and tell me what extras you want. It's $x but that's not the price total and I can't tell you that until we have your deposit and contract so your trapped. Now let's go shopping for your extras, don't worry if you can't afford it or not, just pick it all out so we can keep you in the dark until the last minute. Here's the total for all of your selections, we haven't included it all but you should get this soon or at contract signing, just sign here to state this is what you've selected. You can't make changes after 48hrs now or we will charge you a fee, no we won't tell you all prices yet and all changes will have to go via a guy who never answers calls or emails in full, he loves deferring to others or contract day. Final contract meeting comes (my prediction), ok price is $xxxx dollars, a bit more than you planned you say, oh don't worry we can change that but we only have 30seconds and the alternative choices you can't see as they are 50km away at our display centre. Here have a look at your plans, quick you have 2minutes and sorry no the plans aren't complete or correct so we can make the corrections post contract and yes we will charge you for changes now on everything despite you asking for these since you originally saw a sales rep in out display home. Oh and we forgot to tell you your house won't be ready for at least 12 months, sorry. 

Demo fun continues

Demolishment continues with a few hiccups along the way. Trees gone but many remain for demo crew to do. Asbestos gone, a few panels left as they can't access and will have to wait for full demo team to help with access. Electricity gone. Waiting new 3 phase electrical pit quote to arrive then approve that, should be here soon I hope. Gas finally gone after 30 working days and lots of calls to united energy and red energy (each slagging the other off). Red energy finally got a manager onto it and sorted it out. Various things sold on eBay gone. We took a few tiles and things to play with. Dad chopped a bit of wood for fireplaces. Random people coming and going. Roof tiles gone. Then bits of wood gone.

Suddenly all worked stopped due to bees. A quick google search and the bee wrangler came out and removed them all within a day. I don't even know where they were as a sit in hospital with my bub running the show from iPhone! 

Colours electrical tiles window furnishing and kitchen cabinetry selections done at the new World of Style. PD had the old showroom Hopetoun which we seen several times but then they opened this amazing new showroom. It presents brilliantly as it should. Will write more on that soon. 

Tender meeting

Well in summary the meeting was a disorganised mess on their part. They started an hour late, which wouldn't have annoyed us too much off we didn't have 4 kids to organise. They didn't have paperwork ready to review when they finally did start so we started reviewing random paperwork for an hour or so then redid it all when paperwork was done around midday. The day was huge, no breaks until 3.30  when we rushed off to get baby then returned to hopefully sign correct and completed document. Let's just say by 6.30pm we left as it still wasn't finished or correct. 

So much more to say on the tender meeting but will do another day. 

PD were happy to go with most of our structure changes but we were given a no to many others. Very disappointing but we accept that volume builders have contracts with certain suppliers for some of their styles and that can't be altered. They won't do insulation between downstairs and upstairs which really disappointed us as it's the only chance we have to install this. However if we wanted a custom home we could have done a custom build, just our budget won't allow it. 

Will include a list of questions we took with us soon. Or PM me and I can send to you.