Anyway since I have no news, I will post some random pics I have left on my phone from visits to PD displays..
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Random Photos
Not much to report. We have signed the PCV to add a 4th bedroom, now we have to wait for plans to be drawn. Still a couple of things missing from this PCV buy it just means we will have a 3rd to sign.
Anyway since I have no news, I will post some random pics I have left on my phone from visits to PD displays..
Anyway since I have no news, I will post some random pics I have left on my phone from visits to PD displays..
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
The House is growing?
Our house has now grown, originally it was a Montrose 19, then became a Montrose 21 (inc Alfresco) now it is a Montrose 24 (4bed + Alfresco).
It will sound silly to most of you, but the decision was made so that we could have tiled niches in both showers. We couldn't have niches in the 3bedroom house as they cannot be put on an external wall. After a lot of complaining and arguing, the only resolution came in allowing us to upgrade to the 4 bedroom house, which alters the layout around enough for the niches to be okay!
Don't get me wrong, we didn't just add another room only for 2 small niches, we were very interested in the 4 bedroom version to begin with, but at that stage we didn't know what cost to expect with all of our inclusions. After getting the contract back we came in well below what we expected, but normally this is too late to make structural changes. However they allowed us to change as the niche issue was caused by them not letting us know that it had been removed from our plans.
However, if we were allowed to have it in the 3 bedroom house, we wouldn't have upgraded. So I guess you can say we did just add a room to the house just for 2 small niches. =/ lol
Monday, 17 October 2011
Land owners in 2 days and counting
As of 2:30 Wednesday (barring any unforeseen problems) we will be the proud owners of an expensive patch of dirt.
It's an exciting milestone, and we are very impressed to see it all happen on time. The block is super flat, site costs were very cheap (well as site costs go anyway) and we are happy with the location.
Defiantly a better block than the one we signed for originally when we started with the other builder. From what I've seen the other estate will be running behind time, and has much more of a slope that probably would have affected site costs. Let's hope it all goes to plan!
I was a little obsessed in checking the area and seeing how it looked as development went on. I would jog down there each weekend (it's only about 4km away). Helped me get a little fitter, even if I did end up walking most of the way back home.
Here are some pics from when I first saw we had a street sign.
It's an exciting milestone, and we are very impressed to see it all happen on time. The block is super flat, site costs were very cheap (well as site costs go anyway) and we are happy with the location.
Defiantly a better block than the one we signed for originally when we started with the other builder. From what I've seen the other estate will be running behind time, and has much more of a slope that probably would have affected site costs. Let's hope it all goes to plan!
I was a little obsessed in checking the area and seeing how it looked as development went on. I would jog down there each weekend (it's only about 4km away). Helped me get a little fitter, even if I did end up walking most of the way back home.
Here are some pics from when I first saw we had a street sign.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Land titles and contracts!
Got a letter on Friday saying that our land is due to title on Wednesday next week(19th)! Exciting! And today we has our contract signing! Wow there are a lot of pages to sign and initial.
In the end it went well. We were upset to find out we couldn't have our tiled niches something to do with the location of the showers and the plumbing. We also couldn't have overhead cupboards around the rangehood due to space. A little annoying that they left it until the contract signing to tell us this. But I guess there is nothing we can do about it now.
Hopetoun told us we couldn't have the overhead cupboards but when I asked my BC in sept she said that we can and they just haven't been drawn on the plans yet. And nobody mentioned anything about the niches being a problem until we asked why they weren't on the plan. Now we are told we can no longer make any changes. So I guess we better work out other ways of storing soap and shampoo etc in our showers.
Plus side is we came in under budget. We were even $3000 under our original quote and since then we added concrete to the alfresco and 3 brick piers and upgraded our electricals. At first I was worried the contract might be missing something but we went through and couldn't see any problems other than our missing niches and they were only cheap.
Oh how we will miss the niches :(
In the end it went well. We were upset to find out we couldn't have our tiled niches something to do with the location of the showers and the plumbing. We also couldn't have overhead cupboards around the rangehood due to space. A little annoying that they left it until the contract signing to tell us this. But I guess there is nothing we can do about it now.
Hopetoun told us we couldn't have the overhead cupboards but when I asked my BC in sept she said that we can and they just haven't been drawn on the plans yet. And nobody mentioned anything about the niches being a problem until we asked why they weren't on the plan. Now we are told we can no longer make any changes. So I guess we better work out other ways of storing soap and shampoo etc in our showers.
Plus side is we came in under budget. We were even $3000 under our original quote and since then we added concrete to the alfresco and 3 brick piers and upgraded our electricals. At first I was worried the contract might be missing something but we went through and couldn't see any problems other than our missing niches and they were only cheap.
Oh how we will miss the niches :(
Electricals
Re-visiting our electrical appointment makes me realize how rushed we were. It felt like our consultant wanted to have us out in under an hour. I mean we have a small house, but it us our first and with smart wiring etc we we wanted to take our time getting it all right.
Right off the bat we were told no downlights unless we get their 5-star ones at $150 each. Decided to stick with battens and have things done after!
The plan in general was pretty boring. We added plenty of power points, some batten holders with nogging for fan provisions, and some outdoor junction boxes on the front and on the brick piers in the alfresco.
We also added pre-wiring for surround sound. Originally picking 7.1 for the living area before later changing to a different package that gave u more points at a cheaper price! So instead we have 5.1 in the living, plus 2 ceiling speakers in the home theatre and 2 outdoor points in the alfresco.
Originally our consultant was not prepared for smart wiring as our BC had our build address as our current address, which is not a FTTH estate, they thought we were knocking down my parents place! So after letting her know we were given a smart wiring basic light package with just a few points. Me being the nerd that I am, wanted more, so after the appointment I emailed asking to add a couple more points and tv points to the 2 other bedrooms. I didn't know at the time but they ended up changing us to an Opticomm 4-pack. I only found out later on when I started stressing that they would use the smallest enclosure which wouldn't allow me to add more points later on if I needed. I ended up upgrading to the Opticomm 8-pack after speaking to people and finding out they use a bigger enclosure for this pack. Argus were no help at all and didn't answer a single question I asked! Thank god for Homeone.com.au !
Right off the bat we were told no downlights unless we get their 5-star ones at $150 each. Decided to stick with battens and have things done after!
The plan in general was pretty boring. We added plenty of power points, some batten holders with nogging for fan provisions, and some outdoor junction boxes on the front and on the brick piers in the alfresco.
We also added pre-wiring for surround sound. Originally picking 7.1 for the living area before later changing to a different package that gave u more points at a cheaper price! So instead we have 5.1 in the living, plus 2 ceiling speakers in the home theatre and 2 outdoor points in the alfresco.
Originally our consultant was not prepared for smart wiring as our BC had our build address as our current address, which is not a FTTH estate, they thought we were knocking down my parents place! So after letting her know we were given a smart wiring basic light package with just a few points. Me being the nerd that I am, wanted more, so after the appointment I emailed asking to add a couple more points and tv points to the 2 other bedrooms. I didn't know at the time but they ended up changing us to an Opticomm 4-pack. I only found out later on when I started stressing that they would use the smallest enclosure which wouldn't allow me to add more points later on if I needed. I ended up upgrading to the Opticomm 8-pack after speaking to people and finding out they use a bigger enclosure for this pack. Argus were no help at all and didn't answer a single question I asked! Thank god for Homeone.com.au !
Friday, 7 October 2011
Colour Selections
Some people love choosing colours and bricks and paints etc. We do not fit into this category.
A week after committing to this house we went to Hopetoun to see what we were in for. We took along both my parents and Jaclyn's for support. I think after this first day we realized just how much money we might be up for. Everything is an upgrade.
On our first visit running through selections we tried to be a little cheap, avoiding upgrades as much as possible. We left very unsure of our selections. We had managed to pick everything, but something didn't feel right.
The week that followed involved organizing our tender. I started adding things, and decided to pick all that we wanted first just to get an idea of pricing. I added allowances for upgrades to some bricks and other interior selections and the price that we got back was a pleasant surprise. It was still more than we originally planned to spend, but not by much. We decided another trip to Hopetoun was in order.
We spent most of the day in Hopetoun yet again, but this time things felt better. We picked some upgrades, and did not let price dictate our house so much. Thank god we had our mums there or we probably would never have got there, or we would have ended up with a very odd looking house.
As we had already done the hard work, the actual colour selection appointment was a breeze, and was basically just what we had already done in a little more detail.
In the end we only took about one hour for colours and our colours looked like this:
A week after committing to this house we went to Hopetoun to see what we were in for. We took along both my parents and Jaclyn's for support. I think after this first day we realized just how much money we might be up for. Everything is an upgrade.
On our first visit running through selections we tried to be a little cheap, avoiding upgrades as much as possible. We left very unsure of our selections. We had managed to pick everything, but something didn't feel right.
The week that followed involved organizing our tender. I started adding things, and decided to pick all that we wanted first just to get an idea of pricing. I added allowances for upgrades to some bricks and other interior selections and the price that we got back was a pleasant surprise. It was still more than we originally planned to spend, but not by much. We decided another trip to Hopetoun was in order.
We spent most of the day in Hopetoun yet again, but this time things felt better. We picked some upgrades, and did not let price dictate our house so much. Thank god we had our mums there or we probably would never have got there, or we would have ended up with a very odd looking house.
As we had already done the hard work, the actual colour selection appointment was a breeze, and was basically just what we had already done in a little more detail.
In the end we only took about one hour for colours and our colours looked like this:
Thursday, 6 October 2011
First Attempt
A brief rundown on us. My partner (Jaclyn) and I(Aaron) are a young couple looking to build our first home. We have been living with my parents in Pakenham to save, and are finally ready and excited(and scared) to start our own home journey.
Our story started earlier this year, when my partner and I saw a house and land package advertised online at a great price in Pakenham. That weekend we went down to Yarrabank homes to view their display and talk about the package. Being the impulsive people we are, we put down a deposit on the land in an estate called Somerset. There were some stuff ups to begin with, the sales guy from Yarrabank put the wrong block on hold first, a smaller block that wouldn't fit the house. It took a week or so to get this corrected.
Anyway to cut a long story short, a few weeks later we signed the land contract with Pinnacle and excitement started to set in. The next day I receive a call from the sales person we signed the land contract with, and there has been a huge stuff up, and the land we just signed for had actually been sold months ago. Apparently their spreadsheet had not been updated. Devastated!
Now this was a very small 'boutique' estate, and there were no other blocks available that could possibly fit the house that Yarrabank had advertised. In fact it was a tight squeeze anyway, one that, looking back on, I don't think would have been allowed.
Our story started earlier this year, when my partner and I saw a house and land package advertised online at a great price in Pakenham. That weekend we went down to Yarrabank homes to view their display and talk about the package. Being the impulsive people we are, we put down a deposit on the land in an estate called Somerset. There were some stuff ups to begin with, the sales guy from Yarrabank put the wrong block on hold first, a smaller block that wouldn't fit the house. It took a week or so to get this corrected.
Anyway to cut a long story short, a few weeks later we signed the land contract with Pinnacle and excitement started to set in. The next day I receive a call from the sales person we signed the land contract with, and there has been a huge stuff up, and the land we just signed for had actually been sold months ago. Apparently their spreadsheet had not been updated. Devastated!
Now this was a very small 'boutique' estate, and there were no other blocks available that could possibly fit the house that Yarrabank had advertised. In fact it was a tight squeeze anyway, one that, looking back on, I don't think would have been allowed.
Layout of the original plan. Very cheap, very small.
Maybe a good thing it didn't pan out!?
Anyway, as they say, everything happens for a reason. We decided to up our budget a bit and keep looking. We came across a house and land package advertised by Porter Davis in Pakenham, in a Devine estate called Edenbrook. An email and a phone call later, and we had a meeting arranged at a Porter Davis display in Officer that weekend!
The sales rep we met, Shaun, had everything prepared. A layout of the house on the block, lists of inclusions, maps of the estate. All things that took 3-4 weeks to get from Yarrabank, and some we still had not received! Now it was more expensive, but it was a bigger, flatter block, in a much nicer estate, with a much nicer house. So, I mentioned we were impulsive, and before we walked out of the meeting, we had already put down a deposit on the package with Porter Davis! Perhaps we were influenced by losing the land earlier, and not wanting the same thing to happen again, but really I think we just get excited easily!
Montrose 19 with Grand Alresco
Porter Davis Access
Porter Davis Access
It's a small house compared to most of the Porter Davis blogs I've read, but it's our first house, and plenty big enough for us to start off with.
The rest, as they say, is history. From here we have been to view display homes, signed land contracts, been to Hopetoun a number of times, signed off on a tender and said goodbye to our sales rep (sadly, he was great to deal with) been assigned a building coordinator and hence annoyed the building coordinator to no ends!
I will post about our Hopetoun selections and things soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)