It's been a while since the contract appointment, I've been avoiding writing this post because by now I'm completely drained and lack the motivation I had at the start of this journey. The excitement has been replaced with anxiety and annoyance and I really hope that once we start the actual build (some where around the time where flying cars will be a household item, or so it seems) I'll get my super happy super excited self back. *End of rant lets get down to business*.......
The contract is basically the same as the tender only scarier because you feel like once you sign this then that's it, you can't negotiate, you can't notice mistakes and you'd have to live with it for the rest of your life- Not really! they later just send you a post contract variations and if there is a difference in price then the last payment you make will be reduced. They made a bunch of mistakes with our contract, like Kitchen culture added a panel for an integrated dishwasher we only said we are considering and never actually said we will be taking (that's an $800 mistake), I negated some of the services they were charging us and our BC went away and came back with a $500 refund for services. The worst bit was seeing a new drawing of our setback at 8.5 meters, we asked for a 4m setback at tender and they just made the 8.5m drawing to show us what might be the worst case scenario once council gets back to us about the set back, I didn't even want to sign it because I was paranoid that they'd accidentally send this atrocity to the council instead of the 4m setback drawing, so they replaced the drawing for us to the 4m we had at tender to sign on :)
My husband couldn't come to the appointment so I received everything to take home and have him sign and send to PD later so I had a week to sit and read the whole thing ten times before signing.
I also noticed a high quote from Kitchen culture for our extended benchtop to the window because we took a window all the way down to the benchtop to create a seamless look to the outside alfresco, at our KC appointment they said it will be a couple hundred $$ and it came back as almost $500, the dimensions on the KC doc says "Window Reveal is approx 2370 by 300" now 300 is the width of the whole wall and I doubt that the benchtop is supposed to go all the way to the outside of the house, but should stop once it hits the window glass so it should be about half of it so I am trying to get them to recalculate it, it's a bit of an annoyance because after the Wos appointment you basically correspond with your bc about everything and she obviously doesn't know about KC calculations so it's such a hassle getting things changed. Did anyone do a similar thing? could you please let me know what dimensions are written on your KC quote for that tiny bit of benchtop?
Now for some good news- we had Powercor get back to us about the electricity pit and we were looking at around 6k for the pit as this is what many people who had to do it through powercor were quoted and we were quoted $0 yep 0!! did not really get why but THANK YOU POWERCOR!!!!!!!! so we accepted the $0 quote (you can't really negotiate these numbers lol) and they said they will place the pit within 20 days. :) O-M-G~~~
*UPDATE: I talked to KC and she did measure the whole wall and said she will take it down from 300mm to 240mm, still sounds like more than what it will actually be, this is almost $100 difference which is not much but it's the principle of it that annoys me- you can't charge for what you're not going to sale!
30 January 2017
12 January 2017
Tender Appointment
I'll start with the bad things: hopefully my experience can help someone who is going through a similar thing. At first we weren't supposed to even have a tender appointment only a contract appointment, as is the case with Access range homes. Luckily I was baffled to when we are supposed to tell pd about any structural changes we want for the house. Surely they will have some sort of appointment where rational people can add a door to their ensuit, right? nope! our very friendly and lovely sales consultant was suppose to ask us about these things, but didn't. We also found out at tender that he was suppose to tell us to get an electrical pit from overhead electricity as is the case with established neighborhoods.so after tender we contacted the electrical company and hopefully, fingers crossed, it will not delay our build for too long (if you have any questions on how to do it, let me know in the comments). I am now fretting to find out later that there are more things to get organized on our land regarding gas, phone, water etc. how can you tell if everything is connected to your land? The tender lady told us to just do the electricity and that everything else is probably connected, but who knows??
That's it with the bad things at tender, hopefully everything will be resolved soon.
so........
The tender appointment is basically an appointment where you sit with someone that can do everything for you regarding changes either structural or from Wos. We came prepared with all the extra power points and windows and doors that we wanted. Make sure to have a list ready, I had a list on my phone that whenever I thought or read about something I should add I wrote it down because at tender you sign a contract that you will not be able to make any structural changes and if you do it will incur a fee.
The appointment starts with going over the final fees and then in more detail over the construction fees. our construction fees are a bit over 40k, the major thing is the slab upgrade which is 20k and local government and OHS fees of 16k, we were expecting to pay over 40k so we were happy that it wasn't over.
The final price, even though we will get the final numbers only at contract we have spent over 60k over the price of the house.
Some of the things I decided not to get after all: I decided not to have a ridiculously expensive integrated dishwasher and get a refund for the promotion one ($500 refund, that's pretty much it's retail value, I was very surprised). Instead I'll buy a white dishwasher post build that will go with my kitchen. I also decided not to have windows on my garage door, it's about $800 for a room I'm hardly going to use.
It was a very confusing day and I am left with even more questions, if anyone has any advise on how to figure out if my lot is connected to phone or gas then please let me know.
BIG TIP: if you're building a kdr, PD usually charge you for extra things like road crossing management and extra for building in a high build up area- which is true if you're building on a main street but most often it adds up to thousands of dollars you shouldn't be spending. after or even during your tender call your local council and ask about these regulations and if they actually require these services and if not then ask PD to scratch it off the contract and refund you. Another case I heard about was of someone who negated the proximity of overhead electricity to load off area and was refunded over 5k!!! QUESTION EVERYTHING!
Can't wait to get to the building stage and just enjoy everything going up~
BIG TIP: if you're building a kdr, PD usually charge you for extra things like road crossing management and extra for building in a high build up area- which is true if you're building on a main street but most often it adds up to thousands of dollars you shouldn't be spending. after or even during your tender call your local council and ask about these regulations and if they actually require these services and if not then ask PD to scratch it off the contract and refund you. Another case I heard about was of someone who negated the proximity of overhead electricity to load off area and was refunded over 5k!!! QUESTION EVERYTHING!
Can't wait to get to the building stage and just enjoy everything going up~
19 December 2016
Electrical appointment
Reading different blogs and scouring the forums it seems to be the consensus that you do not do anything with electrical upgrades that you can do post hand-over. I am fairly certain that I could find a slightly better and cheaper deal than the one Porter Davis gave us, but seeing as we are building a single story access home the profit will not justify the headache. And so we decided to do all the electrical upgrades with Porter Davis except the light pendants as their choice of fixtures is very small and we would like a couple of statement piece light pendants. Our major expenditure was ceiling fans which are absolutely perfect for sleeping during the hot summer nights if A/C is too much for you.
I do not have the exact pricing for anything because we did not receive it with our paperwork but each ceiling fan for the bedroom with a light fixture on it cost approx 350$. We added another very nice ceiling fan to the living area and the grand alfresco each at a cost of approx 500$. I am sure they will prove to be a smart investment.
Some of the other main additions:
We added a few flood lights to the outside with motion sensors which will hopefully scare off any wrongdoer coming towards our house.
we added a total of 14 power points because they are only about 50$ each and because no one ever regretted not installing a power-point.
We also added 11 LED lights.
And two noggins for where we would put our future pendant lighting- one above the dinning table and one above the Kitchen island.
Two other things we didn't get are a door bell because A- people can knock and B- you can definitely get much cheaper (also battery powered) door bells elsewhere. And the second thing is an alarm system, there are much cheaper options and all of them include installation so especially with a one story home I do not see the point of getting one.
All in all we ended up paying $5,080
This concludes our World of Style visit,
Hope you've found it helpful and informative.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions :)
I do not have the exact pricing for anything because we did not receive it with our paperwork but each ceiling fan for the bedroom with a light fixture on it cost approx 350$. We added another very nice ceiling fan to the living area and the grand alfresco each at a cost of approx 500$. I am sure they will prove to be a smart investment.
Some of the other main additions:
We added a few flood lights to the outside with motion sensors which will hopefully scare off any wrongdoer coming towards our house.
we added a total of 14 power points because they are only about 50$ each and because no one ever regretted not installing a power-point.
We also added 11 LED lights.
And two noggins for where we would put our future pendant lighting- one above the dinning table and one above the Kitchen island.
Two other things we didn't get are a door bell because A- people can knock and B- you can definitely get much cheaper (also battery powered) door bells elsewhere. And the second thing is an alarm system, there are much cheaper options and all of them include installation so especially with a one story home I do not see the point of getting one.
All in all we ended up paying $5,080
This concludes our World of Style visit,
Hope you've found it helpful and informative.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions :)
Bathroom selection
We went with the standard tiling for the bathroom in Simplicity Dark Grey for the walls and the floors for a seamless look. When choosing the tiles having a matte finish helps with disguising hair and dirt. When choosing a color, if it is too light or too dark you'll have an issue with seeing every spec of dust so we went for something in the middle, once we build the house I'll be able to let you know if my masses of dark hair finally met their match! We are also taking the shower tiles all the way to the ceiling, I'm having second thoughts about this part as it might look odd to take it all the way up and not do an entire wall. Did anyone reading this do a similar thing? Care to share?
We also have some feature tiling under the mirrors in both bathrooms and around the bathtub in the main bathroom in Bricklane Cemento. We also decided to indulge ourselves with a nicer shower rail for the ensuit and move the promotion shower rail to the main bathroom. Cupboard and benchtop same wooden laminate design called Domain.
List of upgrades:
Extending tiles to ceiling in both bathrooms- $210
Bricklane Cemento feature tiles- $200
Lexi Square twin rail shower- $293
Moving promotion shower rail to main bathroom- $35 (can't believe they charge you for this)
Kado Cirque Rd basin- $74 each= $148 (only upgraded in ensuit)
2 Toilets- $40
Toilet roll holder- $70
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| same tile as the one on top just with how it should be if it weren't for the bad photo light |
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| luxurious~~ |
Kitchen!!!
After the exterior design part of Wos in which it was mainly "standard is fine, thank you" we went to the Kitchen selection in which it was UPGRADE EVERYTHING!!! well... maybe not everything, we kept the appliances (sort of) but seeing as the kitchen is the most important part of the house (imo anyway) it should be met with a strong budget. How did I come up with the $20k budget? I actually contacted some kitchen manufacturers and asked them for an approximation on building a new kitchen so I'll know how much it would cost me to change the kitchen post handover and so $20k seemed like a reasonable figure. It is outrageous to think about the mark-up and the fact that it's just upgrades and not a whole kitchen from scratch but I made my peace with it before hand so I can enjoy the process.
Our style of kitchen is classic.
our upgrades:
Colonial square profile and silk finish- $5k upgrade
Category 4 Silestone benchtop to island - $830
Category 1 Silestone benchtop to ext kitchen option- $1k (apparently if you choose a non standard house then the extended kitchen is not covered by the promotions, though floors are, no idea how they make these rules)
1 bank of 2 drawers - $150
1 bank of 3 drawers - $213
fancy shmancy bin drawer - $539
upgraded handles - $300
Sink - $509
back-splash tiles just a small area (make sure you're sitting down for this) - $2k (Australian made and custom made per order, I had too, was the only one I liked, don't judge me 😨)
Integral dishwasher- tons of money! tbc.. still negotiating this. for now it stands at around $2600
With the expensive dishwasher (which I will try and justify in a minute) we are looking at around $13.5k.
The deal with the dishwasher- I am spending so much money on this classic kitchen and the standard free dishwasher is stainless steel and is in a central location of the kitchen. I thought about moving it to the island but then the sink needs to move too and I love how you can see the outside from the sink and it's the perfect prep area so the only choice I have is to have an integrated dishwasher. The board from Kitchen culture is priced at around 800$ and the dishwasher at 1800$, I'm trying to see if there is a cheaper dishwasher option as they quoted me for a blanco and not for the Technika which should be cheaper, pray it's a lot cheaper.
Colors:
Island - Gunmetal and Lagoon for benchtop
Base kitchen and overheads - White
Tiles - Infinity Brighton - Mineral
Post tender update: we decided not to have a dishwasher so we were refunded $500 for the promotional tecnika one and we will simply get a white dishwasher post-build that will blend better with the kitchen.
Our style of kitchen is classic.
our upgrades:
Colonial square profile and silk finish- $5k upgrade
Category 4 Silestone benchtop to island - $830
Category 1 Silestone benchtop to ext kitchen option- $1k (apparently if you choose a non standard house then the extended kitchen is not covered by the promotions, though floors are, no idea how they make these rules)
1 bank of 2 drawers - $150
1 bank of 3 drawers - $213
fancy shmancy bin drawer - $539
upgraded handles - $300
Sink - $509
back-splash tiles just a small area (make sure you're sitting down for this) - $2k (Australian made and custom made per order, I had too, was the only one I liked, don't judge me 😨)
Integral dishwasher- tons of money! tbc.. still negotiating this. for now it stands at around $2600
With the expensive dishwasher (which I will try and justify in a minute) we are looking at around $13.5k.
The deal with the dishwasher- I am spending so much money on this classic kitchen and the standard free dishwasher is stainless steel and is in a central location of the kitchen. I thought about moving it to the island but then the sink needs to move too and I love how you can see the outside from the sink and it's the perfect prep area so the only choice I have is to have an integrated dishwasher. The board from Kitchen culture is priced at around 800$ and the dishwasher at 1800$, I'm trying to see if there is a cheaper dishwasher option as they quoted me for a blanco and not for the Technika which should be cheaper, pray it's a lot cheaper.
Colors:
Island - Gunmetal and Lagoon for benchtop
Base kitchen and overheads - White
Tiles - Infinity Brighton - Mineral
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| Tiles, will be in a slightly light blue color |
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| our stove |
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| beautiful tap! |
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| great sink |
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| base kitchen and below island |
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| color inspiration |
Post tender update: we decided not to have a dishwasher so we were refunded $500 for the promotional tecnika one and we will simply get a white dishwasher post-build that will blend better with the kitchen.
Exterior and floors
As we already went to World of Style (WoS) during the weekend we knew what we wanted to get which made the whole process exciting rather than stressful. But alas we started the day off with a major disappointment! We were told by our sales consultant that we have colorbond roof included (which is much better than a cement tile roof for durability, maintenance and quality of water if we add a water tank, google it). But Wos told us that colorbond roof is not in our contract and is a 3k upgrade!! (say what?!) it kind of ruin the first hour of the experience for me.
Update: A day later and Wos got back to us saying we can have the colorbond for free because they confirmed it with our sales consultant! omg! what a win!! we were almost ready to say yes and spend $3k, good thing he remembered :)
First part of the WoS day is choosing the exterior. We upgraded the brick to Cat2 Access Parchment bricks for $672 because the lightest standard brick color was a bit orangey and we are going for a classic design. Also I want a rose garden at the front that would pop against a light brick. Our roof, colomns and door are the same blue grayish dark color. I think the color scheme is lovely and the red (roses), white (brick) and blue (roof&door) will make for a nice house on Australia day :)
The floor and carpet are both standard. The carpet is Cat1 Rivendell in Latte colour and the flooring is Cat1 Manhattan (laminate) in Spotted Gum
The wonderful designers at world of style know their stuff and they nailed our design preferences and made sure colors don't clash. I love it that when we wanted a color that clashed with our other colors they weren't afraid to say so.
Next post I'll write about the kitchen~
BIG TIP: in Wos you can only see a small section of the bricks and floors and roof etc. so it's hard to know how it would look on a whole house. after your Wos visit (not appointment!!) make notes of the various things you liked and google their name and try to find whole house images for them, you can also go to the forum: http://forum.homeone.com.au/ and use the search box and you might find even more images to help you make your decision :)
Update: A day later and Wos got back to us saying we can have the colorbond for free because they confirmed it with our sales consultant! omg! what a win!! we were almost ready to say yes and spend $3k, good thing he remembered :)
First part of the WoS day is choosing the exterior. We upgraded the brick to Cat2 Access Parchment bricks for $672 because the lightest standard brick color was a bit orangey and we are going for a classic design. Also I want a rose garden at the front that would pop against a light brick. Our roof, colomns and door are the same blue grayish dark color. I think the color scheme is lovely and the red (roses), white (brick) and blue (roof&door) will make for a nice house on Australia day :)
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| Brick upgrade option |
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| standard option |
The wonderful designers at world of style know their stuff and they nailed our design preferences and made sure colors don't clash. I love it that when we wanted a color that clashed with our other colors they weren't afraid to say so.
Next post I'll write about the kitchen~
BIG TIP: in Wos you can only see a small section of the bricks and floors and roof etc. so it's hard to know how it would look on a whole house. after your Wos visit (not appointment!!) make notes of the various things you liked and google their name and try to find whole house images for them, you can also go to the forum: http://forum.homeone.com.au/ and use the search box and you might find even more images to help you make your decision :)
18 December 2016
World of Style- how to do it right and what is it good for?
Wos (World of Style) has it's positives and its negatives. as longs as you focus on the positives then you'll have a good experience.
Positive:
1. You get everything done at the same place, for some homes on the same day.
2. You get interior designers to help you choose everything as opposed to doing it yourself, some shops hire sales people regardless of their design experience and they wont be able to advice you about color schemes.
3. Everything you choose comes with installation, you don't need to run around asking for quotes and finding a professional for every little thing.
4. Everything you choose goes into the final quotation and eventually your home loan, so even the blinds and light fixtures are taken into consideration. Whereas if you choose to do it post build then you might have to find the whole sum for these things right away.
5. Everything PD puts in your home is covered by them, one place to go to if things goes wrong/break.
Negative:
1. The most obvious negative is the price mark up. If you consider the installation cost then it might be fair but you're still paying a little percentage to Porter Davis. The mark up can become very big and you might want to opt into installing many things yourself post handover if you are building a huge double story home then you should probably do the extra electrical yourself, the flooring yourself etc.
2. The blinds and the outside- are sooooo expansive that you really should do it post handover (most of the places that sales blinds and driveways provide installation anyway)
3. What you see is what you can choose from. You want a different color? you want something special in your kitchen? some of those things, if they don't have it then you can't get it.
4. For small homes you only get one day that is super rushed and if there are changes you want to make you either do it by emails or at tender.
Tips! Go to Wos before your color selection appointment! this is crucial! Even though we went to Wos before our appointment, things were rushed and we were so lucky to have picked most of the products already. Go on the weekend and come in as early as you can. You'll have the same interior designers to help you choose almost everything. In most cases they wont be able to tell you the price but they'll ball park it for you if you ask nicely. You can also do some research at home before your appointment and come prepared. For example, we wanted fans in the bedrooms and a few downlights throughout the house, so we went to Wos and took note of their products and what it would cost us to install the same things post handover and it wasn't a big deal for our one story home so on our appointment we weren't surprised about the price for the electrical that we ended up getting and we weren't second guessing ourselves.
I can't stress enough how much of a good experience it is when you are aware of how much you are going to spend. make a budget. I decided to spend as much as 20k on the kitchen so spending around 15k eventually was a nice thing. up tp 6k on electrical- ended up spending 5.5k. Decide what NOT to spend money on- door bell is easy to do after hand over, alarm system- all the companies I've seen offer installation at a cheaper cost. You want to upgrade taps? floors in the bathroom? do you spend that much time in the bathroom? it adds up, make sure you think about it before going to your appointment, it's easy to say "yes, upgrade" for things when you're there because it's pretty but you don't actually need it. Practice saying "standard is fine".
Next post is the color selection appointment with most prices..
Positive:
1. You get everything done at the same place, for some homes on the same day.
2. You get interior designers to help you choose everything as opposed to doing it yourself, some shops hire sales people regardless of their design experience and they wont be able to advice you about color schemes.
3. Everything you choose comes with installation, you don't need to run around asking for quotes and finding a professional for every little thing.
4. Everything you choose goes into the final quotation and eventually your home loan, so even the blinds and light fixtures are taken into consideration. Whereas if you choose to do it post build then you might have to find the whole sum for these things right away.
5. Everything PD puts in your home is covered by them, one place to go to if things goes wrong/break.
Negative:
1. The most obvious negative is the price mark up. If you consider the installation cost then it might be fair but you're still paying a little percentage to Porter Davis. The mark up can become very big and you might want to opt into installing many things yourself post handover if you are building a huge double story home then you should probably do the extra electrical yourself, the flooring yourself etc.
2. The blinds and the outside- are sooooo expansive that you really should do it post handover (most of the places that sales blinds and driveways provide installation anyway)
3. What you see is what you can choose from. You want a different color? you want something special in your kitchen? some of those things, if they don't have it then you can't get it.
4. For small homes you only get one day that is super rushed and if there are changes you want to make you either do it by emails or at tender.
Tips! Go to Wos before your color selection appointment! this is crucial! Even though we went to Wos before our appointment, things were rushed and we were so lucky to have picked most of the products already. Go on the weekend and come in as early as you can. You'll have the same interior designers to help you choose almost everything. In most cases they wont be able to tell you the price but they'll ball park it for you if you ask nicely. You can also do some research at home before your appointment and come prepared. For example, we wanted fans in the bedrooms and a few downlights throughout the house, so we went to Wos and took note of their products and what it would cost us to install the same things post handover and it wasn't a big deal for our one story home so on our appointment we weren't surprised about the price for the electrical that we ended up getting and we weren't second guessing ourselves.
I can't stress enough how much of a good experience it is when you are aware of how much you are going to spend. make a budget. I decided to spend as much as 20k on the kitchen so spending around 15k eventually was a nice thing. up tp 6k on electrical- ended up spending 5.5k. Decide what NOT to spend money on- door bell is easy to do after hand over, alarm system- all the companies I've seen offer installation at a cheaper cost. You want to upgrade taps? floors in the bathroom? do you spend that much time in the bathroom? it adds up, make sure you think about it before going to your appointment, it's easy to say "yes, upgrade" for things when you're there because it's pretty but you don't actually need it. Practice saying "standard is fine".
Next post is the color selection appointment with most prices..
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