HANDOVER DAY
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
The Charlton is finally ours!
What a crazy few weeks it's been. We've had possession of the house for 2-3 weeks now and we have not stopped to take in the moment! We've had a lot of other personal things going on at the same time so I've had very little 'me' time to update this blog so I do apologise. I have been thinking of you all. I know a lot of blogs go quiet after the build and that really is not my intention in fact I do plan on keeping this blog going with our post handover updates, interior updates and landscaping etc.
As promised I have plenty of photos for you but for those of you who are building here's a brief run down of the day.
Preparing for Handover
The expectation for handover day is that any outstanding balance owed to Porter Davis is paid on the day in order to receive the keys. We chose to organise a bank cheque which we collected the day before handover which you then hand over to the site supervisor. Gone are the days where you need to go all the way into head office and settle the final payment there. Do keep in mind that most banks won't release final funds unless a Certificate of Occupancy has been obtained and Home Buildings Insurance has been set up.
Handover
Handover is pretty straight forward, the site supervisor walked through the agreed items that require fixing from PCI and then hands over the keys and when I say keys I mean a lot of keys. It's the same key that opens all your external doors. I don't know why you get so many?
For those of you wondering whether or not the builder can still access your home after handover they can't that's because for the duration of your build your site supervisor and your trades all have access to what is called a builders key and on handover day the keys you get provided with are designed so that on first use of the home owners key it will drop some mechanism and will lock out the builders key. I had always wondered that all works and whether we all new home owners needed to change their locks knowing how many trades have access to the house.
Well that was weird?
I've followed plenty of other home building blogs over the last year or so and was always excited to see the little house warming gift you get from the builder. It's usually a small gift and I always thought it was such a nice touch. I won't lie I was secretly anticipating something from our site supervisor so was somewhat disappointed when we didn't get anything? Anyone else building with PD and did or didn't get a little pressie at the end of their experience? I know it's petty but it would have been a really nice way to end the whole PD experience. (I think).
I should mentioned we were given a 12 month membership to RACV home assist, perhaps this has replaced that little gift you get? I think I prefer a teapot. HAHA.
Roll the camera!
So here are photos of the house I took. Some photos have flooring some without it is a bit all over the place sorry I haven't had time to get organised. Anyway I'm in the process of furnishing and decorating so will have more photos of what will be our 'home' soon. Enjoy | |||||
Front entrance
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Downstairs bathroom
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| Can't wait to try this rain shower |
Master Ensuite
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| Master Ensuite |
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| These Como Grey tiles look much better in person |
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| Our Floorboards and Tiles Turned out ok afterall. |
The kitchen
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| Technika rangehood Standard |
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| How big is that gap? It doesn't look right. I queried this with the site supervisor and whether or not this needs to be caulked and he said you can't as it would void the warranty on the rangehood. They could have at least done a better job. Geez |
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| Standard inclusion Technika dishwasher I've never owned a dishwasher before so I'm looking forward to trying this baby out. |
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| I preferred my oven in a appliance tower so got a separate cooktop instead of the standard freestanding one. |
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| Blanco appliances are an upgrade for the Advantage range of homes. |
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| View of kitchen galley (right) and pantry (left) |
The staircase
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| Our Hamptons/French Provincial staircase. PD Black Stain and White Risers I took a bit of a risk doing this as I'd never seen it in any display home before but I personally think it works. |
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| The stairs look great lit up at night. We're so glad we did it. |
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Upstairs Main Bathroom
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| Upstairs main bathroom All standard in here |
Master room
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| Master room entrance |
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| Master WIR |
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| Master room Sliding door out to front balcony |
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| View of our flat garage roof Needs a wash |
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| upstairs view from master room |
Flooring
We wasted no time as soon as we got the keys as we had booked our floorboard guy to come and start on the same day. He did a fantastic job and you can tell he is really proud of his workmanship. He took off our skirting boards which were 'tacked' on so now we still need to paint and caulk them.
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| Family Room |
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| 19mm wide oak flooring |
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| Bedroom 1 We were also quite happy with our carpet selection. Carpets are from Fowles in Clayton Ashton Twist in Pambula Beach. |
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| Bedroom 1 WIR |
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| Laundry Nice of them to give us some left over tiles. Dirty floors. |
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| Heating and Cooling Control Panels We were given a basic tutorial on how to use it but as you can tell from the control panel its pretty easy. |
Externals
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| The Sinclair Facade We're still waiting on the Juliet bar thingy to be installed on the master room window. We're stoked with our colour selections. |
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| Grand alfresco |
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| Front External Doors in Woodland Grey |
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| Despite having professional cleaners come through we still had to clean and in fact we're not even done cleaning yet. |
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| Hot water system was installed 2 days after handover |
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| Driveway Done! Really happy with the exposed aggregate. It was amazing to them wash off the top layer to 'expose' the 'aggregate' hehe. |
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| Side Gate preparation |
Until next week.....
38 comments
Ahhh! Not going to lie, I squealed a little (a lot) when I saw that you had updated your blog! Everything pulled together so nicely, it all looks so great. So happy for you! Makes me so excited for our build and to see how all our selections are going to look.
ReplyDeleteOur land settlement has been pushed back until start of March as opposed to November last year.. not the great start that we were hoping for.. fingers crossed we will be in for Christmas :) (wishful thinking haha)
The outside colours look absolutely fantastic and the driveway goes perfectly! So happy for you. It's all coming together really nicely.
DeleteIt looks really big inside. What do you think was the best decision you made overall, and what do you wish you'd done different?
Thanks Carole.
DeleteFor us the high ceilings and increased internal door heights would have to be the best decision we made. It really makes such a difference to the feel of the house. (I think)
My biggest regret is forgetting to add a sliding cavity door to the master ensuite.
The exposed agg looks amazing. Completes the look nicely. The extra window next to the cooktop was a great idea! Overall looks fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThanks John. We're really happy with how everything turned out.
DeleteOmg it looks amazinggggg!! Your floors are beautiful as are your stairs and kitchen!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Larissa..we're really happy with them too.
DeleteThe floors are a lot of work though. I'm vacuuming every day!
Your house looks amazing! Can I ask, who did you get to do your driveway and concreting? Would you recommend them? TIA.
ReplyDeleteHey ChateauOne.
DeleteWe used 1300 Driveways and highly recommend them. We love our driveway and everyone has commented on how well it has turned out.
Hey, congratulations the place looks great and I'm pretty impressed. Our house is at framing stage and we hope to be in by September so really can't wait. I'm meeting a landscaper in April to discuss everything and just wanted to know who you used for your driveway? Did you do this separately from the landscaping business? Cheers
ReplyDeleteHi Amber,
DeleteThanks. We used 1300 Driveways to do our driveway. I can't speak more highly of them. Which landscaper are you meeting? I don't even know where to start with landscaping..I've heard scary things about how much its all going to cost. Yikes.
Looks amazing, love your Alfresco area! Did PD do your exposed aggregate?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jack.
DeleteDriveway and backyard concreting was done by 1300 Driveways. Highly recommend them!
I have a great landscape guy great job and prices
ReplyDeleteEmail me at kkgimports@gmail.com if you like
Thanks Evgenia. Landscaping all sorted now. Really appreciate the referral though :)
DeleteYour house came up looking amazing. Are you able to give me a rough idea of total house cost including upgrades, site costs etc? Thank you, Clara
ReplyDeleteHi Clara
DeleteTotal house costs including all upgrades and our site costs came just short of 400K.
Hope that helps :)
C
Hi Chi - thank you so much for sharing your journey building the Charlton 33, the end result is absolute perfection!
ReplyDeleteWe actually have our colour selection appointment at World of Style this week for our Charlton 33.. After visiting WOS a couple of times we are really underwhelmed with the timber flooring options.. My question is, was is hard or stressful doing your flooring after handover? Did you include your floors in your home loan? PD have advised they will do a contract variation and give us the $10k back at the end but warned the bank may under value the home.. Did you have any experience with this?
Thanks so much in advance,
Emma
Xx
Hi Emma
DeleteThanks for your comments.
I completely agree with you about the range of flooring options. I must admit that it is a bit of a pain if you decide to do your flooring afterwards. We spent so many weekends going to different flooring suppliers across Melbourne before we decided on the 'one'.
Here are a few things worth noting;
In some cases you will need to secure your stock months in advance so plan ahead.
Closer to your handover date you'll need to organise an installer (most suppliers can recommend someone).
If you are planning to remove the skirting boards and have them put on after the floors then this is another level of pain because you'll need to get the builder to 'tack' on the skirting and then organise for them to be painted after. (as PD won't do it)
In some cases you will need to get your concrete slab levelled to, this is an additional cost (not much though, in our case about $200) whereas if PD did your flooring they will absorb this cost or even better yet they will just make sure its level when they do your initial slab.
I do recall having a few frustrated phone calls with our installer because our handover date kept shifting so it can be hard to book in the right install date for your flooring.
I know it sounds like a bit of effort but to be honest I looove our floors and I think the output is worth the effort you put in.
In regards to the bank valuation, we didn't have any issues with the valuation coming in below what we expected and PD never mentioned anything to us either about this. I don't see why it why it would matter. We didn't include it in the loan and the bank never question us about it either.
I hope this has helped you somewhat.
Good luck with it :)
C
Hi Chi,
ReplyDeleteWe are building a Charlton and your blog has been so helpful! I've noticed in your handover pics that your driveway was already laid - did your site supervisor let you get the driveway done before handover?
Thanks in advance.
Hi there
DeleteNo we got the driveway laid soon after handover. Sorry the pics are confusing.
Chi
Hi Chi, Thank you so much for sharing your journey building the Charlton 33,
ReplyDeleteits the best honest home feedback i have located.I am looking into doing a kdrb with Charlton 33 also. If you don't mind me asking, Could you advise how much cost's for old house to be knocked down & electrical pit installed ?
cheers
Shane
Hi Shane
DeleteThanks for the feedback!
Our demolition costs came just under 12k. (Our house was a weatherboard home-not sure if that influences the price) and for the electrical pit it cost is under 3k (we needed about 10m of extra cabling to go to the nearest electrical pole)
Hope that helps
Chi
Your home looks beautiful !!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know the exterior mouldings that you used for around your windows and across your pillars pretty please :)
Hi there,
DeleteTo be honest I don't know who the supplier was for the mouldings. PD took care of this as part of the facade option we chose.
Hi Chi, Your timber flooring looks great. If you don't mind me asking, which company did you end up going with? Definitely worth the effort from the looks of them.
ReplyDeleteHi there,
DeleteWe used Smarter Timber Flooring in Cheltenham. They were great - highly recommend them.
Hi Chi, we are building Forsyth with Sinclair facade. Do you mind if I ask how much the full render cost you? Thanks very much.
ReplyDeleteHi Gypsy
DeleteI couldn't tell you exactly how much the render was because we went with Hebel which included the Render. Sorry I'm not much here for you.
Hi Chi, regarding the driveway was it done by PD or you hired someone? If you hired one can you pls share me their contact? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Ton Ton
DeleteOur driveway was completed by 1300 Driveways and they were awesome and our driveway looks amazing!!!! I never thought I'd love a driveway so much. haha
Hi Chi,
ReplyDeleteyour house looks great. would you give us an estimate how much flooring cost incurred?
thanks
Muz
Hi Muz
DeleteFrom memory the floorboards came to about 10-11K and carpets were about 4-5K.
Hope that helps
Wow the quality of the build seems to be really good. And love your selections. Out of interest, what was your total contract price? And how much was the demolision cost?
ReplyDeleteNo need to reply! I found the answer from previous comments. Thank you. By the way, live your flooring. Who did you flooring?
ReplyDeleteHi Chi, Thankyou so much for sharing this amazing jouney with us. I am also building Charlton 33 and can not wait to move in. Can i ask did Porter Davis allowed you to build a driveway and finish your landscaping before your moved in? Because i am being told i cannot!.. Thanks RK
ReplyDeleteHi Chi,
ReplyDeleteYour floors look amazing. Can I ask how you got your skirting boards "Tacked" on?
I am currently building with Porter Davis and our BC told us they wont Tack them on.
Did you organise this directly with the tradies?
Cheers,
Mick
We've only had it for a short time but it has sat for days not saying a thing, but always listening. Smarter Flooring
ReplyDelete