Building the Charlton by Porter Davis

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.


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 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.




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 View from front entrance Study  View from family room

Downstairs bathroom

Can't wait to try this rain shower

Master Ensuite

Master Ensuite

These Como Grey tiles look much better in person

Our Floorboards and Tiles Turned out ok afterall.

The kitchen

Technika rangehood Standard

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

Standard inclusion Technika dishwasher I've never owned a dishwasher before so I'm looking forward to trying this baby out.

I preferred my oven in a appliance tower so got a separate cooktop instead of the standard freestanding one.

Blanco appliances are an upgrade for the Advantage range of homes.

View of kitchen galley (right) and pantry (left)

The staircase

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.

The stairs look great lit up at night. We're so glad we did it.

Stair Void Area

 Upstairs Main Bathroom

Upstairs main bathroom All standard in here

Master room

Master room entrance

Master WIR

Master room Sliding door out to front balcony

Balcony Tiles are Como Grey External

View of our flat garage roof Needs a wash

upstairs view from master room

  Flooring

Family Room

19mm wide oak flooring

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

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.

Grand alfresco

Front External Doors in Woodland Grey

Despite having professional cleaners come through we still had to clean and in fact we're not even done cleaning yet.

Hot water system was installed 2 days after handover

Driveway Done! Really happy with the exposed aggregate. It was amazing to them wash off the top layer to 'expose' the 'aggregate' hehe.

Side Gate preparation

 I know I have missed a few rooms so will have more up next week, I'll also put a post on my overall thoughts of the build, things we forgot, regret and love. For now it's back to cleaning, more unpacking and resting.

Until next week.....