Sorry for the late late updates...............

Hi All,

I apologise for what must have been an absence of more than 10 months now!!!!

Time really flies when you are busy with work and of course getting the land contract, house contract done up, bank loans, conveyancer and so on and so forth.

Yes it has been several taxing months leading up to the signing of house contract but when the guys from PD start building, GOSH!! They are fast, grease lightning fast!

Here a picture of where we are at with the house below:-

This is the latest photo that we have of our Haven Retreat as of today, 2 May 09. The roof tiles and gutters are all in place

Amazing! Just last week the roof trusses were lifted on the first story and haven't been placed in position, furthermore we didn't see any roof tiles on-site at all!

Within a week, they've place the trusses, roof tiles and gutters!



Our concrete slab was poured a few days prior to the Easter break and it was very exciting to see it all happening. It really give a good sense of how big the house will look like on the land and most importantly, an indication of how much land area remains once the house is built. We were quite happy with the end result.

I was away during the actual Easter break and couldn't view our place till 2 weeks later and what greet us was this! Frames all up to the first storey! Hmm, the roof trusses are sitting on 1 spot....something to ask my independant inspector about in regards to loading.

Yes, we were very blessed to be able to get Independant Building Quality Inspections to be our inspector at the eleventh hour.

So far, they've been very good and take the time to explain to us what is going well and thing that they'll look out for. This is definitely money well spent considering our house is a lifetime investment and paying less than 1% of the house contract to engage an inspection for peace of mind and avoidance of future costly repairs is the best investment you've ever made!

I highly recommend all to consider using an independant inspector! All builders need to comply with the Australian Building Code and the inspector will check for you and ensure that compliance is maintained in your house! If you are dependant on the builder's own inspectors, most likely the house will be adequate for occupancy but not necessarily fully compliant with the code. Most builders hire their own inspection companies to carry out their own inspections and
issues that would not jeopardise Certificate of Occupancy would most likely be overlooked.

So use your own inspector if you want to be sure!

Well, it's getting late!

I'll update with more photos next time!

Regards

Royston

Building in Point Cook

After reading through numerous posts at Homeone website, we have decided to sign up with Porter Davis on 2 July 2008 with an initial deposit of $600.00. Our intention was to build the Bridgewood.

Our land is still not ready till February 2009 and our site start is confirmed on April 2009. However, I've realised that the HIA contract seems to be pushing the issue of getting variations confirmed within the next week when so much other queries involving costs have not yet been answered.

Also the brochure by PD is not comprehensive enough as to what is considered as standard in the design and what is allowed under the promotion package. Stuff like evaporative cooling units did not indicate the nos. allowed for in the design or type of units used. Such information needs to be specific in order to enable customers to know exactly what they are paying for without which they would not have a clue on how the variations are calculated. Still, it seems that individual customers are subject to home builder's pricing which most likely will not be fair to the consumer.

I'm praying that things will go smoothly with the construction and we'll have minimum frustration, stress and be thoroughly happy with the whole process. Oh, not forgetting great value for money as well.

God Bless!