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Builder and House Design selection


We started looking at home designs a couple of years ago, on and off. Given our budget, we were pretty much constrained to the volume builders to get the most bang for buck in terms of price per sqm.

The house we like the most was the Monarch 58. Base price was around $500k. A bit pricey so we probably would have settled for the 52sq version. We liked the grand feel, the open space, and the Asian friendly / Feng Shui conscious stair orientation. (ie. not directly facing the front entrance. I have no idea why so many volume builders do not design with Feng Shui in mind.
the facade


the floorplan

The thing with Metricon, though was all the negative reviews they have on the internet. I am told that all volume builders are the same as they just outsource their trade work and it is just pot luck with which tradies you get and how good your site supervisor is. Ultimately, the one thing that I could not bring myself to committing with Metricon was the face that they do not allow their 'Metricon' name to be mentioned in the Homeone forums at all. People on there have to bypass the system with M1, the Big M, M3tr1c0n, etc., That, to me is the lowest of the low and their worst communications blunder. To try to suppress other people's reviews like that makes me wonder what will happen if I ever have anything bad that needs to be fixed up by Metricon.  Edit: Looks like you can now type 'Metricon' into your posts. There is even a Metricon rep answering questions...

So with Metricon out of the picture, we were searching for a builder again. Looked at a couple of custom builders but they really were just too expensive. Simonds was the next volume builder to be struck out. Didn't really like their display home feel and combined with negative feedback on whirlpool and homeone meant they were a no go too. 

Finally, we narrowed it down to three: Porter Davis, Carlisle, Henley. Carlisle has amazing reviews but for whatever reason, they do not build in my suburb. I think I miss out by just a couple of kms! So we like the Henley Emperor Nouveau Q1 and Porter Davis Waldorf. The Waldorf is by far the most popular design and there are literally 9 of them building in my suburb as I am typing now. However, again, the problem was the front facing stairs. They have a Fen Shui option that turns the last three steps a the bottom to the side but it just doesn't really do it for me. Just as I was about to choose the Henley Emperor... along came the Porter Davis Marriot 48. It literally just appeared on their site. After some googling, it turns out they used to have it in Alamanda Point Cook but it was superceeded by the Waldorf, which is meant to be the 'newer' and 'improved' version. 

With the Marriot design, this was made redundant in May 2011 as we released the new and improved design, the Waldorf, which is an evolution of the Marriot. 
source: http://blog.porterdavis.com.au/index.php/2011-11/qa-does-porter-davis-build-in-strathmore/


One look at the floorplan of the Marriot and it was a done deal. Wide frontage to fit our 18m corner block. Tick. Windows predominantly facing the north and street side. Tick. Feng-Shui friently strairs. Tick. This is basically the Waldorf, but wider and with the stairs slightly the left and covered slightly by the study. Perfect!

Porter Davis haven't been exactly the bestest to deal with so far. Contact form sent online to enquire about the Marriot - no reply. Phone call to their 1300 sales number, left number with the call centre lady to get a consultant to call me - no call back. Emailed a consultant from one of the display homes that had the very similar Waldorf - no reply. Finally, an email to our closest display centre but with completely different home design has netted us a walkthrough of the Waldorf 48 in Williams Landing. No quotes yet but we're persisting purely because, apart from custom designing with an architect, this is really the perfect floorplan for us.

There's no pictures on the Porter Davis site yet, but I did find some old ones someone had on their blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/mariott-48.html

























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Comments

  1. DannyYu29 November 2013 at 12:29

    Hi Jerry, reading your blog gave me a feeling of deja vu, as I am also looking at the Marriott 48, for similar reasons (wide block, stairs not directly facing the front doors etc). Interested to know if you are making any changes to the design? Have you already signed your contract or still checking options?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jerry23 December 2013 at 01:13

      Hi Danny, We're only having Tender early Jan. We've added the enclosed rear option (but keep terrace upstairs), shower downstairs, alfresco, shared bathroom, walls to separate the living areas downstairs, and a whole heap of little stuff that really should be standard for a 'prestige' house ...

      Delete
  2. Michael27 March 2024 at 21:07

    Choosing the right builder and house design is super important! It's like picking the perfect team and playbook for a game. You want someone skilled who gets your vision and can bring it to life. Plus, the design should fit your lifestyle like a glove. So take your time, do your research, and find the dream team for your dream home! šŸ”✨
    Visit: https://www.intrax.com.au/

    ReplyDelete

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