Handover!

Drum roll... I now present to you the final completion of the brand new Porter Davis Marriot!

30-January-2015 was the date. 7 and a bit months since since site start on 16th June 2014.  One year and 3 months since we parted with our $1000 deposit at the Porter Davis display homes in Harcrest. 10+ years of corporate slavery and hard work.. (ok, maybe that's taking it a bit far), but anyway... this is the culmination of pretty much everything I have worked for so far in my life and it was an especially proud moment taking the keys to our new home.  Proud because I saw how happy my dad was talking to friends and family about my build. Proud because I know if mum was still around, she'd be pretty rapt too. In fulfilling my dream, I am sure I have also fulfilled a part of theirs. 

The actual handover itself was a breeze. Porter Davis let us complete the paperwork and get the keys at the house rather than having to drive all the way to their Narre Warren office. The below is a list of items that I accepted as issues to be rectified after handover. I know some people choose not to accept handover until absolutely everything is fixed but we chose to move in asap and save a bit on rent. 

1. Theatre Room window winder and keys: The awning windows weren't winding out wide enough and the keys didn't seem to work on any of the windows. It later turned out that, during the build, one window winder got broken and they had to replace it. In replacing it, they could not use the same batch of locks so this the set of keys I got were for this one window in the lounge room. They've now given me the extra set that opens the remainder of the windows. There was an option to get Stegbar to come out and replace all the locks to match the one key but I opted not to take this up as I hardly will open this window anyway. 
2. Dining Room Glass Window: The massive 3.6m wide window I have in the dining room has scratches and needs to be replaced. It's only noticeable when you are up close and looking for it but hey, it's meant to be a brand new window. I only picked this up when signing the handover form and noticing that it specifically says that I agree no windows are scratched. 
3. Replace Push Door to Island Bench: The door was not aligned properly and scraping the sides.
4. Install Dishwasher Kickboard: Missing kick board
5. Fill Hole in Brick to A/C Unit: Just needed to patch up the hole where they stick the piping out of the brickwork. 
6. Install Splashback and Rangehood: This turned out to be quite a saga. They would end up coming three or four times (I lost count) because they kept bringing the wrong part of the flue extension for the rangehood. Ended up not being able to cook for a couple of weeks. After the three visit, I asked them to just connect the tubing up without the flue cover so that the rangehood could at least be functional. 
7. Chandelier light switch: It was actually all wired up but they just forgot to add the switch
8. Master Ensuite change over shower unit: More on this one later. Deserves it's own post. 
9. Install 2nd HWS for Ensuite: The additional Rinnai Infinity I ordered was not installed as the powerpoint and plumbing were too high. Apparently there is a regulation that these can not be more than 2m off the ground but the plans had provisioned for it near the first floor bathrooms. This had to get lowered down. Had a week of no showers. 
10. Footpath Inspection to be fixed in conjunction with Council: Just about every second footpath panel was cracked and needed to be replaced. Porter Davis was pretty good about fixing everything even though the cost to do so exceeded the bond. I've heard others who had to pay to fix the footpaths themselves, which doesn't seem right. I'm glad PD didn't try to swing that on me. 

All in all, apart from the delay with the Building Coordinator during the paperwork stage at head office, I am pretty happy with the build. The site supervisor was great. Communication with Michael was better than I had anticipated. Although he missed a few weeks of status updates, he did return each of my calls and pretty much (almost) every issue I brought up was rectified.

Would I build with Porter Davis again or recommend them to friends? Yes I would!