Tender Round 2

We had a courtesy call last week from our building coordinator. That was nice. She just called to touch base to see how we were going with our tender. Completely did not expect that phone call considering what I’ve been reading in the PD forums on Facebook.

Today we had our tender, round 2. Actually if you consider the number of changes we have been making the last 2 weeks, this would probably be round 5 or something like that. We made more major changes… changes that we said we didn’t want to make initially. Mainly because of the cost of these changes. Even though I’ve done this before 2 weeks ago, I still felt anxious… kinda like the feeling you get before sitting an exam.

If you have been following, we first decided to go with Hebel, then we changed to brick, then back to Hebel and finally we decided on going with brick. After much research, brick turns out to be more durable, less maintenance and Cat 2 is included in the build (Hebel costs an extra $6999). Hebel, on the other hand, has slightly better insulation than brick and also does look good when it’s newly rendered, but it ages pretty badly with dark water stains after a few years and cracks showing up between the panels after less than 10 years (I can see it on my neighbours house). It will also require a lot more maintenance than brick. You can also attach heavy objects to a brick wall, like clotheslines, gates and pergolas while Hebel can’t have anything attached to it.

I did notice a slight increase of about $1500 in site costs after pricing went in for the change to brick from Hebel. Maybe it has something to do with the extra weight of brick requiring stronger foundations? I’ll never know.

Here are the changes we decided on:

• Hebel to brick
• Increase height of garage at a cost of $2000. This is just to make the door height to the garage the same as the rest of the house. Two weeks ago, we thought that the 2040mm height to the garage would be fine among the 2340mm height doors in the rest of the house. Today we thought otherwise, and that decision cost us $2000!
• Removed dado wall after receiving a quote of $8000 for dado wall around the front section of the house. Was told that this can be added after handover for much cheaper.
• Removed provision for gas fireplace. We’re going to install an electric one instead. Having a gas fireplace will cost about $15k, but an electric one that looks the same will cost about $3k. The only difference is that the gas one will heat up the room faster, but will also require more maintenance since it is using gas after all. We only wanted the fireplace mainly for aesthetics, so makes sense to go with an electric one.
• Changed BED 2 and upstairs study windows to 50mm x 2400mm, placed 1700mm above ground level. This is so the windows do not need satinlite.
• Moved the south facing window in upstairs study to the west. So we now have 2 windows facing west and none facing south (since no light comes in from the south anyway).
• Re-added the west facing windows from the master bedroom – only did this because they made a mistake in the plan. Due to the option we picked, one of the windows is removed, but when we had it redrawn, they added that extra window. So we decided to keep that and re-add the one that we removed 2 weeks ago. Saved us a few hundred $. Not much but still happy about it.
• Added a second cavity sliding door to the master ensuite (so we now have 2 in there). Costs $1024 for the 2 x 720mm CSD. The alternative is $900 for 1 x 1020mm CSD.
• Added double wall thickness to laundry wall so we can have a switch on the same wall as the CSD, and also added double wall between the toilet and shower area so we can install coat hooks on there.
• Removed square set to all the rear windows, doors and voids
• Removed added double glazing across entire house (for now). Only did this because I didn’t want to lock it in yet since it can still be added after the 6 star energy report at no extra cost. Plus it will also save me from paying a few dollars more now.
• Removed gas, water, waste provisioning to alfresco. Decided that it was not worth having an outdoor kitchen since it gets way too cold in winter and way too hot in summer to be cooking outside.
• Got an extra external tap on the west side of the house.
• Removed all the linen closets upstairs, planning on turning this into a study nook instead.

Here something we requested that could not be done:

• Asked to remove downpipe from facade. Unfortunately, it can’t be done, but it can be moved. We didn’t move it though because it would involve us shrinking the windows.

Here are a few things that can be done but can be decided later:

• Rendering just the facade is possible at a cost of around $2000. Or you can remove the render from the inclusions and get a credit at WOS of around $1000. This can be decided later at WOS.
• Can specify how the internal french doors work since one has to be bolted to the frame. Can decide which one later at contract.
• Provisioning for sinks and cooktops. I was told that provisioning for cooktops is being phased out and that provisioning now needs to be approved by the WOS manager. The reason being that mistakes are sometimes made and PD just don’t want to have that sort of problems. This means that eventually we will only be able to pick Fisher and Paykel appliances for PD to install or cut out our own hole in the benchtop to install our own cooktops.

Confirmed the following:

• Mid floor acoustic insulation is across the entire second storey.
• Confirmed our laundry can fit the washing machine and dryer side by side after adding a store room instead of BIR.
• Double glazing can be added at contract after the 6 star energy report.
• Confirmed that the roof space can support a person’s weight (I know that this is obvious, but needed to make sure).
• Junction box is sitting completely exposed to the elements on the west side of the house. Confirmed that this is fine even when it does get really hot outside.
• If there is any inconsistency between the quote and the drawings, the drawings can still be returned and modified. If the drawings are slightly off (eg, a door is not centralised, or the window was not placed correctly), they can still be changed at no extra charge. However, we cannot add/remove anything after signing.

Our TP told us that we were very lucky to have our floor plan approved since they do not approve any plan that has wet areas increased in size like ours was. Apparently our plan was approved by someone who is no longer working at PD, so it means that they still have to honour the requested changes. This also means that it’s not possible for anyone else to build the same floor plan as ours anymore. Guess our house is going to be slightly more unique than other PD houses out there.

Once I get the updated drawings back (in about 2 weeks), I’ll add a screenshot to the floor plan.

Here’s the floor plan of the ground floor. Most of the floor plan is the same with various options, except that we added a store room in the laundry (which we’re going to use as a drying room).

Here’s the floor plan of the upper storey. Lots of changes here. Unfortunately for most people, I’ve been told by my TP that it is unlikely that you will get a plan like this approved anymore.

I’ve signed the tender and the amount that I have to pay now is just under $16k (3% deposit). They only accept bank transfer, MasterCard or Visa. I’m going to pay with Visa to get a few c/c points.