Appointments

Just some notes on our colour, tender and contract appointments. You can see the dates on these appointments on our timeline.

Tender
Held at PD offices in Berwick. This was the first appointment after our NT tile selection appointment. We saw "M" who was very professional and helpful. Went through all structural changes and the electrical plan (no seperate electrical appointments for Lifestyle homes). Lots to go through and we were there for about 4 hours - longer than the 2 hours expected due to problems with the NT tile quote and a few other prices that the sales consultant had misquoted (read under quoted) to us. It may be useful at this point to let you know that your 5 stage building payment plan is based on your tender document. Any changes made after this date come up as variations that you settle with the final building payment. So, although it is nice to know a fully inclusive price at tender, it would be better to leave off as many items as you can until the contract appointment. You will then get until the end of the build to pay for them - with PD anyway. Have to say we found it hard finalising tender without doing colours. Although PD prefer it that way, we would have liked to do colours first so we knew what our colour selections actually cost us.

Colour
Held at Hopetoun Interiors in Port Melbourne. It is important to visit Hopetoun prior to your actual appointment to ensure you are prepared as there are an enormous number of "colours" and features you need to select during the appointment. We were booked in with "K" and she was wonderful. As we were very prepared we were out of there within 2 hours - very low stress and lots of fun.

Contract
Held at PD offices in Berwick. This is where your colour choices are costed and all your structural changes are finalised. You are presented with your final contract, drawings and electrical plan (any changes after this point become post contract variations and are settled at the end of the final payment) for signing and are expected to sign on the day. However, you can take it away with you if you want to battle for that right. Have to say of all the appointments this was the most full on for us. Don't see how it could be done in 2 hours - ours lasted 3 hours. It was a very intense appointment where we had to ensure every little detail of the house was correct. However, our administrator was very efficient and assured us that if we found a problem we could let her know in the next couple of days and she would fix it for us.
So we then took it all home and checked and doubled checked to ensure all was OK. We did find a couple of changes but "D" was true to her word and just raised PCVs for these without a fuss.