Tender!

The one thing we wanted to get from the Tender Appointment was the reassurance that PD knew what they were doing.  That the numerous discussions we'd had with our SC translated to the Tender document, and the TBAs from the Sales Quote were now firmed up.

And that's what we got!  Our Tender presenter was very thorough, a good communicator and patient (when I asked stoopid questions).

New or increased costs that we didn't expect:

* $600 for a Bushfire assessment report, including steel ties to the brickwork

* $350 design change to put the front windows from the Kiama facade into our chosen Cape York facade.

* The pivot door was about $1000 more than we estimated (Corinthian INFWS 6G - $3463), not including staining.

* Additional render in the Alfresco was $1000 more than estimated ($2961).

* Replacing 4 cupboards in the kitchen with 4 pot drawers (incl. soft close) was $1303, not the '$400-odd' our SC indicated.

* $886 for 4 additional overhead kitchen cupboards - a bit annoying. Without going into too much detail, we thought these would have been covered by the 'additional overhead cupboards to kitchen' from the promotion. They weren't because they are on the adjoining kitchen wall, not the rangehood wall.

* Caesar stone upgrades in general!  e.g. 40mm cat 3 to the pantry was $1788 to upgrade from standard laminate.  As we've spec'd cat 3 Caesar stone throughout the house, this added up pretty quickly!

* Adding a zone for the ducted heating $534 (living / bedrooms).

Costs still TBA:

* An upgraded shower in the ensuite, from the Stegbar semi-frameless to the Stegbar grange inline.

* A veggie sprayer in the laundry (to make washing the dogs easier).

Things we wanted that they couldn't / wouldn't do:

* Lightly tacking on the skirting boards. She checked for us, but the answer was no. Basically, they either fit them properly (glue and nail), or they don't fit them at all. We're dead against the quad, so they'll just leave us the skirting board lengths and we'll get our own chippy to cut and fit after we get our floors done.

* Moving the manhole from the laundry to the garage. A very quick 'no' this time, due to the space being a 'dead area', whatever that means.

* Getting rid of an additional ducted heating point in the lounge that came with the raked ceiling. Due to the volume of air created by the raked ceiling, we'd need an additional point to meet 5 star obligations.  The last thing we want is a beautiful feature ceiling covered in ducts!  They were however, able to move them both to a better location.
* Making one of the cupboards in the kitchen island a bin cupboard. Not something they do.

* A wraparound corner window in the study, instead of 2 framed windows touching each other on the corner. Couldn't because it was load bearing.

We wanted a wraparound window here

All in all, the Tender Appointment went well.  It was an exhausting 5 hours though!

Our build is now sitting at $291,887, with an additional $17,500 for flooring being done post handover. We will need to add electrical, tiles and colours to this cost.  Our total budget for the build was $325,000, so we have about $16,000 to play with for those things. Stay Tuned!