This is the important stage as by this point, you would have made your structural decisions and no other changes will be made after this point. Non-structural items however, you have up until Contract Stage to make changes.
This stage goes for an entire day so strap yourselves in. You will attend PD's head office and sit down with a Tender Presenter where you will go through your potential build in great detail.
You will also see the actual plans / drawings of your house for the first time with all the dimensions and structural options selected during the sales phase. Be sure to check everything as things can be easily changed during your Tender appointment. The way PD has arranged this day is that everybody required, including pricing people, draftsmen, etc. are all on call via instant messaging, or just outside the meeting room, to provide answers and change the document if necessary.
This is the meeting where we realised that the 'void' windows in the family room (and if you are familiar with the Waldorf Grange you will know that these windows are the
main feature of the family room, if the not the design!) were
not included as standard. We 'assumed' as it was such a feature of the house that it would be. On the Plans we saw a small sliding window which we disputed but the drawings clearly showed sliding windows as opposed to double-height fixed windows. The tender presenter did apologise for the oversight and explained the windows were not standard and would cost extra. She quoted on the spot and we accepted. We were just relieved at this point it was picked up at Tender and not once the build was finalised.
A lot of upgrades were finalised at this meeting too. For instance, the pricing for our Miele appliances and
Actron ESP Ultima heating and cooling system. We were relieved that PD did not "mark up" these items, but at most used retail price. There were a few items such as the
Stegbar Siteline windows we decided to use in our family room (the "void" area). PD was not familiar with the Siteline product, and they could not price it during our Tender appointment. However, they simply obtained a quote and updated us a few days later.
In the end, we were satisfied that the key items were covered during the Tender appointment. We paid our 3% deposit and took out drawings and tender documents home.
Key tips for the Tender Appointment:
- Ask for a PDF copy of your plans in advance of the appointment. Study them over and over again. Check all key measurements, window dimensions, etc.
- Make the time to take your plans out to the display home, walk through each room and compare the measurements in your plans to the display home. If you have kids, we'd suggest not taking them... you need to take your time and concentrate :-)
- Ensure you are absolutely comfortable with the structural options selected
- Don't spend time before Tender worrying about aesthetics / colours / non-structural items - there's plenty of time to change these things before contract
- If you have asked for any "customised" things during sales stage, make sure they are reflected on the plans
- Remember - if it's not on the drawings, it's not being built
- Again, Tender is really about locking down the structural aspects of the house. This is a key phase as all your final plans and engineering drawings will be be prepared over the following 3-4 weeks before contract. During that time, you can still change any non-structural aspect of the house.
I know we have said this several times, but the key to a smooth (and surprise-free) Tender process is to ensure you understand what is a standard inclusion, and what is optional. In the lead up to Tender, we visited the display home at least 4 times, on each occasion focussing on key areas of the house... the kitchen being the main area you want to ensure is spot on.
