Project Regent

Well we have pipework, cabling and equipment ready for the three above services.

Basic pipework is in place for all of the tap fixtures, including our dumper shower in the ensuite bathroom. And as things stand, they all look like they’re in their correct place. You can really clearly see now that the door in the laundry is wrong with the tap fixtures in place. On that note, we asked our Site Supervisor about that today and he said that the doors are due to be corrected and flipped so that the correct door opens the correct way. Likewise with our muddy sliding doors - at lockup, will be realigned, so fingers crossed they come out looking (and sliding) like new.

We also have yellow pipes throughout the house which is for gas - an outlet at the stove area, and an outlet in the centre of the roof space for the gas heating.

And on the electricity front, we have a solar panel on our Northern-facing roof - which is great as it gets the optimal amount of sunshine. Start charging, baby!

Our brickwork, originally scheduled for Monday 28th, will now commence Wednesday 30th, with more electrical, door, plastering, cable and duct placement due all over the next two weeks, so it looks like we’re on schedule to reach lockup around the 8 week mark.

Sunny skies over Melbourne

No Smoking inside the Master Bedroom

The Dumper plumbing installed

Bath and Vanity in Main Bathroom

Main Bathroom Shower

Laundry Pipes and Door

North-facing Solar Panel

The Eastern Side

Pipes for Water and Gas

Indeed it does suck.

And boy does it suck. It sucks with a motorised head, cyclonic action, a HEPA air filter and not one, but two additional attachments.

This little whirring beauty, the Dyson DC-31, we got at $69 off, and are quite thrilled with the purchase. And why wouldn’t you be? It’s purple after all.

We looked at the range of dust busters at The Good Guys, but the only other one we considered (a Cherry Red Black and Decker unit) was less than half the price, but weighed a ton (around 6kg), especially considering it’s handheld - the DC-31 comes in at just over 1.5kg. And plus, it didn’t have a motorised head and two accessories. And it wasn’t purple. Or pretty - let’s face it, Cherry and Cream was so last season.

But this handheld is suitable for pet hair too, so is therefore Hamish friendly. It also features two power modes - normal which provides around 10 minutes of quiet whirring sucking power, or a turbo mode which gives 6 minutes of fast-paced, tornado-speed sucking. It sounds like driving a Mini at 100km/h in 1st gear. Weeee!

Out of the box, the Dyson DC-31 comes with some charge to get you sucking in no time, with the dust and dirt cyclonically spinning around the chamber. Even one quick swipe over the carpet picks up an enourmous amount of dirt, so it makes you think twice about lying on the floor.

The Dyson DC-31

Cyclonic sucking

Motorised action

With a very wet Friday in Melbourne, I was worried about how we would get some photos of the house - and was unsure how many roof tiles were up. As it turns out, almost all of them, so had a nice shelter from the wet weather.

There are a few holes remaining where different elements will be coming in or out (i.e. the scaffolding supports, water pipes, and so on) but they are only the size of a single tile, so technically you could say it’s complete.

There are a few casualties lying around the site, and only one tear in the very thin insulation wrap on the house, so all things considered (and given we have seen some of the insulation wrap on other builders’ home in shreds), we’ve come off pretty well.

A number of water pipes have also been installed, as well as the connections to the solar panel on the Northern roof, so we should also start to see more electrical and plumbing over the next few weeks.

There is still no word on our laundry door scenario - but we’ll meet with the site supervisor sometime this coming week and see what the timeframe for the replacement is. And also discuss the living room sliding doors - they had managed to close the doors (and make them look like they close), but they don’t slide nicely and are still filthy. We’re pretty disappointed at the lack of respect of people’s property, such as the doors being left in the mud in the first place, but we have let both our CSC and Site Supervisor know of these issues so we can move forward to a resolution.

So up next, bricks, and we look pretty much on schedule. The start of the brick laying is the start of our sixth week since site scrape. Our bricks are all on site, and ready to get laid with Monday’s scheduled bricklayers coming on-site.

The Front... with Tiles

Looking up

Water Pipes

Casualty of the Insulation Wrap

Tile Casualties

Collecting the Mud

Day 31 sees us ready to plough ahead - roof tiles at the ready, insulation up, bricks delivered - we’re all set to go.

Driving around the corner to 19a, you can see our bright green house standing out, ready to get bricked and tiled up. It’s just so exciting right now to see so much happening on the block.

Although, we have spotted an error - one that will need to be fixed before too much goes on. The laundry sliding door is actually opening in the wrong way - the opening section of the door is the panel that is next to the washing machine. So when the washing machine is in place, you would need to… well… climb over the washing machine to get out. So we have checked the plans, which have the correct door orientation, and will get in touch with our Site Supervisor tomorrow to let him know of the issue.

So fingers crossed that the wet stormy weather doesn’t hold things off this week, and we’re able to see the house take shape. Brick shape.

Brown Terrain Bricks

The hidden coffee cup... safe and sound still...

The bedroom starts to take shape

Looking down the living area

The eastern side

Up at the Alfresco

North Eastern corner

North West corner

The laundry door situation

Woo hoo… one step closer.

Day 30 brings with it a collection of roof tiles scattered around the block. And even better, they’re the right colour. With the wild weather around other states of Australia, we were quite lucky to have a glorious Tuesday which has enabled the construction crew to get on with adding the required safety supports around the roof, and install our guttering.

It’s really starting to take shape now, and you can see how the facade is coming into form - only the second time we’ve seen it for real. But still, we’re thrilled with the look of the facade and can’t wait to see the bricks come up around it.

Safety supports

Looking at the facade

Portico gets some shape

The front... with built-in safety features

The caps

One of the many piles...