Project Regent

So we mentioned the doors.

And here they are. Enough said.

Splat

Locking

The Dirty Doors

Well, better late than never - these are from Day 26, which was Friday 18th September. Since our Tuesday visit, our roof trusses were installed, and windows and door frames set in place.

Unfortunately, the sliding doors for the living area weren’t shown much love, including the doors being thrown in the mud. Given the rain we had, they were not in a pretty shape, and to our surprise on Sunday, had been installed. So we now have filthy doors in the living area that don’t close properly in the middle. Our Site Supervisor is aware of this, and will address it after they have been cleaned and calibrated, so we’ll see what happens. I have a photo of the muddy doors installed, but will get that up tomorrow after the Tuesday night visit to the site - maybe we’ll have clean doors by then.

But tonight’s photo batch is of the roof, the windows, and the fact that our muddy land turn pipe forest turn concrete slab is starting to look more and more like a house each day. And I had to restrain myself… my iPhoto library is getting very full of house photos so I think 12 for such a big post is very restrained…

1317 becoming 15 Wylie Way

The Portico and Entry

Front Door

Portico Roof

Living/Alfresco Doors

Door-in-the-Mud

Master Bedroom

Western Wall... Bedroom, Rumpus and Store Room

Living, Dining and Kitchen

Rumpus and Guest Room

Skywards

Guest Room, Rumpus, Store Room and Alfresco

It seems that Porter Davis have that seventh sense that we all wish we had - the ability to see into the future.  I logged into the 24/7 system today to see that it says our Frame Stage is complete.  I know the carpenters have been working hard this week, but it seemed a little unbelievable that the frame could already be complete.  Upon further investigation I saw that the date for frame complete is the 18th September, 2 days away.  Regardless its exciting to know that at the end of the week we’ll have a complete house frame with windows and roof trusses…

Oh how exciting - we have a frame!

We were last at the block late last week, and we were scheduled to have the discolouration corrected on Monday 14th September, so we weren’t expecting much to be done. But then after our weekend away, we stuck our heads up Wylie Way today and holy crap, we have a frame. And not just that, but the two houses in the block of three now have slabs and frames too.

This has come as quite a surprise - last week, the two neighbouring blocks didn’t even have a slab, but then wow, three houses all at the same stage. Well, nearly, next door has windows installed too, but we’re not too far away from that either.

But anyway, back to us.

The frame is almost complete (except the roof truss) with the carpenters running around constructing the frame on-site (again, a Porter Davis perk - other companies have their frame delivered in completed pieces) and this has its benefits. For example, our Study/Bedroom 4 window, which has always been planned to be on the internal wall of the Alfresco, was put on the wrong wall - the construction team have been given the wrong drawings. So, the window is in the wrong spot. But hurrah, the perk of on-site construction is that they can easily take it apart and move the window to its correct location.

What was even better about it was that the carpenter approached us and pointed out the issue (and that they are aware of it, and they’re fixing it). So I would assume this means our Site Supervisor is on the ball (as when we met he was well aware of the window’s location) and has obviously been in touch with the carpenters to update them on this error in the drawings. So after a bit of a chat about the progress and where they are up to, and with the carpenter’s permission, he allowed us to come on-site and take some photographs of the work in progress. So enjoy, here is where we stand now, and we should be on our Site Supervisor’s schedule to have the frame complete by mid-week - can’t wait for the next drive by!

Frame - from the driveway

Some drive, other's ride their BMX...

Piecing it together...

Markings on the floor

Beam above the alfresco doorway

Lots more to go...

The Rumpus Room (aka Michael's office)

Study wall: that should be a window...

The kitchen, dining room and lounge

The Windows have arrived

Lines on the Windows

Bedroom Windows

It’s Day 16. Well Day 15 really. Sorta. No, today is Day 16, but concrete came on Day 15. Just when we were out there it was far too dark to take photos - but we had concrete. Woo!

We met our Site Supervisor today out at the block, so had a chat about the slab, what happens next, when they’re planning on doing things, and so on, so it’s full steam ahead. So full steam in fact that the carpenters were out today and we have our frame laying around the slab. Yes, we have wood of various lengths, sizes, widths and weights scattered on the block which makes up our frame - and we were quite surprised to find out that Porter Davis construct the frame on-site (excluding the truss), rather than pre-built frames like other builders. Personally, we had never seen the frame go up on a Porter Davis home - we seem to discover them when the frame is up and the facade framework clearly shows it’s a Regent. But he said we should see the frame up next week sometime - so that’s making it even more real.

One last piece for the slab - they are going to resurface the top due to, well, I don’t really know what the cause is - I know the problem - there’s some discolouration on the top “coat” of the slab, which extends to the alfresco area, and for quality and aesthetics, they’re just going to re-do the top “coat” to give a better finish, so I assume that’s happening in the next day or so - so, of course, the frame can go up. Weee!

Looking in from the Portico

It's one hiiiigh slab...

Part of our frame