Project Regent

With lock up come and gone, it’s a little harder to get decent photos inside although when we were out there today, our Site Supervisor happened to be taking a look at the Regent down the street so, naturally, we asked if we could take a peek inside our house.

Our last look around the inside was with painters around so we couldn’t get into the bathrooms and it had that incredibly potent smell of fresh wet paint. Ahhh the fumes.

But the changes since our last update have been that ducts have been put in place (almost) for the heating and cooling, including the installation of our roof-top unit, and internal controller. Michael was itching to find the manual to take and study, but no, we can keep that there until handover - and over what is forecast to be a stinking hot summer, I think the following will be fine: Cool. On. Cooler. On. Yeah that’s about it.

Our painting inside is now complete too - our Kid Leather walls look sensational (bar a few expected touch up areas), and the feature in the bedroom, as mentioned, is spectacular. In the bathrooms, the waterproofing for the tiled areas has been put down and still has a strong head-spin odour to it, but that means we’re ready for tiles which are due to begin tomorrow and take a few days to get installed.

With slightly better light than the last photo batch, the cupboards look superb - and we’re glad to have the same colour - Burnished Wood - throughout the house (except our “Ice” benchtops in the kitchen, which are yet to be installed).

So apparently, from here, we have our tiles, taps, electrical and carpet to be installed, and then we should be at the final inspection leading up to the handover which should be early to mid December, all things continuing the way they are - hurrah!

Neat, trim and compact

Ensuite Shower

Double Vanity, with spunky Basins

Closer up

Laundry Sink

Oooooh Red!

Kid Leather

Inside the Kitchen Cupboards

And even a Kitchen Sink

Lounge, currently filled with tiles

Heating / Cooling Unit

Air Intake

Well a big week this week - both on the inside and outside. This post is collating all that we’ve seen over the last week, with photos taken Thursday and Saturday.

Outside, our bricks have been blasted by high pressure water to remove the excess mortar - and wow they look spectacular. So spectacular that we had to dedicate a photo to just one part of the wall in all its glory - and on Saturday they looked even better after the water had dried from between the bricks.

The cleaning process has made the bricks look lighter than before, yet still do come up surprisingly darker than the same we had seen at Hopetoun so we’re glad the render will add some nice contrast.

Outside, we also have our electrical cabling coming through the front two pillars for our lights, as well as wooden architraves around the alfresco and garage door beam. Neither of us can remember such wooden architraves at the display homes - but then again, a finished house probably doesn’t show them off - but having wood quite boldly sitting there makes them rather obvious. So we’re not sure what colour these are going to get painted - but assuming the Woodland Gray colour to match the window frames and guttering.

And then we start to head inside - and the first thing that grabs attention on Saturday (OK, the second… so the first was actually seeing the painters cars in the driveway so that meant the chance to get inside, so now, the second…) is our stunning red front door - and that looks very striking indeed. The gutters and edging of architraves along the front have also been painted.

So with the doors unlocked and a painter standing in the alfresco area as we explore the changes, we had a quick chat and then headed inside to take a sticky beak around.

Inside the master bedroom, the feature wall has had its first coat of paint, Donkey, and looks so bold and, well, feature-ish - it’s great! We know (by peeking through the windows) that we have double vanities in place in the bathroom, but given the painters were set up in the walk-in-robe we couldn’t take a sticky beak in there.

While wandering around a paint-in-progress house, you get a stunning rush… but that’s probably more to do with the paint fumes. Or it could be the fact that we have kitchen cupboards too. It’s really starting to transform into our house with our selections, and it’s just so exciting to see. This also means the vanities in the bathrooms as well as laundry sink in the… wait for it… laundry… have been installed too.

All doors are off their hinges and scattered around one of the rooms of the house, freshly painted and looking mighty shiny. We both find it a little odd and, well, lazy, that tops of doors don’t get painted. One would assume that the door is painted as a whole, but alas no, tops of doors remain paint free.

With tiles due for delivery any day, we’re both so excited at the speed of the progress as well as the promising prospect of a pre-Christmas handover.

The updated facade

All clean!

Clean (and still slightly damp)

Electrical setup

Ooooh... red...

It's a Donkey

Door Forest

Kitchen Cupboards

Kitchen island cupboards

I had to pop out to the house today and meet the guy who was doing a final measure for our blinds and shutters.  Our kitchen has been delivered but at the moment resembles flat-pack-heaven rather than a kitchen.

The shelf height of our walk in robe has also been fixed.  We asked to have it raised so we had more usable space and not so much wasted space above the shelf.  Thanks again Brad for that idea!

Our Flat-Packed Kitchen

Walk In Robe

It’s the end of week 8, and lockup is well and truly reached. So true, in fact, that we’ve even been locked out. So on Friday when we met with our Site Supervisor, we wandered around and took some photos.

Our bricks were scheduled to be cleaned over the weekend, but by lunchtime Sunday, this hadn’t been done yet. But hopefully our next visit will see a nice clean exterior. Inside, it’s really taking shape, and we’ve been told of the plans for the coming week involving cabinet installation, painting and tile delivery.

So in this update of photos, we have some neatening up in the alfresco , as well as neat skirts around the floor and door frame. But not only that, our shelves are installed in the robes, closet and pantry.

The only issue we spotted, which we’ve notified our Site Supervisor about, is that the height of the shelves in the main bedroom walk in robe are too low - they are meant to be at 2 metres. So he’s said that will get corrected early this week before painting so we will see tomorrow when we get our blinds measured - hoorah!

All of the evidence of smoking inside has been cleaned up, and a lot of vacuuming or sweeping of saw- and plaster dust.

It’s definately looking like a real house now…

Bedroom

Robe Shelves... a little too low...

Skirts and Door frames

Kitchen, Living and Lounge

Exterior Architraves

Alfresco Architraves

Well we’re at lockup and the inside is starting to take shape. Our rooms are now scattered with jigsaw puzzle pieces in the form of skirting boards, and we have also had doors installed and architraves plastered in place.

And someone is having trouble with the signs around the house - there are two “No Smoking Inside” signs, but yet we still find cigarette butts, empty cigarette packets and a stale smell of cigarettes lingering inside. Oh, and then the smeared charcoal smudge of put-out-cigarette on our slab. Nice look.

Entry Way... and Jigsaw

The Puzzle

Architraves

Internal Doors and Robe Doors

Door Latches

Cigarettes. Used butts are nearby.