Project Regent

So…

Wow…

It’s been a while. We sorta got distracted when we got given the keys to the house. It’s been pretty crazy since then, packing, moving, Christmas, New Year, Hamish moved in (the cat), drive way, fences, letterbox, couch replacement, light fixtures, bin install, ironing board holder install, peeping-hole (for the front door thank you) install, garage tidy, letterbox number install, blinds, plus a bit of R&R in there too.

Settlement day was 11th December 2009, and we arrived for our final inspection with our Site Supervisor at 8am, which was all good - hot water was ready, oven going in, rangehood installed, and it was starting to look very finished.

We did, however, have no garage door at settlement. The garage door company had told our Site Supervisor that the doors had been measured. Then the install date comes and goes, and no doors. So the SS rings them, and is told “oh, no that hasn’t been measured so isn’t ready”. Bah. So delays on that, but it’s all installed now, and looks (and works)  really well. But I guess it wasn’t too much of an issue given that PD don’t do any external gear to the house (i.e. driveway) so not like we could lock the cars in - we’re just grateful that it was installed shortly after, and our SS has been fantastic post-settlement with getting those odd jobs fixed up. Although, one still comes to mind he needs to address… But anyway…

The kitchen is simply superb - the 5 burner cooktop and 900mm oven is a dream to use, and already has had beautiful things made on and in it including our Christmas turkey, paella, a stir fry or two, plus, of course, components for home-made ice cream. Oh yeah, we know how to live.

We moved in about a week after settlement, which was the weekend before Christmas, and unpacked 95% of the gear by then. There is, of course, still 5% to go, even today, but we’ve run out of bookshelf space, so they can stay in a box for now.

But it’s been pretty smooth sailing (except the fences, but they will get a post in their own right later), with the phone connected and internet active when we moved in - so in that sense it didn’t feel like a “new” home as it was all ready to go. And of course, our geek cupboard is very geeky now including switches, modems and routers to get our networked house up to the world of Ethernet. We have our wireless running from the lounge room through an AirPort Express so that we can stream music from our computers to the lounge room speakers via iTunes - it’s just all working so well.

And the best bit, I can see the TV from my office (the 4th “bed” slash “store” room), so can get the best of both worlds.

The thing to look at… the site clean up. Ours was pretty, well, piss poor to put it no other way. We had chunks of concrete left around - see the photos for some size comparisons - and we were told that the site had been cleaned. Rubbish. So we now have a mound of crap that PD didn’t clean up sitting at the front of our place, that our landscapers had moved to prep for landscaping efforts.

But anyway, it’s getting on, and I have another post up my sleeve including driveway photos, and then time for another stir fry - my turn to cook.

To two of our fellow followers and soon-to-be first-time builders who have emailed us already - I do apologise for the delayed updates - but if you’re going house hunting around Point Cook at the displays or your own block, give us a tingle and come and say hi.

As with all new projects, we are already starting a list of things to get addressed in our three month post-completion work, but nothing that we weren’t expecting or warned about, so that should all be pretty straight forward when the time comes… wow, only two months until that…

Facade (sans garage door)

Facade (sans garage door)

Updating White Plastic with... oooh shiny...

Crap. They're size 11 shoes.

Damaged pipe at the rear

Size of crap left on-site post-cleanup

Site Cleanup? Where?

Red. Splash. Red Splashback.

Installed. Working. Lit. Woo!

So it’s the eve of our final inspection. So that’s exciting in itself.

And I must pull my finger out, and include some of our recent photos. So these are from Day 98, which was last Friday. A little scary to think we hadn’t even cracked 100 days and yet we have a near complete house to look at.

Tomorrow, our inspection day, is the end of Week 15 - so we’re doing pretty well time-wise, and by handover it will be the end of Week 16. Just such an exciting time. Apart from the stress of organising everything after thinking “ah there’s plenty of time”… not really.

But anyway, here is a preview for you to look at our rendered pillars, carpet and updated bathroom fixtures including mirrors, shower screens and all the nice things like that.

We’ll no doubt have more to talk about tomorrow after our inspection.

Rendered Facade

Pillars and Lights

Lounge Room

Dining and Kitchen

Kitchen Tap

Ensuite

The View from the Toilet

Mikey's Office

Laundry and Spare Room

Well today was an exciting day.  We received the call saying that handover has been booked in for Friday December 11.  This is right on (our) schedule, so in 11 days we’ll have the keys to our new home!

I spent a bit of time on the phone today booking in fences, blind and shutter installation and a cat door for Hamish.  We’ve also found a landscaper we like and we’re meeting him on the weekend to finalise the plans and book everything in.  Before we move in we’ll have the driveway and fences done.  We should also have a good start on the landscaping before Christmas.  Tomorrow I’ll be onto the water tank people to get that sorted.

Removalists were booked last week for the 19th.  Now we just have to tackle the packing here!!!

We’ve also got some photos we took the other day to put up so stay tuned for them!

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