Project Regent

Now this is very exciting.

We had a meeting with our Site Supervisor this week and had a look at the progress during the week.

So progress first - we have taps, shower heads, toilets, and a bath in place. Sure, the plumbing is turned off from the outside, but at least the inside is starting to look very neat indeed.

Even though we have had a few things get done that were not supposed to, our Site Supervisor has been great, and is on the ball with things too - such as our monsoonal shower - it’s meant to hang 400mm from the ceiling, which, given we’re both over 6 foot, would be a smidge above our heads. So instead, our shower head hangs at 200mm from the ceiling - and with Mikey standing underneath it, it’s quite clear that this adjustment has been an incredibly smart move. So it’s the little things like this that make us once again aware that this house is being built for us.

Our Site Supervisor gave us a rundown of what is planned for this week. And, well, it includes carpentry, render, tiles (finalising), carpet, plumbing, electrical, benchtops and the preliminary clean. Holy crap. By Friday we’ll have a carpeted house. Not that we’re complaining - just after plodding along recently with the tiles at a steady pace, this week looks to be jam packed with work. This all leads up to the final Porter Davis inspection the week after, which means we can then book our final inspection and fingers crossed get a better indication of dates for when we’re going to be moving. It’s getting very close now, and very exciting! We should also be getting the mess around the site cleaned up outside - so of course, the “Before” picture is in this batch… let’s see what it’s like without all of the concrete and crap lying around.

Ensuite Shower - all tiled and fitted

Ensuite Vanity Tapware

Toilets in place

Main Bathroom Basin

Laundry Taps

Rear Tap

All neat

Fixed Architrave in Kitchen

Mess to be cleared

As of writing, our tiles are actually complete. But because I haven’t been able to post these images yet, you’ll have to wait to see the finished progress - that and there’s more to see than just tiles… ooh aah but wait for that one.

So on day 76 and 78 we caught the tilers on duty so were able to have a sticky beak around and see everything as work in progress. We’re really happy with how the tiles are looking, and are really glad that the brown tiles were replaced with grey tiles when our floor tiles got changed. So even though it was a little frustrating at the time to go through a colour scheme re-think, we both agree that it has worked out in our favour.

The finished product is so neutral and inoffensive, and can now be livened up with any colour we like - as opposed to finding a tone that goes with brown. So that’s all very exciting.

Our stone benchtops have also been measured, so we should be seeing those soon-ish too.

Red Tiles... in progress

Red is sooo in

Ensuite Shower

Vanity, Splashback and Basins

Complete (well almost)

Ensuite Floor

Measured - hoorah!

Main Bathroom Shower

Bath Cavity

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

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