Project Regent

With nothing better to do on Easter Saturday we decided to take a drive to Mernda so that we could measure some windows and get an idea of what blinds are going to cost.

We were able to measure all windows and the living room sliding door, but the master bedroom window size is not yet know as the facade of our house isn’t on dispaly.  We’ve got a fair idea of its size though.

All up we’re looking at around $3200 to do all the blinds, but the only windows we need to cover immediately are the master bedroom and my office (rumpus).

Also while driving around the estate in Mernda we spotted a house with Brown Terrain bricks.  It was good to see them on an actual house - they look great!  I wanted to go and knock on the door to ask if they were Brown Terrain, but Marty wouldn’t let me.  We’re 99% sure they were though.

On the way back we took a detour to Point Cook.  Nothing really to report on the progress of the land.  The blocks behind ours are now flat so it looks like all is on track for a June title release, which also means we should be on track for an end July build start - and of course that means a pre-Christmas move in!!!!!!!

Oh my! What a busy, yet exciting day.  We had both our Electrical and Colour selection appointments.  It’s all happening pretty fast.  Within a week of having contact from Porter Davis we had two of our three selection appointments not only set, but done!  This is rare, and to have them both on the same day is not common!  We’ve been lucky.

The day started with a visit to National Tiles, and no we didn’t see Frank Walker (Melbournians would get that reference).  We thought it would be a good idea to at least have a look at what tiles we like before finalising our colour selection.  We found what we like and the only upgrade here will be a small amount for the funky glass feature tiles we talked about in an earlier post.  We also managed to set our tile selection appointment - April 21st!

Brown Terrain Bricks

Time Capsual Render

Windows, Gutters, Down Pipes & Garage Door

Roof Files (Barramundi)

Then it was off to Hopetoun Interiors for our electrical selection.  This was a fairly simple process untill I decided to ask about networking the house.  We had already got a quote from an electrician to do this independent of Porter Davis as we though this would be cheaper.  The quote was just over $2000.  Stragely enough Porter Davis could do it for $790!  We love saiving $1300, although we spent that on other bits and pieces and we still have 10 data points through the house.  All up we added about 10 double powerpoints, 1 outdoor double power point and a single outdoor powerpoint.  We also added 2 additional TV points and 2 phone points.  In both bathrooms we’re adding IXL Tastic light/fan/heat units - a must for those cold winter mornings.

Our next appointment was for all the internal selections (except tiles).  All up this only took just over an hour.  Seeing that we had been to Hopetoun Interiors 3 times before we pretty much knew what we wanted.

Kitchen Cupboards (Burnished Wood)

Stone Bench Top (Ice)

For the outside of the house we’ve selected Brown Terrain bricks, Woodland Grey for the windows, garage door, guttering and downpipes, and  Capsual for the render on the portico posts.  Roof Tiles will be Barramundi which is a dark grey.

Everytime you bink while at Hopetoun Interiors it seems to cost you money.  We had to pay more to have translucent glass in the front door and side windows.  Not sure how much that will cost yet.  We also upgraded our carpet underlay (about $300).

All up for the interior there are 15 pages of colour selections for everything, so I won’t list them all, you’ll just have to come visit when we move in!

Now we just have to wait to see how much it all came to.  Not too much we hope!

We have our colour and electrical appointments booked in with Hopetoun Interiors.  They’re both this Thursday 9th April.

Just goes to show how you need to be careful what you ask the Universe for.  We wanted to get all these done quickly, but this week is the week from hell for work!  If we didn’t take these appointments it would be Electrical next week and then Colour wouldn’t be for another 2 weeks!

Oh well.  It’s still all very exciting and will all work out.

mmmmmm its red!

Recently I thought it would be great to update my pots and pans to some nice new ones, and today while killing some time in the city between meetings I popped into DJ’s to have a look around.  Over in the KitchenAid corner I spied the sale sign so wondered over to have a look.  I’m a sucker for a sale sign.

Sitting on the shelf I saw the bright, shiny display of RED KitchenAid cookware at a whopping 40% off!  I couldn’t resist so I purchased the 5 piece set (9 if you count the lids).  It will go well with our huge new stove and funky red glass splashback!  Shame we have to wait till the house is built!

I couldn’t find an appropriate photo so this one show more pieces then we have!

So another Sunday was spent looking at display homes to get ideas for colours and see the different options that are around.  We visited the two remaining displays of the Regent 23, Derrimut and Mernda.

Several good things came out of this visit, the first being that we finally remembered to take a tape measure with us so we got a good understanding of how much space we’ll have outside the house.  Not too much, not too little, just right!

The house at Derriumt was our first viewing of the house without the stupid raised kitchen.  It seems that the trend these days is to have a raised floor in various parts of the house.  We’ve seen raised master bedrooms, raised home theatres and most commonly a raised kitchen.  Neither of us particularly like this and think its a bit of a death trap, and not to mention we could find better things to spend $3500 on!  This display house also had the kick-arse oven that we’re getting!  VERY cool!

We then drove out to Mernda to finally see the house with the same orientation that ours will have.  We’ve been so use to walking in the front door and having the master bedroom on the left and garage on the right.  Mernda was the other way around.  Although we went there specifically for this purpose it wasn’t until we walked into the living room that I really noticed.  Marty however noticed the difference right away!  Needless to say its still all good and we love the house.

Its funny that when you get this far down the track its the finer details you start looking at and thinking about.  One thing that we just can’t figure out is where the towel rail will go in the ensuite.  As part of our upgrade packages we get a double vanity in the ensuite.  This is great but we can’t figure out where the towel rail will go.  The only place we can think of is on the same wall where the door will go, but not 100% sure it will fit.  We’re hoping that when we go to our colour selection appointment they’ll have the answer!

Oh! Another good thing from the visit was seeing (or should I say feeling) the evaporative cooling in action.  It was pumping out some nice cold air.  In fact until we asked we couldn’t really tell if it was airconditioning or evaporative cooling!