Project Regent

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!

We were out looking at the progress of our land today. Nothing to report there. Still looks like its ready and still on track to title in a few weeks!

While we were there we say another Regent 23 that is being built a few streets away. They’re on the same size block as us so it was good to see how it will sit on the land and how much space we’ll have outside. We just wish our house was at lockup stage too, but we’ll just have to be patient.

Also while driving around that building area we saw a couple of houses being built with our bricks too. They look good!

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!

Black Tar!

Today while taking Marty’s parents out to show them where our new home will be we discovered that we now have a sealed road!  I love the fact that every weekend when we visit our home site something new has been added!

Now all we need is for them to take the fence down from around the development area so we can actually step foot on our bit of dirt!