The Beginning

A couple of years ago my son (26yo) was involved in a serious car accident. He was seriously injured, however, today he is a walking miracle and is living life to the fullest. A part of his ‘living life to the fullest’ was to have a home to call his own again. An event like this makes you re-evaluate what’s important and as such, he and I decided to build a house together. Over the last few weeks I have been reading quite a few blogs about people’s home build journeys and have been inspired to do the same. Despite being a bit down the track of our journey (about to start the build), I will try and recollect the early stages of our decision, finding the right block of land, choosing our builder, colour selections, contract etc. etc. I must admit that over the last few months I have lost interest in the build as we have come across some issues and delays which have been frustrating and disappointing to say the least. As it has all been totally outside of my control, it has been easier for me to try and put it to the back of my mind. This was my coping mechanism I think! Things are starting to move forward again now, so it is probably a good time to start thinking about it again. So, where to start…… In February 2014 my son broached the subject of buying/building a house together. I hadn’t even considered building (another) house and I was aware that to get what we wanted and needed from the established housing market would probably be more than we could afford. I had built a house 20 years ago and remember that it was an absolute nightmare from start to finish. I vowed to never ever do it again!! We wanted to move away from the city and my son suggested Whittlesea. After going for a drive one morning I was sold! Whilst sitting in the main street having a cup of coffee, I felt a real difference in the air. People were so helpful and friendly. Three people said hello to me while I was sitting at a café!! That is unheard of in the city. The atmosphere felt so much more relaxed than the fast pace I was used to and I immediately felt at ease. The little town was quaint, but still had everything we needed and wasn’t too far away from the city to commute for work. Whittlesea is surrounded by some very picturesque countryside and I felt that to live in such a lovely environment would be good for our souls! Now that we had decided where to live, we had to find a block of land that suited us and that we could afford. My son is a very busy young man and has lots of hobbies....this equates to a ‘BIG’ shed!! This meant that we needed a reasonable size block. When it came to real estate, I found it quite difficult to juggle needs & wants on a reasonably restricted budget (surprise, surprise!!). I am aware that to get the house we wanted on a decent size block of land that would cater to all our needs was a big ask. At this stage, we decided that building a house would meet our needs better than buying an established home and making changes. So we started looking at builders, house plans, estates, blocks of land etc. etc. etc. We made a few initial enquiries with some builders and went and had a look at some display homes. Whilst they were very nice, it was becoming apparent that we were looking for a very specific house plan that suited both of us. As we were both independent adults, we needed a house that allowed us to co-exist, but not be in each others pockets. That meant separate areas for each of us. One particular day we went and had a look at a display home for a particular builder and after viewing the house, the sales person drove us out to Whittlesea to show us some blocks of land that they could build on for us. The display home was sub-standard to say the least. The carpets were dirty, the layout very basic and for the money they were asking, quite ridiculous. The block he showed us however was great! It was a larger block (605sqm), on a corner and only 2 houses up from a planned 20 hectare wetlands area and has a great view of Mt. Disappointment (a very disappointing name for such a beautiful hill!). We were disappointed though that it was this builder offering the land as we didn’t like their houses but loved the land. A few days later however, I noticed on realestate.com that the block of land we had been shown was listed for sale on the website. We jumped at it! We drove back to Whittlesea to have another look at the block and felt like this was for us. The vendor was asking $169,000 which, whilst we felt this was reasonable, due to a number of considerations we offered $160,000*. This was rejected straight away, however, they did eventually accept our offer of $165,000. We were delighted…and a bit nervous! *The reason we offered a lower amount than the asking price was for a couple of reasons; 1. the land is in a bushfire zone and as such, any house in this zone is required to meet certain bushfire standards. Cost wise, this meant an additional $3-4k on the house. Items include sarking under the eaves, aluminium fly screens, external grate covers, to name just a few. And 2: there is a lot of land fill on the block and we knew that this would mean that a non-standard reinforced slab would be required. Even though we weren’t sure of the cost we guessed that it would be $2-3k extra (which is was). With these things in mind, I had a discussion with the real estate agent and asked what the vendor would accept. We were happy to offer $165,000 and felt that it was a more than reasonable price, particularly as we were aware of some blocks of land in the area of similar size that are going for $20-$30k more than that. The land settled on 30 April 2014. We now had the land, we just had to choose from a myriad of plans and builders! This is a new beginning for us...