What a difference a couple of weeks makes...

It's beginning to look a lot like xmas, and our house is beginning to look a lot like a proper house.  We've been flat out for the last few weeks (what else is new!) and haven't had a chance to get out to see our future home.  On a whim this afternoon, following a morning spent helping Sare's sister move into her new home, we decided to take a left turn off Eastlink and head out to have a good look around.  Not expecting to see much up close, what with the place being locked-up and all, we were surprised to find the back door unlocked, allowing us full access to the place.

The front of the house with the brickwork now all completed

The rear corner where the verandah extends out past the rumpus

Sare standing near the al fresco, pondering how we should deck it and where to put the BBQ!

Overall, the place is looking fantastic!  The completed brickwork is great, with the colour exactly what we were hoping for.  I think it matches perfectly with the roof colour as well.  We can really get a feel for how spacious it is going to be in the living areas, and I guarantee we will not regret going for the high ceilings throughout.  Our entrance hall is larger than some bedrooms we've had in other houses and the kitchen, well, it is a work of art to be certain!  I couldn't wipe the smile off my face at seeing the size of the pantry, the great layout of the cupboards and pot drawers and getting to test the soft close drawers for the first time!!  The sink is currently in a box where the oven will be going, so it can't be too far away from having the caesarstone benchtops installed.

 The view of the kitchen from the main living area

The side of the kitchen where the oven and cooktop will be placed.  Love the size of the pot drawers!

The main bench with space for the dishwasher and microwave (or more likely space for the cookbooks!)

 Notes from the builder in the dishwasher space, which will probably be discovered again in another 50 years or so...

Sare wondering about the size and number of plantation shutters we'll need to divide the rumpus from the living area.

The vanity basin and cabinet in the main bathroom

Our front door, pre-stain and installation

Having spoken to our site supervisor during the week, we can now expect the painting to be done in the next week leading up to xmas, and apparently even having the tiling done in the three days leading up to the new year.  At this rate, the house will be ready to go sometime in January, even earlier than we optimistically thought we could expect.  I was also advised that we would be getting a new site supervisor from this week as the current one is changing the region he works in.  Whilst we never got the chance to meet with him, hopefully our replacement can keep the wheels rolling along nicely!


In addition to the work that has been completed, we've even had another fence built on the other side of the house and had two more progress payments made.  Big shout out to our friends at the NAB who have been flawless so far in their handling of our progress payments and have even been kind enough to drop their rates a couple of times in the last few months!  (Too blatant a plug do you think??)

It's looking like it will be a busy summer period for us in advance of the completion of the build with so many things to organise.  Our list currently includes concreting for the driveway, decks for the al fresco and verandah, shutters for the rumpus, blinds for the rest of the house, dishwasher, rear fencing and gates for the front, a letterbox, clothesline, tv antenna, furniture (we've fallen in love with the Bay Leather Republic couches!), landscaping and lighting throughout the house.  Looks like some of these things are going to become a longer term project as we settle into the house and get a good feel for exactly what we want!

Anyway, I probably won't have a chance to update the blog prior to xmas, so I hope everyone has a great xmas and new years.  For everyone celebrating this year in a new home, I'll admit I'm jealous, but also can't wait to experience it next year when I'll definitely be doing the catering!!!

All in all, it's just another brick in the wall

The word of the day is progress.  An awful lot of progress, truth be told.  "What sort of progress" I hear you ask?  Bricks.  An abundance of bricks which are quickly being assembled to create something vaguely reminiscent of our house.  Although it was difficult to imagine what the bricks we selected at Studio M would eventually look like when scaled to the size of a house, we are so far quite impressed with our choice.  Having been out there several times, it's been great to watch the brickwork progress from a half a metre at first viewing to now be all the way to the roof.

The back of the house

Sare at the entrance

The al fresco side

Looking through the garage at the bricks which have since been added to the house

Our Al Fresco water feature.  Some may call it a swamp, but our future dog and child will be able to swim about all day in it!!

In other action around the place, the initial rough-in of the wiring has been completed, with lots of blue wires for all of my lovely Cat6 data cabling to hopefully all the right places (its frustrating not being even close to 70% confident that the time spent with the electrical consultant was well spent), yellow cables for the speaker systems and all of the power throughout the place.  Quite by chance, Sarah and I were wandering along High Street in Armadale last weekend and popped into Custom Lighting to have a look at potential light fittings.  We started talking to the MD and he pulled us into their light room to demonstrate all different types of fittings we could consider for our home.  Service and knowledge were something that really set him apart from the clowns Metricon use, so we'll definitely be booking a consultation with Custom Lighting to at least discuss our options post hand-over, even if they turn out to be too expensive.

I recieved a call from our SS this afternoon (I vaguely remembered the guy from when we last spoke a month ago...) who advised that the brickwork will be finished by Tuesday, at which stage we could expect the plasterers to get their job started.  It's a case of good news/bad news really, as that pretty much signalled to me that we would likely be able to expect the next invoice next week and another one shortly after.  Ah well.  I guess the more money they get out of us before xmas, the better staff party they'll be able to have, and we'll be paying for nothing to be done for weeks at a time...

Oh, and lastly, another piece of the fence puzzle has fallen into place.  We'll shortly have another fence to complement the current one, leaving only the front gates and rear fence to arrange.  It surely won't be too long until we need to get moving on the concreter as well.  Looking forward to deciding on the colour concrete we should get...

The roof is out there...

Although there were many potential lines to do with the roof (my personal favourite is from The Hangover "why don't they call them floories, because you're more likely to hit the floor than the roof"), the 't'roof is out there seemed appropriate, as our new home has a roof now. A big shiny Woodland Grey colourbond roof (provided by Bluescope Steel of course) has been placed on top of the big wooden frame of the Cranbourne North site that will become our home sooner, hopefully, rather than later.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond (or perhaps completely under) my control, I've been unable to get out there and view our future home. We spent Friday night and Saturday moving into our new temporary digs in Armadale and then I've been up in Darwin for work since Sunday. Whilst it's lovely up here (weather excepted, with it being hot. Then wet. Then steamy. Then dry. Then hot. Then thunder. Then wet. Repeat…) it's a long way away from being able to view the construction taking place. I'm sure our possum friends in Chadstone are now missing us, but at least our new temporary home is exceptionally comfortable and close to the city. I'm sure it's going to be difficult leaving in a few months time, even though we'll have our own new home to be moving in to.

Although I didn't get the chance to visit Cranbourne North, Sare was able to take her parents out to view the work that had been done in the last week. The following photos show the progress that has been achieved since our visit on the previous weekend. Windows are now in, the roof was mostly completed by Sunday and they are now able to start work on the bricks to give us a proper appreciation of what the house will eventually look like...

 Shirley admiring the magnificent entrance hall, with 3m ceilings and plenty of space  for us to fill.

 Some instructions noted on the wall by our helpful builders.

 The underside of the roof.  Maybe our Chadstone possum friends will come out to visit us sometime?

 The big window out the back of what will become Sarah's Studio in the future.

 The view through the rear door of the rumpus room.

 On the outside looking in through the rumpus room.

 Our al fresco area on the side of the house.  So much natural light, so little time to enjoy it.

You turn your back for just a few days...

And all of a sudden, there is a frame on the slab that is on your block of land!!!

It's been a hectic couple of weeks since we got back from holidays, and we've barely had time to stop to smell the roses, let alone watch the progress of our home.  Apart from a quick visit shortly after getting back, Sare and I have been busy with work, birthdays, and just catching up on everything that needs to be caught up on.

It was with huge anticipation that we visited our block this afternoon, and we were thrilled to see the progress.  Before going into detail on that, it's worth updating on the build administration going on while the real work happens in Cranbourne North.

We hadn't been in touch with Metricon since our return, thinking that we would leave it to them to get in touch if they wanted to issue the invoice for the slab.  Lo and behold, on Wednesday afternoon I had a phone call inquiring whether we'd received the invoice.  Bingo.  Since nothing had arrived in the mail, I requested that they forward it to me again so that I could pass it on to the bank.  Easy.  Upon passing it to the bank I was advised that they were still awaiting a copy of the building permit to proceed.  Not too difficult to arrange, but it would have been nice to have been asked for it, as we received it over a month ago.  With a bit of luck, everything should be sorted early this week.

The second phone call received from our builder this week was in relation to, wait for it, another one of their oversights.  This time they had forgotten to include in the contract the plumbing for our recycled water that is one of the estate covenants.  Quite how this had been missed not only by Metricon but also the developers when they gave their sign-off is quite beyond me.  Needless to say, the only way to deal with this was through a variation (number 9, and counting) and of course an extra cost to be added to the build.  My enquiry as to whether this should have been included in the fixed site costs was rebutted with a simple 'No'.  I guess that's not negotiable then!

The third and final call this week was from our site-supervisor.  He gave me a quick run down of the expected progress over the next few weeks and promised to call each week to update me.  It will be interesting to see if he follows through or not!

Anyway, on to the more exciting developments now.  The slab was finished on October 5 and looked absolutely huge when I went out and visited it.  Everyone has been telling me how the slab is supposed to look small compared to the finished house, so it may be that our home is going to even bigger than imagined!

 The slab, in all it's glory.  From the rear of the block, the bathroom plumbing centre left and wood for the frame at the far end.

Over the space of the last week and a half, the entire frame has been put up and the chippies were putting the finishing touches on the roof trusses.  With the guys still there doing their works, we decided not to venture on to the site to explore any further.  There will be plenty more opportunities in the weeks ahead.  The expected progress is that the fascia will be done on Monday and the roof shortly after that.  Then it will be on to the bricks, which we're both really looking forward to seeing the end result of our choice of colour!  The windows had all been delivered as well, so it won't be too long until the house is looking like a proper house, at least from the outside.  

 The view from the street

 Down the left side, with the windows in the foreground and the side al fresco jutting out

 The front entrance.  Garage on the left.

 The view from the rear of the block.

With this rate of progress, we may even be in by xmas.  Okay, that's way too optimistic, but at least it's full steam ahead at this point in time!!!

Back to reality...

We're back.  Our three week dream holiday to the States is over and it's a case of back to reality.  It's been a whirlwind week since getting back, work has been going at a million miles an hour.  Lots has happened to our block since we left, and I managed to get out there for a quick look during the week.  I'll update the blog with some photos of what's happened when I get a chance, but I thought I'd digress from the usual topic in the mean time and list out my top holiday highlights.

Top ten holiday moments:

10.  Getting our room upgraded at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to a strip view Charlie Sheen themed room with a view of the Bellagio fountain.
9.  The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, seeing the history of human flight from the Wright Brothers plane through to the space capsule Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin travelled to the moon and back in.
8.  Seeing the Cirque du Soleil show 'Zumanity' in Vegas with Sare wondering when the animals were going to appear...
7.  A spur of the moment bus ride through Brooklyn with the guidance of a very helpful local bus driver.
6.  Our anniversary in LA, spent at the beach at Santa Monica and a five course Asian dinner at RockSugar in Beverley Hills.
5.  Riding bikes through Central Park to Harlem, experiencing a gospel church service and eating soul food on a beautiful Sunday.
4.  Seeing How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliff and John Laroquette on Broadway.  Fantastic show, and boy can Harry Potter sing and dance!
3.  Attending the taping of the Hamish and Andy Gap Year show and getting a front row seat to see Coldplay.
2.  Taking a Mustang out for a cruise to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas along Route 66.  It was red, went fast (120mph fast!), and the Canyon is pretty spectacular too.
1.  Living like a local in a Fifth Avenue apartment in the greatest city in the world, seeing all of the familar and yet entirely new sights of New York and surviving on a diet of bagels, burgers, burritos and slices of pizza.

 So now it's back to the job at hand.  The house has now begun and the next few months will see our home take shape and we'll become residents of the Avenue in no time at all!

It's only the beginning

The beginning of the build that is!!!

The final building permit has been granted, so we're all set to get going now.  The only casualty as a result of the permit being issued was that we've been forced to reduce our al fresco area by 20cm on the west side of the house to bring it in to line with the council requirements, but at least this resulted in a nice credit in the variation.

Finance was approved, documents have been signed and returned and were today handed over to the settlements department.  Hopefully they don't have any issues with them, because I don't like the chances of them being amended before we head off on holiday!

We spent Sunday afternoon (following a lovely breakfast with the old man for father's day) on the lot clearing it of the debris that our neighbour's builders had kindly left for us.  Mowing the grass was a whole lot of fun too.  I did make a promise to Sare that it would be the first and last time I mowed the lawn there, so we're probably going to have to go shopping for either some fake grass or some concrete and green paint at some stage...

Today I spoke to Metricon and was advised that the site start would likely be sometime between September 12 and 14.  It will probably mean that by the time we get back we'll have a nice shiny new slab to look at, and potentially even the very early genesis of a frame.  Unless of course the weather degenerates over the next week in which case we'll come back to a patch of grass that will probably need to be mown again.

It's going to be fantastic to see our new home taking shape in the very near future!!

Time keeps on slipping, into our future home...

Small but significant steps have been made since our selections a couple of weeks ago. Over the last couple of days the Developer's Approval has been given to build our house, without any changes required and the bank have finally managed to find the contract I sent them (only two weeks later!) and given us the approval for our finance. It would seem that we've nearly cleared the last of the hurdles on the way to getting the build actually happening. Next up is the Casey City Council granting the building permit and it'll be time for us to get out to the block to clear the debris left by other builders on our land.

Without getting too ahead of ourselves, what with the building yet to start and all, we've been putting in some thought about the important additions to our new house (no, not the driveway, landscaping or even letterbox) but the pendant lights to go above the kitchen bench and the roof mounted speakers for the living area! For some reason they seem like the most irrelevant things in the grand scheme of things, but also two of the easier ones!!! Of course, we're hoping to pick up a couple of nice designer items on our trip to NY for the new house somewhere along the way as well.

It now looks as if it's going to be a race between Metricon to start finally building our new home and us heading off on our holiday. There are only 19 days (14 work days!) left for them to take the chequered flag first. Not that I'm counting though!

May the house be with us (one day...)

Well, it's out of our hands now. The house selections are done, it's now up to Metricon to build our house as quickly as possible so that we don't have to wait any longer than we really have to.

Saturday was shaping up as a really big day. Following on from our contract and electrical appointments, we had our tile appointment at Beaumont Tiles on Saturday morning and the big one, our remaining colour and fitting selections at Studio M in the afternoon. Although we'd been to Beaumont's three or four times previously, we still hadn't settled on our final colour schemes for the wet areas in the ensuite, bathroom and laundry and splashback for the kitchen. Typical of us both, we managed not to stress too much about it, and within an hour we'd sorted out everything we wanted and were pretty happy with ourselves. Neutral tones won the day, with slate grey floor tiles, white wall tiles and 'Donkey Grey' as our kitchen splashback tiles.

(from bottom) floor tiles, laundry splashback tile, bathroom/shower tile and kitchen splashback

Having taken less time than anticipated with our tile selections, we were able to run off and have some lunch before steeling ourselves for the anticipated five hour epic selections appointment with Studio M.


I think we must have set some sort of record, as the majority of our selections were completed within an hour! We'd picked our bricks (Maldon), Colourbond roof and fascia (Woodland Grey), garage door (Dune) window frames (Woodland Grey again) and front door (merbau stain) within ten minutes of arriving at the studio. No arguments, just get it done seemed to be the best approach.


Next up were the door handles, which took all of about one minute (prior preparation prevents poor performance!) before moving on to the kitchen. I tell you, if when this place is finally built the kitchen is not the most impressive one ever built, I think we'll have to sell and build another place! Added to the already planned 900mm upright cooker, extended caesarstone island bench (in ice snow) with undermount sink, pot drawers, soft close hinges and walk through pantry, was the parchment coloured gloss finish wrapped vinyl cabinetry. We encountered our first proper moment of indecision when it came to the handles for the cupboards and drawers before finally deciding on the satin chrome coloured square set ones. I promise that the first dinner party that we cater will be a cracker. I've already been working on the menu...





Next up was the ensuite and bathroom fittings. Another little luxury I'd been angling for was the rainfall showerhead in the ensuite. For some reason, Sare didn't put up any resistance at all to this one, but ominously warned that she "was going to pick her fights". I figure it will nicely complement the extra large shower with the tiled base. The square inset basins were already planned and will match the bath nicely, which will have the floor tiles extended up and around it. The last touch were the mirrors, which are nice simple satin chrome framed ones.



The final part of our selection appoint revolved around the floor coverings. This one proved more tricky than the rest of the house. With several wood colours to choose from and a carpet that needed to nicely match, we spent almost as much time deliberating on this as we had on everything else combined. Finally we committed to the Ironbark coloured wooden floor to complement the Surf coloured carpet for the bedrooms, rumpus and rear hall.


And with that we were done. Six long months of looking for houses, deciding to build, buying a block of land and deciding on our house had led to all of the design features and colours we have now committed to over the past week. Next steps are to get that finance approved and let the fun and games of the actual build commence.

Oh, and to get onto the plane for New York in five short weeks for our long awaited honeymoon!!!

How I learnt to stop worrying and love the contract.

Finally. It is done. Well, mostly!

After nearly six weeks of sitting around watching the grass grow on our block and having nothing of any real note happen (well, there is now one fence up, but that's about it) we've finally signed our contract! This of course, was not without excitement on Sare's and my behalf. Chantell had sent through a copy of the contract with the drawings in advance of signing the contract, and after careful inspection, we identified several things that were, shall we say, not quite right.

Instead of the site costs we'd been advised of, there were extra charges of $8k! Other minor details included our verandah not appearing on the drawings, no door in the garage, the window on the studio not being increased in size and windows and sliding doors being reversed. To Metricon's credit, Chantell and Jamie acted rather quickly and ensured that all items had been adjusted as variations for when we signed the contract.

After we'd managed to sign the contracts (every page of the document, in triplicate) we started to feel like superstars having to sign our autograph for the fans. Of course, the only fans in this case were Metricon, as we've just committed a sizeable chunk of NAB's money and our next thirty year's earnings over to them.

Thankfully after the contract was signed we managed to complete our electrical appointment with a minimum of fuss. Ensuring that plenty of powerpoints were added was the priority, although the additions of Cat 6 Data cabling to four different points of the house was also pretty important (to me at least!). The dream is to have the entertainment completely integrated, although that's probably going to take a little more effort down the track. At the cost of not getting the house completed with downlights, we will have the speakers wired throughout the house, which will definitely make Sare happy as she won't be tripping over wires everywhere!

So all in all, some pretty good progress. NAB has been provided with a copy of the contract now, so hopefully there won't be any issues with getting it all approved. All that's really left now for us is to complete the tile and Studio M selections appointments on Saturday. How exciting!

The earth is slow, but the ox is patient...

No idea what the title is really supposed to mean, and in all honesty, things aren't really moving that slowly at the moment, but it just feels like it!

Chantelle from Metricon called today to arrange times with us for our Electrical, Studio M, Tile and Contract appointments. Idealistic me was hoping for early July. No dice! August 2 will be spent going through the details of the contract and the wires needed to make the house 21st century compatible, while August 6 will be the tiles at Beaumont and the house bling at Studio M. Looks like the start date for the build is still some time off. On the plus side, it gives us a month to save a few extra dollars and think long and hard about the things that are important to our new home... Any suggestions??

Well, that's settled then...

Sare and I are now officially land owners! Settlement day has now come and gone. Admittedly, it kind of snuck up on me, as I was expecting it to be tomorrow. There were no hold-ups at all and as a bonus the bank also settled on my Coburg refinance at the same time. Love the work NAB have done so far(okay, there's the product placement out of the way. I've been watching too much Masterchef). Now all we have to do is turn it into a farm and make it productive until our build begins. Anyone got any sheep or cows?

In a slightly less exciting news, Jamie from Metricon called to let us know that the design of our house that we've wanted isn't quite possible without a couple of small changes. Either we lose the 3m ceilings in the living area or we take up the option of a verandah on the back to support the raised roof. As there is an extra cost involved and we weren't advised of it at any stage of the quote/design stage, Metricon have kindly advised that they'd be willing to halve the cost of the change. I kindly advised him to let me know the outcome after he speaks to his manager tomorrow! Worst case scenario is that we get an extra al-fresco area at half the price that it would have been had we known from the start. Looking forward to hearing back from him tomorrow!

The other bit of work I've had to do is contact the Casey City Council to apply for approval to move the driveway from the right side of the block to the left to allow us to get the floor-plan as we want it. I called the Planning department at 5:30, half expecting them to be closed and was lucky to speak to someone who was actually very helpful (shock, horror!). He said that they'd send an inspector out tomorrow to advise whether it would be possible before I spent any money in applying for a permit. This is the kind of service that other councils (I'm looking at you Monash City!) could learn from. Fingers crossed for the outcome we're looking for.

Site costs are in

Moving along slowly but steadily, we received our fixed site costs yesterday. They came in at a touch over $10k, a little less than the estimated 12k and well below the allowance we'd made of 15k. Apparently there is a part of the block that will need extra reinforcement in the slab which bumped the cost a bit, but all in all, I don't think we can be too unhappy with the overall cost compared to some of the horror stories I've heard!!

Houston, we have contact.

Only small news to report today. Chantelle from Metricon made contact to advise that she will be our CSC throughout the process and that the site testing had been completed along with the survey and was being sent through to their team to ensure that the design we've decided on can be done. It sounds like there shouldn't be too many problems with our block and that we'll be able to lock in our Studio M, Electrical, Tile and Contract appointments within the next few weeks.

It's all progressing along nice and quickly by the sounds of things. Settlement of the land is just over a week away which will be a big milestone. So much to do and so little time...

No. No. I said there. Not There!

Well, having taken another week to consider everything we wanted included on the structural side of things (admittedly, this wasn't exactly a lot over the week, as I was in Adelaide and Sare had many more important things to take care of at work!) we met with Jamie on Saturday morning to finalise our floor-plan requirements.

Firstly, we've chosen the facade we want. We've gone with the classic, which isn't to ostentatious. We won't initially be rendering or adding a stacked stone feature, so have decided to upgrade the bricks to the facade a little.

With a minimum of fuss, the kitchen has been changed to almost match the display version, with the island extended to the wall, the fridge moved into the pantry and extra cupboards incorporated. The window in bedroom four has been moved to the rear of the house, and some doors have been modified. Nothing too significant from the original plan, but some nice touches that will give us what we really want.

Now it's up to Metricon to complete the soil tests and draft the plans. Apparently it's then off to Studio M again, this time for our real life appointment to customise the decor of the house. Fingers crossed that one won't cost us too much more money!!!

Show me(tricon) the money

With the block of land sourced and sorted, it was time to make a decision on what to build on our little patch of paradise. Looking through the estate covenants, it quickly became apparent that the developers weren't going to be too happy with my initial idea to pitch a tent and camp out. So, a proper building it was going to have to be.

Having looked through display homes of all varieties in suburbs such as Keysborough, Point Cook, Lyndbrook and Cranbourne North, we eventually settled on the design that first took our fancy.

The Hayman 29 by Metricon with the Classic facade was the final choice. It offered us four Bedrooms, two living areas, big kitchen, al fresco living, double garage and a whole host of other things we'd never have been able to get from the houses we were originally looking at. We're going to try and flip it so that the living area is north-facing on our block, but the below floorplan is essential what we'll get.

After plenty of consideration of what features we required and negotiating with the Metricon sales consultant, we placed our initial $1k deposit on the build on May 21. At this stage, we've gone with wooden floors, raised ceiling and door heights, colourbond roof, caesarstone benchtops, 900mm duel fuel cooker, and most importantly, soft close drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. There are going to be plenty more decisions to be made over the coming months, and we're looking forward to being able to designing our home to suit our requirements, rather than having to adjust our requirements to suit the house...

The Hayman 29 by Metricon with Classic Facade

The Hayman 29 Floorplan

I like to move it, move it

Of course, buying a block of land and building on it would be far too simple for Sare and I. To increase the degree of difficulty, we were required to vacate our little rental home by the new owners by the middle of May. Where to go quickly became a question of where would have us for a few months. Not wanting to sign a 12 month lease only to potentially break it half-way through, we took up the short term option of moving into my vacant grandma's house.

It's old, it's cold, and the resident possums in the roof are noisy, but we've managed to make it quite comfortable and will surely cope there for a few short months before moving again into another family property until our home is built.

All we have to do is survive with half of our possessions with us, and the other half in a storage unit. It's going to be a bit of bad luck if we remember we packed something away at the bottom of the stack of boxes in storage...

A date that will live in infamy...

April 30, 2011, a date that will live in infamy, an action took place that would set in motion a series of events that will no doubt turn out to be one of our greatest adventures yet...

We bought our block of land in The Avenue estate in Cranbourne North.

This story begins a little earlier, with my lovely wife (the far better half!) and I renting in Glen Waverley. Our home of nearly three years was put on the market by the landlord and we were left to wonder whether it would be sold to an owner occupier or an investor. Either way, it turned out to be the spur we needed to start making a move on buying somewhere we could treat as our own and call home.

Over a period of weeks that felt like years, we spent weekends shuffling from one hovel to another, questioning how some people manage to live in such filth. Some of the highlights included a Mount Waverley address where my first reaction upon exiting was to feel the desperate need to shower, another where the agent's most positive thing to say was that a living area could probably be divided into three bedrooms, and one where the entire backyard was covered with every household item usually located inside and the tenant lying half-naked on the couch playing video games.

It had reached the point where we were seriously considering putting in an offer on a compact (tiny!) two bedroom unit on a main road just to get it over with.

On the weekend we had decided to take a break from looking in an attempt to restore our sanity, I suggested on a whim that we take a look at a couple of display homes in Keysborough. One wander through the houses and it was almost a fait accompli that we would decide to buy our own block of land and build. Several more weeks of looking at display homes, working out what size, design and location led us to a patch of land in Cranbourne North.

Following a brief negotiation period (Offer at 11:00, counter offer at 3:00, sold at 3:30) we had what we wanted at a price we were willing to pay. Finance approval was obtained followed by me handing over the third biggest cheque I've ever had and left us waiting for settlement 6 weeks later.

Of course, this has been only the beginning...

The Block