Things are finally moving

Okay, it's been a long time since my last post.. but, with good reason! We had heaps of problems getting finance - you could blame it on the so called 'GFC'. So much was the problem that we considered packing up and moving somewhere ridiculous, like England. Glad that didn't happen.. we finally got our finance.

So, things are finally moving along. It feels like forever since we signed the building contract, but in reality, it's only been 4 months.

Firstly, the ground has been levelled. We didn't realise just how steep our block was until our land was flattened. On one side of the block, the cut was half a meter taller than I. That might not sound so high, being asian, I'm not so tall afterall. But the cut has got to be at least 2.3m high!





At this stage, we have already hit a 'hurdle'. Our retaining wall was to be built with bricks in conjunction with the concrete slab, the problem was, our bricks weren't available for another month - which, was out of our builder's control. We couldn't wait that long, so we agreed with the builder that the retaining walls would be built with an alternative brick that is to be rendered at a cost to the builder. Not ideal, but a fair enough compromise. I just hope that this will be the greatest of our problems..

With that behind us, the concrete slab has been established. What can I say other than it looks like a concrete slab? I suppose at this stage, my wife and I are starting to get extremely excited about the whole building process.









Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Our block

We bought our block of land in Beaconsfield, Victoria. We chose Beaconsfield because of its country like ambience and its location (nearby Berwick town). The block is 600squares and is just within walking distance to the local train station. This is important since I commute to work in Melbourne city 5 days a week and I'm apparently not worth the effort to give a lift to the station!

Here is a picture I took with my phone:

As you can see, there is a fall from right to left. It's amazing that our brains have the ability to see things horizontally, because we didn't really think much of the slope at first. To our disappointment, the block had a 2.6m fall from the highest to lowest points, which ultimately means more site costs!! Ah well, at least we like the pavement towards the front of our block.

Oh, and what really annoys me is the crap builders dump on our block. Bags of cement and building wastes seem appear magically on our block. Not happy.


Looking forward to commencing construction...

The floorplan

A few changes from the original plan, which includes .5m extension to rooms 2-4, and 1m extension to the dining/living room.

So, we're building a home..

My wife and I are building a home. Yup, we're insane.

Not only have we decided to build what we pray to god is our dream home (anything less will be unacceptable!), but the strings that we have had to pull to get the show on the road has been a journey to say the least.

Firstly, to make this even possible, we put our home of 3 years up for rent. Granted our first home was on the lower end of smallish but it was cozy and full of great memories (eg bringing our little munchkin home after 30 intensive hours of labour). My wife and I sorely miss home, and Ninja (dog) certainly misses the huge backyard.

Secondly, we moved into our parent's spare unit at their property. Yes, there are plenty of benefits living with our parents, eg mum cooks great food, closer to work, plenty of support, etc, but I think it's fair to say that we're insane for moving back to mum and dad's. Nuff said.

Last but not least, the banks!!! OMG the global financial crisis has turned our banks into a nightmare to work with. Couple that with the first home buyers grant and you got weeks of delays and red tape. Can't they just show us the money?

Whether we're insane or not, the only fact that matters at this stage is that it's too late to back out. So far however, it's been exciting and a huge learning experience.

So far, we're almost up to the stage of signing our tender. So there's a lot that we haven't told you. Here's a snapshot:
One day, for no good reason, we decided to look at homes for sale. We wanted a house that would suit our needs. Being a young family, space was of the essence and our then-current home would not provide sufficient space. After a couple of hours, we decided that there was little in the market that would interest us. If we were to do this, it would be all in or all out. So, we went all in and bought a block of land with the intention to build. We spent months looking at floorplans, until dad (the architect) randomly picked up a floorplan that I had initially discarded. Turns out, that floorplan, The Arena VK3 from Henley, was 'the one'.

That's it for now, photos to come.