now who are we going to build with...?!?

Well so now we come to the decision of... who the hell do we trust to build our home???

So now i have the behemoth task of touring all the many building company display homes. We had a couple of non-negotiables:

1. Master bedroom at the back of the house - or at the very least not at the front
2. Gas appliances
3. the ability to put bidet's into the ensuite and/or main bathroom
4. minimum of 4 bedrooms
5. 2 car garage

So began the long process. Side note... do you guys know how many house styles have bedrooms at the back?? It is actually not as many as you would think. I could not believe how many builders will have only 1 or in some cases no plans where the master is not at the very front of the house.

So after many many many weeks of labouriously inspecting different builders display homes both here on the Central Coast and up at Newcastle i had narrowed the field down to 5 plans with 5 different builders. I feel a bit guilty as im sure i filled a tree's worth of plans and books for homebuilders into the recycling bin :-s

1. Beechwood - Bordeaux 5 (although we were originally looking at the Bordeaux 4 with a few more modifications)

2. Mojo Homes - Rumba 24 with ALOT of modifications. We added an extra room and moved things around. Flipped the Media and Master bedrooms.

3. Sekisui - Viola

4. Allworth Homes - Newbury 4 bed Media & Alfresco

5. Coral Homes - Noosa 25

So there you have it... the short list of potentials... What do you guys think??

We bought a block!

So... from the title it is easy to decipher that we finally decided on the whole "lets build" thing. So off Lorenzo and i toddle to the real estate and by toddle i mean i jump on my emails! haha way too lazy to actually head down there. So a couple of months previously we looked at the possibility of building but the estate in Wadalba (spoiler alert - our new estate) had sold all the blocks that were available in that release. However i was browsing online as we do in this fandangled age of the internet and saw there was a new release with more blocks. YAY! That is exactly what i want as Wadalba is my preferred suburb.

Side note: about a week earlier we actually put an offer on a block at Blue Haven (where we are currently living) and it was knocked back. They wanted over $250k for a block at Blue Haven! CRAZY!

So... after too-ing and fro-ing with the real estate over which blocks were available in Stage 7 we decided to put an offer in on one only to find that it had been sold that morning while i was waiting for a response :( EPIC SAD FACE!!

So i was a bit devastated as that one was in budget so i went back to the agent who i was a bit pissed at for selling it from under me when i happend to ask if there were any other blocks available. Perhaps in a previous release that might have come back on the market... low and behold... i present to you... (drumroll please)....

LOT 509 of Eagles Nest Estate!!

Isnt it lovely...? haha... its a nice fairly level block which is a tad under 500m2. Not a bad find...



So now we come to the next dilemma... who the F do we build with...??

A Little About Us...

So welcome... My name is Kelly and i am getting married (eventually) to my partner Lorenzo.



Our lives are a little more up in the air than most. We met almost 7 years ago while we were both travelling in Mykonos, Greece. We did the long distance thing for a while until i moved over and lived in Italy for just over a year. After which we both moved to Australia. We have been here in Australia for just over 4 years now and we love it.

After much discussion we decided to stay in Australia for the long term due as such we began looking at houses to buy once we had saved enough for a deposit.

HOUSE HUNTING IS HARD!!!

Unfortunately we have some specific requirements which dont exist in Australia such as a bidet in the Bathroom... a WHAAAAT? For those of you who dont know...

 

This is a Bidet... kinda like a toilet but has tap and is essentially used for intimate hygiene (AKA - cleaning your butt!)

This is the number 1 must have. To have or the ability to  renovate to include one. A
 minimum of 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, outdoor terrazza, air conditioning, and a big kitchen with gas appliances. 

I dont know if anyone has been looking at houses on the Central Coast but this is virtually impossible unless you wish to spend a fortune. As such we decided to look at the possibility of building.

This is where we come to our current predicament... to build or not to build...