Turning the Dream into Reality - Finding a Builder

It sounds naive, however I had no idea that there were so many builders and building companies in Brisbane and in Australia!

So where to start? Luckily as it turned out, we had spent some weekends looking at Display Home Villages around Brisbane. We'd been doing this out of interest and with no particular purpose, however at least it have given us a benchmark and some idea of what we wanted.

We were at first very drawn to the popular Metricon designs, and the finishes in their display homes were exemplary - they stood out from the rest. I really liked the Denver and DH and I both liked the Chelsea.

However they weren't exactly what we wanted. We had also looked at dozens of other display homes, and no other builder stood out for us, until we visited the Garth Chapman display home.

Walking into their display home was an eye opening experience. Everything aspect of the house had us saying "wow". Garth Chapman is a Queensland company with an excellent reputation in building both traditional Queenslanders and modern homes. They place great emphasis on superb building quality and designing energy efficient homes. Here are a few photos we took on our first visit to their display home:

While this home wasn't exactly what we wanted, we loved the finishes, the character and quality. We have always loved weatherboard and character homes, and so this also struck a chord.

One of the clinchers for us was the absolutely lovely designer and consultant Kevin, who works out of the Display Home. Right from the start he was friendly, approachable, relaxed and in no way a pushy salesman. What I also liked was that he is the man who designs your home and sees you through the process up to handing over to the site foreman. I loved the idea of the continuity of relationship with our builder - I didn't want to be handed from one contractor to another.

So we essentially fell in love and didn't look any further. We did a bit of due diligence on the company, and only found excellent feedback.

So in June 2012, we started the process of designing our dream character home!

Finding the block!

Where to build? That was the question!

Our search for a block of land encompassed both vacant lots and Knock Down and Rebuild opportunities. We toyed with the idea of moving further out of town to an acreage, however we decided that we wanted to stay closer to town - for now!

So our search was narrowed from the get go into a few suburbs close to where we are living now. We didn't want to go too far - the children were settled into a school that we love, we had only just moved from NZ and didn't want to uproot them again. We also wanted to be a family friendly suburb, close to the city, and close to school & friends.

In terms of the site itself, we wanted a larger block (at least 750 square metres - I would love an acreage, but that doesn't happen close to town often!), and enough room for a good backyard for the children.

Ultimately our choice was an eas-ish one, because there's not too much land around, and the KDR opportunities were way out of budget anyway!

One weekend we decided to check out a new development in our neighbouring suburb, which had opened up about 12 months earlier. It was a rarity of sorts - the council had opened up a new section of bushland within a very established suburb, and the development encompassed about 30 new, large, sloping sights!

The View from our Estate

By the time we looked at the development, there were only 3 sections left. All were sloping, however we liked the elevation and views, so that didn't bother us. But which one? All of the sections were large (over 800 square metres). I immediately discounted one that overlooked a busy road (from a distance, however I just didn't enjoy the view or exposure. The other 2 were very similar, only 2 blocks apart.

We decided to go with Lot 27 - 962 square metres of sloping bushland, higher up on the slope and further away from the noisy road (you might notice there is a theme, road noise really bothers me!). Like most of the lots in the development, Lot 27 had a  large covenant area on which we couldn't build, mainly to protect the large established gum trees and foliage on part of the site. We really liked the trees, they provide shade, privacy and a pretty view, and we still had a large building envelope.

As I write, it seems as though the decision was straightforward, however it wasn't easy for me. I was really unsure that building was the right thing to do, and I truthfully wanted to live in another suburb. However DH was so keen and as the idea of building is such an exciting one, that finally got me across the line.

So after our first visit, we visited again the following day and signed contracts that week. No mucking around, the decision was made! There is some comfort when you do make a decision like this - the certainty of our next step felt good!

Looking up towards the road from the middle of our site

Looking across to our neigbours

Looking down into the convenant area where we cannot build

Welcome! The Journey Begins :)

Hi there! Welcome to our blog! I'm very new at this however I have started this blog to capture our experience building our new home in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I hope you enjoy it!

We are a family of 5 + cat (who thinks he is human) who moved to Brisbane from gorgeous Auckland, New Zealand in October 2010. We love the sun, warmth and family lifestyle of Brisbane and we have decided to set down some roots in this lovely part of the world.

After a year in Brisbane in early 2012, we decided to start looking to buy a house in the area we had settled in. We love our local area, our school and new friends, and so we didn't want to look too far afield. And to be honest, our friends didn't want us to leave either :P

However, after months of searching, we hadn't found a house that:

(a) we both liked;
(b) met our needs as a growing family (just to clarify, the children are getting bigger, I'm not - well I'm trying not to :));
(c) was within budget (or even remotely close!).

Consequently we toyed with the idea of building. Building our own house has always held a special appeal to us. Years ago in NZ we had looked at building, though never did. What excited us about the idea of building now, and then, was the opportunity to build a house that met our needs, was warm and weather-tight, and was well within budget.

There were other reasons that pushed us towards looking towards building over buying.

We had lived in many different properties in NZ, from an old 1920's character bungalow to a 1960's brick & tile to a brand new townhouse. We loved the experience in all of those houses for different reasons, however our favourite house had been the new townhouse for it's warmth, insulation, storage and "clean" feel. It best suited our family life (and the tons and tons of kiddy paraphenalia that comes with our darling babies!).  Consequently we knew that a newer house was more likely to meet our needs (and wants!).

With 2 children who suffer from Asthma, a new house also appealed to me. I discovered in our new townhouse in NZ that their asthma and symptoms improved dramatically. I realised this was due to our ability to minimise allergens in new, well insulated house more easily than in an old house. We were able to keep our house warmer (more of an issue in Auckland than Brisbane I know!) and dramatically reduce dust, mold and mildew.

A final and not small influence on me was the fact that my beautiful parents had built a house back in the 1980's. I was blissfully unaware of the detail or stress of the process at the time, however I do remember the excitement, joy and delight our family experienced when we moved into our new home. For me it was and is something of a right of passage to build our own home, and experience something of the historic "Great Australian Dream" to build (and one day own, maybe?!) our own little slice of Australia.

So building was now our clear preference. Now the focus of our search changed we started visiting vacant blocks and "Knock Down & Rebuild" opportunities. Our weekends evolved to jumping between Home Maker centres and Display Home Villages. Luckily it was so much fun! (the children may say otherwise :)

Our research showed us that building a house in Australia was even more affordable than in NZ, largely due to the strength of the Australian dollar and lull in the building industry in the aftermath of the GFC.

Now it came down to finding some land, finding a builder, and going from there!  TBC .......

I am writing this blog somewhat retrospectively, as we currently have our plans with council and hope to start soon. So I will endeavour to catch up to our current position and share the journey with you!

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy something of this journey too, and can take away even a little something for yourselves.