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.
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