And so the journey begins!

Hubby and I have been hunting for a 4 bed 2 bath property with a double garage for a few months, and it seems the longer we look, the more out of our price range they get ... and so the thought of building our own property popped into our minds! We saw a block of land quite close to where we live which was larger than our current block and allow us to get the house we've dreamed of for so long (well that's what we're hoping for anyway!)

Our current home is a 3 bed weatherboard home. Quite pretty from the outside and smart looking. Our initial plan was to stay here and extend up, but after receiving a quote for $160k (without the bathroom items, flooring or painting), we quickly realised that it would have been a foolish move and that we'd never recoup the money and would still end up with a house which still didn't meet all of our dreams.

So ... I did some research, and some more research, and a little bit more and finally narrowed the search down to Allworth Homes! They currently have a fantastic deal of $177k including ducted air, carpet & tiles and 20mm stone bench top, so waved decided that's the one for us!

We met with Allworths last Friday (22nd August), to arrange a quote. The quote will take about a week to come through and the site costs will be stated as 'provisional' because there is no way of knowing this cost until they actually start work. We have budgeted for $40k and are just hoping that it doesn't top that! We can only hope!

So ... After leaving Allworths office on Friday, and feeling confident that we were on track with costings, we found the real estate agent and put in an offer for the land. Saturday morning we paid the holiday deposit and we're now in the cooling off period! Very exciting (and also terrifying!).

Our house is going on the market tomorrow and as soon as it sells we'll be going into rented. We could wait a little longer but we'd feel a lot more comfortable knowing that the money is in the bank!

At the moment we're thinking that the process will take around 12 months. Only time will tell I guess!

Here's our land ... The Garage / Shed / Office & Carport will be getting sold off because it just takes up too much space - it literally fills the width of the block (almost 19m) and is 8m deep.  If you know of anyone in need, let us know!  We're hoping to keep it whilst we're renting (and through construction) for storage, but after that it'll be going!