How the journey starterd

Our journey started back in March 2009, when we were looking to buy an apartment/town house, close to our parents as possible. We saw what we could afford and it was around the Mitcham/Ringwood area. We decide to look south  for the same distance and see what we could afford, and it was Lyndhurst area.

We never thought of building a new house, but the goverment grant on building a new house was just to good to let go.

We started looking for land and we saw some nice blocks off the plans in stage 9 at Marriott Waters and another in the Sandarra Estate. I was drawn to Marriott Waters due to the fact of the Residence Club, Primary School, Train Station close by and Retail Hub inside the estate and also easier to access.

In June we placed a deposit on lot 914 in Marriott Waters and took the contract to our solicitors to read during the cooling off period. We were advised that the contract had very strict conditions and that the block of land could end up costing us a lot more (thousands) then what be paid. We cancelled the purchase and thought our dream of building in Marriott Waters was over.

I do believe in miracles, as we thought our dream was over, a block of land already titled in stage 3 came onto the market only few weeks later. The owner were in a need of a quick sale and we were the only people to enquire, we did the process of the solicitors as it was werid that we were the only people bidding. The owners ended up accepting our offer and we ended up buying the block for the same price as the block in stage 9 and block also being the same size.

With a block of land under our belt, we then spent every weekend looking for a house, we went all over Melbourne, we went West, North, South East, we visited nearly every estate that had a display village.

We found a few houses which we liked, well it changed nearly ever week after comparing room sizes and seeing if it fitted and looked on our block.

We swapped a few times with what house we were going to build

• Places Homes Galley 28
• Porter Davies Bardot 29
• Carlisle Homes Madison 30
• Metricon Everest 33 (didn't fit on the block)
• Metricon Soho 32

We finally decided on that we where going to build, the Soho 32 from Metricon as it was the largest 4 bedroom single storey house that fitted the block and we also fell in love with the floor plan and the way it sat on the block of land, it was meant to be.

Knowing that we where going to build the Soho we went out again every weekend and looked at bricks driving to Boral and Austral and tiles at Beaumont Tiles and going to Studio M.

We already had our house planned out before we even had all our appointments (tiles, electrical, colours etc)

The upgrades we did;

2.7m ceilings
2.3m internal doors
Large 1.3m wide entry door with translucent glass
Translucent glass around doorframe
Double doors to the study
Garage to House door
Bi-Sliding doors
Alternated the kitchen plan
Added servery to kitchen bench
Over Head Cupboards
900mm upright cook top
900mm rangehood
Cat 3 Creaser stone
2.1m tiling in bathroom and ensuite
Tiled shower bases
Digital antenna
Phase 3 power to house
Extra external lights
Remote garage door
Window locks
Fly screens
Extra power points/TV points/phone points
Sarking
Cat 3 Bricks
Brick in-fills above windows

This is the colour scheme we came up with for the exterior of the house;

• Austral Nougat brick

• Colourbond Roof and Window frames, Woodland Grey

• Gutters, Fascia and Downpipes, Dune

• Cladding, Pony Express

Things we are doing after hand over;

Heating and add on cooling
Tiling
Carpet
Curtains
Wardrobe
Laundry Cupboard
Down lights/Light fittings
Pantry/ microwave provision
Driveway
Decking
Fence
Stack stone external feature wall
Feature walls internal