A new dream begins...

A New Dream Begins - Our New Home Build

Back in 2017, with our two girls growing up and Maria and I wanting a space to grow old in together, we finally decided to chase a dream we’d often talked about: building our forever home. With the decision taken, we dove right into the project headfirst.

It started off with a journey to Home World and meeting with various builders. Eventually we selected one that we saw had the right mix of what we wanted. Quickly work progressed, designs drawn up, tweaked, reviewed and finally signed off and sent for DA approval!  A few weeks later... DA approval received! Woohoo!  ...  But, as with any big dream, things weren’t that simple. We sensed something was off. Was it the layout, the look, or the way we’d compromised parts of the design to suit our cul-de-sac block? Couldn’t say for sure, but as it turned out life had other plans, and the dream was tucked away unfortunately, not to see the light of day for another 4 years.

This series covers our journey of our new home build - one that is in progress as of time of writing! 

Reigniting the Dream in 2021

The world had changed, and so had we. After all that Covid brought, we felt a renewed urgency to make our home vision a reality, this time with fresh determination and a different strategy; Instead of a builder, we sought out an architect! A chance to get the design just right, in our own time and leave us with a set of plans with which we could approach a number of builders to get quotes on. After some research (and a colleague’s glowing recommendation), we chose an architect that seemed like a great fit. Excitement grew as we discussed layouts, dreamed up our ideal kitchen, and imagined cozy mornings in a light-filled living space!

Then came the first draft. As the plan unrolled before us, our hearts sank. The front door opened right into the lounge… facing a bathroom door? What is this? It wasn’t exactly the grand entrance we’d envisioned. But hey, we’d signed up for an adventure—time to roll with it and see where this would lead, and after all this was just the first draft. A number of iterations later, the plan started to make more sense, yet it still wasn't quite there. The architect seemed to prefer the style of giving him "hints" at what we wanted and leaving him to his creative devices to produce a plan "we would love!"... ehh.. well... no. Nope, it didn't work and we could not get there in the end. The final plans just didn't sit right, which meant that unfortunately, after several months, we canned the process. 

Dismayed, frustrated but still determined, I said to Maria, "you know what, lets go back to Home World, start that journey off again, but this time armed with our experiences and clearer understanding of what we do and don't want in a home, and see how we go there this time!" Considering home builders are willing to go a fair way without upfront costs to win business, it meant we could explore and compare options across a couple of builders.