Building our Forever home - The start of our Journey

During my walks around our neighbourhood I always walked passed this beautiful block of land thinking how fabulous it would be if it came up for sale. Although we owned a lovely home just down the road we were itching to start a project and build a new home - one that would meet our needs for many years to come and become our forever home.  Funny how things are just meant to be as the block did come up for sale but by the time I saw the for sale board it was already sold.  Six months later it came up again and we made an offer and it was all ours! It is a beautiful half acre block with a 38.5 metre frontage and 50 metre depth with elevated views to the Melbourne city skyline ( tiny but still there!lol) It means we can build the home of our dreams that would include a photography studio for my business and the kids can stay at their school etc

We have been working with a fabulous architect and builder and so far have our custom designed house in sketch plans.  The house is positioned to take full advantage of the width of the block with all living areas facing the back to maximise the beautiful views.  The house style will be a mix of modern country and Hampton's style - very classic, well built and have a beautiful feel about it. My Pininterest board has been in overdrive with ideas - you can view it here to get a feel of the style we are aiming for

Front elevation - home will be rendered brick, stone capped bottom section, detailed timber posts, and weatherboard detailing

Back elevation

 We sat with our architect for a few hours and a few weeks later were presented with a floorplan that was just amazing - everything we requested was included and he pretty much got it spot on first go which is well worth the investment. From living in a very open plan home we decided to have smaller intimate rooms with doors that can be closed off - I want this home to be cosy and inviting - not just one huge space that is a nightmare to cool and heat.  Also having my studio very separated from the house but still within the home was a real important factor - I really didn't want to feel as though I was at work 24/7.

Sorry if this is hard to see as it is a sketch only at this stage - home will be 42 squares in total

After buying the block of land we then placed our current home on the market. In our area homes that are in the higher bracket can take a while to sell ( some up to 12 months) so we were prepared for the long haul. Our block settled last Friday and we then had an offer on the Monday and it is now sold - the timing was just perfect and in the end it sold within 9 weeks. Driving home seeing this SOLD sticker on the board makes me rather happy!

Over the coming weeks we have lots of meetings with our builder as we move onto working drawing and then having to choose everything for the house - windows, doors, flooring, carpet, tiles, kitchens, bathrooms - the list goes on!  As we are building a custom built home it requires a lot of running around to all the suppliers and choosing everything ourselves - wish me luck and I will keep you updated on our progress!