This is one massive house – three times the size of what we currently live in and maybe way too big for the two of us given there is some possibility that none of the kids will actually move in with us. I’m not sure whether I ever actually wrote about why we came to build what we are building so I might as well do so now.
At the end of 2009, Raelene’s two kids [young adults really] were living with us and my youngest daughter joined us every second weekend. My number two son was also looking for somewhere to live and so we decided that we would start visiting display homes to get some ideas on how we might extend our current three bedroom hills cottage so that all the kids could fit if they wanted to.
It turned out that to double the size of our current home would have cost roughly the same amount we are spending on something three times the size so we started looking at building a new 5 bedroom place and signed with the builder Porter Davis and bought our new block in Cranbourne North.
Then early in 2010, Raelene’s two moved out and we decided that it was crazy building a 5 bedroom home so decided to downsize slightly to 4 and drop from 2 storey to one. Porter Davis didn’t have a floor plan for a single storey that matched the rear living area and outside flow of the two storey we were going to build so we dumped them and signed with Carlisle to build a design called the Monaco. If you follow the link you can see some photos of the display home and the floor plan, or you can visit Raels blog here to see the whole journey over the past year and a bit.
We visited again today and I am glad to report that the frame is finished. The chippy was still on site [yes on Sunday] and told us that the tiles were due to be put on the roof tomorrow and should be finished bu Tuesday. The building will then be wrapped in sisalation, insulated and bricked. So in the next two weeks it may well be plastered and at lockup.
Erin and Glen have both claimed bedrooms but I don’t know if they’ll move in. It’s a long way from their circle of friends and maybe they’ll choose to be occasional visitors rather than full time boarders. Still we’ve told all six that if they need somewhere to live while they save a deposit for their own place that they can live with us. It will be up to them. In the meantime we consider ourselves very lucky to be able to build our dream home.
This week photos are being taken of our current home getting ready to put it on the market next week and for auctioning in early May.
These Days 