Why a Blog?

The reason I am writing this blog is because I need somewhere for my memories to live and my head isn't reliable :)
This is my own adventure so the memories are really for my own benefit and blogs make a good place to store them.
As the direction of my life has changed I have written different blogs. I have a quilting one, a Second Life one and now I have this one which will be about building a new home and a new life.

I began by writing the story in my SL Blog as my two lives began to merge. Now though, my SL has become something more like a curtain than a life. It is in the background, it colours my life but it isn't my life anymore.

So now this blog is about 9 months behind where things are up to. I may lift whole pieces from Audslife and bring it over, or I might just do some quick summaries. I will think on it :)

Meanwhile, yesterday they built half the frame of my house!

Yesterday was much like today. Gorgeous sunny day and clear skies. Not much wind. A fine day to be a builder I guess. But so cold! Minus 6.5 this morning. (that's 20F) we have been having very heavy frosts and I am happy to be working inside at 9am

Where this adventure began

My plan was to find a home for myself and the 4 kids. Easier said than done on my budget! I searched on line for months trying to work out how I could manage it. Slowly but surely my focus began to settle on building a new home. It's not the first time I have built a new home and I guess the reasons I end up making this choice remain the same.

New homes tend to be in the furthest flung suburbs so you don't pay the premium that more centrally located homes attract.
New homes don't need bathroom and kitchen make-overs and don't smell of other people's lives.
The potential for ghosts is a bit more limited (don't laugh!)
You can put the garden in as you can afford it rather than pay up front for some one else's effort.

Now and then I would decide it wasn't possible and I would give up. Then my friend Wendy came to visit and we wandered through the display village at Crace. Oh! In the bottom of my stomach I knew it was time to take action and grasp my new life. Crace is far too expensive for me so I wandered round, spoke to agents and visited display houses. I worked out a budget and thought I had nearly found a home through real estate agent Frank, who was representing one of the big track builders. The house he was offering came with very little room to move as far as what I could choose. Pick one of 4 colour schemes, then move in in 8 months. That really isn't my style at all so I felt my feet slow beneath me. I was keen on the location though.

Casey

High up on a hill and with a reserve across the road. Quite stunning though the northerly orientation of the house missed all the views to the south. I wandered again through a display village with nagging doubt.

Solid Constructions Kitchen and Family

After walking through one by Solid Constructions, I slowed to talk to their rep, Joe. He asked what I was looking for and I told him I was looking for the impossible. A house with 4 bedrooms, double garage in my budget. Joe said he had something that just might meet my criteria.

He had a block that he said some one had had to withdraw from and that the current display house could suit it. I sat down and showed interest! The price was right He sent me to look at the block and meanwhile he got the plans off to the architect to have him look through combining the two. I went and saw a few homes that Solid had built and all looked well finished off in an understated, simple way. I have no money for fancy so if Joe could figure it into my budget, this was looking like a very good option.

Well Joe sent me the plans. The block he thought looked flat enough wasn't and they had introduced stairs halfway through the house.

That meant trouble. My brother is in a wheelchair and building a house that could not accommodate him was not an option. I asked Joe if we could put sliding windows into my bedroom at the rear of the house so that perhaps a garden path could get access to the rest of the house that the internal stairs wouldn't allow.
Joe thought this could be possible.

A meeting was arranged with the builder to finalise. This was when the wheels came off.
The builder sent his eyes swiftly over the plans and realised that the split level arrangement had compromised the design of the house in several ways quite apart from the wheelchair issue. Neither builder Mark nor Joe could come with an idea that would resolve both the slope and the wheelchair issues.

I drove off feeling quite down but as soon as I got onto the open road I started having ideas. Moving my bedroom and ensuite to the front of the house and having the living areas at that level then having the rest of the house at the second level would make it possible for Michael to visit and have access to everything he could need in a stay. I sent Joe a text and before I knew it he had got new plans that I really really like.

The price has gone up though. The house footprint grew, corners and stairs have cost me my stone bench tops. Somewhere along the way I lost the cement under the pergola. I have 3 meters by a meter or so of ground to retain and I am not really sure what the builder means to do with it. He said he was going to build footings. I hope those cement pads with no height is not all he means to build because I haven't a clue what I am going to do with them. I am hoping that bricks get put on top and a wall appears to hold that dirt back. Fingers Crossed!

But what I have is a plan, a block of land and by the beginning of June I owned the block of land for it to be built on!