Build Option C!

Here we go! This was our dream design with a base price of $289,900. There is nothing extensive that we would ever want to change about this home save for a couple of doors around the study and rumpus but the house itself, the rooms, the living areas are exactly what we've been looking for! We were so happy to have found the Cremorne 42 and then Porter Davis had a current promotion running that included complete upgrades and full site costs (this was questionable and i'll make a post about the situation soon) that was hard to beat (wooden bi-fold doors, 2740 mm high ceilings) although Carlisle came very close. You can see with the kitchen area the surrounding rooms make it feel really open and inviting.

We love this facade, we felt that it wasn't too modern and would look lovely with a full face render.

Sorry for the squishy size, a PDF from Porter Davis can be found here.

Build Option B

The Carlisle Newington 40 was second on our list due to the great inclusions package 'As displayed sale' that Carlisle was running at the time. Most builders would know that display homes often upgrade many things to make them more appealing but they come at a cost if you wish to add them to your own house but with this we were having some very fancy upgrades that anyone would be proud of. Not to mention that our favourite facade was a mere $750 upgrade instead of the $17,500 that Burbank was asking for for the Forrester!.

This facade was free! Including rendered features

It was really hard to say no to this house but if you'll look at the floorplan you'll notice that it's not very open and creates a boxy feeling when you walk in. Although being 40 squares the back of the house especially felt very unimpressive when you closed down the rumpus room area and had just the meals area displayed. We preferred a more open plan and larger living area towards the back of the home surrounding the kitchen to make it feel light and spacey but Carlisle are quite unwilling to change their floor plans around. Begrudgingly we had to say goodbye to this one as well.

Build Option A

We had three home options in mind and found it hard to decide between the three. This was the first called the Forrester 4300:

It's a large 43 sq home by Burbank for an extremely competitive pricing of $257,800 for the very base price and it was tough to beat but we left this one out because ultimately the facades available were not attractive to us and it felt quite boxy especially with the garage directly within the home rather than expanding out.

The Location

Say what you will about the West, and yes i know many have an opinion of it and its people but i've found it to be a great place to live in the two years i've been here. When most people think of the West i'm sure they're thinking 'Deer Park, St Albans and Sunshine' when really it's Caroline Springs, Taylor's Hill, Taylor's Lakes and Cairnlea. Sure the West has it's dodgy sides but that's just like any other suburb out there and with house prices rising, infrastructure and amenities improving and new freeways cutting travel time into the city i can see the West bettering its reputation within the next 10-20 odd years. The land we decided on is within Taylors Hill and the Taylor's Hill Estate which is now in its 31st stage meaning it's an established estate and we've been really happy with the upkeep and maintenance of the previous stages giving us an idea of what ours will look like in a decade from now. Taylor's Hill is nestled between Caroline Springs and Hillside with Taylor's Lakes in the top right corner, it's a great location and safe from busy roads, highways and safely inland (my mother has a thing where she believes Point Cook and all of those other estates closer to the sea will be underwater in the next twenty years due to an sensationalizing article she read in a newspaper.) Titles are due in August-September so we have plenty of breathing space between buying the land and building which is the process we're looking into now!

To start off with..

Hello! My name is Sonia and me and my family are about to start a new building project. We only moved to Melbourne a little over two years ago from a smallish city town in northern New South Wales and have come to see Melbourne as our new home. When we first moved here we decided to rent until we felt ready to make a big decision like building or buying a solid base in Melbourne and we only just made that decision mid 2010 but now that we have we've gotten the ball rolling by buying a block of land. Buying land is incredibly stressful especially in the West where land prices have sky rocketed (ours was a ridiculous 315k!) and availability has been limited due to the state government wanting to stop the rapid rate of urban sprawl for the next 20-30 years so it can keep up with infrastructure. We called every real estate agent within the locality and enquired about upcoming land releases to no avail, we even decided to look at 20 or so built houses in our time as it seemed much easier in the long run but we found nothing that felt like 'home'. Eventually we went back to the Taylors Hill land sales office and found that three blocks had come on the market and we quickly made our decision that night and went back the next day to put a deposit down which was very lucky as three couples were waiting around us for our decision incase we didn't want it! It's also one of the very last 'big' blocks of land available for sale at  670 m², I probably don't have to mention that we felt very lucky to have finally acquired our own land! I hope you'll say tuned as we continue with the process of choosing a builder!