Hillside34

We started looking at houses while we were waiting for the Stage 4 land release. We fell in love with the Metricon Santorini but kept looking around at other builders. We then fell more in love with the Henley Monteray Belle! The sales agent did not have time to talk to us which I thought was a bit rude as we were genuine buyers. She didn’t even request our number to follow up. I emailed Henley asking for a quote and I received an email to let me know I had been assigned a sales agent and they would get back to me within a couple of days. After a follow up email and another few weeks wait I spoke to another sales agent only to be told Henley do not build in Romsey.  

And then we walked through the Hillside at Romsey. We didn’t dare consider it because it was out of our budget. Although I love the design of the Monteray Belle we started to think a ranch style house would suit the block better as it would give us the feeling of a bigger back garden. The more we walked through the Hillside the more I fell in love with it. We worked with Tracy and did our numbers over and over again. The Hillside was for us and we would make the numbers work. 


The display home is a Hillside 35 which wouldn't quite fit on our land.  Although we have a 30m frontage we are required to have 3m either side of the house.  The Hillside35 was 77cm too wide.  Porter Davis were great and modified the plans to allow those with the blocks at Lomandra to fit the Hillside.  They introduced the Hillside34.

Here it is

We have added the option for the 2nd alfresco to the side and the soaker tub to the ensuite.  We have also moved the doors to the main bedroom to create a hallway in the bedroom.  

Land

We were looking at Lomandra estate in Romsey and were umming and arrrring over which lot to purchase.  We decided to wait until Stage 4 and buy one of the 1500m2 blocks.  The lots were being released at midday, April 16 but we received an email bringing the time forward to 10am because of the high demand for the bigger blocks.   There was one particular lot that I had my heart set on and I knew we needed to be there early in order to nab it.  Given we live a couple of hours away we did the unthinkable.  We arrived the night before and slept in the car!!  Hah, and we thought we were too old for that.  It was exciting.  We dropped the kids off with my sister and away we went armed with the laptop, a few dvd’s and a book.

We were the first to arrive but not the only ones sleeping out.  I am so glad we did it because we got the lot we were after.  But I won’t do that again, I prefer a bed to a car.

And here it is…

Looking towards the back garden

                                     Looking towards the front, the road is behind those trees

We have been out a few times now to look at our grass and head across to Macedon.  What better way to finish the day than a visit to the Holgate’s Brewerey!

Background

I thought it was time I attempted my first blog and what better topic to blog about than building our first house in Australia.

It all started earlier in the year with a search for a secondary school that would fit my children's learning style.  After a lot of research we toured Alice Miller in Macedon and knew immediately it was the school for us.  Our application was accepted and big decisions needed to be made.  We live in the Eastern suburbs and the school was in the Macedon Ranges!  At least we don't start year 7 until 2018.  We did look for an established house but we decided to buy land and build our own house.

I am creating this blog to detail the journey and to share with family and friends.  Feel free to follow along and make comments along the way.