Things have been insanely busy around here lately. Since we bought our block of land I've had a few casual acquaintances ask me if we've hired a builder or if we are planning to put a spec home on the block. It occurred to me that those readers who don't actually know us in 'real life' wouldn't realise that for us that isn't even an option. The Mr. is a building designer by trade and when I first finished school I studied architecture for a couple of years, before giving it away (which is a story in itself), so designing the house ourselves was a bit of a no brainer.
If you're a regular reader here you have probably realised that, if it is at all possible, I like to make things myself - whether it be baking from scratch, sewing our own clothes, making my own glue… I'll give anything a go. The Mr. has a similar approach to life. When we first moved in together I used to find it frustrating because if I ever suggested we buy a piece of furniture he would reply 'but I could make that!'. So as you've probably guessed, we're planning on physically building the house ourselves too. We're working on a very tight budget and relatively short time frame, which means we've been busily trying to nut out plans and get everything organised. To lay it all out in dot points:
- We spent $125,000 on the land
- We'd like to build the house for $80,000
- We plan to move in this summer
- The house will have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, walk in pantry, laundry, study, dining, lounge and a reading nook
Some may call this ambitious, others insane. I will say that working to these extreme constraints is really pushing us to think creatively.
So forgive me if I disappear from this space periodically. I'm probably searching on ebay for a cheap toilet or vintage pendant light. Or I might be nutting out the details of our concrete vanity. Or searching on pinterest for interior design inspiration (feel free to follow me if you'd like to see where my head is at). Or I could be trying to push out another web design job to pay our credit card bill. Either that or just the usual stuff like cooking dinner, changing a nappy or making play dough!
I do intend to share some pictures of our house plans when things are 100% finalised (not sure if that will ever happen!!) but there have already been over 40 redesigns so I don't want to get ahead of myself. Stay tuned!
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Ambitious, yes, but it's going to be fun and exciting. Glad to hear that those days of listening to Miles Lewis are paying off. I've never tried to build anything with my own hands...could be interesting. We should have a working bee one day!
ReplyDeleteHope you can pull it off. I would never go a spec home either.
ReplyDeleteUsing an outer shed structure on our house saved us quite a bit. If you built it yourselves you could possibly squeeze it in for that price. Can't wait to see how it comes together.