Our place

Background - 19/08/06

In February 2005 a flat piece of land in Brooklyn, Wellington came on the market - the last piece of an old family farm in the area.

We were interested in it so put in a tender along with 11 other people. This was an opportunity to realise a dream of building our own house. Our bluff was called when our tender was successful.

So we swung into action - found an architect, got that process underway, and sold our house to determine our build budget. Luckily our house sold quickly, for a good price in a buoyant real estate market.

We then became renters, fortunately finding a house in near proximity to our building site. Unfortunately, that house sold after a year, and we are now in our second rental while our house is under construction. This second house is just down the road from our site, which we drive, cycle or walk past every day.

After finalising plans for our house (see concept above) we got quotes from builders. After recovering from the initial shock of the prices we went into a period of negotiation and finally settled on a fixed contract for the build. Through this period, resource and building consent was obtained from Council relatively easily - compared to some horror stories we've heard.

While all this sounds as though it happened quickly and easily - in reality it has been slow and, at times, stressful.

We've always thought we were organised people, but when the 'system' delays and confuses you as a consequence of the bureaucracy involved in the pre-build process, you tend to get a little frustrated.

Anyway, that's all behind us now as we started building just over a month ago (July 2006)... about the same time as the wet weather hit Wellington for what has been one of the crappiest winters for many a year.