Let's start at the very beginning

My husband and I found a few blogs from people detailing the events as they built their homes. We were amused by this at first. As we start on our own little odyssey I am starting to understand their need to do so. We've often visited display homes as an interesting day out but this is the first time we are likely to actually go ahead and build.

Having visited Homeworld in Kellyville too many times to count we decided to try somewhere different. After a little research we decided The Ponds was going to be our next jaunt. I noticed that a new to Sydney company, Metricon, was advertising and they happened to be on the way. We liked the houses at The Ponds well enough but once we saw the Metricon designs, nothing else compared. Clarendon was also in the same area so we popped in there - their new designs were also very impressive. We came away from the day with two clear favourites. The Clarendon Sherwood 42 and the Metricon Nolan 45.

For anybody who has ever built you know this is only the beginning of the search and narrowing it down to the most perfect house. We certainly were more impressed with the Metricon house, but decided to downsize our idea to the beautifully proportioned Liberty 42. We came a long way to getting our tender application ready when we hit our first hurdle. We had hoped to live in our home out the front of our property whilst the builders were creating our new home at the back. Alas it is not to be. We will have to rent. Which of course adds $30,000 to the budget.

Back we went to the drawing board. We went back to the Clarendon Sherwood 42 - ignoring the black and white decor, it's a stunning home, a floor plan which suits our needs to a T and at much less cost. We start the tender process again, but we aren't done with Metricon yet, such a fabulous deal and such great homes, that we visited more of them and felt that the Phoenix 38 plus extras would also do. A second visit to confirm and a call to Metricon to change the tender to be for the Phoenix. It's not a perfect fit but we love the company, the house and the deal too much and don't want to take that iron out of the fire. Unfortunately it's still about $50,000 more than the Clarendon house.

Now we are being inundated with paperwork, samples, and a multitude of decisions to make. Don't get me wrong, it's very exciting but also terribly overwhelming. Except for our visit from the site inspector from Clarendon. That experience was rather underwhelming. It's only a small blip in an otherwise great time. The only problem is that at the end of all this we may have to sell what was meant to be our dream home. Unless we win Lotto. LOL