Week 1 - Earth moving and Footings

The 21st of November 2011 will always stick in our minds. That was Monday. That was the day our section began its transformation. It went from soft green pastures to a hearty workspace - all prep-work for laying the foundation.

The first thing that happened: the topsoil and ground was cleared down to the solid base underneath.

Who doesn't like a digger?!

The ground underneath is a lovely, extremely dense, clay material - great for building houses (only time will tell how "great" it is for the garden).

The following day was all about marking out the house.  

Lesson 1 - know where you want your house before the builders get on site.  While we had it in our minds where we thought the plans were placing the house, we were a little off on our measurements.  It turns out a whole 7 metres on one side of plot.  At this stage in the game this little mistake wasn't a big issue, the builders were great and were able to accommodate our "move".  However, we shudder to think what we might miss if we don't check the detail in the future of this build.... a friend of mine always says "measure twice, cut once" - hopefully lesson learned.

So the house did arrive at the right location on the plot and was marked out by the builders.

Voila - the front door "Welcome"!

The next few days were weather dependent, but, by the end of the week, the trenches had been cut, the steel tied, and the boxing in place.

Both of us agree - this week was pretty successful.  Its so satisfying, to see work move ahead, despite 140 kilometer an hour winds and some pretty mucky weather.  

Where it all started

Since we’ve been married (August 2006) we’ve been looking at houses in this city.  Nothing seemed affordable. Nothing felt healthy. We found lots of homes that there were cold, musty, and damp. While they had good frames and were sturdy they had no insulation and thin windows.  In Wellington that means hot summers, colder winters, and definite seasons of mould allergies, colds and asthma. Additionally the price-tags ranged from around $300-450k for a three bed one bath home .    The Wellington market was not value for money, so we never bought a house.  Instead, we held onto our blank piece of property hoping that one day we could build.

Our beautiful lifestyle block

Initially just a big field, ripe for the digging

We had a great conversation in January 2011 that determined our direction.  One of those “heart to heart” couple talks that ends in progress. We had rented for the year previous. 

It was a cute townhouse, relatively new (a rarity here), great condition (another rarity), but at the end of the day we would never see a penny of the money we’d spent.  It wasn’t an investment, it was like a giant size candy bar. We could live in the candy bar, wash our clothes there , sleep in it, invite friends to it, but it was a momentary provision that met our need for a temporary fill with a throw away wrapper, and a $14,000 off the shelf annual price.  

Something had to change… progress was necessary.

Moving back in with Gav’s parents might not have looked like progress to those around us.  It probably looked a little crazy. Definitely not adult-like or independent at all.  But we knew, that if we did we could save. Saving was key. We were lucky too! The in-laws were obliging and wanted the best for us.  (I think a lot of their compassion for us came from the fact there has been great disparity and inflation in house values since they bought their first home in the late 60’s. The price then $30K – cheap as chips!)

What obliging sweet parents!

The months of January to August were a bit of a blur.

What we did can be classed as “research”.  We visited all of the show homes in the region (again, we had been many times before) to remind ourselves what we’d liked previously.  We also picked plans we liked and got quotes from a handful of building companies for comparison.

All in all our comparison found that some builders advertise how inexpensive they are, but then have hidden costs built into their contracts when you start to get serious.  Other builders have low costs and will work toward your budget, but won’t always help you compromise when a dollar needs to be shaved in one place to meet the needs of another priority area. 

Spending such a big chunk of money really demands comparison.  While I felt a bit guilty at the time, wondering if we were “leading them on”, I think getting quotes, and getting into that first stage of development is crucial.  It informed us and prepared us to make the big decision – who to contract,

In the end we chose a building company with designs we respected, and whose prices we could face with clean consciences.  We did have to sacrifice some of the space that I had hoped for. The house would be one of their smaller designs with some additions to make it “ours”.

The two big markers were price and quality, if we couldn’t have both, then we didn’t want a house.  That’s what led us to Stonewood homes. While I can say that everyone has to make their own choice, and every buyer is different, we felt (and still feel) that Stonewood could meet those two needs successfully.

So in August we signed the contract for the house that started on Monday.  

...and so it begins!