Playing house...
In an attempt to pretend like we have some degree of control over our futures, Rick and I went to look at display homes at the new Saltwater Coast development on the weekend.
There are a whole heap of variables in the mix, the biggest of which is whether I fall pregnant, but we are currently discussing the whole renovate/rebuild/relocate path.
We were enormously fortunate to buy extremely cheaply from a guy who was going bankrupt (good for us, not so much for him). It landed us close to services such as rail station, buses, schools and shops. The downside was because they were running out of money while they were building they cut corners in all sorts of places.
The house is pretty good overall, but there is a growing list of things I'd like to 'fix' about it. Some of the things I'd like to fix are structurally impossible in the current shell, either spatially or due to the initial construction making the changes physically unwise.
Saltwater Coast development advertises as having 49 display homes, I think we saw about 15. There were a couple we really liked, and a few we hated. It gave us a better idea of what we want from a house should we want to start from scratch.
The scary part was that building from scratch wouldn't be that much more expensive than renovating if you tallied up all the bits and bobs we want to do. to a degree renovating will let us stagger the costs more, but it would be cheaper to go big bang with that too.
The couple of builders we talked to assured us that if you have your own land, they are happy to build where-ever. The upside of a place like Saltwarer Coast is that it's a closed community with a community centre, pool etc... The downside is that because it's a closed community, it's a gated community with a body corporate sticking their nose in everywhere down to what length your lawn has to be (it's in their design guidelines).
I think at present we're leaning towards renovate/rebuild. We won't be deciding in a hurry, and will probably be looking at what little things we can do around the house in the short term, without committing to anything too major until we know what's happening baby wise and whether we want to make such a major change in our lives and commit to that much of a financial liability.
There are a whole heap of variables in the mix, the biggest of which is whether I fall pregnant, but we are currently discussing the whole renovate/rebuild/relocate path.
We were enormously fortunate to buy extremely cheaply from a guy who was going bankrupt (good for us, not so much for him). It landed us close to services such as rail station, buses, schools and shops. The downside was because they were running out of money while they were building they cut corners in all sorts of places.
The house is pretty good overall, but there is a growing list of things I'd like to 'fix' about it. Some of the things I'd like to fix are structurally impossible in the current shell, either spatially or due to the initial construction making the changes physically unwise.
Saltwater Coast development advertises as having 49 display homes, I think we saw about 15. There were a couple we really liked, and a few we hated. It gave us a better idea of what we want from a house should we want to start from scratch.
The scary part was that building from scratch wouldn't be that much more expensive than renovating if you tallied up all the bits and bobs we want to do. to a degree renovating will let us stagger the costs more, but it would be cheaper to go big bang with that too.
The couple of builders we talked to assured us that if you have your own land, they are happy to build where-ever. The upside of a place like Saltwarer Coast is that it's a closed community with a community centre, pool etc... The downside is that because it's a closed community, it's a gated community with a body corporate sticking their nose in everywhere down to what length your lawn has to be (it's in their design guidelines).
I think at present we're leaning towards renovate/rebuild. We won't be deciding in a hurry, and will probably be looking at what little things we can do around the house in the short term, without committing to anything too major until we know what's happening baby wise and whether we want to make such a major change in our lives and commit to that much of a financial liability.