The Journey Begins

On Valentines Day 2014 we took possession of our beautiful five acre rocky slope in the hills of Perth.  We bought the block for the fabulous view across the tree tops and over the valley.
As we sat on our block with a glass of wine watching the sunset, we reflected on how we came to be here; so to the back story! 

                                          Ceremonial Fitting of the Letter Box

Ever since before we were married we wanted a good amount of land to call our own.  It was sparked by our love of growing our own food and enjoying peace and quiet.  I think we secretly harbor dreams of living off grid.  Since then we have owned 4 houses, built one and one granny flat varying in land size up to half an acre.  We have also sporned three boys, which does ruin the peace and quiet and Nan has also come to live with us.  After many discussions we decided it was finally time to live the dream and put our house up for sale.  Then it didn't sell and we took it off the market.  We thought it mustn't be the right time, BUT then we had a letter from a family who had seen our house on the internet some time before and asked if we were still interested in selling.  Long story short, they came to have a look and bought it.  We were then in a panic as we hadn't looked at blocks in months, but a quick look and we found our dream block.  Sure it could be flatter and have a few less rocks but the outlook is beautiful.  The owners accepted our first offer and it all fell into place quickly and easily. It was meant to be.

We had hoped to live on the block in a shed while we were building but the council have recently stopped people doing this so we only had a couple of weeks to work out where to live.  We rented Nan a unit and moved a borrowed caravan to a friend's back yard with the three boys in the annex.  It was hot, dirty and hard.  Then it was cold, muddy and hard.  After being broken into and having a mountain bike stolen we gave up and moved all of us to a rental.  Yes it is a bit squishy but running water and toilets are amazing.  

So what stage are we at now with building?  We have cleared the weeds, put in a driveway that can be used by all cars, not just four wheel drives, the bush fire attack level assessment has been done and the plans are at the final drafting stage and should go in to council this week fingers crossed.  We will also be putting in the owner builder application in this week.  We have to apply for special consideration from the builders registration board as we owner built 6 years ago and you normally have to wait seven years between applications.  Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

                                         Building the Driveway