Hi everyone, it's about time we de-lurked and said hello. Love the Homeone forum and have learnt so much by sharing everyone's building experience and knowledge. It seems only fair that we share as well so have started this thread. [Sorry this intro is a bit long, but we've been lurking since the last half of Phoenix's build!!]
We're in Melbourne SE ~ feeling shy about saying exactly where we are ~ in an older established area surrounded by lots of new estates in the same suburb (if that makes sense).
We're a knockdown on a good-size block, around 960 sq mtr -ish. Around us, developers are buying the older houses on the bigger blocks like ours, and putting up 2-3 townhouses. Our current house is over 30 years old, not well designed, and riddled with problems (though I feel a lot of affection for the old house!). After weighing up the cost of what would have been *extensive* renovations, we have decided to just start again. This decision was reinforced after the demo company identified asbestos in the eaves.
"Normal" people would have sold this house and bought a better (i.e., not falling down) house in the same area. But we love our block + the area ~ don't want to move!!
Researching and planning this since around Easter 2008. Along the way we have fallen in love with Burbank's Stoneleigh, AV Jennings' Savoy, Porter Davis' Cremorne, Henley's Ascot, Carlisle's Prominence. Then just as we were ready to make the decision + go ahead, we had the GFC and were advised to "wait", so we stopped everything and sat back.
When it became apparent by June 2009 that the sky wasn't falling (exactly), we started the search again. [Boy were we surprised at the price increases that had occurred in the 9 months we were "paused"!] But we were a lot more wised-up by this stage in regards to what we were looking for.
We revisited all the previous designs we liked and cross-checked each of them again, to see which one would fit us the best. Then July 09 we discovered a new design by Fairhaven Homes. We had previously been to their displays at Fallingwater (or was it Cardinia Lakes?) in Pakenham and we were really impressed ~ but back in 2008 they didn't have a double-storey design so we had to rule them out.
On the Fairhaven website we found the new Glenaire design + got excited right away! When we walked through the Glenaire the next day we knew it was the one! We've made some modifications, but the vast majority of our house will be exactly as the display at Cascades on Clyde. Through the process so far Fairhaven have been great, + I'm a bit surprised we haven't heard more about them on Homeone.
We have our colours appointment soon, so I'm hoping we'll be able to get some opinions from all the design mavens hanging on at Michelle's lounge. Off to get onto Photobucket + figure out how to post photos!
Looking forward to sharing the build through 2010.
~ J