We'd been looking for a while in the inner-north west melbourne area and had no luck at all and then one gorgeous sunny autumn day we came across a small estate a short walk from a little pocket of the Maribyrnong river, and decided we had to buy.
The real estate guy spun a good story, but we could see right away that we'd have a struggle but we loved the suburb too much to pass up on it.
At 276 sqm it would have to go into town planning
It was certainly not cheap
At least 4m of slope over the building area, sloping up from the street and also right to left
AND it was a funny trapezium-esque shape, 14m frontage and 18m at the back
We've had all sorts of trouble trying to find a good custom builder who didn't quote us ridiculous prices for build.
We've not even had plans drawn up properly, and have yet to go through town planning , and already our dream home feels like it's slipping further away - mind you, being super busy at work we are honestly not very fussed and want such a basic layout - but the split level and all the res codes are proving too much for our designer /builder at the moment and we are so frustrated. Not to mention the builder has now increased quote to $400k for a 24-25 square split level house - 4 bed, 3 bathroom, 2 garage. And that seems really pricey! even with all our block issues!
Now that we've put down $2500 to get the plans drawn though, thought we'd at least get some drawings back, then we can take them to other builders if we're not confident these guys can do the job.
It's been so hard to stay motivated and excited
![Cry ::cry::](./images/smilies/Cry.png)
And I've still to vent my biggest worry....
So like I said, we took everything the real estate agent said with a pinch of salt, EXCEPT one bit of info that I'm kicking myself now for believing. I asked him about the other 14 vacant lots in the area and asked if any were going into construction soon, to be honest at the time I was worried about noise and pollution, having lived next door to construction the previous couple of years. He said 'oh yeah yeah, owners on both sides of your block are building next month, and the one behind is in town planning....blah blah' . I don't know why on earth, of all the bulls**t he spewed, I chose to believe THAT! 'cos 5 months since purchase, there hasn't been ANY sign of construction, I checked out the planning register on the council website, and 2 lots got town planning approval fairly recently, but none of the others have even applied. (most of the 15 lots are under 300sqm). I get this funny feeling the owners of the lots are just holding as investment and not looking to build. All 15 lots have been vacant for at least 3 years
![Surprise ::surprise::](./images/smilies/Surprise.png)
And now I'm terrified at the prospect of moving my young family into a house with vacant land all around it, overgrown with weeds and home to God knows what creatures....no neighbours and even though it's supposed to be a pretty safe suburb, a lone house within a 500m radius? That's temptation for the cowardliest of thieves right?
I have no idea what to do. Honestly more than the hassle of building, it's the lone house thing that scares me..If we sell the land right away we'll be making a loss, and with a baby on the way, I don't know how much longer we can pay rent + mortgage so we'll need to build and move in soon.
![Shock :::](./images/smilies/Shok.png)
![Shock :::](./images/smilies/Shok.png)
Am I completely overthinking this? Any advice?