Hi everyone. I have been a lurker here for a while. I am amazed by the challenges that OBs here take on, particularly with difficult sites in lodistant locations and complex builds. I take my hat off to you all and admire your determination and skills.
After looking at many forums, following several builds on here, watching Grand Designs and many home reno shows, trawling through heaps of magazines, visting copious numbers of display house and talking to many people, I knew the type of house I wanted. I found a wonderful virtually level 6000 sq m block near Laurieton, south of Port Macquarie. It is flat, surrounded on two sides by bushland and fully serviced, even has an 80m bitumen drive and the services are piped the length of it. it is on the edge of a housing estate, just 700m from Woolies and other shops, but feels like it is in the country. A great find at a good price.
So, disillusioned with the project home builders' quality, unable to afford the cost of a high quality builder to do the house I really wanted and take advantage of my beautiful location, I made a momentous decision. Why not build it myself? I mean, actually take on the building work myself, using subbies only where I was required to by law, or it was obviously better to used skilled and equipped people? After all, what could go wrong?
So I talked to family, friends, tradies I knew, in fact anyone who would listen. Responses varied from "You're crazy!", "At your age?" etc etc to, "Go for it! You'll learn heaps", "It will be hard, incredibly hard at times, but it'll be the biggest achievement of your life!", "I'm jealous -but I wouldn't have the courage", and the one I liked most "When you sit on your verandah, beer in hand and admire the view and your finished home, you'll be truly proud and say 'It was worth all the exhaustion, the hassles and the cuts and bruises.'"
So here I am. Now 62 years of age, healthy, a bit unfit and overweight, taking on probably the biggest challenge of my life. Am I crazy? Perhaps I am, but what's life without a challenge?
More to come.........