New Homestead, two-year review.
There’s a lot of folklore around building, and after our journey, I can understand why many people have found the experience to be challenging. I have very deliberately taken my time publishing this post as with time to live with a new product or service you can’t really provide any meaningful perspective, especially on longevity, something that should be more valued today than it is.
We purchased our current farm roughly 13 years ago. It was a dilapidated 20-hectare horse agistment property complete with a 1880’s cypress cottage and an assortment of termite infested infrastructure. I’d like to say it was cheap, but it wasn’t. It’s prime farming land with a natural water course and dual road frontage, all this and 50 minute’s drive to the capital city.
There was always the intention to build on the higher end of the property to take advantage of the 180-degree views. Initially we commissioned some contemporary architectural designs, however, after more detailed evaluation on the project we settled on a local builder to build us something of our own design. I am not encouraging anyone to bypass architects, we had simply been procrastinating so long and the design ideas were so conservative, there simply was no value in it.
After 11 years of procrastination we signed with local builder Steve Parcell and steadily moved through the process. It was sensible timing as I found myself with some spare time during a semester break from my masters, and I put about performing some market analysis and outcomes.
We settled on the relatively conservative choice of a red brick colonial style home, complete with full width verandas on all sides. The build site is in a prominent and exposed position overlooking a historic township. I didn’t think it would be appropriate for us to build such a large a modern looking building.
Due to the distance between the build site and the original cottage we needed to replicate the basic infrastructure, such as a new general-purpose shed, machinery port, water tanks, grey water system, mains power and solar array. The block is an 850m rectangle with a water course that cut directly through.
The initial part of the build process involved mapping the layout of the house, sheds and infrastructure. Although by suburban standards we were dealing with a fairly large piece of land the property is at its narrowest at this end and only 140m width. That amount of space is very quickly allocated when you start including everything necessary to meet later market expectations.
Once a deposit was made the terraforming of the build site commenced. The only significant issue was the soil type ‘E’ (for extreme). The best description of our soil I can offer is that moves no unlike the ocean’s waves, albeit very slowly. Structures have to be built with enough integrity to support themselves.
The entire site was cut within two days, the driveway in one. Then COVID hit and the site sat quietly for a few months. Our builder had wisely reserved a supply of key materials as part of his normal processes, and we were sheltered from the bulk of the now infamous building material shortage when building recommenced.
Having been involved in so many formal procurement processes for various corporate IT solutions, I’m glad I had the common sense to put that aside, and just choose a local builder with a good reputation. We escaped a lot of pitfalls that many people experience building by pragmatic decision making. I’ve often thought people incorrectly use their home and their choice of car as an avenue for self-expression.
All issues during the build process were rectified where practicable. The placement of our water treatment plant, some other plumbing related work wasn’t up to scratch. The windows and doors were not as airtight as I would have expected. But all in all the after sales service from Steve’s team has been excellent.
So we have been living in the house for two years. Apart from some expected shifting and settling of the house we are generally very happy.
I would however readily slap anybody who says “new houses are less maintenance than old houses” as that’s just rubbish.
• Please read my upcoming three year review!