A new start...

03:34 0 Comments

Well, where to begin.

When I first met Telle? Or when we went to the Live Down Under show at the NEC? Perhaps when we found out my skills assessment had passed and we were able to start applying for our visa for a new life down under? What about when we finally heard after nearly two years that our visa had finally been granted? Or when Telle finally joined me out here in Brisbane, QLD after six long weeks of being here without her?

No, let's start with when we finally found a plot of land (after weeks of house hunting where we realised there wasn't a house within our budget we'd be happy with - we actually decided between the land and a cheap property in Eagleby with a coin toss!) and signed our contract with the friendly George Jones of QM. 4009 (the 9 is important!) square meters of land, all our own. 30 - 45 minutes out from Brisbane and not far from Ipswich for the every day things we'll no doubt need. The signed contract back from QM was received yesterday and today I spoke to our solicitors and confirmed that they'll be acting on our behalf - fingers crossed they aren't as bad as the solicitors I 'used' to sell my house in England!

Since we decided to go the land route we've been very busy trying to get quotes from the various house builders of Queensland. For recent immigrants to this incredible country this is no small task. The range of builders is enormous and each company has it's own way of offering their houses - it seems to us that they take perverse pleasure in confusing us poor customers as much as possible.

So far we've had fairly comprehensive quotes from Hallmark Homes (the very nice and able Julie), Stylemaster (they of the amazingly mind-blowing and truly wonderful display home in Springfield Lakes) from the friendly Stephen, Plantation (courtesy of the very efficient Troy at Rochedale), Aaron at G and P Builder, and Jules of Coral Homes. We're waiting on a quote from the expensive but all-inclusive McCarthy Homes (Kepler the astronomer / cricketer) and tomorrow Telle has an early appointment with Simon from GJ Gardner.

At the moment I think we're favouring Plantation Homes and the Retreat Vogue or Nouveau. Main reasons for this being the inclusion of many items as standard (we understand that most companies start with the basic build and allow you to add all your options in but to be frank it annoys the p@ss out of us - termite treated wood as an option, seriously??) and especially the corner-less timber stacking doors. We like the house design because our view is to the rear of the property and the master bedroom and living areas are too the rear, along with the alfresco. The quote with most of our options has come back a little bit expensive, however, and has caused a bit of concern for us. We're seeing Troy on Saturday though so we'll go through it again then.

On Sunday we're off to the Home Show at the Brisbane Convention Centre where we'll get to discuss all things house related - hopefully we'll get some good quotes on pools, carpets and tiles, landscaping and fencing.

We had a bit of a shock yesterday when the signed contract from QM arrived - they'd stipulated that we nominate our builder by this Friday the 27th. What!?! We're not picking a sandwich for lunch here people. I rang George and he rang his bosses and along with our solicitors have requested the dates be put back two weeks. Hopefully this won't be necessary as with any luck we'll decide this weekend once all the quotes are in.

Overall we're feeling nervous, worried and apprehensive! We've already signed on the dotted line however so no backing out now.