The first part of the exercise was to visit a number of open homes and although the homes were nice, there was always 'something' that was missing.
Our wish list included:
- At least 2 separate living areas
- Ideally a kids retreat area/ rumpus room
- Swimming pool or at a good enough price to be able to put one in
- Good sized kitchen/ living areas
- Minimum 4 bedrooms
- Study area
- Separate laundry
- Good sized bedrooms
Through this exercise, we soon came to the conclusion that if we were going to spend that amount of money to get something pre-built, we might as well design a house to suit.
We went through the pros and cons and on top of all the things mentioned above, other things that won us over into building were:
- Able to design and build something that meet our requirements
- Much less Stamp duty to pay if just buying land
- $15k New Home Builders Grant (even available to Kiwis!)
So the decision is made ...... now we just have to find some land.
We started to look in the areas of Peregian Springs, Bli Bli, Noosaville (Donnella Estate) and Coolum.
We were very attracted to Peregian Springs and in particular the Ridges Estate which even though included covenant fees, gave us access to a Rec Club and Pool. However, finding a block of land that wasn't the size of a peanut or wasn't a really unusual shape proved very difficult. So we began searching in other areas of Peregian Springs.
