The Cambridge 26

So, as per the previous post,we have chosen The Cambridge 26 as our new home.

Here is the floorplan again

And here are some internal shots

Master 

Ensuite

Bathroom

Kitchen

Alfresco

Lounge / Meals

Theatre

So now you can see why we like it so much! This is as displayed at Atherstone in Melton South. Hopefully they’ll put one this side of town, as it’s handy to have a look at, but I doubt it will happen in time for us.

You’ll notice on the plan that the Alfresco can easily be extended back and across to square off the house, and that will be our plan. It’s been partly done on the display as well.

So with the house chosen, it was time to meet with a sales consultant and get the ball rolling!

Now, What Are We Going To Build?

For anyone that has ever walked the display home circuit you’ll know it’s a long road. We looked at about 10 homes the first day, around Grandvue in Officer, and then went through pretty much every single story house in Berwick Waters. By the end of that we were tired, but I think we were hooked, we wanted to play the game.

Several more days out were had, travelling all through Cranbourne, Clyde North, and as far as Mernda, Wollert, Point Cook, Williams Landing and Melton South!

We fell in love with a home by Boutique homes, The Barcelona. It was displayed in a 31 and 32 sq version, but we wanted to build round 26. Having gone through all the inclusions, and had a walkthrough with the sales people, we got some quotes done and were fairly comfortable. The final step was to see the house in the size we were going to build, as we were a little uncomfortable with not having been in it. We organised with the sales consultant to take us through one under construction. Well, it was a shock. Why it still had a lot of the things we like, the changes in proportions just unbalanced it for us. I didn’t think it would be too dramatic, but we soon figured that four bedrooms plus a study and a couple of living rooms just didn’t fit in the 26sq guidelines, without some sacrifices. So back to the drawing board we went.

We had been recommend to Carlisle Homes by quite a few friends, and the displays we had seen were quite good, although maybe not exactly what we were after. We sat down with the ipad one night and a list of their homes in the sizes we were after, and went through the list and crossed off what we didn’t like. We were left with a few floor plans that we really liked, so it was time to check them out. One was again displayed bigger than we were after, and after the last experience we decided to eliminate it for now. This left us with two homes, The Laguna, and The Cambridge. The Laguna was located at The Avenue Estate in Cranbourne North, and the Cambridge at The Atherstone Estate in Melton South! We had already seen the Laguna and went back for another look and we were quite impressed. It’s amazing home your perspective changes as you move through the display home circuit. We then got up early one Monday, for us, and trekked across the west gate and halfway to Adelaide and ended up in Melton! We were equally impressed with The Cambridge as we were with the Laguna and we left there with our search narrowed down to two. Both of these are displayed at 26sq, so other than the decore, you are building what you see, which is a great benefit.

Here are the two floor plans that we were now choosing from

The Laguna on the left, The Cambridge on the right.

As you can see, the designs are very similar. Major difference is the location of the laundry, and the walk in robes in the back bedrooms.

We would have really been happy with either, but eventually we settled on the Cambridge, and it was time to move forward in the journey. 

Deciding to Build

Why did we decide to build? Good question. Originally when we sold up in Hope street our plan was to move in with Nic’s parents and eventually build a unit for them out the back and then we’d live in the house. This went right through design stage etc, but fell over when the council decided that the current septic system wasn’t good enough and a waste treatment plant was required. The money for this would have blown out the budget and over capitalised the entire property. So back to the drawing board we went.

We knew we wanted to be in Bunyip, so we started checking all the properties for sale in the area, hoping to find what would suit us. After looking at a few places online and seeing what we’d get for our budget, we decided to consider land. We then found a small subdivision in Bunyip with one block available and decided it was a possibility.

Our next step was to hit the display home circuit for a day and get an idea of pricing, and if it was what we wanted to do. After a couple of days of looking, we decided to go for it and put an offer on the block!

It took awhile to get an answer as the Vendor wasn’t sure he wanted to sell it anymore, but after a week or so, we were presented with a counter offer which we accepted, and we were owners of our own little piece of Bunyip!

So it begins

I’ve finally decided that I will complete a blog on our journey of building our new home. There’s a bit of catching up to do, so stay tuned and follow us along!

Cheers

Glenn