Single or Double?

When we were in Sg, we always dreamed of living in a double storey home.  And so ever since we moved to Australia, that has always been our goal.... a double-storey home.  

It could have been an easy decision but there were also a lot of factors to consider. 

Firstly, can we afford it?  After consultation with finance managers, brokers and accountants, we reached to a conclusion that we can afford it.  

Is it practical?  Hmmmm...  to be honest, I don't think it is practical.  All we need is a four-bedroom house with a theater room and a small study that I can use as a home office.  There are a lot of good single storey designs that satisfy these requirements which are $75k -100k less than a medium-sized double storey house. 

The difference in weekly repayments can be used to lessen the number of years to pay in our mortgage.... Or we can use it to travel or pamper ourselves.  So yes, it is not the most practical option but we are drawn to our goal .... Double-storey.  There is always this voice whispering to us to go for it.

The kids like double storey for the simple reason that they want a house with carpeted-stairs that they can slide on everyday.  My eldest, C, said she likes the wow factor of a two-storey home.

I like how a two-storey house looks tall and pretty from outside.  I also like the view from the balcony on the second floor.

Hubby on likes the privacy that the second floor offers when there are gatherings at home.

Some people advised against building a double storey home, but we feel that it is something that we have to do and experience for ourselves.  It is better to experience it and regret it later, than regret that we never took the chance to experience it at all.  

If the time comes we realise it is not for us, we can always sell it and downgrade to a smaller house.  

God is good.  God always provide.  

House #4

Belle will be our 4th. Belle is short for Bellmont which is the Carlisle layout that we've chosen for this build.

This will be our fourth house yet it feels like we're first-timers again.  The process and experience is so different from our previous houses.

Our first home was built in Sta Rosa, Laguna in Philippines.  Hubby bought this before we met so I wasn't really involved during the building phase. However, we jointly paid for it while working in Singapore so I wasn't exempted from the stress of paying our first mortgage.

House #2 (Catherine) was built in Paranaque City in Philippines.  We had it built while hubby and I were based in Singapore.  We had a few trips to Philippines during the building process but most of the correspondences were done via phone and email. I'd say it wasn't that stressful... it was just difficult to be off-shore while building it.  There were many things that we wanted to do on this house but relaying everything to the builder was challenging because we were so far away.  Around that time, smart phones were not so popular yet.  My mom in the Philippines would take photos of the house using a digital cam, download it to a computer and email them to me.  My mom's not a techie person so she had to wait for my siblings or cousins to do it for her.  Added to that, I was pregnant with my son and always felt sick, weak and tired. By the way, this house was meant to be an investment.  It didn't happen though... long story.

House #3 is a unit in Southern Sydney.  It's already built and was pre-owned so we did not experience building a house from scratch in Sydney.  I should say though that the stress level during house hunting until settlement was just the same as building a house... it's just a different kind of stress... different kinds of issues.

We are just at the early stage of House #4 but we already had a lot of issues... and that is why I decided to create a blog.  Hopefully when the house is finished, all these stress will be all worth it.

In the beginning there was a lake...

It was not our original plan but, yes, we decided to build a house this year.

The original plan was for the whole family to move to Melbourne first. Once we're settled in (new schools, new work arrangement, new place, lots of unpacking etc) then we will start looking for a house.

But things changed when one day, while I was driving back home from my son's school.  I saw a massive series of signboard advertising a new estate called Lakeside.  We live close to the area and we know that it's a really nice place. 

Added to that, we were informed that land titles are expected in September of this year, which means we can start building this year and move to the new house next year. So we decided to go for it!