NOT A DECISION TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY

So, you want to build your own house — yahoo. Hopefully it will be as rewarding as it has been for me building ours, but hopefully with substantially fewer dramas.

Just to keep it interesting, my wife and I ended up doing things a bit back to front: garage, then honeymoon, another garage, then marriage, then kids, and now the house!

First things first

Stage 1: Planning and building the two garages — because man caves are important, right? The dramas and delays experienced, even after extensive planning, could not be predicted.

In 2005, I was renting a Nelson design former Lockwood show home in Glenorchy. I really liked it and would have loved to own it, but I would want the lounge to be a bit bigger and there was some wasted space that could be used for another bedroom to join the garage, etc. etc.

At the time, a new subdivision was being built over our fence. The sections, of approximately 822m², were selling for $350K! Back then, as a poor skydiving instructor — but rich in life — I thought to myself, “Well, I’ll never be living there, will