@midesign0401, Hi Megan, yes it is heaven, I take a look at it all and sigh in happiness!!! As for the house, there's a bit of money to go ahead but this is now our busy time of the year, as we are hay contractors spending many many hours in tractors. However, I intend to get onto the next job ASAP which is laying the sill tiles around the veranda. It's a bit of an old fashioned look but these tiles will protect our limestone bricks from water stain when it's raining constantly in winter. The water will run off the sill tile and drop just a little shy of the bricks. Limestone is not only rough in our case but very porous and we also plan to have these tiles on all the window sills too, like the old tan brick houses from the 50's and the chocolate brown sill they had on their windows,only ours are cream not chocolate. It will be easy to wipe the sills from time to time and keep the house neat and clean. Once these tiles ar in place, 80mtrs of tiles, then we can concrete the veranda and then the roof iron can go on hopefully before Christmas. We have all the bricks for the home but need to find another $16,000 for all the rest of the windows. We are only using our own income, not borrowing at all so we have to do a budget and see if we can allow the money for the windows as the income we earn from Sept to Dec, is about 90% of our income for the entire year. It's taken 7 years now to get to this point having spent more that $80,000 already as I'm keeping a diary of spending. Goodness knows how much a 30+ square home with pool would cost if we had to pay a builder!!! We are owner builders and we've done everything ourselves including digging all the foundation and laying over 5000 standard bricks and digging the hole for the pool and fitting the pool including all the plumbing. We put in all the concrete stumps, layed the floor and fitted all the underfloor plumbing with a plumber friend guiding us along. We also put up all the framing and roof trusses, so we are absolutely chuffed with our abilities and progress.

Hello houzz helpers! We have a rough new plan! The kitchen, living, dining are on the north and bedrooms are on the south. We are planning to push the house to the rear (south) of our 1 acre block and have a long driveway. We can look out onto our beautiful (in time) front yard and watch the kids run wild! We plan on using landscaping along a front fence for privacy. I am concerned with the size, in regards to being way over budget, but I am hoping the simple shape of the roof will help to offset some of that. I was thinking I would get the plan as close to what we want/need then get quotes and scale back if we need to, which will involve another post on houzz ofcourse! We would love your honest feedback and I am happy to answer any questions...

We too are about to build though picked a project home builder because of the 'volume build' cost savings. But we are making modifications to better meet our needs. Our initial plan was heavily customised and came in around $150k over what we wanted, but that was highly spec'ed insulation with double glazed windows, cathedral ceiling, very large rooms, 2 bedrooms with ensuites plus another bathroom and toilet, plus another 2 bedrooms, large undercover alfresco, very complicated roof line (apparently that really adds to the cost)... so we learnt a lot of lessons from that. We have scaled back the size of rooms, gone for a simple shape/roofline and will add character through textures (timber panelled walls, etc), some of which can be added later. We have maintained top notch double glazed windows and high R factor insulation (Southern Highlands location, so you pay either way if you get that wrong.. up front or in excessive heating and cooling bills), but cut back to only 1 bifold door and embraced good old double and triple panel sliders - a huge cost saving in itself. Would also love a cathedral ceiling but may need to lower our expectations there. I have to agree that a price starting with a 3 at the front - or even a 4 - does not seem at all realistic for that house. If $360K is breaking the bank, you really need to think about how you can meet your needs in a different way. I'd start with design... would a 2 storey home offer cost savings? Less roof for the same floor price? What about attic bedrooms and/or an attic activity room? I don't think attic rooms are actually that cheap, because of the need to strengthen the floor/ceiling, but it would be good to ask. Do all the children need a separate bedroom? If there's a significant age difference between eldest and youngest, you may find you can get away with younger siblings sharing for a while longer; perhaps even till an older child heads off to Uni?? Think of all the materials you will be chosing and the impact those will have on your home. Number and type of windows, floor coverings, tiling etc. I don't feel your rooms are overly large, but agree the large Media and Activity rooms are expensive choices. Personally I'd keep one dual purpose room, mainly with the kids in mind and smaller than either of those. You really only need kids tv and computer games out of the family room/lounge, don't you? The scullery and parts of the Master suite are large and the bathroom between Bed 4 and Bed 5 is a waste. I'd put Bathroom 1 - with the only bath in the house - and the loo side by side and accessible from near the kitchen area. I've seen some homes with a 3rd toilet in a large laundry, which can be handy with a horde of kids around. On a different note, that laundry seems way too small for a family of 6. You want those teens doing their own washing and ironing ASAP... they'll need room to do that. And you don't want to skimp on windows, insulation and eaves that suit your climate - they can really help to reduce your home's running costs. Re the vergola suggestion, I'd steer clear of that. They are costly, not really water proof and don't age well in my experience. A few friends have installed them and all have shown 'buyers remorse' quite quickly. An under-roof alfresco is pretty nice to have, but even a solidly built pergola with a simple sun/rainproof roof is nice too. As for the cathedral ceiling, I LOVE it. Opens a house up beautifully. A half cathedral (that's not the right term but i hope you know what I mean) may reduce costs a little. Otherwise, use your windows to maximise light (but not heat), raise the ceiling heights throughout the house to 2.7 (it's usually fairly cost effective to do that) and ditch the cathedral ceiling. Good luck with it. It's an exciting project.

Hi and thanks for your feedback. The rear building might now move further around to the north of the !7 acre rural block (2+ hours from Melbourne), where there is a flatter patch. We are now hoping to make it 2 story, with the storage shed below and living above. That way the huge views to the south and east can be seen over the top of the house. The idea is to build the shed (with studio accom) hopefully at the end of 2020, as a place to stay while the house building starts towards the end of 2021, when we will have the funds, fingers crossed. The width of the building area is only about 30 metres before it dips away a bit steeply to the east and west. We hope to avoid too much excavating for a slab (for thermal mass) but may need to consider stumps if the slab is far more costly. Looking at Carbonlite floor system as a reluctant alternative... A local architect has done the initial design to maximise the views and northern sun. We think the slight kink in the middle will add complexity to the roof so the kink can go. It is a big 'entry' which might need to go to cut costs but we do want an 'air lock' entry... The hallway along the bedrooms is intended to warm up in winter, ideally trombe wall style. We hope to keep the house to about 150 sq meters- we don't need bigger. The council has indicated where the dispersal field for the septic tank needs to go... We love the reverse brick veneer principle. The architect has been fairly open to our ideas but says the budget will be tight at approx $3,500 per sq meter. How does an internal masonry spine work? We figured a continuous skillion roof would be simpler and cheaper- going for a rural shed look...