Sunday 27 April 2014

Where should we live?

The very next day April 27 2014; we spent the day driving around looking at blocks of land for sale in new estates going up around Cranbourne (East/West) and Clyde.  I distinctly remember the day because it was my 35th birthday.

We looked at Livingston and Parks Edge Estates in Cranbourne East and the Alarah and Ambrosia Estates in Cranbourne West.  After chatting with the sales rep in the Livingston Estate we came across a block of land at the end of a court only a short walking distance from our daughters new high school (literally across the road).  The  block wasn't actually for sale yet and was to become available in a later release that would be due for titles around March 2015.  We gave the sales rep our details and asked him to call us as soon as the block became available.

A week went by and we'd decided to go back up to the Livingston Estate to chat to the sales rep in a bit more detail.  On our way we noticed another new estate called Pasadena on the corner of Berwick-Cranbourne Rd in Clyde.  We had kind of dismissed it the week before as it was further away from our daughters school than I really wanted; but we swung in anyway to take a look.

Nabil, the sales rep, was a really nice bloke.  We talked to him about our shotgun decision to build a house and he wasn't pushy or tried the hard sell on us.  He showed us a few blocks of land for sale in their 'Hill Farm' release gave us some information about the estate, then let us be.

One of the blocks in that release got our attention however.  It was just the right size for us (450m2), at the end of a court, backed on to a reserve, so no neighbours behind us and faced parkland, so no neighbours in front of us.  The block was more expensive than we wanted to pay ($217,000), but I think my husband was in love with it already.

I had a couple of issues with it.  It wasn't walking distance for our daughter (about 4km) and just on the other side of the reserve behind us, was a main road.  It's only a 2 lane road at the moment, but I heard rumours that it would be duplicated.  I spent hours researching and could not come up with any evidence this would be done anytime soon.  At least not in the next 5 years.

Neither of these issues bothered my husband and this is where we hit our first disagreement in the building process (not a good sign).

We settled this disagreement like we settle most in our family; we put it to a family vote. The location of the block also affected our daughter so it was only fair that she was included in the decision of were we live.  She was presented with both blocks; the block walking distance at the end of a court, or the block that is a short bus trip opposite parkland. She voted for the block opposite parkland and so it was decided.....

We were going to live in the Pasadena Estate in Clyde.

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