Hey.....if you were any closer to me we'd be related.

 I'm 5 minutes away from Flemingtom Racecourse too ...[by foot, even] in Kensington.

And I've been in Architecture for 42 years....

Once upon a time...my Drawing office was at 161 Union road...and prior to that it was 121 [I think] Maribyrnong Road [opposite the pub]..

OK, so that was in the 70's...so it's a while ago.

I've lived in Ken since '87....and prior to that it was Queensberry st. Nth Melb.

We should catch up...

Hehe, you're not sure if it was Maribymong Road, but you're positive you were opposite a pub.

That tells me one thing at least.... many a lunch hour [extended and otherwise] was spent across the road.

YupI had one or two liquid lunches over the years.... accompanied a pretty decent counter meal for the money... usually around 5 bucks or so.

Ah, the good old days.

Oh yeah, and all the best with the auction a your new build, Nimbin... I hope it all goes well for you

Well today we went to the GJ Gardner fit out centre and chose our outside bricks, Feature wall bricks, Wet area tiles (bathroom, dunnies etc), Flooring (antique brown bamboo), Bathroom appliances, Kitchen fit out style, Carpet and roofing, Guttering and other outside styles. We got an all clear from our block of land with the soil testing and everything is right to go. Hopefully the build should start within the next 3 months. Our house in Melbourne goes under the hammer in early March and judging by the interest we should expect between $700,000 to $850,000 (hopefully). The reserve is $700,000 but if bidding gets close to that and stalls we may lift the reserve. It's all very exciting

Today's the day. Our house in Melbourne is going under the hammer at 11am. We have 42 confirmed bidders registered and expect about 100 - 150 people to turn up all together. So far 14 groups have had engineers and builders go through the house to give quote on renovations and building to prospective owners. We are very excited and just a little sad to see this house go but it will enable us to build our dream home in Bendigo and live mortgage free and debt free. I'll let you all know what we got (provided it sells) in the next couple of days.

Looking forward to your updates.

To be mortgage and debt free and living in your dream house, no doubt is going to be a great place and time for you and your partner. 

What aren't you telling the rest of us, you win the Lottery or something, you pass Home on the Monoply board and collect a bunch of money?

So, describe your dream house for all of us.  We all will be waiting on those pictures.

Well the auction is over. Needless to say we got everything we wanted and more. Unfortunately I can't disclose the amount yet or who bought it due to some stupid confidentiality crap. But I can say if you read my original post we got between the first and second amounts. Very happy indeed  

Congrats...

Forgot it was on...could have gone to the auction too....

Lol. I couldn't believe the amount of people who turned up. All up there were 26 bidders and 74 bids made. I have been given permission to give the amount. We got $742,500 on a 10% deposit and 30 day settlement. It's so physically and emotionally draining  

Congrats on the sale old mate, now you can devote your time and energy to the new house... and with good luck and a fair wind, maybe it'll be finished sooner rather than later.

the estimated start date is early april. and we hope... hope... hope to be in by christmas. Not moving in until everything is done, including landscaping etc etc. i will post pictures as the slab is finished, framing, brickwork, roofing and other. Its all very exciting

Ok after a slight delay by the purchaser settlement has gone through and all the financial dealings have finished, The cheques have been paid and the permits have been pulled for the building to start. build time is 177 days and will start on May 1st. Had a little issue with some rogue tradesman dumping soil and building debris on the land we purchased but we had a stakeout and caught him in the act, Got his registration and business name (which he stupidly was using his business truck for the dumping). There was some debris on the block already and we had a condition in the contract that all spoil would be removed before settlement and as time went more and more debris was appearing. Luckily the settlement was only delayed by a week and no extra crap was dumped in that time because we had already busted the tradesman. Anyway the land owner cleaned all the crap and is taking the tradesman to court to reclaim all his expenses so we will end up being witnesses in that i suppose. Anyway all steam ahead and the house is on it's way. Next update will be the pouring of the slab. Total size of the house is 39.5 square, which is buggered if i know in square footage all i know is that it's huge lol.

"which he stupidly was using his business truck for the dumping". dumb ass. Good for you though that it worked out like it did. There are a lot of cases where people dump garbage on other peoples land and they get away with it because they are not seen doing it. 

A 'square' is 100 square feet [10 x 10], so 39.5 is 3950 square feet or roughly 367 square metres.

Makes it roughly double the Aussie average or almost 5 times the English average.

Got a long way to go to keep up with the last house I drew....80 squares...