Missing out on our block was the best thing that ever happened

By the year 2000, we were on the lookout for our next dream home. We looked at several suburbs, but decided we wanted to build. Our focus turned to a new estate at Glenwood in north-west Sydney.

Again, I scoured the Homes Pictorial, which had progressed with the times and the listings were now in colour! We found a block that was 700 square metres and put our $500 holding fee on it. However, it was not all smooth sailing.

The sales agent made an error and got confused with the lot numbers, as there were five vacant lots in a row. The lot that we had decided on had actually already been bought just the day prior. I remember sitting at work and bawling my eyes out – I couldn’t believe it. I yelled and ranted at the agent and I wanted to sue! The principal of the agency was most apologetic and he refunded our money, and our search began again.

It was not long before I spotted another block for $210,000. I asked John to go and have a look, which he did. He took his dad along for assurance. The call in the afternoon said it all: it was ours for $205,000 and John had already put down a deposit.

There had been no discussion with me (you’ll read my payback about non-discussions further in our story) but I assumed that because he and his dad had seen it, it must have been great. In fact, it was a much better position than the block we lost just a couple of weeks earlier. It was meant to be.

It was time to sell our Guildford property to fund the construction of our new dream home. It sold for $218,000. We found a suitable builder (after visiting every single display home I could find) and moved in with my parents for nine months while our dream home was being built. During this time, our second daughter, Tia, was born.

We chose a lovely home from the Henley range of properties. By chance, a week after we signed the building contract, Henley hit the headlines on all the popular current affairs shows with their incredibly poor workmanship. John and I could only look at each other and wonder: what have we done?

Fortunately, we had no problems with Henley and we have a fantastic home that we plan to live in for many years to come.

The facts