Dusting off the cobwebs

We thought it was about time to dust off the cobwebs on the blog, because we have some exciting news to share. We've made the decision to buy a plot of land and build a house, and we've found a plot (or a 'section' as they call them here) which we really, really like.

It's about half an hour out of Wanganui, in a lovely area called the Turakina Valley. The section is roughly 8 and a half acres. There is an elevated, flat building site of between two and three acres, and the rest is a mixture of flat pasture and hillside suitable for grazing sheep (someone else's!) and/or for growing trees for firewood.

The potential building site gives 360-degree views, with the best view being to the north, which is the favoured orientation for houses in the southern hemisphere (like facing south in the northern hemisphere, because you get all day sun).

We've already got loan approval from the bank, so we're going to go ahead and put in an offer this week (subject to all the usual inspections, of course) and see what happens.

This first photo shows a view of the section from the boundary at the road. The track going upwards from left to right is the probable line of the driveway. The ridge line is where the house will go.



The rest of the photos show the views from the flat building site on top of the ridge; two views from the front of the house...





...and two views out the back.





These snaps really don't do the place justice. The camera can't convey what a special spot it is. Even on a grey winter's afternoon, it blew us away. Huge vistas and not another house in sight!

There's going to be an enormous amount of time, effort, stress and money expended before we move into our new home, and that's if everything goes smoothly - there are an awful lot of things that can go wrong. However, it's very exciting, as well as being more than a little scary. We're keeping our fingers crossed! Wish us luck.