After we decided on our house plan and I had drawn them up, we made a tiny, scaled model of the house. It made it so much easier to 'tweek' the design by seeing it in 3D. The picture below is of a house we didn't build. We had a difficult neighbour who objected to it's design and we decided to start from scratch rather than modify our design. We made a model of the second plan too, but I can't find photos of it - my son played with his cars in it until it fell apart.
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| Model of Plan A. We are currently building Plan B. |
The photo above shows the house we purchased and demolished and below the commencement of excavation of the site.
| My son loved this part - playing in mud puddles! |
We made a massive hole in the ground to accommodate underground storage for a boat, trailer and furniture, in addition to space for water tanks, double garage, stair well and pool equipment.
My hubby was building our place in his 'spare time' which meant a very slow start. I took more than 6 months to get 'out of the ground' and ready for the ground floor concrete pour!
| Once the ground floor concrete was complete we started building the walls that would form the underground level of the house. |
| Storage areas, tank room and stairway walls constructed in the big hole before being 'buried' again. |
| First floor concrete pour. Yeah, finally a building platform! |
This is where the house is at now. Still unfinished, but we're in and 'camping' more or less to save on those big wasteful rent dollars!

