I have hit a wall. It is a little higher than I stand and made of a solid material. Let me share with you a couple if issues I am facing. These aren't new issues but they are mounting and starting to play on my mind and reducing my capacity to dream, imagine and of course progress.
Issue One: The final resting place.
No, no one has died. I'm talking about where my 'home' will reside. My plan does not include it staying next to my father's shed with a couple of hoses and power leads coming through the front door. I need to find land and move the containers there and form a house. I want to do as much work as possible near the shed, but I also do not want to do everything, be really proud of my hard work and then move it and it all crack and break and just end up looking like a dogs breakfast.. Capiche?
Issue within an issue? I want this land to be on the Geelong side of Ballarat; Warrenheip, Yendon, Navigators, Lal Lal, Scotsburn, etc. I want trees, a damn, room, privacy, the Great Australian Dream. Land out here is not all that pricey, not even that unavailable, but, big but, you can not get permits on most of the parcels of land that are for sale. These areas are in a Water catchment area. This means that the water that town folk enjoy on a daily basis comes from this area and can not be contaminated by human waste, aka poo. You can not have a toilet on the property. No sewerage because it's too far away from the city and no septic tanks because it could contaminate the land/water. There are ways around this, but as of yet I have not discovered these gems of knowledge.
Issue Two: Cash Flow.
Money is great, we spend our whole lives trying to make it, whole lives trying to spend it and a large chunk of our lives trying to prove to others we have more of it than we actually do. My reality is that I'm running out of money. I'm asset rich. I have an investment portfolio that is pretty much sustaining it's self which is great, when I'm old or when it's a seller market, but that's not current reality. I have money coming in and I must say I'm pretty comfortable, but, that all important but, building is not easy and it's not free. I refuse to get a loan to fund the building as it's not really an investment and I do not have permits anyways. Happy to loan for land, land is sellable and land increases in value over time. But if I do borrow to buy land will I be able to afford the repayments as well as paying for materials? What happens if one of my tenants falls behind on their rent? What if I need to replace their heater? Hot water system? Fence? Roof? I'm usually fine with taking risks and over extending myself finacially, but is it really worth it in this case? If I play hare will I even make it to the finish line? Or do I play the tortoise and slowly plod along and win in the end?
A couple of large costs are currently staring me in the eyes and they don't look happy. I need: wall tile ($300), internal wall cladding ($1000), steel for framing out windows and doors ($500), flooring ($900), Kitchen cabinets and benchtops ($2400), electrical ($800). These are just the ones Im loosing sleep over for container one and I'm sure there's heaps more I haven't even thought of yet! The only thing I really could reduce is the kitchen and I'm not willing to. What is the point of going to all this effort to have a crappy ugly kitchen? I'm not flexible in this. Not sure if I've mentioned yet, but I'm stubborn.
Issue Three: Final Plans.
Which each day I change my ideas. The concept stays the same, the rooms stay the same, but the placement of the containers changes. With each piece of land I find it changes. Do I go up? Do I make a square with a courtyard in the middle? Do I make an L and go up? If I go up, where do the stairs go? Do I need a separate container for a stair case or do I cut into the lounge space? Can I just use 40ft containers? Or will I need to get 20ft containers even though they are more expensive per square meter? Do I build guest suites? Kids rooms? What if I need to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Do I really need a roof top garden? Where could I put a "green wall"? Should I put an ensuite in my room pod or have that huge wardrobe that I need and of course deserve? Could I have a second door into the bathroom form my room? How would I join them together?
Anyways, thats enough complaining and stressing out for one night, don't think I'll be able to sleep now that I have got them all out the in the air now! Where's that valium? :p
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