http://ahouseonthehill.com Building our dream house in the Coromandel, New Zealand Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:05:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [singlepic=604,320,240,,right] Holy cow (Oh la vache) time flies. We've been a bit slack in the writing and photo uploading department lately but we're catching up now. There are five, count them FIVE, fresh, new photo albums with loads of fabulous photos. Go check them out! In the past month there's been quite ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/18 In New Zealand, the building sector has been crazy for a decade. The country was for sale, signs everywhere advertising for the best building spot, the best house to renovate, the blank canvas..It was said that finding a builder in all that building/renovating party would be a nightmare...So at an ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/16 For any house-dreamer, the term building consent gives a chill from head to toe straight away. We were not different than others. The perspective of getting into this battle with council - hereafter named 'the Devil' - impacted on our choice of a local architect and on some of design ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/14 We're getting all fancy now. We're the talk of the town. [singlepic=331,320,240,,right] We have our very own tipi! A while ago we thought it would be great to have a tipi on the land as a sleep-out. As it turns out our architect had one is his backyard when we went to ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/13 Seb's been doing a lot of writing here lately so I am jumping in in between the French homework I should be doing with the laundry whizzing around behind me like a jet engine and I'll talk about something we did this past weekend. [singlepic=275,320,240,,right] We built a shed! Well, sorta kinda. ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/11 When we started to have this idea of a house in the bush, we wanted something genuine, not a box with plastic cladding and aluminum windows. We didn’t want an 'airport' as we call the outrageous black and grey concrete platforms city people tend to build on beautiful coastal slopes. ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/10 [singlepic=135,320,240,,right]When you buy a piece of land somewhere in a remote place, you will usually need more than a shovel to make your way in and get a building site! As we were impatient to start working on the property we had identified local tradesmen to help us move some ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/12 When you believe that you can get your finance sorted, you then enter the painful and exciting process of negotiating the price with the seller. In that process, we have been doing a lot of research about the property, to evaluate its fair market value and to find ways to ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/9 To buy a property, obviously you need to finance it. In New Zealand, the national sport (after Rugby and Barbecue) is buying and selling properties… Considering the competition between banks out there to sell you mortgages - the rat race starts on all walls and shop windows with a shower ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/8 Finding properties for sale in New Zealand was pretty easy for us. We found some great resources online like www.realestate.co.nz and www.trademe.co.nz. We used a number of other sites as well as we tried to find properties that interested us. We have listed these sites on our Resources page. ... http://ahouseonthehill.com/archives/5