[Sam B]

Here are some pics of the land we are planning to buy, and hopefully build an ecohouse on. It is 10 mins out of Cambridge up a hill....

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/DSC_1655.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/DSC_1611.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/DSC_1618.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/DSC_1637.jpg

[Sam B]

The last one is taken standing at the top of the land looking down, with views over the Waikato valley. The one with all trees is the scenic reserve next door. Mmmm!

[Jo Jo]

Oh my word, that's just GORGEOUS!

[speckythecky]

What a brilliant piece of land with lovely views.

I love the idea of an eco house. We have been looking at http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~eeh/index.htm for their energy efficient homes.

Just need to get to NZ and find a section as good as this first

[andreamatt]

Just fabulous. So plenty of space for us to pitch our tent then?!!

Do let us know how the planning etc. goes,

Andrea

[Sam B]

Ha ha, plenty of room for your tent Andrea. Bit sloping though? I get v scared thinking about all the planning etc. I keep trying to read the threads on building a house, but my eyes glaze over...

[Kim39]

Whereabouts is this land Sam. I know when you speak of the scenic reserve you must be talking about Manguatautri resereve...yes, or is it Mangakawa? What the size as it looks big. Having picked up milk from farms around those area's i know what type of views your going to have so good luck with it.

Kim

[Sam B]

Update:

We have been waiting for 5 days to hear if our 2nd offer on the land has been accepted. This morning our real estate agent, Bruce, turned up on our doorstep. (He appears to work v hard - it was a Sunday morning!) He said he still had no news about the offer, but he wanted to take us to look at some land out near Lake Karapiro and Mount Maungatautari scenic reserve. We went. it was GORGEOUS!! 7.6 hectares, 4 hectares of this is protected bush, fantastic views, stream, an enormous shed, lots of elevated flat bits ... and quite a lot cheaper than the section we have an offer on. We told him to cancel our offer and put in an offer on this one instead ($80,000 cheaper). Went back again later, walked through some of the bush, felt really excited. Waiting to hear about our new offer. Will post photos later this evening.

[gil]

Update:

We have been waiting for 5 days to hear if our 2nd offer on the land has been accepted. This morning our real estate agent, Bruce, turned up on our doorstep. (He appears to work v hard - it was a Sunday morning!) He said he still had no news about the offer, but he wanted to take us to look at some land out near Lake Karapiro and Mount Maungatautari scenic reserve. We went. it was GORGEOUS!! 7.6 hectares, 4 hectares of this is protected bush, fantastic views, stream, an enormous shed, lots of elevated flat bits ... and quite a lot cheaper than the section we have an offer on. We told him to cancel our offer and put in an offer on this one instead ($80,000 cheaper). Went back again later, walked through some of the bush, felt really excited. Waiting to hear about our new offer. Will post photos later this evening.

Looking forward to seeing pix, Sam, sounds exciting.
Gil
x

[Tia Maria]

How exciting! With the money you save you can take the whole forum out for a drink. :laugh

Do you know why its cheaper?

Cheers

Tia

[Sam B]

Well, firstly it's a long, narrow piece of land, wide enough for us, but not great for farming. Most of it is too hilly for horses, most people want horse paddocks round here. I think a lot of people don't want half their land to be protected bush. It's further out of Cambridge. But in my opinion, it's better - and the more bush the better. The views are great, and the proposed building site is flatter than the last piece of land, so less costs hopefully. Here are pics:
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/DSC_2076.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/view1.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/DSC_2062.jpg

The 2nd shot is a composite view of the building site, the 3rd taken in "our" bush!

[Sam B]

And this is the shed that is half way down the hill and on part of the land - great for storing our container load until the house is built!
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/brydons_2007/DSC_2094.jpg

[wiki]

That is utterly gorgeous! I hope you secure it.

(and despite it being protected bush, you should have plenty of woodfall to forage for constant free firewood!)

Let us know how you get on.

[Moorf]

I'd kill for a wood like that !! Luvverly!!

[Marie P]

WOW ..............It looks amazing Sam .

Good luck with it all and keep us upto date with all the developments.

Can we all come and camp on the forum camping weekend.

Marie x

[Sam B]

Hey yes! That's a great idea. Yippee. God, I'm definitely not going to sleep tonight...

[zardell]

That looks wonderful Sam.

Hope everything goes to plan for you - it's good to hear you sounding more positive.


Keep us updated won't you........


Julie

xx

[katandbob]

Hey yes! That's a great idea. Yippee. God, I'm definitely not going to sleep tonight...

You could always retro fit the shed to live in while the house is being built...

I know one person that actually turned the shed into the house! - along with a door from the shed part into the bathroom! Handy for when you come in filthy from Trail biking!:laugh :laugh - it looked just like a shed from one side, but inside and the back were all modern.

Looks loverly - I'd have horses on it - hill work makes fit horses!:laugh

Kat

[leachio]

Oh Sam what a chore it will be wakin up to that view every morning!!!! :laugh :laugh

Congrats luv! :clap

[Kim39]

Looks good Sam. Must admit i don't recognise the red shed, but i know its an old dairy shed:D


Kim

[migratory birds]

Photos from the second plot are much more inviting, cozier withour feeling closed in, more protected, less isolated feeling. Shed does look solid for goats, horses, an artisan shop...

Good luck!

[vixxann]

Sam - it looks fab :nice1 Let us know how you get on :yes

[Jo Jo]

Wow - what a lovely piece of land. I hope you get it, and hope you hear soon - all this keeping things crossed for you is giving me pins and needles!

[KerryS]

Good luck Sam - it looks fantastic, and Lake Karapiro is beautiful.

[Lupin]

Oh, I everything crossable crossed for you Sam and I am of course quite insanely jealous of the native bush. What an awesome back garden for the kids!!! :)

[Sam B]

Oh God, the farmer next door who currently uses this land for access has gone and put an offer in. I think it will be lower than ours, but it means we need to commit to paper sooner than we were going to. Can't stand much more - didn't sleep a wink last night, and of course I've mentally built the house and moved in already... Real estate agent is on his way round with contract, there's a due diligence clause in it, in case our checks and surveys throw up any probs with the land. Don't really want ot rush this much cos of the current exchange rate. But I want that land!!

[Lupin]

Just make sure you've got a due diligence clause AND a financial clause and sign that contract Sam :)

eta: make sure you've got plenty of working days before settlement to satisfy yourselves too....sorry if you know all this, we were lucky to be taken under the wing of the motel owner where we were staying and their advice saved us nearly $20k in the end as they insisted we put 30 working days into the contract, which bought us enough time to satisfy ourselves we could afford what we wanted from the land. Of course we realised at the umpteenth hour we couldn't....but that's another story!

[Sam B]

Thanks for that - I will try to get the 30 days thingy. Your advice is v welcome, we have no helpful motel owner, just ourselves feeling v grown up all of a sudden.

[jaycee]

the farmer next door who currently uses this land for access
Sam, what happens to his access if you buy the land? I have this mental image of cattle being herded through your garden by right of covenant... or you and the farmer ending up on bad terms. I'd hate to see either of those happen to you :) Has your lawyer checked for that kind of thing, or included a clause to allow you time to find out?

[Sam B]

Thanks Jaycee, he currently drives his quad bike right up through the land as a short cut to his grazing land. He has no right to do so, and would lose this right if we get the land, as he would be driving right by where our house is going. I don't want to end up on bad terms with the farmer, but I don't think he can expect us to let him have access when he will be driving across our garden to have it. He'll have to go the long way round! I could offer him some free grazing on the lower paddock? You're right, I need to speak to our solicitor. Arrgghh

[Sam B]

UPDATE

Now, ahem, this may seem crazy, especially as I'm in the middle of trying to decide what to do about my Dad, but some of you will remember that we really wanted to buy this land and covenanted bush, but it all turned into a bit of a bidding war and in the end we baled out and bought a house in Cambridge - which we like a lot.

However, last month, the estate agent who was dealing with us when we wanted to buy this land (the 2nd piece of land in this thread, not the first) came to see us and said that in the end no-one had bought this land and now the owner of it has gone bankrupt and it was going up for auction - a mortgagees auction (can't work out where to put the apostrophe there so I've left it out sorry).

Anyway the auction was today, and to cut a long story short, we won it, and we've now bought this land for much less than we originally offered. I'm still in shock. Obviously this wasn't the best time for me to be bidding on land, what with worrying about my Dad etc, but it was a now or never sort of decision, and we can always sell it on if things don't work out.

So we own it!!! And it's gorgeous! And we plan to build a house on it, and eventually sell this one. I can't actually believe it. I think my head's going to explode, so I might hit the cocktails early today...

[IanW99]

Congratulations!!!

:raebanana :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana

Ian

[Smiler]

Well done you! :raebanana:raebanana:raebanana

Some things were just meant to be..................................

[CjChris]

Oh, wow!!!! What GREAT news! Girl, sometime the universe just has to give us that extra nudge to let us know we are on the right path.

Congratulations. I think this is an excellent sign that (to quote TS Eliot) "All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well."

Now have a glass of wine and put your feet up! :cheers

Christine

[jen]

Yay! :clap So nice to hear some good things happening to you after your bad family news last week. Enjoy your cocktails and just let it sink in.

Jen

[Lupin]

FANTASTIC news Sam :raebanana :raebanana

So thrilled for you, I know just how awesome it is to own a little piece of Kiwi paradise :clap

[Tia Maria]

Great news Sam, maybe you could build a home and income and either offer your dad a place to stay or rent it out so you can afford flights back to the UK?!

Out of interest, are you more pleased about this than if you had got the bach in Rotorua? It just might be that the naff exchange rate worked in your favour in the end.

Cheers

Tia

[Sam B]

Spot on Tia (hic!) you're right - I AM more pleased, we really wanted to live on this piece of land and we were really disappointed when we didn't get it the first time. So even though we'll end up bringing our money over on the WORST EXCHANGE RATE EVER we are vvvv happy - hic....

[holland]

:raebanana :raebanana It was obviously meant to be xxxxx

[mgbridges]

Wonderful news Sam, so glad you got your little piece of paradise in the end. It may not be the best time for this opportunity to come along but you did right in grabbing it.

My family always seem to have this kind of thing happen ie. great opportunity but bad timing. We have always gone for it and so far its always worked out for the best so I really hope it will be the same for you and that this was 'meant to be'.

Congrats! :raebanana :cheers

Anneliese

[vixxann]

Sam - that's fantastic :clap
and I think goes to show that fate definately plays a hand - you weren't meant to get it first tme round but now you've got it cheaper when you've other issues going on - it must be meant to be :yes

[peebles16]

Brilliant news Sam :clap

Congrats

:cheers
Karen

[Jo Jo]

Hey, congratulations! How fantastic. Oooh, when will you start building?

[katandbob]

congrats Sam, as I said it is a loverly view, bet your dad will love visiting it!

all the best

Kat

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

Wow, great land. You can hold your own cheese rolling contests.

[pinkpiggy]

Great news Sam and what a fab piece of land. Whereabouts is it, if you don't mind me asking?

[Sam B]

It's in the foothills of Maungatautari, on the Cambridge side. We're going to start building asap - well I say we, but I obviously mean 'they' as in qualified builders! Yippee!! Thanks everyone.

[Marie P]

Fantastic news Sam and Justin [and girls !]

We are thrilled to hear your great news ,keep us posted with all developments.

Marie and Dave xx

[KerryS]

That's fantastic news Sam! Congratulations on your little piece of NZ. I hope you get to build the house of your dreams there.

[Bruckner]

Congratulations Sam! Great news and I'm so happy for you! You probably already are familiar with this site: http://www.ecobob.co.nz/Default.aspx

I found it very interesting and there's even a small forum to post on.

Emily

[red]

Congratulations Sam, it looks gorgeous!
:clap :clap :clap