Last 2 Year Catch up

Our journey started on 08-04-2010 with the purchased of our 4111m2 dream block in Wodonga, Vic.
The next 14 months consisted of looking at display homes, developing floor plan ideas, and talking to local builders.
After deciding to look at the owner builder route, a friend put us in contact with a architect who was happy to do some draft work and convert our drawn floor plan into a format that was suitable for building approval and quoting.
We then wrote up a list of items we needed to get quotes on and started looking for trades men in all areas.
Over the last 6 months we have been dealing with banks looking to someone who would be happy to lend us money and also going through the process dealing with the local council obtaining a building permit, and town planning permit to build a shed outside of the building envelop and slightly larger than what is allowed on the covenants. 

During this time we also obtained quotes for the full build from local builders. Having a local builder complete the project would have saved a bit of time, and a lot of effort, but we believe we can do the same job for about 20% cheaper than the quotes we were given. Time will tell if this was the right choice.