Inside and research

The inside of the house was worse than the outside and i don't have the pictures to prove it. No doubt if i looked hard enough i could find some before photos but i prefer not to. The walls were 4 different colours, ranging from gray to a light-shouldn't have even bothered attempt at covering the gray - white. There were tiles missing in the bathroom, the carpet was beyond repair, the laundry floor was painted concrete, there were literally thousands of nail holes in the wall, bad patch jobs, no light coverings and the list goes on.

So i painted, patched, tiled, sanded, sealed, grouted, replaced and repaired.

By this time mum had stopped driving, i was on 3 months leave from work and i still didn't have a plan, only an idea. I was researching cheap blocks and came up with a few places, Chinchilla, Roma, Tara and Childers. Depending on how far from civilization you want to live blocks start at $15k for a standard house block go to $150k for 50 acres of prime farmland and head upwards from there the closer you get to major towns. We focused on seeking out a 25 acres lifestyle (aka crap land) block 10 - 15mins from Gin Gin/Childers. They were priced around the $80k mark.

The next was housing options. Personally i didn't care if i lived in a tent but i had mum to consider. We looked at caravans, pre-fab homes, kit homes, sheds, barns, removal houses even new houses. Everything was an option as long as it came within budget and i wouldn't know what the exact budget was until we started spending.

It would have been nice to say 'No this is what i will spend and no more' but that simply not realistic. I knew to make this work i had to be flexible. So i looked at everything and was prepared to take anything.

Researching the costs was probably the hardest aspect of assessing viability. Houses and land are basic but when you get into things such as concrete house slabs, plumbing, sewerage, electricity, the areas become gray as each job is quoted specific to it's needs. I worked of averages where i could and added extra for good measure.

An average house slab will cost upwards of $20k, septic $5k - $10k, electricity $5k, plumbing $5k. There there are the extras, painting, council fees, water tanks, engineeers, draftsman, soil tests, transport costs and more.

It doesn't matter where the block is, there will always be things you need to consider. Such as an $80k block is great until you need to place the house more than 50metres from the main power pole outside the block, my understanding is that each pole that the electricity company needs to place will cost you about $20k. You also need to consider water tanks which for a decent size are around $5k each, ideally you would have 3 of these. You also need to take into account that people will charge you more the further they have to travel. Concrete for one can have an added charge per klm.

Kit homes are awesome and i really leaned in this direction. A beautiful 6 bedroom, 2 bathroom home can be purchased for around $80k but you need to take into account that its extra to stump and place a floor or slab it. This boosts the cost, but is still a very cheap option if you have the time and energy.

To have a builder erect a kit home for you, you are looking at approximately half the purchase cost, this is the same for sheds and barns.

I then started looking into removal houses and struck gold. You can pick up a 3 bedroom house for around $50K including stumping and transport. Most will need a little work and extra costs still apply. With the budget i was working with it was looking extremely possible that i could make something happen. After a few more calculations it was time to talk to my mother about seriously considering giving up her only possession in the world and putting a whole lot of faith in a series of averages and guesses.