A Self Build Dream

You know that one daydream you have? The one that you return to again and again and each time you build upon it a little more and develop it because you know one day, one day it is going to happen? Well for Flyfour and I that little daydream is building our own home. It's something we've talked about, dreamed about and researched for probably as long as we've been married, but we've never been as close as we might be right now.

Several years ago, we did look at plots in Milton Keynes. Every time we drive past them, my heart does a little flutter at the thought of "We could have lived there" until I remember the plots were too expensive and too close to a main road.

The ideas didn't stop there. If we couldn't buy an empty plot, why not rebuild our home? Well, for a start it's attached to the one next door and my idea of finding a way to get our next-door neighbours to give us their home and then knocking them down so we could build a house was deemed as too far fetched. As was either Flyfour or I marrying a super-rich old person, killing them off and then using the money to buy a plot and build a home.

And then we heard about Graven Hill, an estate where all the homes are either self-build or custom build homes... and well the plots? The plots aren't that expensive really.

So at the weekend, we went for a walk around the estate to look at what people had built, to see the kinds of homes people had built or had custom designed for them.

There were a couple of other couples walking around, doing the same as us and plenty of residents, all of whom extolled the virtues of living at Graven Hill. Honestly, I don't think I've ever spoken, socially distanced of course, to so many people.

We even met a really lovely lady who not only allowed us to play with her dog (well actually her Mother in laws dog!) but spoke to us for ages, explained all about the process from her point of view, gave us some super top tips and then invited us to see the inside of her home, which was having windows installed at that very moment.

Her home was amazing and she was really lovely and either great at lying or honestly did think that Flyfour and I were not old enough to have a 16 year old and a 12 year old hiding at home! The fact that she was so nice and that my favourite plot on the estate is a plot just two doors down from her home is a complete coincidence...

So now Flyfour and I are trying to work out what exactly is important to us in a home.
What we think it should look like.
What we think are essential requirements for inside.
What we imagine when we have our daydreams about building our own home.

What we imagine when we think of living in that home.

We both know this might never happen, but for now we're happy dreaming and refining our plans and making friends who share the same dream as us.