First timers building our 'dream' home

We haven't even started building yet and our 'dream' home is already compromised...little did we know that when we walked into that display home what we would be walking into was not the house we thought we could afford but the house we would like to have if we had an extra $100k for upgrades.

It took us a year of looking in Sydney to decide that we were better off buying a block of land and building a house we liked, to buying an existing home which needed to be renovated at some stage when it was affordable to do so. It also took us a long time to finally give up the idea that we could buy a half decent house and also live close to the city. After coming to this realisation it didn't take us long to find a block of land in the Hills district; in hindsight we should have moved out of the eastern suburbs a long time ago.

So we've signed up with Eden Brae and are in the midst of selecting everything for the house which for me has been a fun experience so far.