1. Buying the land

Not long after we finished building our house in Noosa Waters, we sat down one evening with a glass of wine and said 'if we built again, what would we do differently, and what would we keep the same?'  The main thing that we decided we would do differently was to have more land (for privacy, peace and quiet, and to grow some veggies) and to be north-facing. We didn't do anything for a couple of years, as we did enjoy the house and location, but eventually neighbours and dogs began to become more annoying, so we made the decision to move again.
We began looking for a Hinterland property in September 2008 and put our Noosa Waters house on the market. Our timing wasn't the best, as that was the month the world financial markets crashed! We decided to go ahead anyway, and see what happened with the property market while we looked around for our new home.

We looked at many, many properties (and certainly tried the patience of the  estate agent we were working with) but didn't find exactly what we were looking for until July 2009 - but still no sale of our house. The property we found had everything:

• Vacant land (sort of)
• North facing
• Fabulous views
• Private
• Not too far to town
• 'Liveable shed' 
• Small acreage (1.8 acres)

The land was going to be sold at auction so we made the decision to go ahead anyway - it seemed so right. We attended several auctions in preparation for the day, so we could get a feel for the process but there were no bids at any of them!  

The auction day was hilarious ... we decided on our limit and registered to bid. There were about 50 people at the auction (mostly just spectators) and two other registered bidders. The auctioneer went through the usual preamble, including the fact that the 'shed' was not a council approved dwelling. This information seemed to surprise one of the bidders who immediately put her bidding paddle in her bag - nothing like doing your research when buying property! 

That left two of us. 'Give me an opening bid' said the aucioneer. Silence. After much cajoling from the auctioneer the 'other party' made a very low bid, at which point the kookaburras in the nearby trees burst into cackles of laughter.  Couldn't have been scripted better! Jonathon then upped the bid, and back and forth it went. The 'other party' waiting until the very last seconds before the third hammer before adding $500 and Jonathon casually waving his bidding paddle immediately, as if to say 'is that all you've got?' Eventually, however, after 64 bids (during which time the auctioneer got confused as to what the current bid was, and J thought he had the bid when he didn't so I had to kick him), the 'other party' reached his limit and the hammer fell. Above the reserve but below our limit so everyone was happy. And exhausted.