The stress of building a home made easy.

Since the day we met, my husband and I have spent hours, days and weeks imagining building our dream home.

One of our favourite things to do on the weekend was to buy a couple of takeaway coffees and drive around the streets, looking at all of the beautiful homes. Sometimes we could be bothered to get out of the car and look at one, but it had to be really special. Searching for building inspiration can be tiring work.

We started fantasising about building our dream home but it didn’t go very well. My husband wanted a movie room. I didn’t see the point, when going to the local cinema is way more fun. I wanted an office with bookshelves that double as walls, a big and snuggly reading chair and a lock on the door. Clearly we were of conflicting ideologies when it came to home design. We weren’t one of those couples likely to survive designing and building a home from scratch. He wanted a spacious area for all his gadgets and tools. I wanted a garage I could actually park my car in, devoid of gadgets and tools.

It became increasingly clear that we’d have to trust those folks more qualified when it comes to building beautiful homes. It just became a matter of which design to choose and how to modify it so it suited our needs.

Instead of sitting down with paper and pencils or an expensive architect, we tried out the iBuildNew site, a resource that helps you choose a home to build that suits your needs. You simply take your time browsing through all of the designs featured on their site – no car or takeaway coffee required – and find the perfect home for you.

It’s pretty simple. You select the kind of home you want from a drop down menu (double storey), how many bedrooms (four) how many bathrooms (three) and then you select anything else you’d like. You can even pick a budget so you don’t let it get too far out of hand. The service is completely free and so easy to use.

I didn’t even have a chance to click on anything on the iBuildNew site before a pop-up appeared asking me if a live assistant could be of any help. I love that because to be honest, when it comes to building and renovating, I have no idea where to begin. That’s despite years of watching The Block and seeing a lot but learning nothing except a very long list of what NOT to do.

This amazing tutorial will help you use the site so you choose your perfect home more easily. I may have gotten a little carried away on my first experience.

I have always wanted a massive open-plan kitchen-dining and living area so I can cook dinner and talk to the kids at the same time so I added that in. You can even compare designs side-by-side so you can make the right choice for your family. If you need more time, save your results and come back later. Once you’re done browsing, put in your details to be directed to contact a builder, from there you will be one step closer to building the home of your dreams.

My kids have their ideas about our dream home too. They want it to be more than one storey. For some reason they’ve always wanted a home with stairs which is really cute. I think they want to be able to slide down a banister as if they’re in the cast of Matilda. They also want a pool (we’re still discussing that) and they want their own bedrooms, though reserve their right to sleep in the same bedroom – so each will need to have room for trundle bunk beds.

They loved my idea of a huge alfresco dining area complete with outdoor kitchen but apparently that can’t be as big as the house itself. Noted. The novelty of sleeping outdoors instead of in an actual house would have worn off eventually. Plus, winter.

There is lots of information on the site which saves me traversing multiple other sites, and for someone like me who is time poor, I love the option to call them and chat to someone for advice, and get them to help me find what I’m looking for quickly. No tricky jargon. No sales pitches, and no hidden fees – in fact it’s completely free. Once you’ve put your details in once, your profile is saved on the system for each enquiry you make. Try not to get as carried away as I did, or do, just for fun.

Have you recently built a new home?