Welcome to Home Building Like a Boss, the podcast dedicated to helping first home buyers in Perth build their dream home with ease and excitement.  I'm Jaimi, your host and go-to Building Broker.  Are you ready to feel empowered, in control, and excited about your building journey? I'll help guide you with expert advice, insider tips and tricks, and real life stories to help you navigate the confusing world of home building.

Tune in as I take you on the journey to building your home like a boss. 

Okay, thanks for coming back to another podcast episode. I'm here with my clients or old clients, Lauren and Wajee, who have been in their house now for  a year and a half. They were one of my very, very first clients when I started Boss, even Pre Boss actually. With the old building broker that I worked with, and we're just gonna have a bit of a chat with them about their building experience and what it's been like living in their house.

So thank you guys for coming on this episode. Thank you for having us.  Thanks for, thanks for having the OGs that you are. The OGs on this on this podcast episode. Yes, podcast.  Your podcast debut.  Yes, it is actually funny enough. Yeah, it's great you have glad that it's this podcast. Yeah.  Tell us a little bit about you guys and the start of your building journey.

Well, so I come from, um, one of the last royal families of Kenya. And, uh, no, I'm just joking. Uh,  so no, I'm, so, I'm, uh, I'm originally from Kenya. Moved here in 2006, so I'm half Kenyan, half, uh, my mom's from Rwanda, half EZs, been in Australia since 2006. Met my lovely other half in Twin. 2008. We've been together ever since. 

Aw. And now we've got a beautiful house, two kids.  Aw, that's really it. That's it. My life's not that interesting.  Yeah,  those might be a little bit more interesting. You make it interesting. You do make it interesting. Let's just say that you make it interesting. Um, so Lauren, I've been here living in Australia for since what, 2008?

No.  When I met you, look at that. Oh, it's meant to be. Yeah, pretty much. Um, with JI, we made the decision to build a house. The first time we made a decision to build a house was 2019. After our son was born, we were ready to go and then Covid hit, we pulled the plug 'cause we just didn't know what was gonna happen and kind of just sat on that, on building a house for a little bit.

So we just kind of sat on that until we.  Spoke to you, Jamie, uh, which was 20  back of 2020 or 2021. Yes.  Yeah. Yep. That sounds about right. What made you want to build a house? Them rents expansive rent, huh? Yeah. And you know, all of a sudden the landlord just saying, after the end of your contract, uh, you need to get the F outta here.

So, um, yeah, that risk was just significantly high. Plus we were starting a family, you know, all that. You know, some sort of security and everyone said it was cool to own your own house. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, um, I want it to be cool. Do you think it's cool owning your own house now that you've got one?

Oh, hell yeah. Because then I know, you know, the, the good thing is, is that you're not worried, oh man, if an inspection comes up, what if they see this and they see that? Man, if an inspection comes up, I'm inspecting my own shit. So too bad, so sad. I'm gonna fix it when I wanna fix it. And you can put whatever you want on your walls.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not. Do you think that, like, does that make a big difference, not having to go through that? Oh yeah. Yeah. 100%. The security is so, is so big, especially now. With how limited the rental market is. What you can get. What you can get that's affordable. Mm-hmm. So, and there's just no like, 'cause it continues to go up if you're not meeting the expectations of a landlord, I mean, they can just pretty much pull the plug once your contract's out, look for somebody else.

That's pretty much it. Yeah. Having a house is significant amount of security. And I think also just the fact that we've got something that's ours, you know, something that we can call ours, and it's something that I can say I put a lot of effort into. I picked the taps. You picked ETH thing. Yeah, I did. I, I picked everything, but I, I think that's just also pretty cool to say that I've got something that's mine.

Yeah. Oh, and wa But,  and the fact that we're not paying someone else's mortgage  and we have something that we are building our own equity, which I think is also important. You talk like as if I just live here. I am just talking about to cleans your house. You know what I mean? You do just live here. That's it.

Yeah, I do. Yeah. I get you too clean. And  you're doing the dishes when I came in. Take care of the kids. Yeah, exactly.  Huh? In an African robe. Just roll my. Huh?  Dressed in your African row? Yeah, like I was just imported just to do some clean, some house cleaning. That was all, you know, listen, you started your story  where you're from  really set the scene.

But if they could see what I'm dressed in, then they know, you know what I mean? So, yeah, Jamie will put up some photos for everybody to say Fantastic. When the podcast goes live. Oh. At a behind the scenes shop  of us recording this podcast,  Wiess outfit. Oh,  when you were going through the process, did you toss up between established and New Build or you all for building?

Like how did you go through that process of deciding what you want, wanted to do? And how to take plunge. I think it was a few things. It came down to being able to afford, you know, buying our own house, I think was a bit more expensive when we looked at it. Um, so we thought, okay, why don't we, why don't we build?

Another thing was we got to choose, you know, we got to choose where we were gonna put up our house. You know, we get, we got to pick the, the location, we gotta pick the land. We had choices of two. Lots of lands and you know, which one do you want between the two kind of thing. And for me it was the fact that I got to put love, I say love in quotes, but I got to put the love and the thought into, into the house.

So you know, even the fact if someone asked me why is that door there or why be put, you know, the bedroom on that side and you know, the kitchen and that side, I can tell you why, because of the thought that went into that. And I think for me, that's what I wanted was to put my own spin  on the house. So for me it just made sense to build.

Yeah. And WA just gave me the budget and said, listen, this is the budget. Just go for it. So do what you want. Kind of just went for it. Yeah.  I picked the location. Stayed in budget. Exactly right. Still in budget, aren't we? I'm the bank and you are the operations. That's it.  Which one's the most important role?

The operation.  Well, it doesn't really work because you see at the end of the day, because you doesn't about, it doesn't work without the other. Exactly. Yeah. Well, if you can always have a budget, but if it's not gonna operate right, then yeah. You know, it's useless. Yeah. A good project manager, doesn't manager matter.

Exactly. Yeah. Because there's too much money. You can have as much money as you want, but if someone's still gonna be a terrible project manager, it's gonna come out. Yeah, well you can always like how long's a piece of string, you can always have more, you can always add more upgrades. You can always do more things.

Yeah. So even if your budget is 800,000, you could easily add 1.5 mil of things in 'cause you just keep going so easy. Get this add to cart. Add to cart. Add to cart. Add to cart. I do want the tiles in the bathroom to go all the way to the ceiling. Of course I want that. Of course. Yeah. Who doesn't want that?

Yeah.  Do we have the budget for it? Just can put in the budget. Yeah. Yeah. But it's something you can do later. Yeah. This is not forever. This is for just now. Just now. Mm-hmm. How did you go with, going through the early stage of the process and deciding like where you wanted to live and what you wanted in your house?

Did you find that hard or what were the challenges that you experiencing, navigating, trying to put together what you wanted?  So I'll say this.  Going back to your first question before this one, the prior question is that I didn't want established because first of all, I ain't gonna be walking somewhere someone else has walked before I.

I'm gonna be sleeping in somewhere where someone else has slept before. I have to be the first,  and I, and I will be the last plain and simple. So, um, that's number one. And so then therefore that kind of made the decision also to your, to which segues now into your next question. Where we were gonna live.

We've always been south. I think we started Ward off in Murdoch. In Murdoch, yeah. Renting in Murdoch and then moved to Auburn Grove. Now Hammond Park and, um, I always have this, uh, this going on feud, this feud between me and my friends, um, my very close friends, um, how south is the place to be. We've got, so far, I've migrated a significant amount of my friends south.

There's only one who's still, you know, holding on. He still wants to be a little bit more east, so, um, yeah, that's, that's where I just had to be south, but obviously near the freeway, access to. Public transport access to good schools. You know, it's just a stones throw to where my kid goes to school and the daycare for my daughter as well.

To elaborate on JI'S points. I think you don't like my points.  They were great points. Ji, she's just gonna elaborate, blah. Yes, thanks. I think for us, what was really important was the fact that, you know, we both work in the city, you know, taking the train in, so we had to be close to a train station or easy access to a train station and a freeway.

And the freeway and just be close to. To schools and for me it was, okay, what's the options that we have? Do you know options where you've got both a public school and a a pub private school if you needed that. If we did need that choice, we've got the two options and we just loved, I. The feel, you know, we, we lived in Auburn Grove, so we kind of knew we didn't wanna go too far away because we already knew the area.

We loved the feel of it. We loved the city of Coburn and all the amenities and everything that they offered. So for us, we didn't wanna go any further than that. So, yeah, it came down to schools, the location, um, of, to access to freeways. The freeway, the train station. I think that was it. And shout out to Gateway Shopping Center, because that's not far away either.

All they really need now is just a cinema. That's it. And then it's just gonna be number one. Love gateways.  Well, it's got the gate and there's a tab in there. Yes, there's, and we're closer. Two pubs. Important stuff. That's really the most important, isn't it? They're like four drive through liquor stores.

Yes. You know what I mean? So you don't even have to get out the car, take your alcohol, just walk. They should be walkthrough, drive with liquor stores. That's all there. Yeah.  So many around here. Always gonna have a good time. Never run outta here. Entertaining people,  huh? No. Coming over for a drink. Don't even BYO.

Just walk. Just walk. Yeah. Oh,  I think I'm gonna come over for a drink next time.  Talk us through how you made your design decisions on your four plan. How did you pull together what you wanted and like your non-negotiables and your wishlist, and managing that with the budget. This is all you because I only told, I only told you about the budget, and I think the only other thing before I hand over to Lauren is.

What I did say is, you know, there was also the tossup about having a pool, having all these things, but because like JI'S not that far, we could always go to the beach. It's like 10 minutes. We've got all these parks and everything that get as much house on the land and we can just get into the car and go wherever if we wanted to go somewhere.

So that's really it for me. Gosh, wishlists and needs and wants. There were a few things for me that were like non-negotiables. Um, just given the fact that I had experienced them in the previous, in the, in the house we were renting. So I knew it was something that I wanted and still wanted to have. And I think sitting down with you, Jamie, and being like, Jamie, this is it.

These are my three things. I remember telling you I need a scullery, um, a, you know, a spot for the kids to play out of sight, but I can still see them. I don't know how that makes sense, but you made it happen. And an office study. For us. Like those were the three things and it had to be a four bedroom. And of course we had to have watches, theater, so the, the list was long man, and I know it,  the man cave, like the list I know was of needs was really long.

And we went through four, five, maybe versions of what worked and what didn't work. But I think just being really clear from the get go, what we. We wanted help the process. Mm-hmm. And then from there, you know, you being able to like find a base plan and then for us to be like, work with that kind of. So make changes from there.

And then Yeah. Does this work? Does this is how much money this is gonna be? Exactly. How's that all gonna work together? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And all those people who took our designs were coming for royalties.  Yeah. Or,  or when I rock up to your house, just make sure you got like a nice cold, 8% Woodstock in the fridge and we're good.

You know? It's that, that premixed bourbon. That's it. Yeah. So that's it. That's all I need, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So you took our designs. That's it. You know, that's all I'm asking. That's all I'm asking. No one.  No one took you to song, you told me. Any of those people, 

if he could say this right now, she's shutting you up.  Someone has to.  What do you think, what was one of the most stressful parts about the build for you Builder? I think most stressful and you know, we can go back and forth of what's the most stressful and why, but for me it got to the point where I. We weren't having any communication from the builder.

And I think just that lack of communication and not knowing what was happening was what would kind of just set me off. Mm-hmm. Like I understood the fact that we were coming out of like a building boom and there was so much going on. Um, you know, actually we were in the middle of it. Yeah. You smack bang in the Yeah, we were, yeah.

Yeah. But also we just, covid had just finished. Um, so high labor costs. The  supply chains were messed up. Um, but that wasn't the stress. The stress was because if you think about it overall, like the builder did a great job. Yeah. In terms of the actual building of the house. Yeah. It was the, the the customer service part of it.

Yeah. You know what I mean? So that was really it. Yeah. And that's just where they lacked you did a significant, a good, that's just where the lessons learned on their end. Yeah. Me being in the real estate industry, I kind of knew what was going on, so I was a little bit. Not as bothered by any delays or anything like that.

So that didn't really stress me. It was more of, you know, if I call, if you don't pick up, that's fine, but at least, you know, call me back and say, today we don't really have anything for you, but, um, hopefully we can have some good news for you and stuff like that. Um. Next week or in the next coming days, this is what we expect happen in the next few days.

That's really, it's just a, it's just a, just a quick chat and then just say, this is what's happening. Two second call and that's it. Like, yeah, just being honest that the guy didn't show up to put your roof up. I think that's it, honestly. Yeah. He just didn't show up, so at least like, just be like, Hey, Lauren and Wedgie.

Just that, you know. Yeah. The guy was meant to come and start putting the roof up. Yeah, but he didn't show up today. Yeah. The honesty is the best, the best, like we would've understood, rather than us waiting two weeks and then we eventually have that a meeting and you're like, oh, just so you know, he didn't show up on time.

So yeah. You can't be honesty if you think about it, like I've dealt with clients, like they've been upset with stuff that's happening with their commercial premises or anything like that, like I've dealt with, and um, but I've never lied. Yeah. You know what I mean? I've never lied. I've never had to lie because that's.

That's just the truth. Yeah. The worst is if they find out that you lie. Um, yeah. That's, that's, that's worse. That's worse than actually just saying the truth. That doesn't Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause that could kill a reputation. Yeah. Yeah. Well then it was, yeah. 'cause then we organized that meeting out on site with the construction manager and that was great.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And did that make you feel a little bit.  More at ease because you got to like have that meeting with the buildup. Yes. Yeah, no, it definitely to go over concern and stuff. It definitely did. Like I know I kept chatting to you about it. I'm like, you know, Jamie, they're not doing it. And let's be honest, we lived across the freeway.

I. It was an easy drive to just come and check. So we would, I was checking quite frequently every day  everyone does that.  So you know, you being able to organize that meeting for us and having that chat and for me to be able to express, 'cause I know what didn't have any stress, but like for me to be able to express to the construction manager, listen, these are my concerns.

You're not telling me what's going on. And then for him to like clearly state what was happening. Which we weren't being told what was happening. And then I was like, okay, you know what? Fair enough. But if I hadn't, you know, if you had told me that before, I would've understood and maybe we didn't have to be in that position Yeah.

To get to such a meeting. And then for the, the manager, um, to then put a place in, a plan in place to make sure that, you know, we were caught up somehow. You know, we're making up.  Yeah. Making up time for Exactly, yeah. Right. That, that helped as well. I think it's also informing us, it's also informing us on what they were going through.

Yeah. You know, that's the other thing. 'cause if you are also quiet on, we can only tell you what we're going through 'cause we're experiencing it. Yeah. But we don't know what you might be going through. Yeah. With all the supply chain issues or all this subbies who don't turn up. Yeah. You know, I remember that he did say.

Once that the guys were supposed to do the, the roof, the timber. Yeah. They had started and then they were still trying to finish off another place. Yeah. And then they decided, well, let's just go back and finish that other place. So we just, for like a week we saw that nothing had changed. Yeah. On the roof.

Um, and we're just trying to figure out why, why, but if you just said, well, it's just easier for them to finish that and then just solely work on yours, that's fine. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's what's, it's also what they're kind of going through that. Would've helped us to understand, alright, so this is the plan you've changed.

And even if you're just adapting the plan to make it more efficient, yeah, that's fine. And there's always lots of things like so many moving parts in building and different people on different trains. 100% or a wall that was in the wrong position, color was uh, twice as big. And the bedroom room was smaller.

Yeah, it was much smaller. Was smaller. So they had to move the wall. Yes. That had, yeah. So then that was more delays. But you see, we understood that delay. Do you know what I mean? Like Yeah.  Again, we knew it was happening. Yeah.  Yeah. It just comes down to the communication and there's, like I was saying before, like there's so many moving parts and trades and people, and it all comes down to humans, which humans do make mistakes as they did with the scullery wall.

Yeah. But then it's about how does it. Get rectified and what's the process and how is it dealt with? Not the problem. Exactly. Yeah. Because building does have problems, but it's about the people and the team and the everyone around you and how they deal with it. Yeah. To come up with the solution. Let's talk about that actually.

So the scullery wall in the wrong spot, how did you feel when that happened? Let's go back a little bit. Okay. Okay. So every time I'd walk into, walk onto the, what'd you call it? The Mt. Slab slab. Thank you. Every time I walked in the slab, it's like, Jamie, something's not right, Jamie. Something's not right here.

Walls went up. I was like, oh, this room doesn't look right. And every time I'd walk into that room, I bet Ji, there's something off with this room. I couldn't figure out what it was. Well, your dad's an engineer, so you could already No, that's inherited. Well, to figure out that, thank you. Something was smaller, even though you hadn't even used it or seen it.

It was just a wall. And something just didn't feel right with that room. Yeah. And I kept saying it and um,  eventually when the cabinet maker was putting in the cabinets Yeah. For the scullery was like, oh, these cabinets are too small. So the cabinet maker is one that picked up Yeah. On that because the, yeah, the cabinets are measured on site and then compared with the plans.

Exactly. Because right walls could be out or not that out, but they're not always to Yeah, to exactly right to the tea because it's humans. But mind you, I was pretty excited that my salary was huge. And at that point in time, I was like, oh, big scullery. I didn't need this bigger scullery. But anyway, um, yeah.

So the cabinet maker picked up on that and spoke to the, um, supervisor, what would you call him? Yeah. Yep. And so he's the one that brought it up. He's like, oh, listen, just to let you know, this is what we picked up. And they gave us a few options of what we could do. We could leave it as is. Hence that would be a smaller bedroom.

Yep. And a bigger. Biggest scullery, and they would fork out the, they would pay for the extra cabinets. Cabinetry. Yeah, cabinetry. Or they could bring the wall down, put up a new wall where it was meant to be. So they gave us the two options and we were like, you know what? We want the wall to be where it was meant to be.

Yeah. Right. Because to be honest, that room would've been a really tiny. Tiny bedroom for the kids. So they clearly laid out what was gonna happen and they told us that that would've caused more delays, which is fair enough. Like I understand, you know, the wall had to dry and we were like coming out of winter, so of course it wasn't gonna dry as quickly.

Then, you know, the painting had to happen, electrician to come in. So we, we understood that there was a lot that had to go in that was going to delay.  Finishing off the house, but what they did make clear was that everything else would've still kept going. Yep.  While that was being done. So in essence, not, they didn't stop what they were doing to fix the wall, but I think they handled it really well.

They were honest. They gave us the options, they, you know, to allow us to decide what we wanted and we were happy to wait an extra three weeks. Yeah. Four weeks to get. A bedroom that we had originally wanted. Yeah. Or should I say the size of a bedroom that we wanted? Um.  And it's perfect now. Yeah. I just hope one of our kids is like really short. 

You probably didn't hear that, but Yeah. Yeah. So you feel you're happy with your decision of like going back and doing it and the correct way Yeah. The correct way? Yeah, definitely. Because I'll be honest, I would've just, it would've just kept bothering me. Yeah. And I would've known that that was not what it was meant to be like.

Yeah. And that was not my original choice. Yeah. I say mine because. What, she didn't really just the budget guy. What? She just gave me the money. So yeah, it would've just bothered me. Yeah. And I can't imagine living, you know, in the house and every time I walk to the bedroom I'm like, Ugh, should have changed that.

I should have changed it. Yeah. Well, 'cause yeah, you get, you're frustrated that the mistakes happened and at the builder, and that you have extra time now that you have to deal with this and blah, blah, blah. But in, hi, like in hindsight, that little blip, they have to fix it. It's their mistake. Exactly. Right.

It's just like the solution on how it goes about. Yeah. And. Maybe three weeks while they were doing other stuff. Exactly. So it's, it was three weeks. Yeah. That was added onto what, you know, a bill that was a little longer than we expected. Yeah. It didn't really matter. Yeah. At the end of the day, so.  Wa,  he just gave you the money.

Makes me sound like a sugar daddy  Nigerian prince. The way you're dressed.  Yes. The Nigerian prince guys. He's not from Nigeria, just, just so you know, he's not from Nigeria,  but they are wealthy.  They just,  so you did, we did have a few hurdles through the process, but most of your hurdles.  I feel like we're through construction rather than pre-construction.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think everything like.  Finding the block of land. Mm-hmm. That went really smoothly. That went really quickly. Mm. Because I remember a week from when I, when we spoke to you, yeah. We found a block of land and we signed like a week later. Yeah. So that went really well. Finance, like Tanya's amazing.

Yeah. Um, she still is. Shout out to Tanya. Mm-hmm. We finance. Huh? You saw that product placement right there? Huh?  I should get more royalties on that. Yeah. Free marketing sponsorship.  Pre-start. Yeah. Not even pre-start. So like, sorting out the floor plan that was, that was went smoothly. I, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, pre-start, like we went in, like I went in knowing what I wanted. Yeah. The pre-start workshop that you held for us was amazing. Like, that really helped me visualize what I wanted. Called J It was a workshop back in the day. Yeah. You guys used to do workshop and I still have the flat lay that was done for me.

So, and um, the sketches. Of the kitchen, which by the way is what the kitchen now looks like. Yeah. Yeah. So that workshop was really helpful, I think. Yeah. And then it's when we got into construction, 'cause I was comparing our build to the neighbors. To the neighbor's build, yeah. We were the first house to have our slab go down in the area, so there was a few houses being built at the same time.

So our slab was the first one to go down. Walls went up really quickly, so we were like, oh yeah, fantastic. Yeah, our walls went up even before like the neighbor's slab was laid  and I was like, good, we're gonna, we're gonna be there, you know, we're gonna get things done really quickly. And then it just stalled. 

She's competitive.  Yeah. Neighbors couldn't win. It was the, the big timber delay in it was the timber in the middle of the birds. No, it wasn't even the timber.  Oh, it was the, the trades. The trades. The carpenters. Yeah.  Yeah. So that's where we waited. Maybe say, I think maybe it was like three months, maybe four months of waiting for tradies to come and put the roof up.

Yeah. And by then the neighbor had caught up. Yeah, the neighbor's roof went up.  We were still waiting. There's a lady down the road called Julie, and Julie's like, every time I'd walk by your house, I'd be like, oh,  when is it gonna be done? Like, she apparently really felt for us and the day we were like we were in, she was so happy for us.

Oh. So bless her. But yeah, I'd say it was construction. Yeah. And. How did you know navigating people do it all the time, comparing builds around them, comparing builds on Instagram, comparing these, what is your advice to people in the building process who are currently comparing builds? I. So are you talking about bills or construction times?

Both. Both.  I, okay. I, I wasn't comparing bills. Yeah. Okay. 'cause I was set. Yeah. I was happy with what we had. Um, you know, I look at mine and I look at some others who had the same base plan. What? Gee, they didn't steal our plan and I  was like, oh my God. Thank God. Jamie was like, why don't you guys make that the sliding door to the alfresco bigger?

Yeah. Best thing we did. Yeah. You know, so.  I was happy with what we had. Yeah. But I think when it came to the delays in our build, I then started comparing construction times. Yeah. And I wasn't comparing construction times with another builder. Yeah. The thank you to the internet, there are so many pages up there of everyone building.

Yeah. You end up finding the page that's building with the same builder and there were a few of us. Yeah.  There was heaps of us in Hammond Park.  All had delays and we knew that they were like bills up north that were going up so quickly and we were, you know, we were comparing that and we were complaining.

Right. And I then understood that, listen, we can't do that. We can't compare construction timings even within the same build one. 'cause you probably not do the same house size, for example. Right. And the fact that it's different locations. I understood that, you know, you've got different trade groups, if that's what you wanna call it.

Yeah. Um, for doing things differently. So again, it's not apples to apples, so  I think you just end up stressing yourself when you do do that. Yeah. And the best advice I can give you is just hopefully if you have a chat with your builder, they're honest and open enough to be like, listen, this is what's happening.

Yeah.  Because we were just like the little group of us in Hammond Park building with the same builder we were, we were all stagnant. Yeah. For such a long time. And then when, you know, when they started putting the roofs up, we just started moving. Yeah. You know, so clearly it was our area. Yeah. That had some sort of delay and. 

Come to think about it. It wasn't the builder's fault. Yeah, it It could have just been the trades. Yeah. That were just not rocking up, which happened to be in our case, so the last 70% of what she said is the truth. The beginning part I do not necessarily agree with because every other week I would be sent an Instagram reel or picture of some other house that had been built.

Be like, oh, why didn't we do that? Did you see that?  And I'm just like. You are the one who's designing this house.  So, but nonetheless, we still ended up with a very beautiful house, so. Yeah. Yeah. But she wasn't stressing about it, but she was comparing. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely think there was some moments of stress, for sure.

With the delays. With the delays. Yeah. I think with the, with the comparing in terms of times of build. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But not what I meant with the, it's what was being built. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My, my, my Instagram overflowed. That's why I'm not on social media anymore. Yeah. You had to block her.

Sorry. You can't find the Nigerian prince on Instagram.  He's been banned. People will actually think that I'm not from Kenya. Yeah. I started off this podcast saying, oh yeah, I'm half Kenya and I half Nigerian. I have a run. You see I'm even saying it now. Huh?  Randee,  my mother's just gonna disown me.  Oh God. 

What was one of your favorite parts about building Bounce? Um, it's not sponsored. Yeah. I think it was the, other than the fact that you're gonna end up with your own house, you know, it was like the friendships that we made, you know, we're not good friends with Jamie, good friends with Tanya. Um, that also.

I think  that's also a purple in a way. Every time I see Jamie, I sing share. Do you believe in Love After Love? Like I, I dunno. Why either. What's, what's the, what's the background behind that? I don't know. That was just random because I saw you and I was thinking, when I was walking up to you, I was just like, oh, what song can I randomly sing out?

Nowhere. And that's the first song that came into my head. So I'm just like, ah, just go with it. That's it. Okay. And I screamed it. And you could see the people on the table across from me were just looking at me like, hell yeah. Was this the other day? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was just like, too bad. So sad.

'cause I'm not afraid of being embarrassed. No. You know. Like clearly we can  chat. Well, nobody can see my face on here,  can still scam a few people with those emails, you know, so,  uh,  that's a joke. By the way, Al you won't, you won't get a scam email from me. Yeah.  What is it like being in your house now? 

What's it like being in our home? Yeah. Yes. 'cause it's a home now. Yeah. Got kids, got  got furniture, got got love. Yeah. I've asked for photos to be more photos to be put up, but I, like I said, I've only got, uh, jurisdiction or that theater, so off limits on the rest of the house. The rest of the house is off limits, so I have to seek, uh,  I have to consult the uh. 

The, uh, the authority,  the boss if I want, uh, other things. Ha ha, boss. So, but other than that, no. It's a, it's a home now. Yeah. Yeah. Like my  son knows no different. Like, he was born in our rental where we were. Yeah. Like this is home for him. Yeah. He, he keeps asking when we're gonna paint his room. 'cause I think you promised him I did.

Oh.  Someone promised him that he was gonna get some sort of like purple blue room. No, I didn't say that. I was gonna put a mural of like pole patrol or something, you know? So, yeah.  He's still hot. And you haven't done it yet? Well, he is grown out of it so quickly. Yeah. So I'm just like, well, if I put something then I'm gonna have to change it again.

Yeah. So I put something that maybe I have different things. Yeah. For different ages. Yeah. So that he grows, he's got different Yeah. Types of things. And then change it again in like every, you know, seven, eight years. Yeah. Yeah. You know? But I think he loved, I think he also loved the process. Yeah. He, when we would come on. 

Onto site. He, I remember when JI'S dad came to visit and, um, came onto site. Ace was so excited to show him round. I was like, this is my room. This is this, you know, like, yeah. He, he loved it. And at that age, he was so into like bulldozers, so.  The other perk of coming onto site was like the massive bulldozers around.

But going back to your question, 'cause we were a bit derailed,  I can't even remember what by Ji original question was. Oh, you were like, you know, how does it feel living in Oh yes, yeah. Living in the house. And for me it's, I love it. The fact that it's, it's mine. Not mine, but like, you know, ours, it's yours.

I can't even, I can't even walk into this house with shoes.  Do you know what I mean? Like there's actually a, she's bought like a shoe rack just there, like near the front. But the, I, the funny thing is I still have to walk through the garage, through the hallway and then put my shoes, and then the other day it was so funny, she'd like, she's walking barefoot.

She's like, ah, what did you walk in here with shoes? I'm like, yeah, I had to walk to the damn shoe rack because you put the shoe rack down there. Put the shoe rack in the garage, but you've put stuff on the shoe rack in the garage. Who mulch is that? Exactly. And you know, it's funny, when I came in I was like, do you want me to take my shoes off?

And she was like, no, no, no, no, no. Because she knows who's going to be cleaning it tomorrow. The person who lives in this house  that does have doesn't have any authority,  respect my author.  Anyway, let's, let's, let's go back to the question. Gosh, you have like, really.  I can't remember what I was trying to say. 

What's it like living in your home? Oh, what it's like to live in the house? Yeah.  In your home. In my home. In your home. Right. Other than the fact it's ours  and our kids love it. Quotation marks, hours,  everything just makes sense. Yeah. You know, everything that I stressed over, not stressed over, but like worried.

No, not even worried about, like, I was like, Jamie, these are, uh, these are the, these are the needs, like these have to go in the house. And I remember at one point when we had to, like, we had a choice of two, two lots of lands and I think one was slightly smaller. And I was like, Jamie, if we go for the smaller one, can we put everything on that I.

That I want. And you're like, no, Lauren, we can't.  Mm-hmm. So good decision to be, you know, the plot of plan that we, we do have. 'cause we got everything that we needed. And it makes sense. Like, you know, wa and I work from home on some days. Study's perfect. Yeah. You know, a cinema Zina have their little playroom, which is just, you know, is what we really wanna for them.

So it's things like that, like I love my scullery.  And the fact that my kitchen is nice and simple with, you know, that's what I want. I wanted, and the fact that I'm living all that now Yeah. I think is pretty cool. Yeah, I think that's, that's the cool bit. Yeah. Well, 'cause you, yeah, when you're in the planning, it's like I want these things, but you don't really know like, yeah, how's it gonna come to life?

How am I gonna use it? Exactly.  But it just all works. It works. And now, now you're living it and it's your everyday.  Is there anything that you regret doing or not doing? I wouldn't say regret doing at all, but they're probably little things that I would just change. Yeah. Just having lived in the house now.

Yeah. Which is happens in every single house. Yeah. 'cause you live in and you're like, shit. Didn't think about that. Yeah. Didn't think about that. Yeah. You know, like there is a socket in our bedroom that I'm like, why is that there? Yeah. It's so random, like why are you not on the side? Yeah. Where we could have put like a TV or a nice lamp, like you're just bang.

In the middle. In the middle. Like why? I look at it every night and I'm like, why are you there? You know? It doesn't bother me. Yeah. But I'm like, how did I miss that? Yeah. Kind of, you know, kind of thing. Or the door. Yeah. Or don't get me sat on the door. Yeah. So this is the door. You walk through the house, you know the dining room through the play playroom, and then you are heading into the hallway to the, you know, the minor bedrooms and. 

For some reason didn't put a door there. Yeah.  I'm like, why? Yeah. And no one picked it. My husband didn't pick it. Yeah, we didn't pick it. My dad didn't pick it.  Your dad did? No, he didn't. Well, he did because when he, when the house was done. Then he saw it. He is like, why don't you have a door there? Yeah. No, I mean, what?

It wasn't picked in the floor plan. Oh, in the floor. Yeah. We didn't pick it in the floor. There's so many things that you're looking at. And Windows. Yeah, the windows. You know, I was stressing over a window when I should have been stressing about a door. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So there's nothing that I regret doing.

Yeah. But having lived in it now, I'm like, huh. Maybe we didn't need that. Yeah. Or we could have moved that. Yeah. It's in the wrong spot. Yeah. But in saying all that, I think what we did was perfect. How did you come to the decision of wanting to build and then like do you think if you didn't do it then would you be where you are now?

No, if I didn't do it then I don't think I would do it now. Yeah. Like what we were discussing earlier is that. Like the prices of everything is just so astronomical. Yeah. That budget that I had, yeah. You know, it's not existed now, would not exist now. You know? Exactly. So I, yeah, I just have, I just have to be living in a, in a manger name, my son Jesus. 

Yeah. That's what it is. You know, like for real, like if you think about it, like, it's just, it's just so hard. Like the anxiety, the anxiety of someone doing it. Now, especially doing it uninformed Yeah. Be through the roof. Yeah. So, because everything is just so expensive. Yeah. Everything, it just, it's just the cost of living crisis.

It's not just Australia now. Yeah. It's all over the world. And so Yeah. If we hadn't done it, then I think I would be more reluctant to do it now. Yeah. And I think, well the, the good thing with me is that I don't think I would, it wouldn't be. I wouldn't say I would never do it, but I'd just be more reluctant to do it.

Mm. Because, because I, I'm in the real estate industry. Mm. So I can kind of see things, uh, more internally and so I'd probably just be telling myself now it's like, well, let's just guess I, no matter what it is Mm. It is what it is. Get and figure it out after Exactly. And figure it out after. Whereas there's a lot of people now who just are just so scared about doing it.

Mm. What would you tell the people who are scared about doing it? Speak to boss?  No. When it comes to building, no. 100%. It's like, it's like when you, when you, I'll tell you a, I'll tell you an interesting story. When, when I was in, we don't know when this is gonna go. Yeah, no. When I was in, um, I was working for Defers and Ryan Commercial and, um, no.

Like, look Backs, quick backstory. Draz and Ryan, like, they, they set me up. That's the first place I ever worked in the commercial. Uh. Real estate industry and, um, Miguel Defra and the late Rod Ryan, like, um, like Miguel, I, I, I, I hold him in very, very high regard. Mm. I wouldn't be where I was, where I am today if it wasn't for him.

Yeah. Like, he's a, he's a very. He doesn't know it, but he is a very special human being to me. But basically with that being said, there was a situation where not involving him, it was, uh, I was selling this commercial property and um, and the guy who was buying didn't have, like, he didn't have a settlement agent.

He was just trying to do everything himself.  I strongly recommend it. I'm like, dude, I think you should really speak to somebody, get some information, all that type of stuff. Um, because I'm not licensed to give you settlement information. You have to use this because what if the transfer of funds, what if anything goes wrong?

All that type of thing. What ended up happening is there was a delay in the settlement and he got penalized. Interest wise? Yeah. From the seller because.  He just didn't do things the way, he just didn't have somebody. Good representation. And to have good representation I think is key. So, um.  Because they have all the information and how to limit any risk and mitigate any risk that you're gonna go through with it.

So to mitigate the risk when it comes to building, speak to someone informed. And I think to me, the best thing, one of the best things that happened instead of going to a builder and coming straight to you is what I loved is when you said. Oh, you know what? We'll do a plan. We can change it like 1,000,001 times.

It's not gonna cost you anything. And I'm just like, what? What? Because usually like a builder would be like, oh, here's not 200 bucks there. Here's not 500 bucks there. You know, just change a piece of paper. Yeah. You know? And I was just like, we can just keep on changing gloo and everything.  Now to me was that you already sold me.

I think that was one of the first things that you sold me on. Yeah. Yeah. And I was just like, that is absolutely awesome. 'cause I knew what builders would do. Yeah. Yeah. Um, with that. So how did you, I know we're going back very, very early days, was your initial pro thought process to go directly to a builder?

How did you have the idea to go to a building broker? Do you remember when we said we, in 2019, we were looking to build? Yep. So we went straight to a builder. Yep. And it felt really pushy. Yep. I'll be honest, really pushy. I felt like we weren't getting what we wanted and in hindsight, I'm so. So glad we didn't, we didn't do it, but like, you know, having, having, you know, having a chat with you and you taking what we wanted. 

Having a look at our budget and what we wanted, where we wanted, we wanted to, to live, you know, to build. And then taking that information, working with that, and coming back to us and being like, okay, here are your options. Yeah. Here's how much it's gonna cost you. And this is without like pre-start and you know, all the fancy stuff.

You know, this is your base and. I like that. I like the fact that we had options and going into a build, into a, what'd you call those? Show? Show homes. What do you call 'em? Display home. Display homes. People don't realize that's not what you're going to get. No.  Right. So for an extra $200,000 you can have it.

Exactly right. It doesn't fit in the budget though, does it? So what's the point in doing that? If I'm gonna walk into a house and be like, I love this. I want this, but it's not something I can have. Like why not sit with somebody that can? Take what you want. Yeah. And give you options of how you can achieve it.

Yeah.  Like you'd rather that than being with somebody that then you're stuck with that With the builder. Yeah. Right. You feel like they're being really pushy. Yeah. You are unhappy. Then you're like, ah, I'm gonna pull out. Yeah. And then you lose on out on your deposit. Your deposit, you know, like, oh, well you could have just done it the correct way.

And I put that in quotes and. And sat down with Jamie. Right. And she give you the various options of various ways in which you could get what you you wanted. Was that the question? Yeah. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, like think about it like they're out to make a sale no matter what the cost. Yeah.

So once they get, you're just another number on a sheet of paper. Whereas dealing with boss and yourself, it wasn't just being another number, it was dealing with somebody that actually cared. About what we were trying to achieve. Yeah. So I think that's, that's not just a number to you.  Like I say, who invited this Nigerian principal? 

Jaimi, you did this. This? Yeah. Kenyan, Kenyan, Kenya.  This is my fault. We're gonna forget where I'm from. If we keep saying Nigerian,  I think we've said too many places over the whole episode.  Everybody lost? So if so, so everyone knows where you're from. Ji Ji is from Kenya. He's half Kenyan. And half ruined theses.

There's no Nigerian in there.  I'm dressed like one though.  Oh, that's funny. Today's been such a good episode. Let's wrap up with one bit of advice that you would give someone who's looking at building next or at the moment, or first home buyer in the position that like you guys were in, or someone who's looking to build. 

For me, I think it's.  Stop listening to the fluff, if that's even the correct word. Stop listening to everything that's around, like there's so much that's going on. There's, people have so many different experiences. People are gonna say so many different things to you. The best thing that you could do is. 

Find somebody, be it Jamie, a you know, a building broker, be it you guys going straight to like a builder, but just having all the information that you can gather so that you are making an informed decision. It's a big decision. Right. But I think for me, I always say I will make, I won't make a, a decision or I won't buy something or I won't do something without having done my research.

And having looked at different options. Um, so that's the best thing I can say is do your research and have, make your decisions with, you know,  the information behind you and doing it, doing the process with somebody that you, you trust. Mm. You know? Do you trust that builder?  Or that broker builder, that's what you wanna call it.

You know, do you trust that person or do you wanna go through somebody that has your best intentions at heart and  is with you throughout that whole process? Not just the start. Yeah, off the process, informed decision, and doing it with somebody that you trust. Well, I guess for me, I will say don't overthink it.

It's not that hard. To build a lot of people. See, the thing is, is that every other house that was built had somebody doing pretty much what we were doing, unless obviously it's like an investor, but nonetheless had somebody that was doing what we were doing. So if all of them can do it, why can't you?

It's not that hard. You know what I mean? You just gotta, you just gotta speak to someone that's informed, like Lauren was saying, and that's kind of it. And you just go through the motions. But at the end of the day, there will be an end product. You know? That's the thing. There's a lot of stuff that's going on in the world.

Just keep your life simple. If you're not ready, you're not ready. I always say this thing like, whenever you, it's, it's, it's what you're taught, like when you're taught, when you're driving. If you have to think twice about making a decision when you're turning into another road mm-hmm. Then you shouldn't be turning into that road.

Yeah. It should be an immediate decision. Like I've made the decision to turn and you do it. You know what I mean? If  it's not a fuck yes, it's a fuck no. Exactly. Amen. So, um. Yeah. And now we have, we have a beautiful home as a result of it. Because when we look back at it, it was like, that was it. We went through it and, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah. That's it. And we got this beautiful home to live. Yeah. I mean, it's awesome. Yeah. So my wife loves it. My kids love it. Mm-hmm. Uh, my sister-in-law loves it. Dogs love it. Their dog loves it. Do you know what I mean? Uh, everyone loves loves it. Friends loves it. Everyone loves it. You know, we've got so much love in this house, you know, with the, with the kids.

Um, family. Family. Um. Especially my in-laws, my, my, my sister-in-law's here all the time. She loves being here with the kids and everything that my in-laws come overseas. My parents, uh, my mom's yet to experience it. She's not yet been here and my brother, but, uh, nonetheless. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's, it's, it's worth giving it a go, especially if you're trying to get your foot in the door.

Yeah.  It's worth it. It's worth it. Yeah. It's worth it. And even if you start small, so what? Yeah. You know, start, you can just start somewhere. Just don't do it when you are very pregnant. Yes. Don't do it when you're very pregnant. Yes. We were. Yeah, we, we, we probably should have thought that through, but then again at the end, at the, when we made that, we, we didn't expect to still be building when we were pregnant.

Oh, true. That's a good point. Yeah. Because film took longer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But no, that's, that's what I'd say. I think it's, it's, it's not that hard. Amazing. Well, thank you guys for joining on this episode. You made it easy.  That's what it was. That was, thanks. You made it easy. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Don't ever sell your social short.

Thank you for having us. It's been great. 

Thank you so much for tuning in to the home building like a Boss podcast. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something new. Remember, you've got this and I've got. Your back. Until next time, stay inspired, stay informed, and stay confident on your building journey. I can't wait to chat with you on the next episode. 

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