After living in Caboolture for 20 years, Jeff and Catherine McGuinness decided to build a Paal home on a family block in Raleigh, northern NSW.
“The property has been in Catherine’s family for more than 100 years,” says Jeff. “We decided to build to increase the value of the land.”
The couple looked into transportable homes, but the property was difficult to access.
“We needed to build something on site,” says Jeff. “And I was keen to build something myself although I had no building experience – I’ve been a truck driver all my life.”
So, the couple met with Mauree at Paal’s Caboolture office and decided to build a Met-Kit.
“We didn’t want an over-the-top home,” says Jeff. “We only wanted something reasonably small.”
Plans fell into place and, thanks to Jeff’s surprise redundancy, they were able to start building sooner than expected.
“That was the turning point,” says Jeff. “We decided to bring it forward six months.”
Jeff and Catherine made modifications to the design, including re-positioning the two smaller bedrooms, adding a second verandah and removing a wall in the open living room to let in the magnificent view.
“The beauty of Paal is you can take one of their designs and move the interior around to suit you,” says Jeff.
To help with the build, Jeff called on a friend who happened to be a gyprock plasterer. The pair completed the home in a year, organising trades when needed such as a plumber and concreter.
“My son is an electrician, so he wired the home,” says Jeff. “We were going to get a roofer, but we thought, ’How hard could it be’?”
Jeff was very happy with Paal’s process. The manual was detailed and easy to follow and help was a phone call away.
“Anything we got stuck on, we’d sit down, have a cup of coffee and ring Sydney on loudspeaker while Liz explained it,” says Jeff.
“She was fantastic.”
Building with Paal was also affordable. The kit cost approximately $114,000, and the couple’s final total for a new home was around $250,000. “It would have maybe been an extra $100,000 to get someone to build it,” says Jeff.
However, it was the experience of building a home from scratch that Jeff really appreciated.
“When I’m walking back from the shed, looking at the home, I think, I put that there, I achieved that,” he says.
“It’s really satisfying.”
