Building a house is

something I have observed but never done. To me it looks complicated and expensive. I am sure those who do it welcome anything that makes it less complicated and less expensive.

The first place I called home was a tin shed on the top of a small hill on the edge of a small country town. It was the only accommodation available for my parents. The Senior Cat was teaching in the primary school. My mother filled in for the teachers of both the primary and secondary school if they were away ill. This went on happening until I arrived and Mum had to deal with caring for a baby in a tin shed where there was linoleum placed directly over the ground. Water was pumped via the windmill which, if the wind blew strongly enough, provided a weak and intermittent supply of electricity.

My parents must have been watching the building of the two rows of "Housing Trust" houses down the hill. This was post-war government accommodation. It was intended for the teachers and similar government workers. The houses were the cheapest to build fibro-asbestos houses with their "Metters no.5" wood burning stoves and their "chip heater" hot water in the bathroom. My parents thought it was luxury after the shed.

Now there would be outrage if that sort of new housing was offered to young people. They want something much more substantial and they want air-conditioning to cater for "climate change". They want an instant hot water service and much more.

This is part of the problem with the housing supply of course. People want far more now and they want it from the start. My parents were retired before they built their own home. It was only possible because they saved and commuted some of their superannuation to do it. Prior to that, out in "the country", they were forced to rent the sub-standard accommodation supplied. There was no other accommodation available. On their return to the city they had no choice but to move in to the house my mother's parents had lived in, a house which held many unhappy memories. Yes, they could have stayed there but the Senior Cat was determined Mum should have her "own" home. 

They built a house on a rare vacant block of land not too far from where I now live. It is like many other houses built by the same company. The rooms are not large and it did not come with air-conditioning or landscaping but it did have hot water and electricity. My parents did the rest. Even in retirement they did it gradually. They did it as they could afford it and by deciding their priorities. It is not how things are done now. It is apparently acceptable to go deeper into debt and have it all from the start.

I may be wrong but I suspect it is something which adds greatly to the cost of housing. "Oh, it will be cheaper to do it now while we are building" is something I have heard more than once. Is it? 

Perhaps we need to rethink expectations and rethink priorities. I know I am fortunate I have what I have. It is not perfect but I have something which is actually far better than what my parents started out in. When I said this to a young girl who is about to get married she was shocked. She and her husband to be already have plans for a house with a patio and a pool and "proper air-conditioning" provided by solar panels and more. They are both earning very good money and I give them credit for their determination to save but they still want more. "It's what everyone needs now," I was told. Is it? Would the "housing crisis" be less if people wanted less to start with?