Most of our building choices were made in the balmy warm breezes of New Caledonia, where reality seemed a lifetime away and colours were childlike palettes to be experimented with. Now, in the bleak immediacy of our treeless sandy block, time is up. We can only sit and watch the show.

We have been told that the brickies will be on site in a matter of hours, nay minutes and as the clock ticks, I start to get sweaty palms.

Our face brick, our powder-coated aluminium window frames, our garage door and front door, our micro meters of render, our sill bricks, our fascia, our gable lining and roofing are all about to come together in a frighteningly permanent 'Look According To Us'.

Nerve-wracking stuff.

But for those that don't have the benefit of a high end architect with a 3D model construct of their vision – there are still ways to lighten the load. Shortly before leaving New Caledonia, we were put in touch with Hayley Guthrie, Branch Manager of Midland Brick at Subiaco Homebase. Hayley told us about Midland Vision, Midland Brick's generic computer imaging system that allows you to get an idea of how your new home will look before you build. After choosing a house design from the Midland Vision database that most closely resembles yours, a consultant guides you through your choices of face brick, roofing etc to produce an image of the final look. As a bonus, there are samples of these products handy so that you can get a more touchy feely idea of what you are buying into.

I can vouch for the system helping us out (though we are still umming and ahhing over render colour). In fact, Hayley should receive an award for calmly doing her job whilst my two year old was attempting to trash her office. In defence of the toddler mind, it is normally her that gets to play Lego.
The foundations... ready for some brick laying action