Our Big Bali Build #1

Week 1

Emotions: Joy

Stress Level: Low

Completion: 5%

6 weeks ago we decided to go to Copenhagen Cafe for breakfast 🥗. Little Louis had just left us 10 minutes ago and we were super sad 🐶... As we sat down the couple sat next to us had a cute little sausage dog that came to say hello. ‘She must know our little mate has just left us’ I commented and we got chatting. Rob and Rhia are an Australian couple that decided to sell up in Oz 🇦🇺 and live in Bali 🇮🇩full time. They told us that they had just bought some land and planned to build a home, and a life here.

This is what went down, just in case you were wondering

So let’s just highlight that; if we had never of had Louis, or if he had left us on a different day, or even at a different time, we would never have had this chance encounter - pretty crazy huh?

Half hour later we were on our bikes heading 45 mins up the road to Kadungu to see their plot, and then excitedly over a drink asked them a million questions ❓❓❓It had definitely sewn a seed... ( side note: you can’t actually buy land as a foreigner in Bali, you can lease it long term, and they were getting 25 years with guaranteed option to renew - given that we aren't having kids, that could work for sure) 🤔🤔🤔

So... we started looking... Canggu was a no (too busy and too expensive) so we looked at a couple of plots over Munggu way (next village along the coast) but we quickly come to learn that a lot of that area Is green zone, which you can’t build on, and after a couple of great weekends in Uluwatu 🏄‍♀️, we decided that was our spot!

Getting excited about land in Munggu before finding out it was Green Belt again 😤

We got up at 7am the next weekend to look at our first plot of land in Ulu, and... you've guessed it! This plot was also green belt, starting to feel a pattern emerging here gang! Rather than waste the weekend, that night I did a quick google search, dropped a message to a company that came up and requested to see 2 plots that weekend. We were so lucky that Agus came back to us so quickly and we were all booked in.

Exploring beautiful Uluwatu Beach

Now the crazy shit started... the plot, unbeknown to us at the time, was literally 20m from where we were staying, 3 doors down basically, well weird!

It was love at first sight 😍. I never ever in a million years thought that we would be able to get a spot with a sea view, and this one was a million dollar view 🌊 . The plot was 600m2, double what we wanted or could afford, but we looked at it anyway, kid's gotta dream don't they?

Enter weird shit #2 - the first thing the agent uttered was 'we've got a brand new instruction, we can split this two!’

It was now 300m2, bang on budget, are you kidding me?

OUR 300m2 PIECE OF HEAVEN

The second plot we saw was a fantastic location but no views 🥲, and the surprise third plot definitely had potential, on any other day it would have knocked us out, but number one had stolen our hearts from the second we saw it.

Then the weird shit turned ugly...

After exactly zero pause for thought, we arranged to head back and see our dream plot the next weekend, we wanted to meet the owner and talk through construction possibilities 🏠

The drive up there was heavenly and we were so excited, it was such a lush cruise, but then disaster struck...

We were greeted onsite by the owner to tell us that someone wanted to buy the whole plot, and so our dreams were smashed.

We were absolutely gutted! David had a mini (not very mini) meltdown, and I somehow managed to trick my mind into thinking it was rubbish anyway 😂. Later on that day we asked if we could go and see plot 3 as this plot was still a beaut and had those all important sea views.

We met the agent again the next day, and could see real potential, so we put in an offer there and then, this one wasn’t getting away from us!

5 days later we had a call from the agent saying that our initial offer had been rejected, and she had given us a counter offer BUT... the guy from plot 1 was messing them around and our dream land was back on. What a rollercoaster of emotions!!!

After thinking about it for less than 10 minutes, that was it, sign us up!!!!

Yesterday, 6 weeks after our crazy day with Rob and Rhia, we went to the notary, paid our deposit and sighed a contract. We are now the proud lease holders of 300m2 of prime ocean-view land in Uluwatu! 💰🌊❤️

This was certainly not the plan! 😳

We have just dropped most of our savings to buy this land. We have never built anything before and have no idea what we are doing but fuck it, it's when you follow your heart and say yes that the magic happens, and this just feels right.

Let’s get ready for an absolute roller coaster ride and build our very own Sunshine Villa ☀️