It's taken a couple of years and an extra $120,000 on their original budget, but Gemma Mann and Mike Alsweiler have finally managed to buy their first home.
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Now the couple have found a home with everything they wanted - three bedrooms, a double garage with a workshop, renovated open plan kitchen and dining area, plus a fully-fenced section with a heated salt-water pool in the back yard.
Mann said the workshop would be ideal for the couple's furniture-making hobby and the extra bedroom gave them space if they had another child.
When the Herald visited this week, their one-year-old son Harper was already enjoying the run of the 675m2 property in Ranui.
"That was one of the biggest things, having a big back yard," said Mann. "Harper's such a boy's boy and likes to run around."
The only catch for Mann, a 28-year-old pre-school teacher, and Alsweiler, a 29-year-old cabinet-maker, is they had to pay $720,000, well above their original price limit of $600,000.
