'My dream home was destroyed days before moving in. 9 months later, here's what's happened.'

This is the follow-up to Paige Carmichael's article 'I had just purchased my dream home. A week later, I got a phone call.' You can read that article here.

There are hundreds of hurdles people face when trying to buy a home today. I never thought the thing stopping us would be a toilet.

Sure, I must have visited the toilet several times while anxiously waiting for our offer to be accepted. It had been years of saving and months of Googling "How to buy your first house", "How to make more money quickly" and "Can stress give you IBS?" to get to this point.

Against all odds, our offer on our Noosa home was accepted, only to find out a couple of days before signing the contract and moving in, that a burst toilet pipe had destroyed our new home.

Watch: Twenty-somethings discuss whether it truly is possible to buy property in Sydney. Post continues after video.

The first month post-flood was an uphill battle with the real estate agent, our conveyance (who we wished was a solicitor) and our insurance provider (who wished had never served us so many ads on TV).

We proceeded with the purchase of the now severely water-damaged property, not because the real estate agent told us it would only take six weeks to fix (they weren’t fooling anyone), but because we loved the home and feared we would never get into the competitive housing market if we let it go.

Paige and her partner Steve. Image: Supplied.

From there it was over to our insurance agency. We navigated through their internal processes until eventually we were passed over to the 'big claims team'.

Two months after the flood, a make-safe team gutted the entire interior of our property. Bleak right? For us maybe, but not for others.

From the very beginning, as soon as I shared what happened to us, there were people who said we’d won the lottery.

"You’ll get a brand new house," they said.

This made us feel slightly more optimistic — at least, we figured that once the walls were down, the rebuilding process would start and we would be in our house before we knew it.

Hahaha. How wrong I was.

Paige's home was destroyed because of an burst toilet pipe. Image: Supplied.

In hindsight, the people who told us we’d struck gold had only ever had to make small claims, one or two rooms max, dreaming of redecorating while mostly going about their usual day-to-day life. The thing about a major repair job like ours is that there are so many hidden costs, in particular time and money.

In month three, things slowed right down. In month four, no progress at all. There were weeks on end chasing and pushing only to be told that we couldn't get the right experts for the mould that had accumulated over a particularly hot and humid Queensland summer, or we needed further approvals or reports. In the end, three months passed and our property remained relatively untouched.

In month five, there was movement but not the right kind. You see, the problem with tearing down the interior of a 40-year-old house is that you will find things that aren't up to code now — and non-claim related damages must be covered out of pocket by the owners.

For example, before they could even think about putting the bathroom back in, we had to pay thousands of dollars to increase the size of the shower floor waste. This wouldn't have been an issue if we hadn't already spent every cent we had on the house deposit. Any spare savings we had were now literally going into a hole in the ground.

Paige's home needed major repair. Image: Supplied.

In month six — the month that were initially told by the insurance builder that we’d be moved in — the only development was a subfloor installed on the second level so that trades could get upstairs. Our lease was up at our temporary accommodation and we moved into yet another rental.

The issue with moving the goalpost so many times is that you start to give up hope. Stress levels increased and while it might have looked all rosy on my Instagram, the process started to strain our relationship.

I took on more work to pay for the repairs which left it up to my partner to oversee the project on top of his full-time job. He was also doing what he could at the house with my dad to keep costs down.

In month seven, we received the email we’d be waiting for: it was a repair schedule. The full list of trades lit up in front of our eyes and at the bottom of the list there was a deadline. I still remember seeing the look of equal amounts of joy and disbelief on my partner's face. This was it!

Good days were when we were picking out tiles and flooring and vanity tops, great days were when our house was filled with trades each doing their bit to bring it back to life.

Listen to Things You Didn't Learn In School where we talk about everything we actually need to know about buying a house. Post continues after audio.

Month eight flew by. The most notable moment was rescheduling our first furniture delivery. We bought a sofa back in November when we first purchased the house but had to explain to the store team member what happened and they kindly said they’d hold it for us.

Every month or so the same guy would call asking when he could deliver this sofa and every time we’d have to say we’re sorry we have no idea. Until now!

Which leads me to the present day. Month nine post-flood.

Eventually, all the trades finished up only one week later than anticipated aside from a small snag list. I was making dinner when my partner FaceTimed me from the house.

"Are you ready?" he said facing the camera into our bathroom. He pressed a switch and for the first time in nine months, the lights came on.

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Overall, our insurance provider and their nominated builder did a really good job and repaired our house in the time it takes to grow a full-blown human.

In this time I have birthed a whole new version of myself — a version that has mad respect for anyone who repairs or renovates a house while maintaining their budgets, relationships and decorum (by decorum I mean without screaming at the top of their lungs randomly throughout the day).

A lot of people asked if we were able to make upgrades, and we did. Notably, the old toilet did not go back in.

We upgraded to one with pipes that go straight into the plumbing system — because while we’re endlessly grateful for our new home and the compassion people have shown along the way, there is one thing I’m certain of:

We’re not going through this s**t ever again.

Feature image: Supplied.