Pressure makes diamonds. Pressure also makes rubble.

Most unexpectedly, we have land! My partner and I have put down a deposit on a block of land in Point Cook. It's in the Alamanda estate and we're expecting the land to title in May 2009. Perfect. We're both super stoked and very excited that our dream is becoming more real.

So why the quote in my title? Well, I'm feeling a bit conflicted about the whole process. Why did we buy the block, when we were wanting to wait until we return from holiday? How could we lay down a $20,000 deposit before we secure finance? Why would we do exactly the opposite of what we intended to do?

Pressure. Plain old pressure.

A bit of background, to start us off. We looked at the Alamanda estate a couple of weeks ago. We were sold the minute we walked into the sales office. It's a great location and there's strict development guidelines which is important to us. The sales person was fantastic, answering all of our "newbie" questions confidently and properly. We found a block that we liked the look of and best of all, it was wide enough to suit the house we have picked. More importantly, it was available! A rare find in such a popular estate. We wanted it and would've put down a deposit then and there, except...

Except we're going on holidays in the middle of August. Except we haven't really looked at other estates. Except it doesn't title til May, meaning our dream home is more likely 2 years away. Except we haven't arranged finance.

So we took our brochures, our contracts, our dreams and headed home. Of course, we left our details with the very lovely sales person, but didn't really think they'd call.

They did. I'd like to say they called me every day. I'd even like to say they called me 10 times. No. Just twice. Once on the Monday after the first viewing, then again the following Monday. That's all it took. After a brief chat with my partner, we decided to go for it. Why?

Pressure! It's not the old fashioned, over bearing sales person pressure that I'm talking about. It's the new kind, much more subtle. It's when you want your dream to happen, so you pressure yourself. It's when you listen to your friends who tell you it's a good price, so they pressure you. It's the internet, who says that good blocks go quick, so you feel the pressure.

All that remains to be seen is whether this pressure will create diamonds or rubble.

I think diamonds.