It's the snail that wins the race.

And what a beautiful little snail she is :)

Hi everyone!

It's been a very long 9 months for us. Designing, researching and making changes. But there's been some progress lately, which we are obviously very excited about. As a lady on tv used to say, "it won't happen overnight, but it will happen!".

Admittedly we are green. We've never done anything like this before. Never built a home, let alone designed one ourselves. Our energy efficient drafty has helped us navigate through the murky waters of the unknown. There's certainly an element of letting go that's needed, as you move through the different processes. We've had to trust that those we've chosen to work along beside us are looking after our best interests and know exactly what they're doing.

Our surveyors have been amazing in organising the title reestablishment that was required. The title for the land we intend to build on was still in an old format and there were warnings on it about the need to confirm the correct dimensions of the land. This is fairly common apparently, as really old titles need to be updated to a new system. The good news with all of this is that we discovered we have 19m2 more land than we realised! Wow how amazing! We feel grateful that it wasn't the other way around, and that we had less land than we thought. If that was the case we may have needed to alter our plans to fit inside these new dimensions. Ahh...no more alterations please!

It's human nature to want something to just happen! Especially something this epic. But the exciting news I have to share today is that we've finally lodged our application to council for our planning permit and 2 lot subdivision! Yes, finally after nine long months! We are both very excited and proud of the fact that we have navigated this process up until this point. There's something quite empowering and confidence building in doing something that you've never done before. Especially something that is as important as this.

And now we hold our breath and wait for a response, which is required within 60 days. Council may come back to us with a request for more information, which our drafty says is quite normal and we should not panic if this happens!

So I think maybe now might be a good time to give you a little reveal of what our house is going to look like. :)

The North-East view of our house

This is the North-East view of the house. (Isn't she a beauty :) Below I'll run through the basics of where things are located and why we chose to put them there, if applicable. The eastern aspect is the front of the house, which faces into the lane-way.

1. The double garage on the far left. Located on the southern boundary facing out into the lane. We are allowed to build on the boundary for up to 10m so for that reason the house is pushed onto the southern boundary to take advantage of the northerly aspect and our tight block, which is just 262m2.

2. The entrance. Luckily for us Marshall Place runs down the side of the land we are building on so there's no need for a battle-axe type of subdivision which ends up using a lot of extra land for the driveway.

3. At the front is our living area with eastern windows which will afford us some privacy from the street, as we are only 1.5m back from the eastern boundary.

4. Above the entranceway and living area is our master bedroom, which includes a lovely wrap around north-easterly window. It also includes a window which looks out onto our balcony through our robe. More about that little feature later. (I know you must the wondering...what the??)

5. Our ensuite bathroom. Originally our ensuite was to be built out over the garage. This left us with a rather large master bedroom (too large we thought).

On further discussion with our drafty we discovered that would cost a lot of extra in engineering and materials to build over the garage. So we played around with our master and ensuite layout considerably, before we came up with a plan that included the ensuite in our master footprint. It's certainly no palatial suite, but it has everything we need and we love it.

6 & 7. On the ground level are large north facing windows in our living area and a wooden pergola to shade these windows in summer. We looked at options for how we may shade these windows and have decided on having a shade sale made for the pergola that we can clip on during the warmer summer months. (We were inspired by Josh Byrne's book 'The Sustainable House Handbook' and how he chose to shade his windows in a cost effective, practical way)

We will also grow a grapevine around the edge of the pergola, to soften it and add greenery. We didn't want to solely rely on the grapevine loosing leaves when we needed it to, and having leaves when we required their shade from the harsh summer sun.

8. Upstairs we have a little balcony, facing out to the north, which will be shaded in summer by the eve. We really wanted to be able to sit out there in all weather situations and watch the sunset, a storm pass by, the birds soaring in sky and singing in trees nearby.

9. Our second bedroom is located on the north-west side of the building. The eve will protect the window from the hot summer sunshine. We are also researching other options for shading this window and the windows on the western wall.

Our North Elevation.

10. Further around on the northern elevation we can see our dining room with large sliding doors which will side outwards on each side. We chose these type of doors mainly for budgetary considerations. Bi-fold doors are the most expensive type of door and when folded back, they take up extra space too. The overhang from the upstairs level will shade these windows in summer and we may consider an awning or shade sail as well if needed.

11. On the roof you can see our proposed 400W solar panel array which for various reasons will be located on the northern and western parts of the roof. I'll talk a lot more about our solar in upcoming blog posts. For now, I'll just note it as an essential inclusion to our energy efficient home.

12. One other thing you probably noticed is that flu protruding from the roofline. We agonised over this inclusion for months. There's a very real and viable argument about burning wood and the impact it has on the environment and also on our neighbours, being in a built up area. We weighed it all up and researched the different fires available, how efficient they were and how often we may actually want to use this fire. We decided that if we collected our wood from an allowed wood collection area in neighbouring state forrests, that would be a sustainable source of wood and therefore, a sustainable source of heat. The likelihood of us using it a lot in winter is minimal, but the luxury of having a direct heat source on those nights when you are home and it's freezing outside, was just too much to resist.

The other factor we needed to consider was do we really need a wood fire in a home that is going to be well insulated, have a northerly aspect and have thermal mass working beautifully during the evening ? The answer to that question was, probably not - but we wanted to add a little bit of luxury and comfort to our living area and that was our final decider.

We've had to consider many different factors in coming up with this design. Budget is a very real and probably the main consideration we've had to make, but over and above that, the other factors that make our home comfortable to live in and allow it to function well in all weather conditions were equally, if not more important. These factors are the why in what we've chosen to include and where.

So in conclusion, we have managed to include everything that was part of our vision for our home - our dreams and desires, within the limitations of our budget, energy efficiency considerations and site constraints. It remains to be seen what council has to say about our proposal but like our drafty says, we've adhered to every rule and regulation that is required for building in a built up area on land under 400m2. Overlooking, overshadowing and set-backs just to name a few. So he thinks there will be no reason for them to knock us back.

Next time I'll fill you in on more detail about the west and southerly elevations of our home. I hope you're just a little bit excited to learn more! Oh and I may even fill you in on that interesting, rather intriguing window in our robe! haha! :)

Nat x

p.s. I have been having issues with this site (Wix) and unfortunately I still can't see your comments, if you have commented. It's ongoing and I'm trying to work though it with them, but it's been frustrating to say the least.

Until I sort that out, if you feel like commenting or asking any questions, you may just need to inbox me. I'd love to know if you've read my blog and what you thought. I can't see who's read it from my end, only how many have read it. So please feel free to email me any comments of encouragement or questions you may have. :)