The path to our dream home. The January 2024 Update!

Hasn't this year flown by at lightning speed!? It feels like groundhog day every year when I reach this place and think exactly the same thing!

So a little update on where we're at after 12 months in the waiting bay...

This year we have:

• Received our planning permit (yay!)

• Engaged a Building Surveyor

• Received our dimensions for our whole house from our drafty so we can begin to design/plan our kitchen layout and other areas like our laundry and bathrooms

• Our window schedule is in the pipeline so we can start getting quotes for our windows

• Begun deconstructing some of the smaller buildings in Pete's dads backyard and applied for a demolition consent permit for the brick garage which will partially come down

• Had a meeting with our Building Biologist

When I look at that list I feel it's a fairly healthy gathering of accomplishments. In amongst those things, we're also focussing on many other things, swinging wildly between the myriad of decisions that need to be made and boxes that need to be ticked.

For those of you who have built or even renovated before, you will understand that feeling of thousands of choices weighing down on you...it's like impending doom, but much more exciting and rewarding! I feel an important part of this process is to back yourself and the choices that you make. Second guessing everything is exhausting and somewhat counterproductive.

We recently visited some beautiful homes on Sustainable house day in Geelong. We found it really inspiring! It actually helped us make some decisions which is a huge bonus.

In a gorgeous straw-bale home in Inverleigh we absolutely fell in love the with the floors.

Oh ...my ... lord... We had been rangling with the idea of tiling our whole lower lever so we could get the thermal mass we need for our energy effeciency rating (which is currently at 8.7!)

Then... we saw these burnished concrete floors and we were SOLD! :)

Burnished concrete floors looking earthy and moody

We'd been trying to choose a tile for ages and it was a really difficult task. We wanted something that looked classy but not too dark and not too light. We even considered natural stone. Choosing to go with a burnished concrete slab saves us not only money but also the time it would take Pete to tile the whole lower level. It's a win win. And we think it looks beautifully earthy and right in line with the look we're going for.

Now to find a good concreter! We may have to poach S'OR Constructions concreter as they did a fabulous job of this slab! (pictured above)

We're also constantly scouring the internet for second hand or new second hand items for our home.

We recently picked up a new sink for our kitchen and our bulters pantry and a second hand (almost new) Bosch dishwasher.

But just the other day (it still pains me to talk about it) we missed out on a stunning second hand timber veneer kitchen! :( We were pretty disappointed. At just $1500, it would have made the most beautiful kitchen for a fraction of the cost of brand new, and saved a kitchen from going into landfill. That's something I find incredibly annoying about a lot of those renovating shows, how they just smash everything to smitherines and throw it in a skip...really?

I'm sure there will be other opportunities but now is the time when we are about to begin designing our kitchen and it would have been perfectly timely.

Anyway, it's sometimes hard to understand why these things happen, but we need to trust the process and believe that there is something else out there just as good, if not better for us!

The laundry is coming down.

Looking though to our build site.

Something we did recently that got us pretty excited is we met with our building Biologist Raphael. We had a fantastic two hour meeting with him and went through many areas of concern we have when it comes to creating a healtly home.

I'll tell you all about that in detail another time as there is a lot to tell.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you a very happy and productive 2024, filled with lots of adventures and dreams fulfilled.

And thanks for being a witness to our journey. Maybe one day I'll be able to get the commenting working so you can ask me a question or just comment on my post.

Talk again soon.

Nat x