Wrapping our energy efficiency up for 2022!

Well hasn't the year flown by! We're on the doorstep of Christmas and that place always evokes reflection. The year that's been. When I think of achievement, it's not about financial gain, or moving towards what society deems 'successful' either. It's about personal growth and learning in life. This year has had its fair share of learning and challenges for us both.

Working on the design and refining the details of our home has been painstakingly slow. We both agree that getting it right is paramount so we have never felt to rush it. But having initially made contact with our drafty at the beginning of May, we're now facing the long Christmas break a little further behind than we had hoped.

It's just over a year since we put Ryrie street on the market. And almost 11 months since we moved in with family. For me it's been a long and challenging year. Personal health issues and living with family has been really hard. We have always felt incredibly welcomed living here and the generosity shown towards us has been incredible. But as an adult couple, we need our own space. At times I've felt trapped and suffocated living in such close quarters. It's been trying to say the least. With at least another 12-18 months before we move into our new home, we've decided to find a rental. It's time to have our own place again. I have to admit, I'm super excited about the prospect of having our own place again!

Blampied serenity.

Our year had many highlights including a beautiful stay in an off grid tiny house near Daylesford. We decided to lash out for our anniversary. This little house was well insulated, with double glazing, solar panels and a tiny little wood fire that had an oven underneath.

Staying in that little abode was so wonderful for us. It made made us feel super excited about our own plans and spurred us on even more!

Lovely little breaks aside, there was also many months of hard work getting mum and dads property ready to go on the market. We made the decision to help mum and dad downsize so with sadness we wound the business up at the end of July and it was then all systems go.

Relentless rain made the process very difficult. 31 acres of land, shedding, dismantling a cafe/berry picking/mini golf course business of 20 years and preparing a house all took great effort by my 80 something parents, myself and Petes wonderful expertise in areas of the house and garden. Alli's great organisational and decluttering skills were invaluable too.

Hours after the photographers had been out to capture our handiwork, we had a major rain storm event that dumped 50-60mm onto our already very waterlogged land. Then, a second major rain event came along 5 days later and we were well and truly flooded. It was a major blow and one that we just didn't need. Luckily, no property was lost or damaged (just) and so with dad's ingenious ideas and determination, we began pumping water out to the front of the property with two pumps running night and day and things then started to improve.

Rubes loved swimming in the flood waters on mum and dads farm.

The Studio 'ponderosa'.

There's been plenty of milestones and downpoints along the way, too many to mention here. We're finding ourselves in a better place now with things looking set to take off once trading starts in the new year and our drafty promising that we'll be on the top of his priority list when they resume working sometime in January. So hopefully we'll have our application in to the council shortly after that. Mum and dads property will be market ready by around the same time too.

Mum and dads house with flood waters creeping closer.

Having our plans finalised is a fantastic feeling! It's taken a lot of research, measuring, research and more measuring!! Back and forth to our drafty with small changes which all take time. We really love the design and layout of our home and have been busily checking out all kinds of things from flooring, windows, bricks, cladding to kitchen appliances and the need for RCAC's. It's a massive job! There's millions of decisions to make but we believe that the more we make at this early stage, the less stress we'll feel later on when we need to bring it all together.

Our focus now is on how to inject soul and character into a new home. We have many ideas on how we may achieve that. Firstly, we plan to use second hand materials wherever we can. We love the idea of those materials having a story and history. Rather than just going out and buying everything new, reuse, repurpose and recycle sits well with us for many reasons. Yes, you can save some money that way, but not necessarily time. Reusing and repurposing materials takes time and effort to transform but we believe the results will be unique and truly beautiful. We are both open to a second hand kitchen or elements of it, reclaimed timber for our upstairs floors and just recently we've been talking about having a go at making our own concrete sinks. Stay tuned for how it all unfolds!

For now it's time to stay goodbye to 2022 and look towards an exciting 2023. Thanks for being here and sharing our journey with us. It's a privilege to have you here, along for the ride. If you know anyone who you think may enjoy my blog, please feel free to share the link with them too.

We'd like to wish you all a happy and safe Christmas and a wonderful 2023 filled with adventures and dreams coming to fruition. Nat and Pete xxxxx

Our gorgeous tiny house stay.