To The Draftsman

The day arrived. Months of drawings, several 2b pencils, numerous pieces of scrap paper, hours googling different ideas, endless conversations over early morning coffee, mid morning coffee, afternoon coffee and finally........ we arrived at a point where we can nit pick no more. The plan is complete.

I have to say, that the builder (aka hubby) has done amazingly well. As with all people intending to build, we are conscious of budget vs our wish list. We've managed to design a home that (a) suits our needs for now (b) can be very easily and with little cost to new owners, suit a larger family - ALWAYS keep in mind a resale factor - and (c) can be built in three stages so that we can build as we feel comfortable to do so.

Off to Brett we went. Brett Turner of Design Plus Group, has been our draftsman for as long as we've been in business. It's exciting sitting and discussing ideas with someone who shares the enthusiasm, understands what your are trying to do, and shares ideals concerning designing for the climate, environment and the family living in the home. Now I will admit that I do tend to glaze over when the boys get excited talking Ibeams, portals, purlons and rafters. Lets face it, while I appreciate that all of this is very important to the structural integrity to the home, I want to talk about design factors, which way to run Linea Boards and Axon, layouts of rooms, positions of windows, and then put me in a room with laminate samples and tiles I'm a little like a kid in a lollie shop.

BUT when I hear words relating to financial savings, and ideas like, no posts on the back verandah, I sit up and take more notice!

So here's some tips on what to take to your draftsman.

Budget - You need to be upfront with these guys. They have a fair idea on cost of construction. You have to be realistic. You cant build a 400m2 house when you only have money for a 280m2 house.

Wishlist - make a list of what are must haves, and what are wish lists the latter being the items you can be flexible about.

Address or site plan. If you don't have a plan of your block of land (it should be in the contract you received when you bought it) have the address. The draftsman can look it up on various sites. They need this info for many things apart from the obvious of where to site the house. Your local council will have zonings over various areas of your region. Some of these zonings can have an impact on how and what you can build on your land. The easiest example is a bushfire zoning. Low, medium and high all have different construction requirements.

Your ideas, I'm using Pinterest to help me put my thoughts, ideas and colours together for the new home. It's Steampunk, so now she's looking on Pinterest for steampunk bathroom ideas..... and she founds some!! She also wants a chandelier in the bathroom.... not going to happen kiddo
amazing what you can find on there. I have told the daughter that she can pick tiles and colours for her ensuite, and suggested she use pinterest to give her ideas. She loves

Also have a look at the house you're leaving. What works in it that you'd like to replicate, what doesn't work that you'd like to change. Measure the bedrooms so you understand sizes. Have a good look at your kitchen. is it too small, is it big but useless when it comes to workspace? Do you need drawers rather than cupboards. Laundries are the most spectacularly overlooked room I find. A good working laundry MUST have bench space. If you don't have room for a good sized laundry, look up. Can overhead cupboards help? Would a front loader washer free up bench space?

There are so many aspect of designing a new home it can make your head spin, but a bit of forethought and trusting the professional people around you, makes life so much easier.

Oh Lordy, We're Do We Start

Firstly, Happy New Year. I hope the celebrations were fun and fabulous.

We were out with friends last night, and we were discussing our observations of 2013. We'd gathered on New Years Eve 2012 and decided that 2013 was going to be a year of big change. We were so spot on with that insight, as many of us there faced huge changes in our lives this year. So last night we again looked forward and decided that 2014 would be the culmination of those changes. We're a philosophical bunch.

With that thought in mind, we walked all over our block, having a good look at it for the first time, now that it was ours. We needed to have a look and try and ascertain where certain buildings were to be sited, and therefore which trees we would need to remove and which trees were worth saving and which ones were just rubbish trees. Now before the tree huggers jump up and down, when I say rubbish trees, I mean those ones that are half dead, dangerous, or trees that naturally aren't long living and are already on the way out. We don't intend to vandalise the land in anyway, but to do what we plan which also incorporates improving the soil and the fauna there, we need to remove trees.

So we wandered all over and had a good look at the fall of the land, and took a good look at our dam. Its quite shallow, choked with reed and runs a good width of the block. Basically, its stuffed and in need of repair. This is not our area of expertise so we called some fellows who have been doing this sort of thing for years. Wayne and Barry met with us to discuss the issue of the reeds in the dam etc. I was so pleased to hear their take on the dam. They have no concerns with the reeds and can see that pushing them out and over the dam wall and spreading them out and adding mulch will improve the soil in that part of the paddock and help the grasses grow. Nice to have someone on board with the same ideals. They have given us a plan of action, and once we have completed all the town planning forms, we're good to go. Hoping to get it done before the first rains and get the paddocks prepared properly. I've been doing lots of reading on managing small properties, but that's another post!

When we first looked at the dam in December the water was about a metre from the edge. Now as per photo below, its about 3 - 4 metres from the edge. Man we need some rain.