This is house plan. It has had to be designed to be able to minimise the cut into the land. Thats why the L shape.

Also, the front of the house faces west.

Well, it was a bit longer than I expected. However, the building has commenced.

Let me fill you in with what has happened over the past 12 months.

The land had a much greater slope than expected, 7 meters from back to front. So it required much thinking and going back and forth with the builders to come up with a design that only required a 1.2 metre cut (which will be located about 4 meters from the back of the house).

Just think, it took 12 months to come up with a design for the house, I wonder how long it will take to design the garden.

Who would have thought that designing a house to sustainable principles, very much challenge your principals. You find out that the preference for halogen lights out ways covering the roof with full insulation and you need to decide if you care about embodied energy. The research, ideas and the level you can take this - can go on for ever. So we have not gone fully into every single possibility however we did stick to the passive heating and cooling design and that is reflected in the 6.5 stars energy rating we were able to achieve.

I hope you enjoy seeing the progress as we share this with you.

THE LAND

Well its official. We officially own a piece of Australia (or should I say the bank holds our title whilst we pay them back over the next 25 years).

Now we get to see how we can turn our ideas into a plan, a plan into a building and a building into a home. I spent the last ten years dismissing the need or the desire to own a block of land but now it has happened it is very exciting.

Here is the plan.

Something small. Three bedrooms. One bathroom. Utilising the northern sun during the day whilst not neglecting the south westerly view. Ensure enough shade from the sun and try to achieve a sustainable building vibe. Water tanks, yes. Solar power (maybe) and a garden that I can understand and look after. Their is a one and half meter fall from the back to the front (so we are told). Do we go stumps or cut into the land and place it onto a slab. There is the type of cladding to consider within the confines of the covenant. There is our budget, the bank rates, inflation, consistency of wages, earning capacity and maintaining a sanity and healthy relationship with the children and wife.

It is a little plan that grows and grows the more I think about it. It will be good to focus on a project like this. For the last ten years my health has not been the best. I honestly thought I would not be able to own a house let alone decide to go and build one. So this is an exciting journey that continues to demonstrates that life is going forward and I hope that it all goes well.