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.