Naming

Insult and injury

Friday 2 weeks ago Blue Mountains City Council sent a big fat yellow envelope with a big pile of pages explaining that our DA had been approved. Nothing had to be changed finishes as specified. So no problem. My excitement was a little subdued. Knowing that the possibility of actually building the house was reducing daily. Last Friday a large envelope came from council. looked remarkably like the previous one. the contents were identical. I suspect they must have been exceedingly approving to send it twice. My excitement was noticeably more subdued the second time around. This Tuesday I had the rare honor of having myself sacked along with all my other staff.
No having a job and with Anita knocked up with number 3 and having been the director of a failed company, I get the overwhelming sense that I may not be as attractive to a bank lender as I once was.

Such is life.

Just to add insult to injury I didn't win the 80,000,000 power ball.

neighborly politics

Here is another pretty Murcutt picture to look at.

The neighbors had a slight concern re the DA. He was worried that the step on the deck would allow a view over the fence into there back yard and he had been advised by an architect friend to write a letter to the council. yeah good luck with that. And when we don't go ahead with the building I can tell him it was all his fault. yes?

Now What?

Well in a way this little adventure has come to a bit of a sad demise. The plans are in council; one of the neighbors said to Anita yesterday that they had received the letter from council informing them of a development application. The Architect has been paid; So we are pretty much done with him for now. The plans look brilliant; Anita and I are both very happy with the outcome and think that we will absolutely love the new house. So where is the sad demise part? well early estimates put the build cost at around $100,000 over our original budget. While this comes as no surprise its still sad. But even that is not an insurmountable problem. However there is a very strong possibility that within 6 weeks I wont have a job anymore. My company has finally succumbed to the pressure of the WWFC and is dying a timely death. While this is not a definite at this stage and we are still giving our best effort to trade out of the mess, some things in life are just enevitable. So with out a Job a new house could be a little hard to afford. Yes I know thta there are other jobs in the ocean, But having started a new job recently never looks good on a mortgage application. However being unemployed would give me the time to do some building myself.. Hmmmmmm.

P.S. I am going to see the Glenn Murcut exabition on at the museum at the moment. Murcut will be giving a presentation himself so should be interesting.

and we have a winner

Eureka he said. Eureka! I think I have it. It took a stay in a holiday house to finally sort it out but I tend to agree with him I think this is it. The blade walls are a bit of a different thing but they are starting to grow on me. all we need to do now is decide on what the brick walls are going to look like. Face brick? concrete block? bagged? rendered? Tilt slab? Hmmm tilt slab. that would have to be cheaper than brick surely. ( note the cost saving train of thought there) Now that we have a design I think cost saving is going to be the next focus.
So here is the final version of the floor plan and front elevation. note the considerably larger garage.

Here is another pretty Murcutt picture for you to partake of

I would so live in this house.
One important feature to take in on this house is the detail to the barges, as in there aren't any. This is one detail that we are working on incorporating into the plan. Of course something so simple will no doubt be very expensive

Could it all be as simple as just ply???

So we had a meeting with the artichoke last night and left with our heads spinning. In the 1:15 we were sitting in his office he had pretty much thrown out the work we were there to see and redrawn it. All because Anita said "I don't like the bricks" and after calling one of his other designs a "bit to American" he was much subdued and set about altering. walls have moved a bit this way and that, ( I cant show you cause they are in the bin remember) some rooms are a little larger now including the garage WOOHOO!!! we may need to turn a corner to walk into the hall but apart from that its still basically the same house. We did however seem to fall into the trap of letting function follow form which is a bit disappointing but I'm over it now.
We left him pondering and with our heads whizzing we set off for dinner.
This morning I was bombarded with email from the architect brochures and drawings and unfortunately a progress claim but here is a new front elevation to marvel at :p

and the votes are in...

After unprecedented response to a wide spread opinion gathering mission, the overwhelming response was, Snore......

However The exciting news today is that the artichoke has requested a meeting with us. That's right folks He rang me and asked to meet. I think this means he has something exciting to show us. It is also a land mark step in his ability to instigate some communication. I'm so excited. Its gets a bit dull when you are the one trying to initiate all the time and you get knock back after knock back.... Sorry where was I ?

Ok So I am having to come to terms with the idea That I may be the only one who thinks used gal and rusty steel make good exterior cladding.. c'mon theres gota be someone out there that thinks its nice.... So that means we are going to be restricted to colourbond colours I am guessing. But do we go for the two tone effect ie. different colour on the walls to the roof? or will that just not look right? and can i remind every one that this house is suposed to be looking murcuttesk in its styling.

Time for some hard decisions

So If this thing is ever going to get out of the ground someone is going to have to make some decisions. For example, what is the house going to be clad in? Let me say right off the bat, re used gal corrugated iron. What more could any want in a house cladding. It has character, it has class it has environmental cred. ( to re-use is better than to recycle). It has ready to wear patina. its perfect. Sure it may have a few holes in it Sure it may cost the same as buying it new sure I may be the only person who thinks its a good idea but apart from that its perfect. Of course it would be a liitle to much if the whole house was clad in gal, I accept that. It needs a little something to contrast. Keeping in mind that the council likes organic earthy tones, I propose the feature cladding should be 6mm rusty steel plate. Now don't just reject it out right, think about it for a moment. yeah thats right you can see it and you love it! I knew you would.

So now that we have the exterior sorted, time to consider the interior. It goes with out saying that walls can be a little tricky to move after the fact. So you wanna get it right the first time. particularly in the important rooms like the upstairs bedroom / ensuite. Now due to the fact that I am just a humble small town boy. I have never had the benifit of having a bedroom with an ensuite. Truth be told I am a litlle frightened of the idea. But due to the fact that The bedroom is upstairs and the main bathroom is not, it kinda makes a bit of sence. However the idea of having a bathroom in a bedroom just doesn't sit right with me. So here is the proposal (see pics) What do you think? will it be practacal?

All or Nothing ?!?

We met with the architect last night. He had responded to my email by submitting a slightly updated version of the floor plan sketch. hooray for progress! ( apparently he has spent a fair bit of time in the Land & Environment court lately ) So he had a few questions about stair orientation and exterior cladding styles. Then said he will be ready to submit to council Monday week. WOW what a turn around. Of course this doesn't necessarily mean we will submit to council in 1 weeks time. I may want to show drawings to the bank, get building estimates etc first. Call me cautious but I think before I go to council I may want to see if we can in fact afford to build the flammin' thing first. Whatever! Its only money. So I may actually have something excitting to post very soon. Fingers crossed.

still nothing. :(

Nothing to report Sir!

After contacting the Architect about a month ago to see where things are at (and being told ah yes I can probably get a start on that) I have heard nothing since. I tried to call him again today didn't get anywhere. A tad frustrating.
So these images are the second round of initial sketches. We are both fairly happy with the floor plan. We suggested a few changes. such as moving the extra parking space to the eastern side of the garage. to allow for a door from the laundry to access the hills hoist. ( yes I know that I have mentioned this before but there is pictures to look at now)
I think he external still needs a bit of work.

Initial Sketches

The concept.

What exactly are we trying to build? and what is your underlying ethos on modern architecture? I hear you ask.
Well in answer to that, I offer this readers digest version of the brief given to the architect.

Anita's perspective.

Needs to have 3 - 4 bedrooms that aren't too large.
Needs to have a number of well set out living areas that allow for people living in the same house to be completely separate from each other with out having to resort to hiding in bedrooms.
Laundry needs to be near the cloths line.
Needs to cost the same as a project home.
Who cares what it looks like?

Timothy's perspective.

All of the above with the exception of the project home budget and appearance. and with the addition of;

Needs to be solar passive
Needs to look like it was designed by Glenn Murcutt
Needs at least 3 garages
Needs to look like its design has followed its function rather than its function dictated by its design.
Needs to be in harmony with its surroundings or something like that?
Needs to be affordable in some way.
I have two children to sell ohh and at least 1 kidney.

However with every episode of grand designs i watch the above seems to become a lot less fixed

The story so far!

A bit of background to the project.
Anita and I bought this house about 7-8 years ago. It was a great fixerupperer and was oozing with potential. At any rate where getting it for a steel. I mean its practically land value only that we would be paying. Do you think that we are ready for this? are we doing the right...... Sorry was I having a flashback?

About 18 months after moving in, with must gusto and purpose we set about building a small extension. Should have that knocked on the head in about six months. How hard could it be?

Sustained enthusiasm has never been my forte and so 5+ years latter we still live in a half finished 2 bedroom fibro home which is bound to give us terminal lung cancer one day.

And so with out putting you to sleep this early in the piece, we decided to knock it over and start again. If only I had done that in the first place.

During the Christmas holiday break I got all excited once again and made an important desision.
I engaged the services of an architect.
Now I have never had that great a relationship with architects. But at least this time he would be working for me.

To cut a long story short, we have had a few meetings mulled over a few preliminary braod brush sketches argued, created, discussed and mulled again. We now have a fairly firm concept of what we want to build. At least thats what I thought.

Welcome to my Blog.

Hi.
In this modern world of internet based over sharing, I have decided to try, at least, to chronicle the developments in our attempts to go from 2 bedroom 1960 asbestos abortion, fibro fantastic house to our new, dream, solar sensitive, fit for purpose home.

The idea struck me after watching an episode of Grand designs tonight. Not that I think our building project would be worthy of an episode, but at least worth the effort of writing it in this format for the one or two people who might in the slightest way show the slightest bit of interest. And quite frankly if your not blogging these days then you just don't exist.


What to expect.


In all honesty the safest expectation would be that I lose interest about two weeks into the blog and then lose interest in the project about a month later. If this prediction eventuates then at least I will have had some measure of success.

Failing that expect that I will post the odd 8 x 10 colour glossy picture with a witty piece of repartee attached explaining what you are viewing and why it is earth shatteringly interesting.
If you are really lucky I may upload a video of the house as it now stands with running commentary.
I shall endeavor with great earnest to resist posting polls to gauge opinion on the colour of the curtains and on weather or not to install a bidet.
However the one concession I offer to the devoted reader will be an invite to the house warming party to be held sometime off in the distant future.

So strap yourself in hang on tight and get ready to snooze.