A Grand Design?

So weeks ago I was watching Grand Designs on the lifestyle channel, as you do, and they announced they were making an Australian series. So I hurriedly jumped online and put in my plans. You can too here.

I got the usual "Thanks we have had lots of submissions we might get back to you" type response.........

Well yesterday I got an email asking for more details OMG OMG. So I sent that off and then got another one asking questions, sent that off. "Can I get some 3D pictures of the plans?" Sure! What..... hurriedly send email to Leslie @ Patons the builders. Can we do this? He thinks so.

This is the story so far, I will keep you posted. Fingers crossed you never know.

Beautiful plans!

I am in love with our design, and so I should be!

It has everything we need, nothing we don't and will be oh so comfortable to live in.

There are 3 separate pavillions to the house, well not actually as this is very expensive to do, but the house gives the feel of having 3 separate areas.

One central living, cooking & lounging area. it has big beautiful doors, north facing looking out to the deck and this view.

Oh do you see that? That's right no one for miles.......

The other pavillions are a kids zone, bedrooms, rumpus, bathroom. study area etc and then the parents end. Ahhhh I hear you say! All have this wonderful view, yep all North facing.

We are going for a contrmporary come modern farmhouse design. We will be using Colourbond in seamist for a fabulous Basix Count and some double brick walls. A polished concrete floor will also help in that count.

A view of the outside on plans. I cannot work out how to flip them!

Our very first "are you kidding me" story

it occurred to me as I hung up the phone from speaking to Yass council the other day that I had had my first "are you kidding me experience" You know the one you might celebrate as a couple after you have your first fight! No make up sex going on here folks let me tell you!

The story goes like this..........
Our beautiful plans are finally ready to put into council (more on that later) MOH and myself travel out to yass and lodge the plans. We speak to a very friendly lady behind the counter about our plans, she shares our dreams and ohhhs and arhs in all the right places. Gives us some advice on weather we should lodge our pool at the same time, "no just put proposed as you don't really have all the details just yet, don't want to hold up the process" So we write proposed and pay our money and off we go.

2 weeks later we have a letter saying "please provide all details of the pool before we can advance any further" So I pick up the phone to talk to "she who must be obeyed" and get told that she doesn't really care what we were told at the time if we don't have all the details for the pool our only option is to DRIVE back out to Yass in the VW (lucky it is soooo comfortable) and liquid paper it off the plans ourselves as they cannot! mmmm blood is boiling and I really want to tell her what she can do with her liquid paper but don't.

Next day I do exactly that, drive out liquid paper in handbag and ask at the desk for plans to correct. Lovely lady at the desk remembers me, makes fatal mistake of asking me how I am...... I tell her! her face drops, not happy Jan! Lovely young man gets plans and happily explains that if this had been his building he would have just asked the builder to fax over a new copy minus the pool, death stare and explain that he is not helping the situation or their reputation.

Now this is not a post to just complain but if you must, leave a comment here!

Solar Passive design

We, MOH (Man of House) and my self have decided that a solar passive House that includes as many environmentally friendly options as we are allowed and can afford will be the way to go. Now before you send us the post where you tell us we are not doing what you would remember these 2 very important points.....

1. That the council allows us to do &
2. That we can afford

After you take this into account them post your comments galore!

So we have chosen a designer/builder.Paton Contruction

Paton Constructions has over 20 years experience in building quality custom homes in the Canberra region.

This is taken from their sometimes hard to find website!

We:focus on building energy efficient homes which meet our clients’ needs

encourage good home design

believe homes can be uplifting as well as energy efficient

have a particular interest in building country homes

aim for our clients to enjoy the building experience

Our company employs trustworthy subcontractors most of whom have been working as part of our team for many years.

Throughout each project we endeavour to build a relationship with our clients that is based on trust and clear communication. At the end of a project we want our clients to have a home that pleases them.

Now we have been working with Leslie Paton and Julia (trusty PA who really does "get back to you") for about 4 months now designing the house. The first thing that we liked about Leslie is that he is not interested in building just any old house. He is really keen to follow through on the points above. We also needed someone with an opinion, could listen and improvise and keep our budget in mind. So far so good.

Here are some of Leslie's houses around Canberra

Let the journey begin!

This is the start of our journey. We have built a house before, I wonder if it will prepare us for the journey that lay ahead of us? Time will tell.
I will try to write about the good, the bad and the ugly, ohhh lets hope there are not too many of them.

I would love to have everyone along for the ride, feel free to comment on things, add your thoughts, let us know what you think! No really......





This is our beautiful piece of heaven at Murrumbateman. it is about 2 acres, north facing onto heritage listed farm land that goes all the way to Yass. There is a reserve on one side, neighbours about 300 meters on the other side........ Noice!

Now we realise being 20 mins out of town is not everones cup of tea but it sure is ours! No more telling the kids to be quiet as they wrestle on the trampoline, the lady over the side fence can rest in peace that the kids will never hit the ball over her fence!
The kids have friends out there already from their schools.
We have just leased a VW diesel car that is a pleasure to drive and oh so economical on the hip pocket.

Shaw winery is only a stones throw, and I read an article on their wood fired pizzaz in the paper last week, mmmmm I can taste them already. Sitting on the deck watching the sunset (as in the pictures) glass of wine in hand. Oh bring it on!