Where have we been?

Time, so the saying goes, flies when you're having fun.
From experience, it can also fly when you are having something less than fun.
And so it has. Flown, that is.
We have been (metaphorically, at least) 'away'.
And now we are back.
However, in the sense that this blog was originally about building a house in Tasmania, that part of the journey is at an end. The support, advice and well-wishing has been wonderful. Unfortunately, the universe has had other ideas.
Whatever new direction we take, how we get there, and where we go, are as yet uncharted waters.... but we are making the necessary preparations for whatever lies ahead...

Where we have been in the meantime is a story for another day.
When our maps are charted for the next leg of our journey, we will let you know how we ended up where we are now.
Until then, we remain
V&A

New builder... new month.... new outlook

After the latest quote from the first builder came in still more than $250,000 over our budget, we had very long faces and were looking like nothing would ever happen.
There was certainly no space to negotiate that amount of a reduction in the price with that particular builder.
But all is not lost!
We have a second builder on the case, and he is busy churning the numbers and gathering quotes from his subcontractors. He has around four weeks (from 22 May) to get the quote together, so we are back in a holding position waiting on an outcome.
This has, of course, come about at the same time as dealing with some health issues as well as some troubling scenes at The Android's workplace, which has made for a couple of very stressed people. But we remind ourselves that there are far many more people in much worse situations.

First World Problems

Many thanks to all those lovely folks who have sent in suggestions & offered support.

That, and the fact that Viktoria won her family Eurovision-Tipping Competition, has been an enormous help.

V&A

Maybe we just cannot ever afford this....

The final piece needed to green-light our project has come in - the builder's quote.
Except that it's over our budget.
About $250,000 over budget, to be precise.
We've come to the point where this is no longer upsetting... it's just pissing us off.
Sure, you hear that the building industry is replete with people who want to rip folk off by hyper-inflating prices. We entered into this with our eyes open, and expected there to be a slightly higher cost as we are building in Tasmania, and not on mainland Australia.
But this is just insulting.
In this Internet age, it's fairly easy to locate companies that will supply & install in the most remote of locations. So in the intervening time between receiving this and the previous quote, we've been making a few phone calls. This exercise was also partly a sanity check - we had begun to think that we must have such unrealistic expectations that it had completely clouded our perception of what the build would cost.
So, let's look at a couple of examples...

1. We've had a couple of quotes for a custom-made glasshouse manufactured to our specifications, and shipped to Tasmania. Approximate cost from our research was $12,000. Cost on quotation $26,934.51. That's about $14,000 difference.
2. We've had three quotes to supply and install (on the actual site address) a 7.5kW stand alone solar power system, with AGM batteries, a German inverter and back up generator. The average quote we received was approximately $34,000. Cost on quotation $66,340. That's a whopping $32,000 difference!

On those two items alone, the difference is about $50,000. And we don't have any trade discount or connections.
This makes us wonder, do the builders:
a) think we are really, really wealthy?
b) think we are really, really stupid?
c) not actually want to build the house after all? or
d) all of the above?
We really wanted to use them, because we admired the quality of the work that they had done on other builds. But we are very much feeling like we are being taken for a ride.
As the quote only came in on Friday afternoon, we are yet to discuss the detail with the architects. However, from our calculations, even if we replace all the subcontracted items with suppliers we source ourselves, there isn't going to be anything like $250,000 worth of savings.
And for what is a very small house (one bedroom, one bathroom, combined kitchen-diner) only a madman would consider the amount quoted is reasonable or viable.
We progressed with the build because the initial estimate we received (on this very design) last July was in the vicinity of $480,000. Which sits happily within our budget.
We are completely unable to fathom how it can now be priced at around $700,000 + fixtures / fittings + driveway for the same building. Either the builder's estimating tool is so erroneous as to be useless, or something else is going on.
Maybe, we just have to give the dream away.
V&A

Ground Hog Day on the house design...

From our last update on the build, things were looking pretty grim.
Because of having to have a turning circle built for a fire truck, we had to push the house site further down the hill. This resulted in a long driveway, a suspended concrete slab, and Uber-Footings to hold the house up. All that pushed the build cost from "yes, we can manage that" to "OMG!". This was accompanied by much soul-searching about how a one-bedroom, one-bathroom house could cost only slightly less than a Harrier jet.
We were left with a long list of "If"s which needed to be fulfilled - if we were ever going to be able to build.
The good news is, that there has been some positive progress. Of course, this really just puts us back to where we were in about July 2013... but progress is progress, and at least while we may still be in the forest, we can at least see some light through the canopy.
The first and main issue to resolve was to see if we could have the house moved back up the hill to its original planned site, and therefore not need to have the turning circle for the fire truck which the bushfire consultant stated was a requirement.

Through some mystical super power possessed by Building Certifiers, we have been able to have that decision over-ruled under the Building Code. This means that we no longer require the turning circle, and can therefore move the house back to the higher (and flatter) part of the block. Being on a flatter site, we were hoping to have a slab-on-ground, which would negate having to have the Uber-Footings required further down the hill, where it would mean a floating concrete slab.So far so good.
We have had verbal confirmation from the engineer that by moving the house back up the hill, we would indeed be able to have a slab-on-ground.
A small, but tentative "hurrah" could be heard Chez Viktoria-Android.
We have also had verbal confirmation from the Council Planning Officer that we would not be required to submit a new Development Application, but could get away with submitting an amendment to the original application.
It should be noted, that when we say "we" in the above context, we actually mean "Neal-and-Catherine-the-Architects". They have done the running around, phoning around, and listening to our angst. We (Viktoria & the Android) have just been responsible for creating angst...
But now, the only teeny tiny thing remaining is... how much is it all going to cost?
For some reason, the builder needed to have a holiday (we are sure that it can't just have been us driving him crazy). But he had previously advised he would be able to re-do the estimate for us this week.
Will it come in on budget?
Will we ever get to start building?
Will we end up living in a tent, surrounded by cats??
We are keeping all our fingers and toes crossed.
V&A

Happy Birthday Captain Greatpants

A belated happy birthday to our beautiful boy, Captain Greatpants, who recently turned 14.

Not bad considering the little guy was given about 2 months to live almost 3 years ago...
V&A

Cost blowout... and again another...

It's been a while since we have updated where the house build is up to.
Since last time, there was an initial period of waiting... and waiting... for the building quote to come in.
Then there was a period of extreme horror when the quote did arrive - and we saw it was nearly $250,000 over our budget.
After that there was a small glimmer of hope that, if we changed some of the materials from concrete to more lightweight products, we may be able to bring the budget back on track.
That glimmer was rapidly snuffed when the second quote came in, still about $150,000 over our budget (and not including the cost of the Epic Driveway, nor the fixtures and fittings we have chosen).
What caused this?
Essentially, the requirement to allow for the turning circle of a fire truck on the building site meant that the house was moved about 8 - 9 metres further down the hill. This positioned the house on a much steeper part of the block. As a result, we no longer could have the slab on ground, rather we would have to build a suspended concrete slab, and the Super Duper Footings that go along with that.
Unfortunately, even lighter building materials didn't fix the budget blowout - and these materials would fundamentally alter the aesthetic of the house.
This left us having a teleconference with Neal-the-architect over the sad situation we found ourselves in.
Basically, there were two options we could consider:

Option 1: Keep the building on the steeper part of the block, use lighter materials, but reduce the scope by removing the mezzanine, greenhouse, carport and breezeway and relocating Andy’s studio underneath the living room (not much house left after that)

Option 2: Investigate moving the building back to its original position and hopefully having the block work and slab on ground; and hopefully have this back in budget as estimated back in June 2013

After mulling over these options, there were some immediate issues springing to mind:

Option 1:

• At it’s current size and with the lighter building materials, this didn't appear to be a financially viable option. Were something to happen in the near future which forced us to have to sell, we would never obtain a selling price which would cover the cost of the build. And reducing the size of the building to lower build costs, wouldn’t resolve this, but potentially make it worse
• Of additional concern, while we plan to personally fund part of the build, we will require finance for the remainder – banks are notoriously cautious creatures and we may encounter difficulties in obtaining finance if the bank cannot see the value in the build.
• Comparable insulation amounts may be able to be achieved with lightweight materials, but we lose the thermal mass by removing the concrete

Option 2:

• The bushfire consultant previously advised that using the neighbour's driveway as a turning point for the fire truck would be too far from the site
• We don’t have the neighbour's permission (nor actually know who that neighbour is) to use their driveway
• We are presuming that the neighbour’s driveway would need to be upgraded to allow the fire truck to use it to turn – and this may be a cost that we would have to bear
• What other fees would be involved in relocating back to the original site? (engineering? Council? architect? surveyor?) What is the financial impact to us of these additional fees?
• Is there even any likelihood that, having done all of the above, the build would come in on budget?

And that is pretty much where we were up to as of last week.
After 2 years of planning, and considerable financial outlay, we have 2 house designs, neither of which we can afford to build.
Neal-the-architect is making enquiries in relation to Option 2.
But the Android and Viktoria are in agreement... if we cannot proceed with Option 2, then we have no other choice but to notch the whole thing up to experience and count our losses.
Sincerely hoping that this week brings better news.
V&A

"Curiouser and curiouser", said Alice...

You put the mezzanine in
You put the mezzanine out
You put the mezzanine in
And you shake it all about...

And if you call it a 'storage platform' and don't have a spiral staircase, but use a mobile ladder to get up there...it's ok!
In the curious world of building rules and regulations, it is somehow safer to have a ladder, not attached to anything, than a fixed spiral staircase to provide access to the platform in the living room. Ours is not to reason 'why', apparently.
So the mezzanine storage platform is back in, but without the staircase.
Still in the world of strangeness, Council advised that the proposed zinc cladding (which would be on the exterior of the bay windows outside the bathroom, bedroom and Viktoria's studio) would be too reflective in the silver zinc colour. Given that where the house is located, the only thing it would be reflecting into would be the eyes of a passing pademelon, we were touched at Council's concern.
So we have had to change the material from zinc to Colorbond. We are using one of their new Metallics range, called Citi.
Here is a picture of some of the Colorbond Metallics. Citi is the one that takes up most of the photo. Good thing it's not silver.

In other news, the various specialists (engineers, hydronics, wastewater, fire management etc) have all provided their reports and/or drawings. These are now with Michael Lane from Cordwell Lane (our builder) for final costing. We have a couple of cheaper options up our proverbial sleeves if the costings come back at heart attack inducing levels - this may happen because since we last had an estimate from Michael, we have had to move the house further down the hill so that our driveway can accommodate the turning circle of an 8m long fire truck. Thank you new bush fire regs.
This will impact the cost increase in two ways:

1. the driveway is going to cost a lot more because there is more of it, and it requires more fill, more engineering and a gabion rock wall to hold it all in place, and
2. moving the house has meant that it is now on a steeper part of the land, which means that our 'slab on ground' is now partially suspended, which means more expensive footings and more brickwork

We are hoping to have the costings next week.
Until then, yours in anticipation
V&A

Our current home is now for sale...

We finally got our collective, dithering selves together, and our house is now listed on the market. It was actually a very sad thing, talking to the agent about what made us move there originally (nearly 9 years ago now),

But after a few epic cleaning sessions (did we mention that the walk-in wardrobe of our current home is 3 x 3 metres square?), and some professional photographs, it is listed for sale. Because the listing won't be around forever, here is a ridiculous amount of photos for posterity - as clean and tidy as it will ever be!

View from the street

Bottom deck, off the dining room

Bottom deck, from outdoor dining to outdoor living

From piano through to dining room

From piano through to living room

From living room back to piano

Kitchen

Top deck off master bedroom

Master bedroom

Another shot showing how large the master bedroom is

Upstairs bathroom with genuine Talavera tiles

Actual BATH in upstairs bathroom

2nd of three other bedrooms

Crazy wallpapered downstairs bathroom

View from the bottom deck - Morning fog in the valley with ocean

Some friendly locals

Sigh.
We will enjoy it while we are still living there.
It is a beautiful place to live.
And we will miss it.
V&A

No more stair-book-case....No more mezzanine

As intimated in a previous post, we have lost the mezzanine and, as a consequence, AD's beautiful stair-book-case.

Beautiful stairbookcase and mezzanine will never be built

And here is why:
Firstly, the Building Surveyor determined that the mezzanine area, due to its restricted height from the raked ceiling, could not be defined as a 'habitable room'. Instead, it woul have to be known as an infrequently used 'service platform'. Well, that was ok, because it meant that the stairs which went inside AD's bookcase only needed to meet the reduced requirements for staircase design under Australian Standard 1657-1992. The Standard is less stringent than the Building Code in terms of height of step riser and width of step.

Sprial stairs inside the stairbookcase

This seemed like all very good news, because we wanted to keep the width of the stairs to the minimum because a) the mezzanine was only 1.8 metres wide; b) the living room itself is only 5 metres wide and c) anything too wide would destroy the pod design of the bookcase.
The Housing Industry of Australia (HIA) has this to say on staircase construction:

"If the proposed design has a stairway to a non-habitable room, then you may choose to design the stairs in accordance with this Part, or alternatively with AS 1657. The use of AS 1657 is ideal if there is limited space and/or the room will not be regularly used. This Standard allows a steeper stair to be built and is usually used to design access stairs for maintenance areas on buildings. In many ways the stair built to AS 1657 could be considered to be a step ladder with handrails."

A step ladder with handrails! Perfect!!
But because we had to provide the measurements of risers, goings and tread width as proof that the spiral stair design complied with AS 1657, we read the Standard.
And here was the second step in the demise of our stairbookcase.

• s4.1 WIDTH AND ANGLE OF SLOPE Stairways shall not be less than 600mm wide measured between the inside edges of the handrails.
• s4.2.3 CURVED STAIRWAYS The radius to the centreline of the stairway shall not be less than 600mm. Where the radius to the centreline of the stairway is less than 3000mm, the maximum width of the curved stairway shall be 750mm

Diagram showing minimum dimentions for curved stairways

AS 1657 makes absolutely no bloody sense. We are reasonably intelligent people, but interpreting the text with reference to the diagram ... well, how can there be a minimum 1200mm wide stair (radius) if the maximum permitted is 750mm? The maximum & minimum figures are mutually exclusive.
Further the MINIMUM distance form the centre pole to the 'imaginary centre line' of the step has to be 600mm, that would mean that the shortest radius you would be allowed to have would be 1200mm (or a spiral with a total diameter of 2400mm)!
2400mm is more than half the width of our living room, and seemed a little extravagant for something that is meant for access to an uninhabitable platform.
So we sought clarification from the Building Surveyor. He stated that he also interpreted the Standard as meaning a minimum of 1200 wide step treads.
He then capitulated and said that he "would be happy with the stair being 800mm radius internally" and that "although the BCA recognises this standard as a suitable design standard for non-habitable areas such as attics and storerooms and other such infrequently accessed areas – in this instance we must consider the likelihood of this stair being used by young children and the elderly".
We asked Nigel (Building Surveyor) whether, as his 'preferred' tread width of 800mm was also longer than the Standard stipulated maxiumum 750mm, would he be happy with a radius of 600mm? Noting that it says earlier at section 4.1 that “stairways shall be not less than 600mm wide”?
And here we enter phase three of the death of the mezzanine and the stairbookcase.
Essentially, irrespective of what it states in the BCA or the AS, unless the Building Surveyor is 'comfortable' with what you are doing, it's just not going to happen.
Nigel's response:
"600mm is very narrow and will affect the ability to achieve a good rise and go dimension and turn the stair so as the upper portion does not become a head clearance issue. It would also make it very difficult to carry any furniture, equipment or fittings safely up the stair. I think 750mm would be the bare minimum as this also reflects the minimum clear width of doorways in the Commercial BCA; maybe 720 at a push, which was previously an accepted width for toilet / pantry doors. I am not permitted to sign off a design that suits the current user, but must also consider future users of the house; ie. if you sell, unexpected arrivals, looking after elderly or disabled relatives, etc. – the BCA designs for a minimum 100 year durability of the overall building."
ADs design was based on the 600mm minimum stipulated in the standard (ie a 1200mm diameter).
Nigel would only approved a spiral stair with a 1500mm diameter.
1500mm would simply not be workable because a) the mezzanine was only 1.8 metres wide; b) the living room itself is only 5 metres wide and c) anything too wide would destroy the pod design of the bookcase.
Reluctantly, we had to advise the architects to focus their energy on something else, and we would have to lose the mezzanine (sorry the "service platform requiring access of epic proportions"), and its troublesome staircase.
Viktoria is particularly unhappy, as she has already lost the revolving bookcase from the original design, and has now lost the spiral staircase too.
If there is a silver lining, its that we are still going to have AD design us a bookcase based on the pod design, but this time it will be movable furniture and therefore not subject to the comfort level of the Building Surveyor.
And if he ever asks how we intend to get our books down from the top of the case, we'll tell him this:

V&A

Random Thoughts for the New Year

It has been more than 20 years since 1,700 senior scientists (including 104 Nobel Prize winners) signed a document called 1992 World Scientist's Warning to Humanity.

 

It opens with the words:

"Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about""
 

Where will 2014 lead us?
V&A