The House Plans - Verion 2.0

From the start, we have loved the approach that JAWS Architects have taken.
We also loved the original design for our house. But the requirements of having to build on soil which resembles a beach, and fiscal reality put it waaaaaaay out of our hands.
What could the architects do the second time around?
Would we be as happy?
Neal-and-Fiona-the-Architects and Michael-the-Builder had 3 weeks to come up with a brand new design, with different materials that would meet our lifestyle requirements - and our financial ones. Otherwise, we would have had to cancel the clearing, notch the whole thing up to experience and call it a day.
So how did they go?
Have a look below and see what you think.
Yes, it's quite different to the original design.
And yes, we have lost some of the features of the original (eg we can no longer have an earth wall / roof).
But you know what?.... we are warming to this one too.



Floor Plan Verion 2.0

View looking up the hill

View on entering the property
 

We have given Neal-and-Fiona our first lot of feedback which we will share with you (together with the revised plans when we get them). We still think that what they have designed is amazing. And once again, we had few changes we suggested (although they may beg to differ on the "few" point).
Now we just have to learn to let go of the original design and focus on this one.
Coming to this space shortly are the first photos of the cleared site... Tasmania's own Tunguska.
V&A
ps. The tenant has finally left our rental property, but the insurer is refusing to pay the unpaid rent (due to a technicality in the policy) and we are yet to find out whether they will cover all the damage.

Not quite back on track...

As the title says, we're not quite back on track, but at least we seem to be running along beside it (and hopefully heading in the right direction).
Neal-the-Architect and Michael-the-Builder have worked their magic...there has been a significant change in the design (but one that we are really happy with) and change in materials, but it's come back more in the range of our budget (if still a little bit over). But, as Neal sagely noted ... for an off-grid house built to BAL40 standards, we are getting a lot of house for our money. And they managed to pull it all together in only 3 weeks.
We will post the revisited design soon... we just left it in our other pair of trousers.
So the ;and clearing will be commencing on Monday 25th as planned ... we have paid the deposit to Southern Excavations and we can hear the trees already weeping. We just hope that this gives Viktoria enough time to notify the neighbours of the impending disruption.
Meanwhile, the insurer has come through on our claim for damage to our current home caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald, so we can start to re-arrange our homelife again.
Unfortunately, the saga of our non-rent-paying, damage-causing, refusing-to-vacate tenant continues, but we are hopeful of a resolution. (It is far too much to hope that there will be a change in the legislation to make the laws more balanced.)
Until next time, we will dust off the feline crew and try to stay positive.
V&A

Third Hurdle - Preliminary Cost Nightmares - but, life goes on

Clearing was meant to have started on our Tassie block today (4th March).
It hasn't.
Several days ago, we received the preliminary costs estimate from the builder. After suffering a joint heart-attack, we decided that the build was going to be completely financially unviable, and that we should just call it a day and notch the whole thing up to experience. An after-hours crisis meeting with Neal-the-Architect and Michael-the-Builder has temporarily averted the crisis...with some frenzied activity on materials, construction, site location & floor plan going on behind the scenes.
In case we didn't have enough to do, a tenant at our rental property who (despite not paying rent since Christmas day) has decided it's completely reasonable to stay, not clean, fix any breakages, and refuse to vacate, all at our expense. Legally all we can do is wait for the court date (19th March) before we can even gain entry to see how bad the damage is. And while our insurance will cover some of it, we will still be minus the various excesses we have to pay, and the exclusion period on the loss of rent...
Life has a funny habit of continuing to move around you, even when you may want it to stop.
Just for a little bit.
And we are still fixing up damage to our own home from ex-tropical cyclone Oswald.
While our corner of the world didn't flood (we mentioned we live on a mountain, yeah?), and we therefore don't get the news coverage some other areas do, our little community still has its fair share of issues, like...

....a fallen tree where someone's front veranda used to be....

...a large empty space where someone's back yard used to be....

... or broken machinery in lieu of an underground water tank...

But we remain forever thankful that no humans up here lost their lives.
And we remain grateful that we live in a country which allows us the life and lifestyle choices that we have access to.
But sometimes, just sometimes, we would like a bit of a break.
The contractors have been re-scheduled for 25th March, when hopefully our lives and finances will be back on track.
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