Bamboo Flooring

So we've decided on the flooring... well at least the 'floor boards' part (tile choices will come later).

We are going to use bamboo: engineered strand woven bamboo in walnut to be precise. Bamboo has heaps of advantages: it's termite resistant; it's sustainably grown and rapidly renewable; it's harder than hardwood; it can withstand direct sunlight (which is important with our house design); it has low VOCs and you don't have to varnish/treat the surface; it's relatively inexpensive ... and the list goes on. We got some really good help from Otto at Kaizan Premium Floors - he's really passionate about his bamboo!

In terms of the colour, I loved the walnut straight away, but then we got worried it might be too dark...(I can't staaaaand dark and dingy homes!!!) but we've had another look at an installed example in the store and we think it will be ok in our place, especially considering the design of our house will let heaps of natural light in. So I am back to loving the colour.

So! Bamboo it is for the bedrooms, the hall/breezeway and the south facing living area!


p.s. I think their website is in need of a bit of work. Their picture of a floor in walnut doesn't look at all like the showroom version.

Closer...

We're now working on a few final details before we go out to tender... it seems like we have been saying that for a while... but it seems really close now!!! A couple of weekends ago we looked at sliding glass doors at a place on the Sunshine Coast ... the guy there tried to talk us into tinted glass - we're not fans, and besides it works against our passive solar design... so we're not going with tinted and we've also chosen door type/style, so that's one less decision to make down the track...

At the moment Benj is working out finer details with plumbing and stuff like that and i have been putting some detail to the wardrobes and hallway shelving and things like that...

This is the sort of thing we want to have in one of the shelf panels of the hallway:

... And these are Benji's concerns (from an email he sent to Michael). Hopefully the hydraulic engineer can sort it out:

1) Not having the cold shower when someone turns a tap on somewhere else in the house problem

2) The grey water plumbing that ties in with the black water and kitchen water in such a way that the grey water can be diverted to the garden. For grey water I am including showers, bathroom sinks and the laundry

3) Piping the pool water under the house, I think we need to choose a turnover rate for the pool, if we go too low then we run the risk of it turning green, if we go too high we need a pump that chews up heaps of power.

4) Plumbing the pool/firewater tank up so that there is an accessible pipe with fire connection at the western edge of the house rather than putting in another tank (I think our bushfire management plan had 20,000l needed to fire fighting)

Hopefully by next week some of these things will be on their way to being sorted!

Meeting with Michael and Anthony

We had a meeting at home with Michael and Anthony 2 nights ago... the only hiccup being that Michael entered the right street address but the wrong suburb address into his GPS and consequently ended up at the Gold Coast! Anyway ... we've now got a list of things we need to decide upon (cladding, flooring etc) and Michael has a list of things he needs to organise (like speaking with hydraulic engineer) and all going well we should be able to go to tender in a few weeks. Yippee!
Oh and another interesting point is that Anthony is no longer contracted to work for Michael. He's going full time chicken shed constructing... but he is going to stay on to finish our project! YAY!

At long last some news...

Well it has been quite some time since i had anything significant to say about what is happening with our block and the building of our home.... When we started out this project we were a family of three... but my heart was broken with the loss of one of our team members... my little Roadie (our beautiful kelpie) i will always love you... so we were down to two members.... but then my broken heart soared with the arrival of a new team member (a miniature human), so now we are once again a family of three...

On the house front there is also great news... after the collapse of our last Architect situation, we went back to the beginning and did what we probably should've done at the start (oh well you live and learn) we took a good close look at four or five building designers/architects, interviewed them, weighed up their pros and cons and finally decided on these guys:

http://www.m-designs.com.au/

http://www.versedpl.com.au/

So far things are going really really well... we have a new linear house design which makes use of our ample space and allows for passive solar thermoregulation... our draftie (Versed) is an old family friend and his input has been invaluable... and things are moving along!!! We have a great set of drawings which we feel confident will do the job in terms of all the little quirks our building must overcome.... and we've even started looking at materials and colours!!!!

I feel a little guilty at times because Benj has been the one out of the two of us to do all the mental hard work on water/sewerage/solar technical stuff... but i do have a good excuse... my brain and body has been taken over by our miniature human... and i think i will do better in the colours/materials/finer details part of the design....

looking forward to more progress!!!!

back to the drawing board? .....

Eaves Worry

Kristen has reviewed the "final" drawings... he has some major concerns... and now we have some major worries about the house's ability to function as a passive solar house... hopefully the issues are minor and easily fixed... hopefully Graeme can shed some light.

The Ball is Rolling

Had a meeting with the architect, Graham and the builder, Scott on the weekend... Scott thinks we could start building by August and maybe just maybe have something of substance by xmas time! Obviously we're pumped about this news... I can hardly believe things are coming together! We left the cafe on a high. "I love working with those two guys." was Benji's comment. They're both full of ideas and energy and seem so passionate about their work. Oh and i love it that Scott shows us photos of cycling trips from around the area!