Our quarter acre block of land was the biggest impulse purchase we will ever make. Looking back, it was so exciting but incredibly overwhelming navigating the completely new world of building our home. While many people may decide to keep things streamlined and go with a large building company who handles everything for them, we knew that we wanted to do things quite differently.
We were very green and a little naïve, but we had a vision and a determination to make this work for us. Most importantly, we were prepared to make many compromises along the way.
We wanted to design our home from scratch, to align with our values and lifestyle
The modern homes that are starting to take over the landscape never appealed to us, and we just couldn’t imagine living in one. We found that the volume built homes, though a great option for many, didn’t align with our values of building a sustainable, efficient home from natural and reclaimed materials.
Additionally, so many new homes are built to take up nearly the entire block of land, which would never have suited us. We use and value our outdoor space so much, from growing food and beautiful gardens, entertaining friends and family, keeping pets, and just simply ‘being’ outside in nature. We actually wanted a house that was just big enough to meet our needs, and retain as much outdoor space as possible to lead the life we have been working towards.
After a little bit of research and a few ideas floating around in our heads, we steered in the direction of creating a custom design with a local drafting service and working with a local builder to bring our dream to life.
We value quality over quantity
As you would expect, choosing to go with a custom design and local builder costs significantly more per m2 than going with an off the plan build. This is where the compromise piece comes in. To make this option affordable to us, we decided to build a small, simple house to reduce the size and therefore cost of the build.
This allowed us to choose an outstanding builder, who aligns with our values, and builds homes with such integrity and character that we don’t feel that we are lacking anything at all. We actually love that our home will be just big enough to be comfortable, while being super functional.
We designed a two bedroom, one bathroom home that comes in at 95m2 (the average house size in Victoria is 240m2 as of 2022). We actually would have liked to go a little bit smaller, but our land had a covenant on the title stating that the new dwelling had to be a minimum of 94m2. Naturally, we pushed it to the limit 😉
We wanted control over the materials and products used in the construction
Collaborating with a builder who aligns with our values allowed us to discuss the option of using reclaimed materials where possible. Fortunately for us, this was something that he was totally on board with, and actually encouraged us to collect as much as we could to use in the house.
We were also able to choose the types of materials and finishes for our home, which was extremely important to us. Many (most) building materials and finishes contain alarmingly high levels of toxins and VOC’s which take many years to ‘off-gas’ into the air inside the home, lowering indoor air quality and exposing people to some nasty toxins.
Because we were able to choose everything from the insulation, to the carpet, to the paint on the walls, we felt a huge amount of comfort knowing that we wouldn’t be exposing our family to off-gassing nasties. In saying this, I want to acknowledge that it’s not possible to be 100% perfect, we certainly aren’t. We can simply do our best with the information and resources we have at the time.
We wanted our home to be energy efficient
For a home to be as ‘sustainable’ as possible, it needs to be energy efficient, meaning that it will use the least amount of resources possible to remain relatively comfortable.
To achieve this, we decided to ensure that the orientation of our home was optimised for solar passive principles. This means that the position of the house allows the winter sun to enter the north-facing windows and help to keep it warm, whilst preventing the summer sun from shining in, which helps to keep it cool in summer.
Insulation is important in our cool temperate climate, as we can experience very hot summers and very cold winters. Thermal mass is another idea that we explored during the build, with the addition of some recycled brick internal walls.
We didn’t have a huge budget
As I mentioned earlier, building with a small, local builder meant that the cost to build our home per m2 was significantly more than if we had have gone with a volume builder.
With one of our major values being to have one of us at home with children for as long as possible, it meant that our mortgage had to be affordable on a single income. To achieve this, we simply had to have a tight budget and stick to it.
We really got thinking about how young families use a space, and what we would actually need (rather than what other people told us we should want). This mindset allowed us to cut down on unnecessary extras which would have been ‘nice’, but not essential. We decided that two bedrooms and one bathroom would be perfectly adequate for our stage of life, and we can always add on if we needed.
We wanted the process and end result to feel special
It’s pretty cool to think that the home we are going to be living in is one that we have been a part of from start to finish. From concept and design to building and fitting out.
It will be so special to look around our home and have memories of building our dream together. I’m sure it won’t be glamorous, and at times it will be down right hard work. We are excited to go on this journey as a team and come out the other side with a beautiful home that is perfect for our simple little life.
Finally, we really don’t like cleaning
To us, a big house = more cleaning. More showers = more grout to scrub. More furniture = more dusting. A bigger kitchen = more gadgets and knick-knacks to organise. Give me small and simple any day!