The Grand Plan

WHAT WE HAVE SO FAR:
3 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom with Large Living, Dining, Small Family Room and Laundry. The house is clad in Hardiplank with Colourbond Roof on trusses. The site is a mess!

WHAT WE NEED TO DO:
HOUSE
Re-arrrange some internal walls once DA for the modifications are approved.
Renovate and complete the bathroom.
Make a new ensuite bathroom off a new main bedroom.
Make a new Laundry.
Gyprock the ceiling and install roof insulation.
Wall insulation and all gyprocking (though we are looking into some greener alternatives for wall lining) and finishings (doorways, doors, cornice, skirting etc)
Finish flooring:
- sand and polish (there are some green options for this) old floorboards in bedroom 2 and 3 and the kitchen.
- main bedroom and living area needs a new floor (marmoleum? or ideally, bamboo florboards).
- tile entry-way, ensuite, laundry and family room.
Electricals:
- modify existing electrical wiring.
- install low-energy lighting fixtures throughout and outside the house (~$?).
- install plenty of power points so that appliances can be switched off at the wall (there is a new technology that can help shut off whole areas etc, but its a bit complicated for simpletons like us).
Do the plumbing:
- complete plumbing and allow for grey water separation and install water saving Aqualocs (Totally Green Plumbers ~$7000).
- install the water tanks (2 x 22,700 litre for the house$2000).
- install grey water recycling system ('Nubian' at this stage ~$7000).
- get solar hot water system (Apricus ~$5000).
- install metal gutter guards (~$2400 installed).

- septic system to be installed (Biolytix ~$10000 installed).

Power to be connected:

- power to be brought to the front of the property then to the house (~$18000).

- get 20 panel solar system with 2940watt inverter to be connected to the grid (~$10000 after the $8000 government rebate).

Install skylights.

Install combustion heater. We thought we would use this existing one until our massive stack of firewood was depleted, but that will probably take 5+ years. Firewood on-site has no freight or mining costs, so even though it still produces emissions, it is preferable to gas or electrical heating devices. We can't use concrete slab heating.... no slab! Hopefully we shouldn't need much extra heating.

Paint! Bugger of a job.

Windows:

- dress them.

- metal mesh insect screens required by DA.

Put up balaustrades and stainless steel wire around the whole balcony.

Build the staircases up to the verandah.

OUTSIDE

Clear the stockpiles - dead wood, topsoil, brick and building rubble, massive logs (some >1m diameter), weeds, hardwood from old shed and house and old fencing.

Get rid of the many smaller stumps (hired stumpgrinder today $170 and hard labour!).

Get rid of the large stumps such as ironwood stumps up to 2m diameter ($1000 next week).

Landscaping.

Set up fire prevention irrigation system (DA requirement) for the whole building envelope.

Put up and set up a new shed (9m x 20m).

Get DA for and build 2 large wetland systems (properly vegetated dams).

Fencing - for the dogs 'PT' and 'Daisy' and the horse 'Santa'.

Catmax enclosure outside for our spoilt cats Obi-won and Yoda.

Entrance Fence and Gate (Solar powered automatic gates).

PERMACULTURE GARDEN

Lots and lots... Annette will post information on the existing soil type and conditions and what we are doing to set it all up!

Set up chook pen and house.

Set up a bee hive... yep I've joined an apiary club!

Small pond for some water veggies and our turtle 'Buddha'.

The amount of work wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for all the red tape ( surveys, geo-tech reports, plans, designs, etc etc ) and the need to have to deal with the Local Council... I HATE GOING INTO THE COUNCIL... its such a waste of time! I'm anticipating that we'll be spending about $100K for all of the above... I've put down estimates only... there is definitely a price for going green but we all know its worth it! OK? Right! :-)

Anyway, this is our GRAND PLAN... so for those of you wondering where we are..... look no further... we'll be at home.

BEFORE photos continued

Front Yard - will have a pond and a horse paddock on the right.
Future Shed Position - 9m x 20m shed approved.
Back yard - for veggie gardens, fruit trees, chook and another pond.
Stockpiles of rubbish to sort through - bricks, mulch, dirt, massive logs, dead wood etc.

BEFORE photos

These are the inital photos before starting any work.




The Front Entrance. The Driveway is about 50m long.

Approaching the house and building envelope.

This is the house on the day of settlement...
...and inside...
... and us later that night, celebrating with a modest fire, nibblies and some bubblies.

And so our journey begins...

This is my first ever blog... for some reason never got into the whole thing. Anyway, we thought this was a good way of keeping everyone updated on our progress... but I'd better start with an introduction:

We are Peter and Annette Tazawa (nee Lockley) and we got married last year. Annette and I have now been working on the Central Coast (NSW Australia) for about 6 years. I am a partner at Wyong Equine Clinic and Annette is now a part-timer, working at Tuggerah Vet Clinic and Long Jetty Vet Clinic.

For the last 5 years, we have been living on a small (450sq.mtr.) suburban block. Annette's always been very environmentally conscious and responsible (she even drives a Prius and before that she rode the bicycle to work) whilst I on the other hand grew up with a great appreciation for nature but my actions never really matched my well meaning intentions... hopefully that's starting to change!

We started getting itchy feet last year. We'd been cooped up in our little house for too long! Annette wanted to really let her green thumbs go wild (not enough food could be grown out of her 6mx2m veggie patch) and I'd always wanted to move onto an acreage (aka waterfront block with a boat rampa and jetty)....

Even though I'd seen this block of land for sale for some time, we'd never thought it was what we wanted. I thought I wanted a waterfront; Annette wanted a quiet bush block. This block is a bush block but its right near town. It gets a bit of noise from the freeway, but we can live with it if it means being closer to town etc, so that we are not driving so far (which is obviously a no no). We had both been reading about sustainability so much, that at some point in the past year... and I don't know exactly when.... we came to the realisation that we both wanted one thing... to have a sustainable home and apply permaculture and organic principals to our own plot of land and be more self sufficient. This block definitely had heaps of potential! So we thought we'd give it a go.

So this is our block: 25 acres of bushland with about 10 acres of it (at the back of the block) being wetland (swamp, alluvion, marsh, etc etc). The building block is only about 1~1.5 acres. It is flood prone and is in a high bush fire danger zone... (what are we doing?!*?) and the house is about 2/3 finished with no services connected and lots of unfinished areas.

Anyway, its getting late... more on this shortly!

Pete