Planning permit is approved, yay!

We had a slight panic a few months back when it appeared they'd re-zoned our property from Rural Zone to Rural Farming Zone, which meant that ordinarily we'd only be allowed to have the one house on the property. We decided therefore to get clarification as soon as possible before investing more time in doing up the old house, by applying for a planning permit.

And the great news is, they've granted it!! So we can go ahead with everything as planned. Yay!!!

There are some constraints but nothing that seems out of the ordinary or unexpected. You can see the full details here.

Below are Dad's initial thoughts and updates from September 24th:

I think the development commencement can be considered with the Septech system, watertank for the fire service, and renovations of the old house. However they may consider the work on the new house must be commenced within two years. If so perhaps I could ask if site preparation, eg the required cutting before foundations are established, would be acceptable as a commencement of the new structure. An extension of completion time is probably relatively easy. There is a risk that if an adequate commencement is not achieved it will lapse and the planning permit come up for consideration again. I think we ought to proceed with getting a permit for the new structure before commencing any other work on it, especially the site preparation, even though you do not wish to proceed with it until closer to your return. I am waiting to hear from the plumber, and will call him soon. I took the work of drawing to Allan Davies. He has only to tweak the original drawings and print some copies. Should not be very costly, and he promised completion by the end of this week.

revised electrical plan

In response to Mum's comments, Dave revised the electrical plan slightly, basically just adding a few powerpoints. You can see the revised version here, but we'll probably tweak it again when we get closer to installing and know eg: precisely the kitchen layout:

(Click photo to view bigger):


Here's Mum's suggestions in full from her emails on July 22:

I think you could do with a light over kitchen bench underneath the overhead cupboards – light overhead is behind you and will cast shadows otherwise. Or use spotlights to shine in on angle I guess.

Make all powerpoints double and I think you could do with more – kitchen needs more, over bench – blenders, mixers, toaster oven, whatever. You may not use them often as you don’t cook like I do BUT when you need them you will kick yourself if they are not there. Also, I think more are needed almost everywhere – a heater, a fan, whatever might well be needed all over. Allow for computers to plug in, TV in bedroom and so on – and don’t forget TV antenna points and consider smart wiring, radio network the palce – you may as well, it probably won’t cost much extra to do it from scratch but will be a lot more to add it later.

I am not sure about dimmers – they are out of fashion, hard to get, and we are soon to go all energy saver lights which cannot be fitted to dimmers at this stqge. Later this year they get phased out, the conventional sort – and from late next year the normal sort cannot be sold. Already there are more inds and sizes of the energy sver sort on sale – I can put them in most places round my place now and they come in different sizes and bayonet or screw in now too.

Don’t forget where you need the vacuum cleaner to plug in, either. Is one power point outside enough? I’d be thinking at least a double one on each veranda, ie one beside of house if not two per side. Car cleaning with vacuum, maybe a pump, external lights, whatever.


My reply 22nd July:

Hi, thanks a lot for looking at it and for the comments.

Yes, I thought about the kitchen bench lighting but we aren't sure where the cupboards will be. But I should make a note of it for Dad anyway.

Good idea too about the heaters etc, maybe I will just scatter a few more powerpoints around generally. All would be double powerpoints as a matter of course (I didn't realise they came in anything other than double anymore!) But for things like computer area we will have a separate extension board that plugs into a single socket and then has space like for 6 things to plug in. The boards have a circuit breaker to protect in case of power spikes: we use them here and it's just good practice as have heard of people whose equipment has been destroyed by it otherwise.

We'll just be using WiFi to beam things around which is wireless - so shouldn't need anything special done wiring wise: keeping it wireless makes it a lot easier to upgrade.

TV antenna points? I didn't even think of them - I'm so used to just having a satellite dish. But yes will make a note of it in next iteration. The TV location is marked and we can use our Slingbox and the WiFi to beam the signal around the house to any laptop, so as long as it works to the TV in the lounge that's the only point it would need.

Dimmers are a non-negotiable requirement - we've learned from our house here that they make a huge difference to the mood of a room. They are still very fashionable here, even more so nowadays when people want to save energy as when you dim you reduce the power used. Maybe we should buy a bulk load of dimmer switches here to bring back? Starting last year in UK, you can get longlife bulbs that dim. They're not perfect yet (sometimes take a little while to flick on) but they work.

electrical plan for cottage

Dad was adamant that we do a first pass of the Electrical plan for the cottage so that he can start getting quotes from electricians.

Here's my attempts: a plan for location of powerpoints, and a separate one for built-in lighting and switches. (Click to view bigger):






Dad's email 21 July:

In order to get an idea of cost for the whole project I must get a quote from an electrician for the wiring, a quote from the plumber for the plumbing, etc. I am often not on the premises for any length of time so this seems a natural time to book an appointment for a few tradies to visit ... I need to start gathering some momentum to get done those things which involve persons other than myself... Of course I will do outdoor things first, but I will be hoping to get the wiring done and then I can use it from the generator and work anywhere in the house safely. I want only a basic for this week of where you definitely need things, then I want you and Dave to discuss at leisure these things, and if Dave has the chance to walk about and place texta marks on studs in vital places while here I feel it will be well worthwhile. But having the plans there will give you some idea to put marks on it in pencil, and Dave can make notes while here of anything you need to discuss more later. Of course the kitchen is one such. I only need to know approx how many power points and where so wire, switches, fittings for power, etc can be estimated by an electrician. We can start with batten holder fittings for light, and refine later with other special lights for you. Things done after plaster goes up are possible but not so easy so become more costly.

Soil test results

Yes, they have finally arrived. Here's the key extracts:



(Click to make it big enough to read).

Also, here's the background information leaflet.

so it'll be a grey roof then

The only slight concern that we had with the last set of plans from Eric was that there are now 2 solar panels prominently displayed on the roof.

I was a little worried they might be an eyesore, so asked what flexibility there was to move and/or disguise.

Here's Eric's response:

For solar panels to work properly in this situations a few few criteria need to be addressed:
- North facing, minimal shading
- Nearby, and below the hot water tank (which is also positioned to suit the wood cooker)
- The pipe from the tank to the panel needs to go down continuously with no dips or uphill section.

I think that this is a good position for the system to work. Another option is on the east verandah roof, but it will be shaded by early afternoon. It can even go at ground level, but there is always a chance that the panels will be broken. One option to hide the panels is to have a grey roof which I often do.


So, it'll be a grey roof then. :-)

detailed plans for new house (almost)

Today the almost-finished house plans arrived from Eric. I say almost, as there's still a chance they might need tweaking depending on the structural engineers report. (Which as yet we've not commissioned, as holding off to hear about the planning permit and also to get some alternative quotes).

These plans are designed to be of sufficient detail to be suitable for applying for a building permit. As much as he could, Eric has kept descriptions generic, to allow us flexibility in deciding on the precise brand / style of finish.

The best thing about this set of the plans is that it's got detailed measurements, so we can at last seriously cracking on working out things like the design of the kitchen.

I've uploaded a couple of the pages to Flickr as below, but if you're curious, the full set of plans (all 17 pages worth) is here.

Ground floor - main house:


Second floor - main house:



Library wing:

At last! a name

We started thinking about what to call the house(s) over three years ago and have at last come up with something we both like.

Until recently we were leaning towards "Cricklewood Farm" - in homage to where we live in London. But it never felt quite right, not to mention would be forever subject to japes about The Goodies (who I just discovered even wrote a song about it).

So, on our recent driving trip in Kent and Sussex we brainstormed other names and came up with the idea of "Ridgeview". It seemed apt as we're on a ridge and we have a view... but of course when we came to look for URL's it - and numerous variants, Ridgeviewhouse and so forth - were already taken.

Then we had a brainwave and came up with an alternative that I liked every more:

Ridgefields

... and miracle of miracles, www.ridgefieldshouse.com was available!!

(We might get the .com.au version too if I can ever get my head round the trademark registration process).

Who knows, we might end up changing it if we come up with something better in the next few years, but right now I'm just so happy we have something to fall back on that we both like. :-)

the house model has landed

So I gave you a sneak preview of this a while back, but this week the real thing arrived!

It's had pride of place on the kitchen table but finally this weekend I got round to taking photos. Here's a montage of them complete with cheesy music. Enjoy! :-)

permits are underway...

Thank goodness, it's all looking positive on the planning permit front so far.

From Dad's email (May 2):

"Hi, I have returned from Maryborough and have good news: Norm looked over the whole application documentation, and I spoke to him about the plan you sent locating everything. As well I mentioned the height of the place due to 12 ceilings. He said he was involved in a place in England several years ago so he knows what you are talking about when you wish to have the higher ceilings... Norm and Jeff (the soil tester) both commented that it will be a great home when finished and an asset in that quiet neighborhood".

We still have to get a couple more things to Norm for the planning permit process, but it's all underway.

soil test update

We're still waiting for the full set of test results, but we've heard about the Foundation test.

From Dad's email (May 1st):
"He said he has done one of the tests, the foundations, and the news is good, an M classification for the footings. He has to complete the capability tests, as these require time for dispersal of water from holes before he can submit his samples"

I had a little hunt online and found a booklet thanks to Soil Test Australia which defines the different classifications. It turns out M = average. :-)



UPDATE: the full report has arrived.

Aerial shot

Dad sent me an aerial photo of our property that he was given by the council. He asked me to mark on it all the things that we ultimately want to build, so they can see how it would all fit together long term.

I'd done a rougher version of this before using Google Earth but this time I was careful to copy across the precise outline of both the new and old houses, and to get them in the correct relative positions. Click image to see full size:

Our house in miniature

Ta da... The first sighting of the model for the new house which is currently winging its way across the oceans to us.



I'll take more photos from every angle when it arrives but couldn't resist sharing this sneak preview.

I love it. :-)

A flurry of activity

The past week has seen a lot of activity relating to Amherst but it's of the frustrating kind, as currently there's little to show for it. In brief:

• Eric finished the scale model of the new house and is planning to post it over next week. He also sent the plans to a second structural engineer to solicit a quote, given that the first guy he sent them to hadn't yet responded.
  
  
• On Friday Dad met with Norm from the Central Goldfields planning department to get the ball rolling on applications. He's applied for the building permit for the old house, and got the forms for the planning permit which will be needed for the new one.

• While up there, Dad also met with a local guy called Mr McKay, a local building surveyor and engineer who was recommended by the council, to commission detailed soil tests. Apparently he'll take soil samples from 7 sites and it will be around 2 weeks before the tests are made. We need two reports done: a Land Capability Assessment and a Soil test for Foundations.

• Dad made contact with the guys at Septech. Once we have the soil test results and the detailed site plan, they will visit the site and prepare a quote. Once we sign off on it, they'll then prepare the documents needed to get the sewerage treatment permit from the Council, which is required as part of the planning permit application.
  
  
• Dad has arranged alternate storage facilities for all the furniture and architectural salvage odds and ends we've been sending back. Until now they've been kept in my old bedroom but the next shipment is about to arrive and there's no more space - and besides, Dad & Vida need their room back. Dad got a decent deal on a 4 x 3 m room at Storage King in Mitcham, so in the short-term we'll be moving it there. Ultimately however, Dad is looking into the cost of getting another container up at Amherst. His idea would be to put a temporary roof with insulation over the top to help keep the heat down, then it would be secure dry storage for all but the most heat-sensitive items.
  

latest floorplans for the new house

It's floorplans galore at the moment. Hot on the heels of *finally* getting the finished plans for the cottage, after nearly a year's hiatus we now have revised plans for the dream house being built next door.

Here's roughly how it all fits together, with the cottage and dream house - along hopefully with a shed for Dave - helping to create an almost fully enclosed "secret garden" area. We're doing up the cottage first to live in before starting on the dream house:




Now focusing on the dream house...

Here's the ground floor:



The Study will double as a Dining Room for big occasions like Christmas.

The Study/Reading room wing is now bigger and more clearly separated into rooms. We did this partly to get extra wall space for bookshelves, and partly to make it easier to convert to a bedroom, if God forbid we ever had to sell or found ourselves incapacitated and unable to sleep upstairs. I'm still not 100% certain on the placement of the doorway between the study and reading room though.


Here's the second floor:



The dressing room is much bigger - it's now a proper room rather than a large walk in closet. It's also had the positive side effect of making the bathroom bigger too. :-)

In case you're wondering why only one bathroom and not ensuites... This was a deliberate choice. Should we ever have to sell, the configuration is such it would be easy to add/convert to ensuites. But, for us we didn't see the point in sacrificing space to multiple bathrooms that we'd never use.

The other major change is the addition of the front upstairs terrace that Pete suggested, accessible by climbing out the window. I want to make the windows with big sills so you can prop a cushion on them and sit half in the room, half out.

And of course, the upstairs storey of the reading room.


Finally, here's the various profile views:

North: looking down the hill towards the dam and orchard:



West: this is the view you'll see as you get to the end of the driveway, thus arguably this could be considered the "front". I love the way the profile looks now with the tower in.



South: this is the view from standing midway in the 'secret garden'. It's not complete because it doesn't have the tower shown, but you can imagine the shape. I love how the bath will be in the upstairs bay overlooking this.



East: there are two versions of this, first what you'd see from the outside:



and second, a kind of cross section view of it:

latest cottage floorplans

Da da... we have more floorplans. The only difference from the previous set is the addition of the profile drawings at the top showing the view from all 4 sides. I really like it, so unless Dad finds something that needs to change, we're now *almost* ready to go ahead with permit applications. At last!!!

New vs existing floor plans:




Profile drawings of the house:

revised cottage plans

We have at last got the finalised plans for the cottage at Amherst. Here they are, click to make bigger:





Hoping to get elevation drawings also for the views from each side of the house too. I'm no good at imagining what it will look like from floorplan drawings and want to be sure I like each of the house's "faces" before we start renovating.

It's so good to be moving on this again.

1930's architectural model

This isn't directly related to Amherst, except it has inspired yet another whimsical project to pass the time until we move back and can properly start!

I just found a lovely 1930's architectural model of a typical bungalow house. I think it's just a really cool display item, a piece of work-related art, just like the stained glass window designs we got last year.



The detailing is magnificent. It even has curtains painted on the windows and paper in brick, tile patterns on the outside. When we finally get the model of the new house at Amherst, I want to do something similar. A kind of real life russian doll to have a model of the house displayed inside the real thing. :-)



From the Ebay description:
"This is a rare vintage 1930's Bungalow architects plan model building. It measures approx 10" x 7.5" (from above) and is made from balsa wood. The roof comes off so you can see the inside plan of the building. It is in good condition for its' age, with just a few indentations on the roof and one of the chimneys missing. It's a must for any interest in the 1930's, especially if you've an interest in 1930's architecture".

redesigned library

Woohoo! Eric's sent through the first part of the redesign, and we love it.

From his email on November 7th:

I've been working through that list of modifications. Widening the hall and pantry was more difficult than I had imagined, but I have it working. It sounds simple, but I have designed the house to work on a simple structural module. That will help down the track with some of the details. Here are some sketches of the library tower and how it could work with some future bed rooms where the billiard table will go.

Here's the side view:



Here's the floorplan views:



Hopefully we'll never have to convert it to bedrooms, but so pleased we have the option. We could either put it to two small bedrooms as this shows, and convert part of the laundry to be a shared bathroom for them, or else put in just one lovely downstairs bedroom with ensuite.



Finally, this shows the first floor and rooftop balcony for the library tower. Not much to say about this except that we love it. I know it's utterly whimsical and we'll probably use the tower balcony once in a blue moon, but it will be such fun to have and give a great looking over the houses and garden.

A birds eye view

Dave discovered that Google Earth had recently added new photos at much higher resolution covering Amherst. You can see the trees we planted!!!

Here's a close-up for the house and garden area. This is my favourite view. I love how not only can you see the trees, but also the outline of the walled garden area, right down to our first start at making vegie garden beds. From this view I can see we've got the sizing right relative to the house + the placement... it was so hard to judge at ground level.


Here's a view covering the entire property:


It's a little deceptive as it makes it look flat whereas in reality it's on a kind of rolling hill.

Finally, here's a close up of the far side, where you can see the baby olive trees.

pine posts and wire for orchard

Dad has done another of his miraculous sourcing tricks. Somehow he managed to find someone who was dismantling their orchard and selling off a bunch of pine poles that are perfect for what we need:

From Dad's email on September 19th:
I am going to Amherst with the loaded trailer of 160-180mm pine posts 3 metre long. Had to go to near Arthur's Seat chairlift to get them. They are excellent and only $10 each. The next size down, 125mm, cost $25 each. These are an exceptional bargain and we ought to buy as many as you envision you will need. He also has 125mm ones both in the 3m and 2.4 m and some 2.4m that are 180-200 that would be excellent for strainer posts. Your call if you want to invest more. He runs an orchard that he is downsizing. He has about 1000 poles that are 9 yrs old but in excellent, and I mean excellent order. Better than new because they have better preservative in them than is presently being used.

Dad ended up getting another load's worth in the end I think, as they're such a good deal and will come in handy for so many projects.




In terms of the wire, Dad said:
I cannot get discounted dog wire so will go with 1.2 m high weldmesh for the bottom that has square gaps of 10cmx10cm. You need 3 rolls at $54 each, plus staples. You have the single strand wire already to make up the top of the fence up to the 2.4, or you can tell me to buy an additional 3 rolls of the weldmesh and make it all weldmesh.

I replied to say to use the same weld mesh wire along the whole fence and also to make sure it was lined up with the wire below if it was going on in two parts.
"What I mean is, make it symmetrical if you can as otherwise I think it might look a little odd to the eye when you're looking up close to see the 'stripes' of the wire that don't match up. If this isn't possible then please leave a gap, say 20-30cm, between the two sheets of wire so they look clearly separate... I'm assuming a small gap like this, 1.2m off the ground, is not going to be possible for any sheep/roo to squeeze through as they're not climbers"

kickstart

The house design alterations have been on the backburner for months, as Eric had a bunch of other projects he needed to work on plus he moved house to Ballarat. We didn't mind as we're not in any rush, but it is a nice feeling to have finally got back to working on it. (For a reminder of where we left off, see here)

Eric kickstarted the process again with an email on September 11th:
"Well, I finally started going through the plans again today. I have notes from our conversations from the last little while. I thought that since it has been so long (my fault) it would be prudent to mark up what I believe to be the areas to look at. These mark ups aren't necessarily the solution, but rather the general ideas. Can you have a look and tell me if it reflects the areas to look at?"

Ground floor:


Top floor:


Side views:




We replied a few days later:

"Thanks a lot for this. I just looked through the plans with Dave and what you have tallies with our recollections too.

We have just a couple of general thoughts re: the library tower... I really like the idea of having the bigger library. And Dave is thrilled about the idea of having his tower. :-)

Our only slight hesitation is in terms of what it potentially does to the house value, were we ever to have to sell it. Before, we could arguably pretend the library was another bedroom. Now it will be less easy... I'm wondering whether there's a way of having our cake and eating it too - ie: having a library extension but by playing with where the stairs are & shape of upstairs floor, making it so that the library billiards area + extension could be easily converted to ideally 2 other bedrooms if ever needed in future?

Also, Dave is curious to explore some other roof designs for the tower, eg: a squarer roof rather than triangular. He still wants it to be pointy though - ie: he's not thinking of it being a flat roof (even though perhaps it could be cool as a kind of mini lookout thingy)"

tweaks to the verandah

To make sure we avoided making any clanging mistakes, I asked Eric for his thoughts about the verandah design. He liked it except was a bit wary of the raised up bit over the front door and suggested a revision:

"I think that the verandah gable might clash with the house gable. How about adding some extra detail to highlight the entry, but locating in under the verandah and at a smaller scale. One idea to consider is the location of the viewer and where their eye will be filled with the view. In the sketch below, from a distance the dominant form would be the house gable. From closer, the house gable would disappear outside of the "cone of vision" of the eye, and the detail right around the entry would take over. You see this in a lot of classical architecture. St Paul's cathedral, for example. The dome, the main gable, and the detail around the door all dominate the view depending on where you are. A long way from St Paul's to Amherst, but the principle remains. Well, there is another idea to ponder. Let me know what you decide."



We talked about it quite a lot with Dad, as he really liked the idea of the gable. But both Dave and I can see Eric's point. So, we've decided to go back to the original with no gable. Wait and see if the lack of light is actually a problem before we bother with solutions for it! Now we've got rid of the verandah at the back end of the house & there's just a small canopy over the door, a lot more light will come through from that end than when there was a full verandah, so there's a good chance it'll be OK.

planning permit for walled garden

One of the concerns flagged by Dad in relation to the vegetable garden wall is that he feared we needed a planning permit for it. But we didn't understand why that would be the case in our area, as there's no neighbours to overshadow or views to obstruct.

Anyway, we agreed to disagree until Dave and I could do some research ourselves. Here's what we discovered.

Since we initially bought the property, it seems to have been slightly re-zoned. According to the map here, we're now in a Farming zone (code FZ), which is part of the Rural category. A PDF of the requirements for this zone can be downloaded here.

This says we don't need a permit for Agriculture, which in my opinion clearly encompasses a vegetable garden ... which we can't have without building a wall to keep out the sheep and kangaroos. Thus, building a wall to enable us to create a vegetable garden shouldn't require a permit. We figured we'd better doublecheck this logic though, so Dave called Norm at the local planning department.

Norm said we wouldn't normally need a permit, but we might in this instance only because the area being enclosed is much bigger than typical for a garden in the Amherst/Maryborough area. Norm said he knew exactly the kind of thing we meant though, and said there are loads of them in the Western District (which makes sense as that's where a lot of the grander properties were built years ago). He didn't seem to think there'd be a problem getting approval for the wall even if we did need a permit though. What we needed to do was to send him a few sketches... indicating where on the property it is, what it will look like roughly, etc.

Below is what we sent and Norm's brief reply, which we have interpreted as meaning that it's OK to go ahead, provided we abide by building regulations. Which is a big relief as it means there's at least one project we can work on while we're overseas and only able to make sporadic visits.
__________________________________________
DAVE'S EMAIL TO NORM - NOVEMBER 22

Hello Norm,
I'm writing to follow up on our telephone conversation of last week,regarding whether or not a planning permit would be required for awalled garden on our 30 acre property.

Attached are:
--A site plan showing existing buildings/features and also 'proposedbuildings' (what we plan to build once we return from UK in 5+ years)


--A sketch of the garden


The proposed garden is 25m x 40 m, surrounded by a wall of approx 2min height. We're intending for the wall to have old fashioned redbrick columns, but we are still undecided at what will fill in the space between the columns. We are investigating the options of:
- Mud brick/cob wall made in part with clays from the property.
- Wood
- Hebel sheeting

My wife's brother is a bricklayer by trade, and he has offered to build the required foundations and lay the bricks for the columns whenhe has spare time over the upcoming holidays. We intend to continue to build and complete the rest of the wall, with volunteer help from family and friends, on our holiday trips back to Australia. These are usually for 3-4 weeks every 18 months or so.

We decided to make it a walled garden, with a solid wall, in order to:
- Protect from sheep and wild life (kangaroos etc)
- Protect from frosts and wind
- Provide a growing support for espaliered fruit trees and other vines
- Because my wife really likes the style of old fashioned walled gardens

Inside the garden we are thinking about having small sheds at two of the corners of the walls, one for tools, one for growing seedlings/potting etc, although we don't envisage building them until the wall was built.

The garden might seem large compared to suburban vegetable gardens,but we arrived at it after doing research on the growing spacerequired to keep us reasonably self sufficient in vegetables, plus provide room for some small fruit trees that otherwise would not survive the hard frosts.

The site for the garden was chosen because:
- Only really flat land on property near to present house
- Site is near to existing dam, for water supply
- Near to orchard area we have started to plant
- Away from shade of established tall gum trees
- Doesn't disrupt views down the valley

At present, the site for the garden (like all of the 30 acres) is unused except by the next door neighbours who occasionally graze sheep on it to keep the grass down. It is just bare land with no vegetation except for a sparse covering of grass.

Based on the above, do you think we would need planning permission for the garden walls? If so, are there any things we could change about our plans that might make it not the case, at least for the initial stages?

We're happy to apply for permits, but, as this is likely to be a 5+ year project (given the problem of us not living in Australia), we would, more than likely, be unable to complete the structure within 2 years. If we were able to hold off on getting a permit until a later stage of the garden building (eg: after we'd built 2 of the 4 walls or some such other partial step) so that we'd have a shot to complete it within the life of the permit, that would be brilliant. Alternatively, what if we initially just built columns but did not fill in the wall between them? Is it possible to apply for extensions?

Any advice you can give would be appreciated.
____________________________________

NORM'S REPLY - NOVEMBER 29TH

"While walled gardens are not common it looks ok subject to wall heights not being visually excessive in appearance and materials[concept ok] also masonary code building regs apply"

designing the walled garden

Shortly after we got back from Australia, my brother Pete lost his job. He's a bricklayer so wanted to earn some fill-in money helping out building the garden wall pillars at Amherst.

So, we started a frantic effort to describe what we wanted done, relayed via Mum and Dad as Pete isn't online yet. As it turned out, the panic was unnecessary as Pete got another job within a few days, but at least we made a little progress thinking through the requirements.

Below are extracts from various emails that describe where we got to in our discussions with Pete. There's also a Flickr set that you might want to jump straight to, which has photos we're using for inspiration:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/sets/72157594370178102/

_______________________________________________

NOVEMBER 6TH - EMAIL FROM ME TO DAD

We had a good discussion with Pete about the brick walls, or rather pillars, and the design on the afternoon just before we left. The plan had been he might try and start over Xmas. But in the circumstances I guess we can bring it forward, although there is still some legwork Dave & I need to do before he can make too much progress.

1) Dave needs to call the permit people. I will try and get him to do it in the next few days.

2) I need to send photos of wall patterns etc that I like for the pillars. Pete showed me some ideas he had and they were really good, but he'd asked me to think some more about it myself and send him some photos.

Where we left it with Pete is that we will be having 16 pillars, some perhaps a bit fancier than others (eg: the gateposts). After discussion with Dave, we're inclined to mostly use bricks he showed us called 'quick bricks' or 'render bricks'... they were of a similar texture to the ones you bought already but they are about 1.5 times the size and Pete thought they would work out cheaper than the smaller bricks, especially when you factor in labour. We also prefer the look of the bigger bricks. Pete did the calculation of how many bricks we'd be likely to need for that and how long it was likely to take (his initial estimate was 2-3 pillars a day) and I agreed a rate of $100 per day cash with him for labour. Of course, we can also pay for reasonable use of petrol too.

What we also agreed was that he would make an initial exploratory trip up to Amherst one time when you were there, so he can actually see the site, see what materials & equipment are available, visit the brickworks himself at Ballarat & Bendigo to see what's available and prices, etc. Perhaps that is something you can do this week with him, and maybe he can even start to pour the foundations for the trenches that are already dug if he urgently needs work. Start with the trench nearest the house, because that will definitely need the concrete foundation all the way along infilling the trench, because we will ultimately be having potting sheds/glasshouse etc leaning against those walls.

I know it probably isn't the usual approach, but I would like to start off just doing the pillars/foundation for the 2 ends we've already dug. That way we don't have to invest in hiring equipment again immediately. Until we know what kind of material we'll be having between pillars, we don't know the type of foundations we'll need. As you know I want to try and avoid digging giant trenches on the 40m sides as they take so long to do with the digger and thus cost $$$$ & instead just have holes where the pillars are. But we need to do more research at our end about these Hever sheets & the planning permission before we can make a decision. So, so as not to hold up Pete, he could start off just doing the short ends.
__________________________________

NOVEMBER 10 - PETE'S COMMENTS

Pete doesn't have email so instead he handwrote a note about the garden wall project, which Dad scanned and sent to me. Here they are (click to make them bigger).




I replied:

I'm OK with the approach of setting up an account with a local guy for materials, and also with Pete's time cost. But, I'd like to have a costing (even if just a ballpark estimate) for all the materials before we commit to proceed. Perhaps on his exploratory trip up there with you, Pete can visit suppliers to get this and find out details of how to set up the account? How we approach paying for the materials is going to depend on cost... we might perhaps give a credit card to the material supplier (in which case it would be coming out of our UK savings) or we might instead have to pay via bank deposit (so it comes out of Australian savings). I can't tell you which until we have the estimate of cost.

I know Pete wants to go ahead quickly as fill in work, but I want to give myself time to a) think carefully about the design, and b) get a response even if informal from the planning guy. I have to write the email to him over the weekend as haven't had time to do it yet. I would hate to invest thousands in building the bloody brick pillars for them to say that we needed to alter it. So, it might be a fortnight or so before we have this, but I will go as fast as I can.

In terms of the Pete's comments re: design/patterns, I need to think more about this and discuss with Dave. We'll attempt to do this over the weekend.

___________________________________________

NOVEMBER 12 - EMAIL TO MUM

As you said you'll be talking to Peter soon Mum, could you pass on the message that we've got pictures to show him? He'd asked us to send lots of photos of things we liked to help him better understand the style we wanted. Even though the focus to begin is on the pillars, we need to think about the whole thing so as to make sure the pillars are in the right place, and that as well there are sufficient foundations for whatever eventually goes inbetween.

The approach I'm trying, because it's too difficult to coordinate otherwise given everyone's different schedules, is to put all the photos onto Flickr into a special set. Then everyone can peruse them at their leisure and add their own comments directly to each photo. ie: we can all have a conversation without it having to be on the phone at the same time, or buried in emails.

Here's the link to the set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/sets/72157594370178102/

... [from here on you can see the comments as part of the Flickr set]

tweaks to new house plans

We're almost finished now on the plans for the new house. We're just awaiting a few sketches of particular areas, and then it's time to build the model. Yay!

Just so this blog is a complete record of the process, below are extracts from recent emails with Eric.


EMAIL FROM ME TO ERIC, NOVEMBER 8TH
... WITH ERIC'S REPLIES INSERTED IN ITALICS...

You'll be pleased to know that we still love the ideas we discussed. There are just three things...

1) after a little more thought I have a slight trepidation about the library 'tower' feeling a bit too formal, cold, arcane, which I think it might if the only things in the upper level of the tower are bookshelves. But, I think that could easily be offset, provided that on one side this is a little area for seating. For example, perhaps we could have a little walk in alcove on one side, which could have seats and a small desk, etc. It doesn't have to be big, but I think it'd make all the difference in feeling in the upstairs space so that it didn't feel like somewhere you just went to get a book and then came straight back down. I'd suggest probably the side that looks into the secret garden area would be best for this, as guessing that will also have a sliver of distance view between the houses(?). I know this would mean we'd lose part of the book storage area, but that's OK, I think there'll still be plenty. What do you think?

ERIC'S REPLY:
I have imagined a little seat interrupting the bookshelves at some point in the upper bookshelf area. I's always nice to have a place to pause and sit with a book. The balcony should be quite open to the library area below. Perhaps once we have some sketches, it will be easier to visualize.


2) the roof of the laundry area... I forgot to mention this when we met, but to my eye it seems to slope oddly in comparison to the other areas. Was there a structural reason for this? Is it possible to alter so it echoes the other rooflines more?

ERIC'S REPLY:
That is true. I have gone back and forth on that roof. Here is the issue. Look at the west elevation. The gable is a 45 degree pitch to match the main house roof. See how it sticks up higher than the main roof over the laundry? On the south elevation, I have shown the ridge of the laundry roof return back into the main to at an angle so that it doesn't show in the courtyard. I did look at other options lie a shallower pitch on the gable over the laundry, but I like the way that the steeper gable re;ates to the main roof, and marks the main entry of the house. We can look at this more closely in the study model.


3) the bay window in the lounge - and I guess related, the shape of the balcony on the upstairs bedroom. I know we've discussed this over and over about whether to keep it with the circular feel or whether to make it more a square bay. And I know we settled at leaving it circular, for reasons I can't recall, which is why I didn't raise it when we met. But every time I look at the house plans, it just niggles at me still, and so I just thought I would flag with you that if you wanted to alter the shape, so that it was a rectangular bay rather than semicircle, to thus echo the boxier shapes of the dormers, the square library tower, the square stairs, etc, I would be very happy with you doing that.

ERIC'S REPLY
The circular bay window originated in an idea about making the two sides slight different from each other. A square bay window would achieve that as well. I can look at it on the next version of the plans. If we don't like the square version, we can always go back.

verandah plans for old house

We're still undecided about how best to proceed with the work on the old house at Amherst once the planning permit comes. Of particular debate is the approach to building the verandah.

We're waiting for Dad to give us some costings before we can decide how to proceed.

In the meantime, below are extracts from various emails that capture the conversations and where we're at currently.

____________________________________________

DAD SAID... in passing in an email November 6th

"...I would like to proceed with the veranda roof and framing when possible. Material stored there needs to be used or the white ants will eat it".

____________________________________________

I REPLIED... in email November 7th

With regards to your comment about proceeding with the framing & verandah roof... don't forget the discussion we had at Dave's parents. We have decided we do not want to put the verandah roof on until the house has been painted , because it will be too difficult otherwise for us to paint the detailing at the top. This also means that we do not want to put the rest of the verandah floor on until after painting either, because without a roof it will have no protection.

I know you have bought materials for the verandah so if white ant is as big a problem as you keep saying it is, can you please move the verandah materials to the house - there seemed room to store them in the hallway stacked up, and they can happily sit there for the next few years until they're needed. Alternatively, they could be stored instead in the garage that you were going to erect down near the container (nb: on a gravel base only, not a slab).

As Dave explained when we spoke at his Dad's house, the order we want to proceed in working on the old house is:

PREPARE EXTERIOR FOR PAINTING
- Put in windows/doors in the spots they'll be going according to the plans
- Repair weatherboards and existing window frames
- Make alterations to the house shape... ie: the bedroom baywindow, the new bit in the bathroom, the laundry backend, etc.
- Strip off old paint

PAINT EXTERIOR
- Paint undercoat on boards
- Paint one coat of top coat, in white (this will give some protection from the weather).

We would like the above work to be done in the next 18-24 months, so that when we next visit we can have a 'family working bee' to paint the house exterior the final colours.

____________________________________________________

DAD SAID... in email November 8th

"I know that access to the area above the veranda roof will be greatly facilitated by the roof, which is a trafficable roof of low pitch, and that the alternative to build a scaffold to access these areas with machinery to stripe paint and then to do the sealer and first coat stages would be time spent well by myself as I have no need for all the extra gear on the scaffold that use by anyone else would require, especially at the greater heights. So you may like to think of these things when thinking about the approach you take.

Also,I have $900 worth of fascia/beam materials in long lengths that will need to be protected from theft. I will make the suggestion that we use much of the material onsite as a temporary structure over the container creating storage areas around it and also giving it shade from the heat. You have new sheets of iron on the site now which can be stored away till needed, or made use of until needed. I certainly don't want to preempt your role of telling me what you want me to do and when. I merely wanted you to consider the alternatives".

I REPLIED... in email November 8th

Let me talk to Dave some more about the issue of the verandah roof. We'd thought that having the roof in place would hinder rather than help when it came to painting, as we'd not realised the verandah roof would be strong enough to support people walking on it. We'd been thinking people would be just using ladders to get up there to do the detailing (as some of the patterns at the top will need to be hand-painted to pick ou the pattern, not sprayed. Just so I'm clear I understand, are you saying that you think it would be better to build the roof so people can lie on that when they're doing the paint work above the verandah roofline, or would it make it harder to do the paint? Would you rather build the scaffolding and go down that route instead?

With regards to the $900 of fascia/beam materials, are they materials that you would have been using for the verandah roof? Or were they for some other part of the verandah, eg: the floor? As a general rule, I'm more inclined to use materials where they will ultimately end up rather than use them in a temporary structure, unless there's some good reason not to.

____________________________________________________

DAD SAID... in email November 9th

I would certainly prefer to do the framing of the veranda and the roof of the veranda now rather than later, even if the floor was not done and planks were used. I think access to things would be much simpler for the painting and preparations. But I have not got all the material needed to do all the veranda. I bought material in batches which I could carry on given trips. I needed to have the range of things to do stages of the job I was at. I do not like to have things left lying around on the ground subject to ruin and theft because of not wishing to finish as begun, but I know how important it is that you do not feel overly pressured with the cost. I have not bought any material that are not for the veranda except the plaster materials.

I will talk further to you about the level of the roof above the windows, and be able to discuss it better when I have more time. A change in level that is too great will mean the length of the roof sheets will be too short unless I also raise the level of the outside edge of the veranda, so I need to clearly discuss with you and Dave all aspects before we go forward. I could lift the inner edge about 100 mm I think without risking the sheets being too short, but if I did that connecting the existing with the new will be difficult. So taking the existing off to make it comply with the new is the way to go. So I need to talk first to you of all things, and tell you all the aspects you need for an intelligent choice, and proceed from there."

____________________________________________________

EMAIL FROM ME TO DAD ... November 10th

I had an idea this morning about a way to save money on the old house renovations, which involves changing plans for the verandah. Before we make an ultimate decision though we wanted to get your input as to what the cost savings would be, in terms of both materials & labour.

I know that we at one stage said that we wanted a wraparound verandah on the old house as Dave likes them, but that was before we understood the cost of materials. As it seems to be working out a lot more expensive than we'd envisaged, we might be changing our minds. (it isn't set for certain though, we need the cost savings estimate from you so we can make a decision).

Specifically, the idea is to significantly reduce the area of verandah.

I've been looking for a photo to no avail, but do you remember what our Toora house looks like at the front? It's of a similar vintage to the Amherst old house and it doesn't have verandah across all of the front, only on the part that is 'set back'. Using that as inspiration, what if we only had verandah on the parts shaded yellow in this diagram?



Can you estimate how much more $$$ we'd need for the materials if we went with this reduced approach? And can you tell us how much $$ we'd be saving by doing this approach rather than having it 'wraparound'? My estimate is that it must be substantial, at least $10,000, but am I way off?

A few things to say about the verandah that might help you in coming up with this estimate.

1) you can assume the roofing sheets you've already bought will be the right length. We are happy to raise the height of the outside edge of the verandah roof by the same amount as whatever we raise it by on the edge that joins the house (ie: the slope will remain the same, and thus the length of sheeting will also remain the same). We will probably be putting some kind of fretwork edging on it (like in this picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/278274662/in/set-969191/ ) so having the outside edge higher will be good to allow that.

2) as shown in this picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/278274662/in/set-969191/ we want to have the inside of the verandah roof lined to at least give an effect of being tongue & grooved, even if it isn't really. (eg: maybe it is a thin MDF sheet that has grooves carved into it, you can advise us on what you think most cost efficient to achieve the look we want). We will be painting the verandah lining sky blue as in the picture. In between the corrugated iron and the lining we will have insulation (and also do you think we would we need some form of water protection in case the corrugated iron leaks so it doesn't mess up the lining?).

3) we would really like to have a tongue & groove verandah floor, with the boards running with the joins in the opposite way to the way you've laid the decking. ie: like in this picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/278271065/in/set-969191/ This means you'll need to do the foundations for the verandah floor differently. As well, be aware that not all tongue&groove boards will be cut to the exact length, so you'll need to have supports to allow for 'joining' mid floor. Again this might seem a lot of extra work vs getting them cut the exact lengths to begin, but it's traditional and it's the way Sam & John did theirs. As well, to ensure greatest longevity for the tongue & groove, we want it to be very solidly supported underneath so that there is no sense of 'bounce' as you walk on it. So, please err on the side of allowing for more supports underneath than less. The decking as you laid it currently has too much bounce for our liking. Overall, this will mean I suspect that a lot more wood will need to be used as supports for the floor than you may have been originally envisaging.

If it turns out that tongue and groove is going to be just way too expensive, there is an alternative that we'd consider. Today I came across another photo of an old verandah on a Queensland house, which seems to have a different kind of floor:



We don't like it anywhere near as much as tongue & groove, but it's a type of floor that is OK and is in keeping with the era. So if it turned out to be substantially cheaper for the materials & labour to build than tongue & groove, then it is something we'd consider.

Whenever you're doing the estimates (and as I said, there's no rush), if a floor like this would be cheaper, can you cost it up as an alternative so we can see the difference in price & then make our decision based on that?


4) if there is a way of using up the wood you were envisaging as being for the verandah pillars elsewhere (eg: as part of the foundation) then please do. I would rather buy nice verandah posts readymade in a lovely shape than use the square beams you've been using currently. I know we could carve the beams to make them look nicer than they already are, but to be honest, I would much prefer just to get the right thing to begin with as it will make such a difference to the look.

eg: I like the verandah pillars in this picture (except for the bit at the bottom which is obviously missing but could be simply a block of carved wood).



I know you said it is possible to buy lovely verandah posts ready made for you guessed $250 each? Maybe you could get a catalogue, or visit a shop that sells such posts and take some photos for us (with corresponding prices) and I will pick out specifically which shape I want.

5) just in case you were concerned, do not worry about the sun coming into the windows on the side without the verandah... we will charmingly solve that by creating a little canopy thing over the windows akin to in this picture



____________________________________________________________

DAD'S REPLY... in email November 10th

"I have suspected from the time you were here that the portion of veranda deck that has been begun should simply be removed. For one reason, it is too low and the posts have been cut already for the beams to rest which are not going to be of any help with the design of veranda you are envisioning. Also it has only been started. The row of bearer which goes through roughly where the table sits now has not been placed, and nearly half of the deck boards are just sitting there for me to have access to the area underneath to place this bearer. This accounts for the spring. Also the posts are not set in concrete, but merely sitting on pads.

The deck boards can be removed easily as the wood is still green, and can be used to good advantage on the upwey house, which is rotting away and will need replacing soon, and merbau deck is the cheapest available since treated pine is no longer acceptable and neither is cypress for an open deck.

The posts are not acceptable, only inexpensive, so these could be used elsewhere as fencing or something else with good effect. Tooling these is not worthwhile as they are green material, not kiln-dried. Buying ready turned veranda posts is the way to go and with plans for the fancy fretwork to be fitted appropriately. There are suppliers for such finishes.

The framing of the veranda as you want the flooring to run at right angles to the house is needing to be changed, using rows of bearers which run in the direction of the flooring boards. This will enable the placement of the floorjoists at intervals of 450mm along the direction of the side of the house. This is opposite to the way I have begun, and so it is most intelligent to remove the present structure rather than try to incorporate it with this other design. It is just not going to be worth it.

I have worked on several such verandas as you envision in my time as a carpenter. I am not unfamiliar with how to build them, and to build them solidly. The only way you can get the lining board look you see is most probably with lining boards, but pehaps there are some alternative sheets around. I have installed lining boards just so to coves of ceilings.

Your idea of putting verandas around only half of the house is a good one. It is most likely that from an expense point of view the only place you will end up with a veranda in just in front of the front door extending to the edge of the house only. That would be adequate to achieve an outdoors area, though not protect the house from heat much overall. We still need to achieve the necessary five-star rating required under laws passed in the past few years, and all-round verandas are a big help for achieving energy saving ratings. I like the idea of having just the area you have planned in yellow, of course, but the cost may prove far too great. I will make some estimate when you are sure just what you want me to estimate".

__________________________________________________________

I REPLIED... in email November 10th

"In terms of the verandah, yes probably ultimately we will remove the portion of verandah deck that is begun, but we don't want to make a final decision on it yet. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not do it now as we have not made our final decision and I hate the feeling of things going backwards. So leave it as it is, it will not be stolen, and it is useful as a resting place for while working up there.

Yes please, I would like you to cost the verandah to the area shaded in yellow & the description, as per my other email. From a design perspective, that's the minimum area I think we can have verandah on as it would look stupid otherwise. I just need to be told the costs so that we can make plans for financing.

I'm not saying we will be going ahead with the verandah as the immediate next project; that is still for discussion with Dave, as he still thinks that it will get in the way of the painting. But I would like to have the verandah cost at least as a ballpark so I know, as I do not want to do anything further up there until I get some rough costs".

Day four - modifying old house verandah

This morning we continued a somewhat difficult conversation we'd started yesterday, about the verandah for the old house aka 'the cottage'.

There were three areas of contention - the flooring material, the alignment of the verandah posts, and the roof configuration.

Let's start with the floor.

Dad had bought some decking to use for the verandah floor which was nice... but... not exactly in keeping with the spirit of the house. Instead what we'd been expecting to see was traditional tongue-and-groove. Luckily he's only put it on around part of the front, so with Sam & John's help (friends visiting) we came up with an alternative which should be fine.

We're going to leave the decking he's already installed in situ. Instead of using the leftovers as verandah, however, we're instead going to put a step down and extend the decking forward, so that there's a section in the open too. It should look really nice, we could put a little table out there, surround it by garden, etc.

For the rest of the verandah we're now planning to get Jarrah tongue-and-groove, 80mm wide, 19mm thick, from the same place as Sam & John just got theirs ("Australian Choice Timbers" in Kilsyth). It'll work out a little more expensive perhaps than modern decking, but it'll be worth it.

To help cut the costs further, we've decided that even though the verandah roof will go all the way around the house, we will not have a floor for it on the uphill side. There's not a nice view there, so instead we'll make a kind of mini -garden to look out over, just under the windows.




Now, onto the verandah posts.

Dad had only installed a few posts, evenly spaced. But when you looked at the house it seemed odd, akin to someone wearing their spectacles askew, because the posts weren't symmetrical around the windows/doors.

We've come up with a way to salvage it though. We're going to install an extra post, to make it seem symmetrical, on the front right... and then to give it a reason for existing, use it as the point from where the step down to the deck extension happens. I might even put trellis between the two posts and grow a climber up it, which will help disguise it even more.

Luckily Dad hadn't progressed too far with the verandah so we've carefully marked out where we think the other posts should go on the plans... so fingers crossed it will be smooth sailing from now on.


Finally, the verandah roof.

Dad had been planning to have the verandah roof about 5m deep in front of the door, so it covered the steps. We have changed this back to where the verandah would ordinarily be, so now it's only half as deep, because it will look more in keeping and allow light to get into the hall which would otherwise be quite dark.

As well, we've decided to raise the verandah roofline to put it where it was in its original incarnation. Where Dad has put it so far is a bit too low, but again we have a cunning salvage plan... which is to leave the verandah over the deck as is, but to build it higher everywhere else. This should look OK we hope as, because the other part is set back it'll make it appear in line with the diagonal roof slope.

Day three - new house plans

The bulk of our third day here, from 11am on, was spent with our architect Eric in Daylesford (about an hour or so away). Here's a photo of him with Dave:



Broadly the house layout is staying the same but we're enlarging it... incrementally the extra cost won't be that much and we'd rather err on the side of too much space (as we'll easily fill it) than risk it feeling cramped.

The biggest changes:

• The library will become MUCH bigger. We're extending it in length by about 4m but putting a small wall jutting out a little to give it the feel of two separate spaces, yet open enough to see through. The furthest space will be two storey, with spiral stairs up to a landing, so that we have some serious book storage both above and below. We'll be using the giant stained glass lampshape in here as a kind of reverse cupola, with lights & skylight above.
  
  
• The dressing room upstairs will have a dormer window inserted to make it feel more spacious and add room for a seat... it'll also be a little wider, so it feels less like a walk in closet. There'll be a matching dormer on the other side.
  
  
• We're changing the shape of the stairs to be square rather than a rounded finish, with a decent landing area, which may entail extending it a little to ensure they retain a sweeping feel, akin to the stairs at Standen. We'll be moving the 11ft clock so that it backs onto the kitchen wall rather than between the stairs, and raising the ceiling height by a step or two, to ensure there's space for it.
  

Other less major changes:

• We're widening the entrance hall and similarly enlarging the pantry and kitchen.
  
  
• The kitchen door will be shunted towards the front of the house to make space for glass fronted full-length cupboards for storing china, on the wall backing onto the pantry. This solves one of the major storage dilemmas.
  
  
• The bedroom and study upstairs (and possibly also the bathroom, yet tbd) will have 1-2 steps down to enter them from the hall landing. The exact amount depends on how much the ceiling in the stairway area needs to be raised to accommodate the clock. This will give them a wonderful feeling I think, like the house we saw in Washington.
  

• Eric is going to attempt to bring the bathroom dormer window forward a little, so it has a bit more space, although it'll still be cosy in feel.
  

• At the front Eric is going to see if its possible to put a small balcony - accessed via climbing over the window sill - across the top of the front verandah. It depends on what it does to the roof shape, but he's going to experiment with it.
  

• In the lounge room, a false ceiling will be added starting a bit in front of the bay window area, to make the space feel more interesting... and at the same time the whole room will be lengthened a bit "letting it breath" in Eric's words. A similar thing will be done in the kitchen probably too.
  

Eric is going to work on revising the drawings and send them to us in a few weeks, so I'll scan and add them here when they arrive.

Day two - paint paint paint

Today was tough... it was hot, it was dusty, it was tiring. But we made a lot of progress.

First up, we focused on the walled vegie garden. Dad is arriving tomorrow with digger in tow to dig the trench for the wall foundation. Before he gets here we had to work out where exactly it was going to be positioned, and what shape.

In the end we decided to put it down near the orchard, slightly closer to the dam than originally envisaged. We choose that spot for a couple of reasons: 1) The land is flat there, so cut out the need for terracing; 2) By having it nearer the lake, the boathouse can also double as a place for having a relax while gardening; 3) We needed to get it out of the shade of the tree.

After trying a few alternatives, we settled on a size of 25m by 40m for the walled area. It sounds enormous, but we want space for a green/shade house, for a big potting and tool shed, for lots of compost bays, for some of the fruit trees that require more protection, etc.

Here's the layout we came up with, at least as a starter. The round thing in the middle is a fountain shaded with a big pergola (ala the one at Sissinghurst in the White Garden):



We used stakes to mark the corners, with the help of string and a measuring tape to get the lengths of each side. 90 degrees was worked out by eye, comparing it to the scrapbook shape! I'm sure it's out by a little but not enough to worry about. At the end, we used spraypaint to mark out the borders, to make it easy for Dad to dig in the tractor thingy.



At lunchtime we went into Maryborough to get some supplies (including hayfever tablets and a new hat for me). On the way back we drove past the house I spotted last time, with the glorious front verandah. Sadly it's in a worse state of repair, oh I really hope they fix it up.

I adore the square bay window on the diagonal and the lovely simple fretwork combined with fancy columns on the porch.



I also ADORE the ceiling... using light blue to mimic the sky. We planned to do this too but I was thinking about skimping and painting it straight onto the metal. Now I see this though I'm afraid we will somehow have to line it to give the effect of boards, even if not the real thing.



In the afternoon we laid out the new house, measuring the downstairs layout in situ, then marking with spraypaint so we could "walk around" the whole thing and get a feel for it:




In wandering round it we discovered that we want to stretch the house to make it a bit more spacious - especially in the library. But that will be the subject of tomorrow's email, as we're seeing Eric to discuss then.

October visit plans

I'm starting to get things organised for our visit to Amherst in October.

I've just found a fairly basic but nice-looking cottage to rent at Avoca Farm Stay that is about 10 minutes drive away. It's got lots of lovely animals including highland cattle that you can meet, the owners seem really friendly, and to top it all off it's got WiFi! We're staying there for a full week, so we can get work done but in a more relaxed way than last time. I can't wait.

Our work plans are scaled back from my last, over-optimistic post. Now we are just going to focus on planting a few more trees and getting the foundation dug/poured for the vegetable garden wall. Anything else will be a bonus.

So far we only have a few things lined up for planting:

Three wollemi pines

See description and photos here


Eight agave americana



"This succulent originates from Mexico and can stand in the hottest sun all day. It grows into a huge plant but can be restricted in a pot for patios etc. Has a distinctive blue colouration. Grows to 3 metres across. Has a huge flower spike after approx 15 years, then dies. Plants on offer are well established plants approximately 25cm high. Grows best in full sun and requires good drainage and infrequent watering. Extremely hardy, especially of hot weather. Propagates from offsets"

More to come I'm sure!

work to do when we visit in October

Dave and I were talking today about what we should aim to do at Amherst when we visit in late October. We figured it was better to decide early enough that we could get whatever equipment & raw materials we needed sorted without last minute panic.

We're hoping to get up there on a Monday and spend a week working, then on the last weekend have a big BBQ where everyone's invited to come (& also help out if they feel so inclined!)

These are our initial ideas of what to do, which are probably hopelessly over-optimistic.


1. Lay out the broad bones of the front garden areas

By front garden areas I mean the vegie garden, orchard, and the area between the dam/driveway & front of the new house. To help in doing this, I was thinking we could get some bright coloured rope and pegs to hold it roughly in position? I thought about spraypaint on the ground but that won't last, and it's no good when you accidentally put it in the wrong place. Using rope won't be perfect, as we'll probably be wanting to put in some terracing, but will at least give an indication.


2. Dig trenches & pour the concrete foundations for the walls for the vegie garden, and build at least one or two prototype 'columns'.

Dave figures that we could just rent one of those digger things again to rip a trench, then pour concrete all around. As it doesn't need to be smoothed out, hopefully would just be a case of mixing roughly and pouring?

The columns we envisage as being hollow brick cubes, square, roughly 50-60cm x 50-60cm, up to about door height, or maybe even a bit higher. We want them to be hollow not only to save bricks, but so that we can fill from the bottom with rubbish/concrete up to about 1m from the top with a pipe inserted for drainage. The remaining bit we want to fill with soil and plant things in it, like climbers.

The reason for planting the climbers up high is to keep their base out of the way of the kangaroos, and then they can hang down and grow sideways rather than climb up. Then even if the kangaroos get to them in the summer months, it'll be OK provided we have climbers that are spring-flowering and can tolerate hard pruning in summer! We can grow other things, like lavendar or other plants kangaroos don't like lower down.

Ultimately we could even build some taller columns in the middle part of the vegie garden, as we're going to need eventally to have a wire roof over the top to stop the cockatoos, and by having the columns taller in the middle and rigging the net between we might get a sort of big top effect? I'm even dreaming and thinking that perhaps one of the inner columns could be a working outdoor fireplace chimney, so that we would have somewhere to burn things off but also keep us warm during winter days, but that might be a bit extravagant!

In between the columns we haven't decided what we'll put yet, and it's not something we're going to worry with for this trip as we figure we'll have more than enough heavy work just to get the concrete & columns. We're toying with the idea of having a kind of adobe wall that we press the local quartz stones into, to give an effect sort of like this:



But rather than being solid all round we want to intersperse it with "windows". Whether they be real windows, with glass, or open windows with wire, we haven't decided yet.


3. Collect stones

As a simple thing that anyone can help with on the weekend we have the "big BBQ", Dave suggested we start to collect stones. Besides a few wheelbarrows and gloves, don't think we'd need anything more for this? If we just collect the ones on the surface, then in a few years the weathering will reveal more and we can get some more. It'd give us a headstart on gathering the stones for the vegie garden wall.


4. Plant a few more trees

We've just now splurged and ordered 3 wollemi pines which are being delivered to Dave's parents house for safe keeping until then.




Besides helping with their conservation - these are the trees that they only recently discovered weren't extinct and they need lots of people to grow to protect them - they look a bit like monkey puzzles, which I really like but unfortunately don't suit our conditions. The wollemi's will need protection like the other trees, plus we might need to get a little creative with the watering setup during the first summer but we'll find a way. They grow about 0.5 - 1m every year up to a height of 20m according to the official site, so even allowing for our bad conditions hopefully they'll be a recognisable tree inside 5 years. They seem pretty hardy too, able to cope with extremes of hot and cold, so once they've gotten through their first year and used to the lack of water, hopefully they'll be OK.

We were also toying with the idea of planting a few figs in the orchard, if we can find some that are drought-hardy. There's a nice article about them here mentioning various varieties, but I've not yet found anywhere online to order from.


5. Plant some succulents or cacti

These seem like they'd be well suited to the conditions and as they take a long time to grow would be good to get a head start. We want ultimately to have various big specimens dotted around. Varieties we're thinking of are:

Agave Americana



Mountain Aloe (a. marlothii)



Cape aloe, also called bitter aloe (a. ferox)



But these are just ones we saw in Gardening Australia articles - I figure there will be others equally nice. It might require a bit of pre-planning to get hold of them but there seem to be quite a few specialist succulent/cacti nurseries in Australia, according to Nurseries Online.


6. Plant a hedge

This may be overly ambitious, and is the thing I'm most inclined to drop off the list, but because hedges take such a long time to establish we thought it might be worth getting a headstart, at least on a small scale. Of course, we don't know exactly where we'd plant it yet, but sure we could figure that out when we're there... eg: maybe the length of the new house and parallel to it a bit further down towards the driveway (ie: well out of the way of where we'd need to make a mess with building)? Or maybe perpendicular to that to start to give some wind protection to whatever we plant behind in a few years? Hmmm

I'm thinking of our first hedge being with Photinia:


It looks a nice colour and seems to grow fast - 2m in 4 years, so even allowing for our dreadful conditions, it might be passable as a hedge within 6 years hopefully. It likes well-drained soil, full sun, is frost tolerant, and says it copes with drier conditions, and a Gardening Australia article said it was a fire retardant.

Whatever we plant, I was thinking we could protect it by wrapping in a big narrow loop of wire, which could remain in place even once the hedge was grown. Provided it was a sturdy enough framework then we could rely on the kangaroos to help with the pruning!


7. Dump truck of manure

Once we've got the vegie garden area laid out, we thought it'd be a good idea to get a dump truck or two full of manure, to literally just spread on the surface as a way to start improving the soil. If we spread it on and then leave it for a few years, presumably the worms will work it into the soil without us having to dig Also, then Mum could always start to plant pumpkins and things if she felt so inclined.

entering the world of 3D

Right, it's been way too long, yet again, since I posted. We've got a long weekend here in the UK so I'm going to try and catch up.

Nothing much has happened in terms of planning. I started writing up some feedback, which I'll resurrect later, but it became apparent that I was never going to be able to fully be confident without seeing a 3D version. Because, I'm really worried about the shape of the ceilings in the upstairs part. Being practical, we therefore decided to make a 3D version. It's proving easier said than done.

The first thing I tried, which I may yet continue with, was to join SecondLife. This is a virtual world thingy that seems to be on the verge of major growth (e.g., the BBC of all people simulcast a music festival there a few weeks ago)... and it has apparently got really cool tools for letting you build things. Like houses. Like furniture. I had the idea of building a replica of Amherst there, not only so we could have a 3D version to check we were happy with the architectural design, but then so I could play around with interior decorating etc before committing to real money.

I know, I know. It's pretty way out.

Then I discovered Google SketchUp which lets you superimpose your sketches onto the real world via Google Earth. Well, how amazing would that be... it'd be like building Amherst but one step closer to real-life. (Forget for a minute that Google Earth's pictures of Amherst are currently stupidly fuzzy).

For the moment, we're going down the SketchUp route. Dave is leading, his goal is to build a replica of the bedroom area, complete with ceiling, in the next week. Let's see what happens. I'm still occasionally dropping into SecondLife. I found it jaw-droppingly surprising, the vividness and flexibility (which of course makes it complicated too), but it's quite intriguing nonetheless.

latest design iteration for new house

We got an email from Eric forewarning us of their arrival, and they were waiting for us when we got back. Tonight I'm going to try and look through them properly, but thought I'd begin by getting them scanned in and posted here.

First, here's Eric's comments on what he did in this iteration:

"I ended up having a blissful solid week with almost no
distractions, so I made a lot of progress with the designs.
I've done all the main drawings like floor plans, ceiling
plans, cross sections and elevations on AutoCAD, so they are
all very accurate. I worked up all of the drawing together
so that details like ceiling height and window placements
all correspond very well. I have also shown things like the
sideboard, the grandfather clock, and the big lantern, so
there should be enough detail to have useful discussions.

I have made small adjustments to quite a few little things to make
them work better (in my opinion...)

Some aspects like what happens around the fireplaces (and TV?) will
need some more thought. I played around with kitchen, and had an idea
about the main table going against the north windows. I'll look
forward to your thoughts.

And now, here's the plans, starting with the elevation views, to which there's been little change:










Now here's the ground floor room layout, along with a plan showing Eric's proposed ceiling heights in each area:






Here's the same for the second floor:






And finally, here are two cross-sections of the building which give a better feeling for how the rooms might feel:

thoughts on staircase

We're about to get new drawings from Eric. One of the main things he's been working on in this iteration (besides the mudroom saga!) is the staircase.


Email from Eric (March 31)

I just had a good couple of days working on detailed drawings. It was fun to get back into it. One of the main things I've been working on is the staircase. It's a pretty major design feature, and I needed to get it to work with building codes as well as be an appealing place to walk up and down. Anyway, I'll have some drawings ready to send to you early next week.


My reply (March 31)

In case it helps any, some specific thoughts on the staircase (sorry if have mentioned them already, I have lost track!) are:

- Idea of the bottom few steps being suitable for sitting on, ie: doubling as seats as well as steps. As per pattern language: "Flare out the bottom of the stair with open windows or balustrades and with wide steps so that the people coming down the stair become part of the action in the room while they are on the stair, and so that people below will naturally use the stair for seats"

- Idea of there being a landing area midway up, as a place you could pause, look down on the action, perhaps a chair in corner, low bookshelves, etc. ie: the landing area would be wider than the stairs.

- I have a vision of the stairs being wide enough for 2 people to walk up side by side without it being cramped. Like the nice stairs you find in old manors (but not ridiculously oversized like in palaces).

- would love love love to use the old oak wooden bannister railings and scrolled ends here(not necessarily the iron/copper bits though)

revisiting the mudroom

Back in February, Eric came up with yet another alternative for the mudroom shape to address my previous concerns. It took me until the end of March to comment on it properly! Here's a catchup on the email discussion:


Email from Eric (Feb 15)

Here's another idea for the mud room. It involves going ahead and letting it project out as sort of a bay window next to the main entry. If we liked the idea in principle, the actual shape could be refined and developed. What do you think?






My comments (Mar 29)

Overall I really like the concept, and it's a hell of a lot better than
messing with the pantry position etc. (although at some stage I still want to get a better feel for the kitchen layout, but that's separate). In no particular order, these are my comments:

I don't like how the mudroom isn't symmetrical anymore, it has the corner cut off one side. I would rather make it a square wall without the diagonal bit.

Where you have marked as Coats in the new bit, I'd like instead to call it a cupboard... like you had in the original version way back when. Maybe it will be for coats, but more likely will end up being for all that cleaning stuff - shoe polish, brooms, blah blah blah that feels like it should belong in / near the mudroom. Maybe there will be space in the waist height units in mudroom proper but who knows. I'm envisaging instead that there will be hooks for coats in the entrance hall bit along the mudroom wall, and we could also have hooks on the wall in mudroom for messier things, behind the door.

I liked the stairs a lot in your first version coming up onto the verandah with matching curved handrails on either side. I don't like there being handrail only on one side and that it is curved if the other side is straight... Ideally I'd like to be able to have both sides curved, but that's not possible unless it moves over so it's not opposite the door (which would I think feel odd) OR perhaps the verandah base could extend out further? So that it comes out to be level with how far the new bay bit juts out? Now, I know that might mess up the amount of sunlight going in on that side? If so, perhaps could have the base of the verandah jutting out but the roof staying back? We could for instance then use the bit that isn't undercover as being for plants in pots... (cacti etc?) Not sure how it would look but it's an idea to throw out there.

Now, onto the Projection view...

One of the things I liked most in the first version was how you had the sequence of 5 small square windows on this side... I would like to get back to that. Perhaps we could just have one square window in the middle of the mudroom bay of the same shape as the others to get it back? We could still have windows on either side of the bay to let more light in but without spoiling the symmetry?

I really like the way you have moved the triangular bit (gable?) on the roof over to be above the bay area rather than above the entrance door. I like this better than the way it was originally even because it is more symmetrical. I also like how it is shingles (I loved the sunburst motif thing too but we still have that about the breakfast area side, so happy to have something different).

diggers and decks

It's been a while since I've updated this, so thought I'd catch up on a few developments while I have a spare minute.

We have decking!



This is for the verandah for the Cottage. Dad saw it on sale at a special knock-down trade price so bought it even though we don't need it for a little while yet. The decking is made of Merbau Kwila, and according to Dad "makes a very good and longlasting deck, much better than treated pine and cypress when exposed to the weather".

We also have some big holes. Dad hired an excavator to level out an area around where he wants to build the hobbit hole. Here's some pictures, which also show the caravan he's set up as a place to stay on-site.

cottage: bedroom and verandah

Here's the email conversation with Dad about the bedroom and verandah areas of the cottage plans.


Dad's commentary (Feb 26):

Go now to the left thru the doorway into the master bedroom and you see a door to the veranda and the second old Healesville window. Look towards the front of the house and through the magnificent old windows, with curtains either side.

The all around veranda was Alan's idea to balance the overall appearance. We can stop the veranda as you wished, and can also leave in the plan, but not do this portion yet. I like the all around veranda and it will be of some help with the 5-star rating. I think all else is clear enough. Had to tweek the bath 300 ml into the masterbedroom to accomodate walkway around the stairs.

The rest is pretty clear. The two windows obtained from the guy in Collingwood that got me the glass will be used as a pair in the study. The laundry will be enclosed and soundproofed as to begin with the generator will be there. Or I may make a soundproof room under this laundry and put it there. I haven't worked the details of this yet. There are probably building regulations that will place firewall and sprinkler restriction on me so I will simply put the generator in a small building detached and about 50 feet from the house. We will see. But the battery storage area could be here. Or you may just go on the grid and to hang these other inconveniences.



My reply (Feb 26):

We both really like the wrap around verandah extending and I especially think it adds to the charm of it, so let's do that as it's drawn. And now we have verandah there it is doubly nice to have the doorway.

In the bedroom, as already discussed, let's bring the closet forward a little so that it is in line with the bathroom wall. Then there can be extra space - not in the bedroom closet, but in the linen press adjoining it. That way I can stack things in it two deep in the linen press if I need. It's wasted space having it in the bedroom.

This will be a lovely bedroom I think. Not a lot of storage as only the one wardrobe, but we can get creative, eg: maybe built a platform for the bed that has big drawers built in underneath, etc. Not that that matters for the house design stage.

The generator would only ever be a temporary solution, until we go on the grid. We will be doing this for the new house (as well as supplementing it by solar/wind power etc)... but probably won't invest in putting electricity on until near tail end as no point paying monthly rental costs for line if no-one is living there. So, probably better to plan the house as if it has power (solar system 100% definite; 90% electricity as depends on how much they quote to connect...this price varies all the time)

cottage: bathroom

Here's the email conversation with Dad about the bathroom area of the cottage plans.


Dad's commentary (Feb 26):

Alan has shown a bifold door to the bathroom, but I ruled it out of hand and want a door opening to the wall opposite the linen press or a cavity slider going into the space of linen press. I much prefer the leaf opening door for regular use and display of leadlights at this very busy area: With the light of the baywindow behind it and the relative gloom of the linen press passage (if the light is not turned on) the door will be glorious. Especially if it is one with a high and low leadlight like the one between Dawn's kitchen and lounge.

Open this door and look towards the bathroom. You will see steps leading upstairs. These are apx 700 mm wide, and there are 3 steps before the winders start. You then wind up to 6 steps, encircling a central pole so you are now facing the opposit direction and take 3 steps further up and arrive on the leve where a bath awaits you (providing Dave has heated the water overnight by stoking the old stove to keep it ticking over during the night.)

Alan has casually drawn in a handbasin in the loft. This is a good idea, but not where he drew it, but on your left as you stand at the top of the stairs. Or just a series of shelves could be put here or a small piece of furniture. Someplace to keep towels etc. And a radio!!

In front of you is the old clawfoot bath rescued from oblivion and given the prospects of many years of comfort-giving. Turn to the right and go to the towards the big windows in the gable, trailing your hand along the 1 m high balustrade and handrail that prevents you falling when sleepy into the stairwell below. As you approach the end of the loft you will come to a wall only 1100 mm high and peering over this little wall you can look at the shower below and the handbasin. This open area can be populated with ferns and potted plants of various descriptions. Air rising as it will naturally from the cool areas below will come upstairs with warmth and moisture (if shower is used). This air will be able to be left to circulate upstairs or vented by a ridge vent. This vent will be operated simply by a screwing mechanism and can be left open to varying degrees, of closed in winter when warmth is needed for comfortable bathing.

Going back downstairs turn to your right and stand beside the stairs facing the baywindow. To your left there is a short section of wall which encloses the toilet area. This toilet area has a wc which faces towards the baywindow. No door on it, but it could have a door, or concertina wooden door set. I actually have salvaged from the roadside such a set of doors.

There is a handbasin, or vanity or whatever comes to hand for washing hands, that is under the bay window to the left, and a showering area to the right. This area will be open, not enclosed. One can have a rice paper blind standing for some added privacy, or not as one likes on the day.


My reply (Feb 26):

I most definitely do not want a sliding door on the bathroom, I'm guessing this is what you mean by cavity slider? I don't know what a bi-fold door is, but it sounds like something equally flimsy, with hinges in it. I am really fussy, I want it to be a solid proper door, opening inward perhaps so that if someone is on the toilet having entered from the bedroom it provides a big of a privacy shield if someone accidentally starts to barge in from the hallway. (nb: I'm not fussed about whether it opens inward or outward though... I just realised further down you had a reason for it to open into linen press space)

I love your idea of having the stained glass window in the door to catch the light. I already have one that could work; I was going to use this in the new house but can always keep an eye out for another.

In terms of the bathroom layout itself, I am OK with it as you have it drawn provided that there is enough space to walk to the toilet without having to squeeze past stairs. I guess this is why you were suggesting the door open into the linen press area rather than into the bathroom. I like the shape of the steps, part straight, part winding, they are lovely.

My only slight worry with this layout is that entering the room from the hallway near linen press might feel like quite a zigzaggy path to get to the toilet? But I can't think of an alternative. I was thinking about it being maybe with the stairs to loft starting running along the loft wall side (ie: rotated 90 degrees), but then realised that would mess up the shape of the loft. Unless the loft had a kind of U shape, with sticking out bits at either end? Hmmm.

I don't think the toilet needs a door on it. What are concertina wooden doors? Are they like the door between Gran's kitchen and lounge, except in wood not plastic? If so, they sound really nice, but not for the toilet... would be better suited I tink to the door between the kitchen and pantry in the new house?

I love the idea of the showering area being open. We stayed in a hotel in Sri Lanka that had an area like this, it was wonderful.

And thank you, you've also just given me an excuse to think about planning a screen!... one of those lovely ones that is 3 panels and hinges. I wouldn't have it being rice paper as that would not do well in the wet, but I could get some lovely fabric that wouldn't get wrecked by water splashes, and use that instead of the rice paper. It's the kind of thing that is a lovely ornament too, and you can always fold it up flat and stand against a wall when not needed.

I don't think I need a handbasin in the loft. I can just use the tap on the bath if I need to get water. I'm not going to be brushing my teeth up there. I love the idea of having shelves, space for music, candles, plants... This will become a real sanctuary, I can see it now.

It is good that there is the balustrade. We will have to think carefully about what we make it out of. Perhaps that is the place where we should use the antique copper/iron bits we bought last year? This link has pictures and measurements. I don't think we should use the oak railings there, as want to keep them for the new house and they'd get damaged by water, but there isn't really a place in the new house for the metalparts, and they seem like they'd be well suited to a bathroom, similar vintage to the clawfoot bath too. What do you think? These are already in Australia, they're packed in those old luggage trunks that were in the first batch of stuff we sent back.

I love the idea of having ferns etc in the open area. Basically I love how spacious this area feels, it will be wonderful. If we make sure there is a powerplug up here (need it for radio/CD player anyway) but also near this open area, then in winter we could also have a small fan heater standing there if it was cold... it'll be well out of the way of wetness if we put it way back against the edge. You can get some lovely ones here, like the one we have in our conservatory, that look like they are real fires (I mean really they do... ours has fooled several people!). We could even have a comfy chair up there, like one of the Lloyd Loom nursing chairs I've got. It's small, low, and surprisingly comfortable.

Having some kind of vent / opening window / way to keep heat from blasting in during summer will be very important. Also, I think it needs careful venting somewhere so that we don't end up with a mildew problem from the shower, up high on walls like in Gran's kitchen. I don't want to block it off at loft level though (as Mum suggested), that would spoil the view and the whole feeling of the place. We can always invest in proper fitted conservatory blinds for it if it was a real problem, or rig up some kind of sail effect, but hopefully if heat rises and we can open the windows then it should still be OK at ground floor level even on the hottest days, so you can just avoid having a bath then if needs be! Most often I have baths in winter rather than summer anyway.


Dad's reply (Feb 27):

We agree on the door opening into the passage for the linen press onto the wall opposite. And stained glass!!!!

The wall portion beside the toilet will be left without a door, but will be the storage place for the free-standing blinds you are going to have to shield from the shower when you need them. This wall will keep barging eyes from surprising the toilet user, and the master bedroom door will serve from the other direction.

There will not be any sense of zig zag in entering the bathroom as there is plenty of walkway. The stairs are going to be built by a loving father as a present for a loving daughter and son-in-law, and no cost for labour will be recorded. I will scan some spiral stairs I built for Ailsa years ago. But also I will do some sketches of my ideas for these stairs. Talk more about this when you have the sketches. But the stairs will be open backed, that is will have only the tread to walk upon in the right place as all stairs. But you can see through them to the bay window. This is to achieve a sense of openspace. The ceiling, over the passage of the linen press and toilet is only 7 ft high, and the stairwell and baywindow area ceiling is the roof over the loft.

I will be making the treads out of half a log, flat up to make the stepping surface. All polished and attached to steel support by straps and screws painted black. All will be seen and as a feature. The handrails will be of whole saplings with the same style of support. The lining of the walls in the stairwell will have palings to dado height and then plaster. In the wet areas of the shower will have miniorb colourbond, and tiles over the handbasin. The wall above the window and up to the hand rail will be miniorb, and the top of this wall will have a large shelf for placing potplants.

Your balustrade bits will be perfect. I will add extra steel or wooden balustrades to make it legal as the spacing is regulated.

There will be plenty of power whereever. I think a computer up in the loft would be a nice effect, as you can listen on line, or work there if you want. It will not be a hot area when finished. The side walls are 1700mm high and the height to the peak of the ceiling will be over 8 ft I think, without taking out the scale rule.

I even toyed with the idea of having an outside deck to retreat to which could be access easily from the portion of loft floor that goes towards the gable end window. I would just have to cut into the roof about 1 metre, and provide a small deck and doorway to get to it and presto we have a little fresh air outlook. This can be done anytime, and need not involve the council now if you like. But it is not an expensive idea to implement. It could be the way to gain an easy access to a platform atop the house that would be priceless as a lookout over the valley below, but all unnecessary as the veranda will be quite high enough until trees grow up around the house. I do get carried away with my ideas and forget there are 30 acres to buffer you from someone building up and blocking your view from the veranda.


My reply (Feb 27):

Thank you so much Dad, it sounds fantastic...the bits I understand anyway, I don't know what miniorb is! I especially love the idea of the handrails being made of saplings, and the steps themselves being parts of logs.

Not sure about having a permanent computer up in the loft area, but certainly power will let us take up a laptop for playing music etc. We could also have it propped on a table playing TV or something if you wanted to watch (I can see Dave in there having his long soaks, watching Collingwood!)

I love your idea of the little roof-deck, just as a little private tucked away area. Yes it is a luxury but if it doesn't cost too much then why not. I would have more plants up here, of course, and the telescope could be there too sometimes. It'd also be a good place for hanging out wet towels from the bath to let them air. Most important though, I don't want it to ruin the line of the roof.

cottage: kitchen and hall

Here's the email conversation with Dad about the kitchen and hall areas of the cottage plans.


Dad's commentary (Feb 26):

Stand where Alan has printed the word Meals and look towards the kitchen. To the right are the two patio doors opening out and folding out of the way to sit flat against the wall either side to not obstruct the veranda. To the left is the combustion stove, with a wall beside it to enclose it and give hiding place for the water pipes. This wall is not shown, but Alan will draw it in. I mentioned it to him when he pointed out his reasons for arranging the kitchen as he has. I think we ought to move it to the corner on the left, and create some visual separation with a short wall with a wide shelf at about mid chest height the width of the room, leaving only the opening for entry that will be over near the right wall where the fridge will be. Or the stove can be place in this corner, but there could be conflict with overhead framing members. Your input as to this kitchen design is needed here.

Turn left and pass thru the space between the stove as figured, but which will probably not be there. ( It is a good place for it if we have the divider just beyond the edge of the patio doorway and stretching uninterrupted the width of the room until stopping to leave a gap to access the kitchen just in front of the stove. I perhaps like this best as it give the old stove a more central place, and is therefore more effective for heating the room. A hob beside the stove, with the pipes exposed is an option too. Pardon this aside.) Now for the confusing bits: You see the opening that leads to the linen press. The linen press will be huge, as we have given it the 300 mm that is now shown on the master bedroom side, as you have already suggested. This can have a door on it if you wish, opening into the old passage to either side, but probably best hinged on the side of the linen press so coming out of the bedroom door you see on your left you have only to grab the door handle and push.


My reply (Feb 26):

I like the patio doors. I like the idea of having a wall, or at least partial enclosure, to cover the water pipes from stove.

I don't mind your idea to move the stove to the corner on the left (ie: with its back to the verandah wall) rather than the L shape it is now, because that way the entrance to the kitchen area is not quite so opposite the mini-hallway to the bathroom, so bathroom will feel a bit more private. Then again, toilet is well tucked away and actually if the door to bathroom has stained glass in it as you suggest it will be lovely to look at, so maybe you do want to be able to see it! I think I just talked myself into leaving the stove where it is in the drawing!

I like your idea of having a short wall with wide shelf the width of the room. Especially if we left it open above for a bit, it would be useful extra bench space if we needed for cooking. I'm interpreting this as being joined on the hallway wall side and running say about 2/3 of the way across towards patio door side. ie: the walkway between lounge and kitchen is on the side near patio doors.

Are you suggesting here that we instead have the divider between lounge/kitchen joining the wall on the verandah side and then stopping short and not joining onto the hallway wall? If so, then I don't want that. I'd rather have it so that the opening is on the patio door side. That way it'll feel more like the patio doors are part of the lounge too, almost. But the stove could still stay where it is, couldn't it?

I don't want to have a door on the opening leading to the linen press, I think it will help to make the passage way feel more interesting but having it this slightly different shape to usual.

I'd like to have the option of hot water that is heated by other means too (solar, electric powered, whatever) - not sure if they can share the same tank? Because in the summer, I most definitely do not want to have to be lighting woodfires to get hot water.

I'd like space in the kitchen for a small normal hob (can be electric powered) and a microwave (built into a cupboard higher up maybe so it doesn't use up benchspace ... or maybe even it could be built into the short wall area?).

In the kitchen there needs to be room for a table with chairs without it feeling too cramped. I'm envisaging this as being a table about the size of the old formica table in Gran's kitchen, ie: comfortable for 2 people, but can fit 4 at a squish.



Dad's reply (Feb 27):

I much prefer the wall dividing the kitchen from the rest of this large room to originate from the passage side, so it will effectively be the wall that hides the pipes of the stove. But will bring it only part way, to the line of the window over the sink. We put a lovely door that can be closed when hiding the kitchen, and opened onto the short wall beside the stove on the meals side. We then proceed with the divider as I proposed, with a bulkhead overhead for pictures. You will see parts of the kitchen, but a closing arrangement might be worked if needed, or you may simply have a wall here as you can have a pantry on the otherside like I built for Dawn. Remember that the goal is to minimize the kitchen in favor of the other living spaces.

You must have an alternative cooking arrangement. I bought for Peter a ministove/oven for use in flats, and we will use this in the hobbithole. You can have the old gas cooker I sent (oops, still need to send) pics of. This is like the old Kooka stoves, and has a lovely oven. It stands as a freestanding unit and would fit well beside the fridge. It is in immaculate condition. I will send the pic asap.

When I say hob you thought I meant a cooking plate arrangement. I merely meant a wall area that doesn't go to the ceiling, but is built as a blind for the end of things like baths and stoves, etc which are not finished properly. Or a little space is needed, as beside mum's bakers oven where it was necessary to have a place to put hot pan, and to cover over the unfinished sides of the other stove that was there. That is the term for a structural entity, nothing to do with cooking appliance, although I know this term is used overseas as I have read it in books.

The patio doors will be to the meals side of the divider or wall. Agree to not place a door on passage of linen press. Makes it unnecessarily stuffy and dark.



My reply (Feb 27):

I am a bit confused. Do you mean that the wall that hides the stove is not in line with the divider between lounge and kitchen on the other side? I'm not sure about having a door there but perhaps it's just that I am not envisioning it properly. A problem with it opening out onto the wall might be that it would stop us from having shelves on that wall?

Look forward to seeing pictures of the old Kooka stove thing, but we don't need it to be something this big so maybe that could be saved for the new house. I was just thinking of having a hob (ie: cooking plates that you put saucepans on), no need for a separate oven area. This way we would have storage space underneath the hob area. We can always use the BBQ if we want to roast things in summer, and most of the time Dave cooks pasta and things anyway so can get by without an oven.


Dad's reply (Feb 27):

I have sketched a plan for the kitchen with the door and divider and pantry on the kitchen side as envisioned. The little gas stove is cute, and as I said needs only to be converted by changing the jets.




My reply (Feb 27):

Thanks a lot for drawing this up, but in short, we don't like it.

I'm not sure about the microwave position. Maybe we will put that where you show it except up high in a cupboard, as there is very little benchspace and that would give us extra space (as we will have to put things like kettle, toaster, etc somewhere and corner is usually good for them. Or, Dave suggests it might be even better to have it on a shelf over the fridge (assuming the fridge is about the size of our fridge here in London rather than a giant one like Mum's).

But the worst thing is, there's no space for a table!!!

There must be space for a table in the kitchen. I don't want it to be the other side of the divider as then it can't serve as overflow benchspace and is encroaching on the loungeroom. You think we want to minimise the space in the kitchen, but only within reason, it still needs to be functional and this wouldn't be. There is so little storage.

Maybe should revert back to having two sections of divider roughly where the wall is at the moment?... One starting on the hallside going to about 1/3 of the way across. One starting on the verandah side, directly opposite, also going to about 1/3 of the way across, with a gap in the middle for walking through. This gap can be an open entrance just like on the entrance to the lounge from the hall. It does not need a door.

Each of these dividers might need to be fatter than you have drawn as they need to have more space for storing things. I don't think you should call them a pantry. They are not a pantry, they are for storing dinner sets and crockery, not food. Think of it as being like the bottom part of a kitchen dresser. I don't want them narrow only for storing cans, I want them deep enough to easily store a full size dinner plate. We will have extra storage for cans, etc on the hallway walls eg: on the wall adjoining the study, and on the little wall (or hob or whatever you want to call it) that is next to the woodstove, hidden by little doors, but that doesn't necessarily need to be drawn in on the plan, we'll just get them from Ikea or something later.

The sink is way too big. We have such a teensy kitchen, we don't need a double sink. I would rather have a single sink, like our butlers sink we have here, and we'll just stand the dishes to drain on a teatowel on the bench, no need for it to be a stainless steel bit necessarily.

I don't think we can afford to have so much window in the kitchen above the sink area as having window means we can't have cupboards on the wall. I think that by moving the divider back so the patio doors are back to being part of the kitchen area (with table near them but still so you can move around) there will be enough light, so we should just have an opening window over the (smaller) sink area, about the size of the window you have drawn as being fixed in this current plan, and that is all... I would rather have a solid wall in the other places so we can have cupboards.

I am also wondering, considering how teensy this kitchen is, maybe we are better off not attempting to squeeze the Rayburn into it as it seems to be taking up a huge amount of space. Instead we could keep it for the new house and just put the little Kooka stove in and save the space... we could use a solar system for water heating.


Dad's reply (Feb 28):

OK, I'll assume you do not want a galley kitchen such as was originally suggested, and go with no divider behind the bench, including the meals area on the plan as part of the kitchen and the patio doors as part of the kitchen. That leaves the other dividers to create the separation you were asking for last night, and so can create these another time, or draw them into the present plan. If you are using portable furniture to create this sense of separateness of kitchen and lounge, ikea stuff, there is no reason to worry about it now. I will put the windows along the side as planned, and a small window over the sink. You only need a little sink, the drawn one was merely a suggestion. You don't need the Rayburn if you don't want it. Since we are planning to have solar and electric and gas there is no need to fill the space with something that may not be needed by yourselves or guests.


My reply (Feb 28):

No, we don't want a galley kitchen. Sorry, I thought that the divider thing you'd drawn in on the plan WAS the divider I was talking about. I think otherwise we will have so many dividers that it will become cluttered, as the rooms aren't that big. I would like to draw the dividers into the plan as I am not planning to use furniture to get that sense of separateness. They are what separates the lounge from the kitchen. The Ikea stuff, if used at all, would be only for the shelves in the hall, possibly, depending on what else we can get (ie: nothing to do with the dividers). I just know they often do very clever things for storing kitchen stuff away, that sometimes is amazingly cheap (at least here). But for the dividers between lounge and kitchen it will be better to build to our own specifications.

OK about the sink too, sorry I was misunderstanding. Yes, lets have the smaller sink. I'll talk to Dave about the Rayburn, don't want to dismiss it out of hand so quickly, but just as we play around with placements of things in the kitchen which is very small, it seems to take up a giant amount of space... which we have the luxury of in the new house, but not this one.

I had a play around with floorplans in lounge/kitchen, this time overlaying furniture, and came up with a version that I like a lot better. See what you think.



In terms of kitchen layout, the microwave would be on a shelf above the fridge (assuming fridge is approx shoulder height like the one we have here). The sink is as we discussed (ie: single sink) with bench to either side with cupboards below. Perhaps the rubbish bin lives hidden behind the cupboard door on one side of the sink. In the corner (where you originally drew the microwave) perhaps we could even have a teensy full height pantry, with opening door on the diagonal? Just thinking of how to avoid a situation like we have in London with a corner cupboard that is hard to get into the back of" Next to this is another bit of bench (with cupboard underneath) and then the stove... whatever type it may be, slow combustion or normal, still need to talk to Dave about it. Beside the stove there is a short wall with a narrow shelves for storage on the outer side. For consistency, I think this should be the same height as the room dividers (ie: halfway between hip and shoulder height) and if it is the combustion stove and pipes need hiding then part of it would continue up to the ceiling.

cottage: lounge & entry

Here's the email conversation with Dad about the entry and lounge areas of the cottage plans.


Dad's commentary (Feb 26):

Look at proposed extension plan. Enter house at front door. Door to lounge has been replaced with a wall and you enter the open plan of kitchen, passage, lounge area by just going forward and turning right and go past the open bookshelves that are part of the stud network supporting the roof.

Stand beside these shelves and look towards the dam. You will look through the "new" old window which I bought at Healesville. To the right of this window you see an offset portion like a box. This is actually the floor to ceiling housing for the little stove, with the mantlepiece in front.This offset from the wall allows the distance from wooden burnable objects which are needed by the stove and flue. The flue exits the house thru the roof and can be seen in elevation on the plan just above this plan. The idea of the lounge is to allow a twoseater against the wall where the old entry door was and the telly in the corner opposite. The large front window that exist there now remains proudly in place, but restored to its former grandueur. Curtains to draw to either side.


My reply (Feb 26):

I ummed and ahhed about moving the doorway as you propose, started out saying leave it where it was, but then talked myself around to your version! I like how there is a feeling of a mini-hallway when you enter the house before you reach the open entrance to lounge.

As we're moving the door, if there is room I would err on the side of allowing space for a 2.5 seater sofa, just so that there is no risk of it being crammed.

I still think I'd like to have some kind of thing to divide the space between lounge and kitchen, with the bottom part (eg to hip height) as an enclosed cupboard with doors opening onto the kitchen side to provide space for putting the dinner set, etc. Maybe this could also have shallow shelves for CD's / DVD's etc too on the lounge side From hip height up to door height it could just be open (useful extra benchspace for the kitchen if cooking a big meal), or tall spaced shelves without back, so we could display ornaments, etc. And maybe also there could be a divide up high, eg: solid wall from say 20cm above door height up to the tall roof so that we have place to hang pictures and also to reinforce the sense of divide. I really dislike open plan living arrangements, I hate the idea of sitting on the sofa trying to relax and still seeing dishes in the sink!

What if instead of using up extra space in the lounge to make the housing for the woodstove, it instead jutted out onto the verandah, kind of like an old fashioned chimney? This would give us a little extra space inside and it's not like there won't be plenty of verandah... Or, would this mean we lost some heat? I'm not convinced whether I would want this even if it was a possibility, it might ruin the look, and there's something appealing about it jutting out, gives a different shape to the room. But curious to know what you think about it.


Dad's reply (Feb 27):

Will move the door to allow a large lounge to fit on that wall. This wall is supporting the hot water storage tank above it so I will be having larger beams above the present ceiling. I must buy a new tank as the plumber was not happy to use the old one. This tank will also be for the solar heater.( and the gas heater as well if you get one.) The other place where you bought the stove from had LP gas heater outside on the wall to be used when the hot weather precluded the use of the wood stove.

Love your idea of the divide. Will have as you described it. Why not put the divider for the lounge where the old wall was and so avoid the flooring repairs that are needed otherwise? I will be planning to have the lovely baltic pine floors polished (by myself or both of us if it is done when you are here) Obviously I cannot have the divider where the new window goes,but that place is also flexible at present. So get out the scale ruler and make some pieces of paper to represent some furniture you want in the two spaces on each side of the divider and get back to me when you have decided where the divider must go to accommodate your furniture ideas.

I had originally drawn the stove to have the little box outside on the veranda, but the reason you suggested is precisely why I brought in back inside. With the box inside, and no ceiling on the box and it going only about 7 ft high, the air around the flue will be naturally convected up to the ceiling and around the room. Since the woodfire is small, and designed to go into a brick fireplace, it has convection pipes for this very purpose, but which have a little vent above the stove under the mantle to direct heat back into the room. Some of these pipes need replacing, but that is not a huge job. But we can eliminate the little vent, and let the air just go up the box and out the top to the ceiling. As you will have the TV in the corner there shouldn't be a loss of efficiency. You can still arrange the lounge chairs and couchs to back on the divider and face the large front window, and consequently the TV and firestove. The bulkhead over may not be a good idea as it will close the space even more. But that is up to you.


My reply (Feb 27):

I'm not sure what you mean by "open fabric stud walls" We're not planning to have totally open walls between the passage and the lounge, it will still be divided. Remember, the plan is to have something like this:


ie: cupboards down below to say about hip height, then shelves above. So it won't feel totally open-plan but you will be able to see through into the hallway, in the gaps in the shelves. This is partly for light purposes, and partly so the hallway itself can become more of a usable place, not only a passing through area. eg: I would envisage that the phone would live on one of those shelves, with a little chair in the hallway. So you could answer it on the lounge side, or the hallway side depending on where you were when it rang. I don't like totally open-plan, but that doesn't mean it has to be entirely closed up.

In principle, I'm happy to have the divider where the old wall was. But it's hard for me to say for certain because I don't know what the measurements are for those rooms, and I've never been able to stand inside them and get a sense of the space as every time I've visited they've been full of stuff and dark! That is why I'm so sad I never got to see it properly when it was first bought.

What I want is for there to be enough space in the lounge area for there to be an armchair next to the fire, forming a kind of circle with the sofa, and for you to be able to walk BEHIND the armchair comfortably to get to the opening to the kitchen.

I'm happy to leave the fireplace bulkhead as you envisaged, ie: with it being open above. I would like to be able to have a mantlepiece though, so can this be strong enough to support eg: hanging a mirror above it and a small shelf?

I like the idea of the polished floors too.


Dad's reply (Feb 27):

Of course you will have the mantle and shelf and mirror. Why else to use this little stove? And absolutely must have chair to form cosy circle about the fire.
When bought the place the lounge area was 6ft high with lathe debris. You would never have stood anywhere in the room. The room will have the fabric studs as always planned, and there was never a problem with this idea. Alan has drawn as faithfully as he could to your intentions, and my explanations.


My reply (Feb 28):

I had a play around with floorplans in lounge/kitchen, this time overlaying furniture, and came up with an alternative that I like a lot better. See what you think.



I've still got the same kind of wall in the hallways, just playing around with where the openings in it are. Now it is two symmetrical halves, either side of an open area that leads to either the kitchen, if you turn diagonally left, or the lounge, if you turn diagonally right. This seems to work to me as it is similar to our London house in allowing for diagonal entrances to lounge / kitchen areas which thus take up less room. It also might make that little central part, sort of like a hub, into a more usable space as a bit more open.

The window in lounge on fireplace wall has moved up closer to the fireplace. The patio doors have moved down closer to the fridge. (We are not going to be able to put anything in front of fridge area where door needs to open, so may as well have them for the patio door area. That way the patio doors are not obstructed by the table.

The divider between lounge and kitchen is a little higher perhaps than I envisaged before.. maybe it can be inbetween hip and shoulder height, so that it hides the sink a little better from view. I'm seeing it as having shallow shelves for CDs/DVDs etc on the lounge side, and shelves with doors (or rolling covers kind of like rollerblinds but more solid?) deep enough to comfortably fit a dinner plate on the kitchen side. After talking to some friends at work, I'm seriously considering that this could be a freestanding unit, on lockable low castor wheels, so we could shunt it around on the odd occasion we needed (eg: to move big furniture in and out). If that's the case then obviously it doesn't need to go in the plan to council as it'll be a piece of furniture EXCEPT it is important to mark where it will live so as to get the positions of the windows and door openings right.

I am thinking that it might be OK, now the room divider is slightly higher, to forget the idea of a ceiling divider strip (ie; the bit I talked about that would give me places to hang pictures). It would also give us more flexibility in terms of positioning the rolling divider, as it would look odd for that to be out of line with the ceiling divider strip.

Cottage plans have arrived

We're still working on restoring the old cottage, in parallel with developing plans for the "dream house". Last mention of this was in December, when Dad came up with the idea of a 2 storey bathroom.

Now we have some more floorplans for the cottage to comment on, drawn up by Dad's local draftsman.

This is the full A3 page view (click to make it bigger):


This is a close-up of the new floorplan section:


There's been much conversation around the plans; too much to include in one post. Here's links to discussion of various elements:
Lounge and entry
Kitchen and hall
Bathroom
Bedroom and verandah

apply patterns (3): Garden

These patterns are my favourites from the book "Pattern Language", as described in my previous post. In this post I look at the ones relating to garden layout and those spaces which are bridges between house and garden.


#105: South facing outdoors
People use open space if it is sunny, and don't use it if it isn't, in all but desert climes. Therefore:
Always place buildings to the north of the
outdoor spaces that go with them, and keep the
outdoor spaces to the south. Never leave a deep
band of shade between the building and the sunny
part of the outdoors.


As Pattern Language was written in the US, I presume in Australia we'd need to reverse 'north' and 'south', but the basic principles still apply. I guess we will find out when Eric does the "sun test" whether this will be an issue, but I can't see how it will be. There may be some areas of deep shade in the vicinity of the house in the secret garden area, especially when trees grow, but in the height of an Australian summer frankly you need shade.


#106: Positive outdoor space
Outdoor spaces which are merely leftover between buildings will, in general, not be used. Therefore:
Make all the outdoor spaces which surround and
lie between your buildings positive. (which seems
to mean: give it a distinct shape, as definitely
as a room, and make its shape as important as the
shapes of the buildings that surround it, but don't
make it too enclosed). Give each one some degree
of enclosure; surround each space with wings of
buildings, trees, hedges, fences, arcades, and
trellised walks, until it becomes an entity with
a positive quality and does not spill out
indefinitely around corners.



#114: Hierarchy of Open Space
Outdoors, people always try to find a spot where they can have their backs protected, looking out torward some larger opening, beyond the space immediately in front of them. Therefore:
Whatever space you are shaping, make sure of
two things. First, make at least one smaller space,
which looks into it and forms a natural back for it.
Second, place it, and its openings, so that it
looks into at least one larger space. When you
have done this, every outdoor space will have a
natural back; and every person who takes up the
natural position, with his back to this back ,
will be looking out toward some larger distant view





#115: Courtyards which live
Courtyards intended to be private open spaces often end up unused, full of gravel and abstract sculptures. Most common reasons courtyards fail are because there is too little ambiguity between indoors & outdoors, so the transition is too abrupt; because there are not enough doors into the courtyard, so no-one ever passes through; or simply becuase they are TOO enclosed. Therefore:
Place every courtyard in such a way that there is
a view out of it to some larger open space; place it
so that at least 2 or 3 doors open from the building
into it and so that the natural paths which connect
these doors pass across the courtyard. And, at one
edge, beside a door, make a roofed verandah or a
porch, which it continuous with both the inside
and the courtyard.



#120: Paths and Goals
The layout of paths will seem right and comfortable only when it is compatible with the process of walking. And the process of walking is far more subtle than one might imagine. As you walk along you scan the landscape for intermediate destinations and try (more or less) to walk in a straight line toward these points, wiht the effect that you often 'cut corners'. These intermediate destinations, however, keep changing becuase the further you walk the different your vantage point, the more you can see round a corner. Therefore:
To lay out paths, first place goals at natural
points of interest. Then connect the goals to one
another to form the paths. The paths may be straight
or gently curving between goals; their paving should
swell around the goal. The goals should never be
more than a few hundred feet apart.





#163: Outdoor room
A garden is the place for lying in the grass, swinging croquet, growing flowers, throwing a ball for the door. But there is another way of being outdoors: and its needs are not met by the garden at all. For some moods, some times of day, some kinds of friendship, people need a place to eat, to sit in formal clothes, to drink to take together, to be still, and yet outdoors. They need an outdoor room, literally - a partly enclosed space, outdoors, but enough like a rooms that people behave in it as they do in rooms, but with the added beauties of the sun, wind, smells, rustling leaves. Therefore:
Build a place outdoors which has so much enclosure
around it that it it takes on the feeling of a room,
even though it is open to the sky. To do this,
define it at the corners with columns, perhaps roof
it partially with a trellis or a sliding canvas roof,
and create 'walls' around it with fences, sitting
walls, screens, hedges or the exterior walls of
the building itself.



#167: Six foot balcony
Balconies and porches which are less than six feet deep are hardly ever used. Therefore:
Whenever you build a balcony or porch, always make
it at least 6 feet deep. If possible, to give it an
added feeling of security, recess at least a part of
it into the building so that it is not cantilevered
out and separated from the building by a simple line,
and enclose it partially - eg: with a low wall or
heavy columns. In terms of space, treat it as an
outdoor room



#168: Connection to the earth
A house feels isolated from the nature around it unless its floors are interleaved directly with the earth that is around the house. You want a house to feel rooted as if it belongs where it is placed. Therefore:
Build a series of paths and terraces and steps
around the edge of the building. Place them deliberately
to make the boundary ambiguous, so that it is impossible
to say exactly where the building stops.





#174: Trellised walk
Trellised walks have their own special beauty. They are so unique, so different from other ways of shapng a path, that they are almost archetypal. Therefore:
Where paths need special protection or where they
need some intimacy, build a trellis over the path and
plant it with climbing flowers. Use the trellis to
help shape the outdoor spaces on either side of it.



#238: Filtered light
Light filtered through leaves or tracery, is wonderful. This is because direct light casts strong shadows resulting in harsh images, and also because filtering reduces glare. Therefore:
Where the edge of a window or the overhanging eave
of a roof is silhouetted against the sky, make a rich,
detailed tapestry of light and dark to break up the
light and soften it. You can do this, most easily,
with climbing plants trained to climb around the
outside of the window. If there are no plants you
can also do it beautifully with simple canvas awnings.



#243: Sitting wall
In many places walls and fences between outdoor spaces are too high; but no boundary at all does injustice to the subtlety of the divisions between the spaces. Therefore:
Surround any natural outdoor area, and make minor
boundaries between outdoor areas with low walls, about
16 inches high, and wide enough to sit on, at least 12
inches wide. Place the walls to coincide with natural
seat spots, so that extra benches are not necessary.

applying patterns (2): Interior

These patterns are my favourites from the book "Pattern Language", as described in my previous post. In this post I look at the ones relating to the details of the interior, such as how furniture is laid out, window heights, etc.



#134: Zen View
There is a problem with any beautiful view. You want to enjoy it every day, but the more open and obvious it is, the more it shouts, the sooner it will fade. Gradually it will become part of the building, like the wallpaper, and the intensity of its beauty will no longer be accessible to the people who live there. Therefore:
If there is a beautiful view, don't spoil it by building huge
windows that gape incessantly at it. Instead, put the windows which
look onto the view at places of transition - along paths, in hallways,
in entry ways, on stairs, between rooms. If the view window is
correctly placed, people will see a glimpse of the distant view as
they come up to the window or pass it, but the view is never visible
from the places where people stay.


I'm not sure I fully subscribe to this theory, because it presumes that the view is never changing, whereas in fact it differs all the time with the variation in weather, plants, etc. But, I think a view is a bit like chocolate... if you have too much you start to take it for granted and not enjoy it like you would if you kept it as a treat. I don't want to have floor to ceiling huge expanses of glass everywhere to 'bring in the view' like so many modern houses seem to, and our plans for Amherst don't.


#135: Tapestry of light and dark
In a building with uniform light level, there are few places which function as effective settings for human events. This happens because, to a large extent, the places which make effective settings are defined by light. Therefore:
Create alternating areas of light and dark throughout the
building, in such a way that people naturally walk toward the
light, whenever they are going to important places: seats,
entrances, stairs, passages, places of special beauty, and
make other areas darker to increase the contrast.


Hmmm... I think this will happen naturally, especially if we use a variety of lights, wall lights, table lamps etc, and of course have dimmer switches everywhere. (That was the best thing I did here in London was to put dimmer switches in almost every room, it made such a difference to the atmosphere). I guess that when we eventually get to the stage of designing in for lighting, wall colours, etc we'll have to think more carefully about this.


#139: Farmhouse kitchen
The isolated kitchen, separate from the family and considered as a factory for food is a hangover from the days of servants. A much better model for modern living is the farmhouse kitchen. Therefore:
Make the kitchen big enough to include the 'family room' space,
and place it near the center of the commons, not so far back in the
house as an ordinary kitchen. Make it large enough to hold a good
big table and chairs, some soft and some hard, wth counters and stove
and sink around the edge of the room; and make it a bright and
comfortable space.


Yes, this is what we aspire to have in our kitchen area, although it will still be a separate area so that you can shut off the mess if you want.



#179: Alcoves
To give a group of people a chance to be together, as a group, a room must also give them the chance to be alone, in one's and two's in the same place. This is particular true for places like the kitchen and the living room, where if there are not these areas then people who are doing one thing (eg: reading) will be disturbed by people doing something else, and thus be less likely to spend time together. Therefore:
Make small places at the edge of any common room, usually
no more than 6 feet wide and 3 to 6 feet deep and possible
much smaller. These alcoves should be large enough for 2
people to sit, chat or play, and sometimes large enough to
contain a desk or a table. Give the alcove a ceiling which
is markedly lower in height than the main room, and consider
making a partial boundary using low walls and thick columns.


I really like the idea of having alcoves. This is going to be the biggest challenge to design in I suspect. I especially like the idea of varying the ceiling height... perhaps we could even have drawers high up in the extra ceiling space that's been enclosed for storage?


#180: Window place
Everybody loves window seats, bay windows and big windows with low sills and comfortable chairs drawn up to them. These kinds of windows create 'places', and a room which does not have such places seldom allows you to feel fully at ease because you will always remain slightly torn between being drawn to the light and drawn to sit down. Therefore:
In every room where you spend any length of time during
the day, make at least one window into a window place.
Make it low and self-contained if there is room for it
(eg: alcove); under sloping roofs use dormer windows.
Window seats built into niches are a good way to execute
this in a small space. Low sills should be very low -
12 to 14 inches - and the armchair nearby should give
a sense of enclosure, eg with tall back and sides.


Yes, window seats are a definite must. I like the idea of having low sills too.


#182: Eating atmosphere
Some rooms invite people to eat leisurely and comfortably and feel together, while others force people to eat as quickly as possible so they can go somewhere else to relax. Therefore:
Put a heavy table in the centre of the eating space -
large enough for the group of people using it. Put a
light over the tapbel to create a pool of light over
the group, and enclose the space with walls or with
contrasting darkness. Make the space large enough so
the chairs can be pulled back comfortably, and provide
shelves and counters close at hand for things related
to the meal.



#184: Cooking layout
Cooking is uncomfortable if the kitchen counter is too short and also if it is too long. Therefore:
To strick the balance between the kitchen being too
small and too spread out, place the stove, sink and food
storage and counter in such a way that 1) No two of the
four are more than 10 feet apart. 2) the total length
of the counter - excluding sink, stove and refrigerator -
is at least 12 feet. 3) No one section of the counter
is less than 4 feet long.



#185: Sitting circle
A group of chairs, a sofa and a chair, a pile of cushions - these are the most obvious things - and yet to make them work, so people become animated and alive in them is a very subtle business. Most seating arrangements are sterile, people avoid them, nothing ever happens there. Others seem somehow to gather life aroudn them to concentrate and liberate energy. The most important difference between them is their position, shape and informality. To get the best arrangement:
Place each sitting space in a position which is protected,
not cut by paths or movement, roughly circular, made so that
the room itself helps to suggest the circle - not too strongly
- with paths and activities around it so that people naturally
gravitate toward the chairs when they get into the mood to
sit. Place the chairs and cushions loosely in the circule
and have a few too many.






#188: Bed alcove
Bedrooms make no sense because the valuable space around the bed is used for nothing except access to the bed. Therefore:
Don't put single beds in empty rooms called bedrooms.
Instead put individual bed alcoves off rooms with other
nonsleeping functions, so the bed itself becomes a tiny
private haven. This is a particular useful way to get
extra sleeping spaces without making the house grow
much larger.



#189: Dressing rooms
Dressing and undressing, storing clothes, having clothes lying around, have no reason to be part of any larger complex of activities. Indeed they disturb other activities: they are so self contained that they themselves need concentrated space which has no other function. Therefore:
Give everyone a dressing room between their bed and
the bathing room. Make it big enough so there is an
open area in it at least 6 feet in diameter; a mixture
of hanging space, open shelves and drawers, and a mirror.
Place it so it gets plenty of natural light, ideally
light on two sides.



#190: Ceiling height variety
A building in which the ceiling heights are all the same is virtually incapable of making people comfortable. Therefore:
Vary the ceiling heights continuously thorugh the
building, especially between rooms which open into
each other, so that the relative intimacy of different
spaces can be felt. In particular, make ceilings high
in rooms which are public or meant for large gatherings
(10 to 12 feet), lower in rooms for smaller gatherings
(7 to 9 feet) and very low in rooms or alcoves for one
to two people (6 to 7 feet). Where ceiling height varies
within one storey, put storage in the spaces between the
different heights, and vary ceiling heights from storey
to storey, with the highest ceilings on the ground floor.



#193: Half open wall
Rooms which are too closed prevent thenatural flow of social occasions, and thenatural process of transition from one social moment to another. And rooms which are too open will not support the differentiation of events which social life requires. Therefore:
Adjust the walls, opening and windows in each indoor
space until you reach the right balance between open,
flowing space and closed cell-like space. Do not take
it or granted that each space is a room; nor, on the
other hand, that all spaces must flow into each other.
The right balance will always lie between these extremes:
no one room entirely enclosed; and no space totally
connected to another. Use combinations of columns,
half-open walls, porches, indoor windows, sliding
doors, low sills, frenchdoors, sitting walls, and so
on, to hit the right balance.



#194: Interior windows
Windows are most often used to create connections between the indoor and the outdoors. But there are many cases when an indoor space needs a connecting window to another indoor space besides the obvious (corridors, small rooms that would otherwise feel like prisons). In particular:
Put in fully glazed fixed windonws betwen rooms which
tend to be dead because they have too little action in
them or where inside rooms are unusually dark.



#196: Corner doors
The success of a room depends to a great extent on the position of the doors. If the doors create a pattern of movement which destroys the places in the room, the room will never allow people to be comfortable. Therefore:
Except in very large rooms, a door only rarely makes
sense in the middle of a wall. It does in an entrance
room,for instance, because this room gets its character
essentially from the door. But inmost rooms, especially
small ones, put the doors as near the corners of the
room as possible. If the room has two doors, and people
move through it, keep both doors at one end of the room.



#199: Sunny counter
Dark gloomy kitchens are depressing. The kitchen needs the sun more than the other rooms, not less. Therefore:
Place the main part of the kitchen counter on the
south and southeast side of the kitchen, with big windows
around it, so that sun can flood in and fill the kitchen
with yellow light both morning and afternoon.



#200: Open shelves
Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that what you want is behind something else. Therefore:
Cover the walls with narrow shelves of varying depth
but always shallow enough so that things can be placed
on them one deep - nothing hiding behind anything else.



#210: Waist-high shelf
In every house and every workplace there is a daily 'traffic' of the objects which are handled most. Unless such things are immediately at hant, the flow of life is awkward, full of mistakes, things are forgotten, misplaced. Therefore:
Build waist-high shelves around at least a part of
the main rooms hwere people live and work. make them
long,9 to 15 inches deep, with shelves or cupbard
underneath. Interrupt the shelf for seats, windows
and doors.



#202: Built-in seats
Built-in seats are great. Everybody loves them. They make a building feel comfortable and luxurious. But most often they do not actually work. They are placed wrong, or too narrow, or the back does not slope, or the view is wrong, or the seat is too hard. To make a built-in seat that really works:
Before you build the seat, get hold of an old armchair
or a sofa and put it into the pusotion where you intend
to build a seat. Move it until you really like it.
Leave it there for a few days. See if you enjoy sitting
in it. Move it if you don't. When you have got it into
a position which you like, and where you often find
yourself sitting, you know it is a good position. Now
build a seat that is just as wide adn just as well
padded - and your built in seat will work.



#221: Natural doors and windows
Finding the right position for a window or a door is a subtle matter. But there are very few ways of building which take this into consideration. The delicacy of placing a window or a door has nearly vanished, but it is just this refinement, sometimes down to the last inch or two, which makes an immense difference. Therefore:
On no account use standard doors or windows. Make
each window a differen size, according to its place.
Do not fix the exact position or size of the door and
window frames until the rough framing of the room has
actually been built, and you can really stand inside
the room and judge, by eye, exactly where you want to
put them , and how big you want them. Make the windows
smaller and smaller, as you go higher in the building.



#222: Low sill
One of a window's most important functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off. Therefore:
When determing exact location of windows also decide
which windows should have low sills. On the first floor,
make the sills of windows which you plan to sit by
between 12 and 14 inches high. ON the upper stories
make them higher, around 20 inches.





#223: Deep reveals
Windows with a sharp edge where the frame meeting the wall create harch, blinding glar, and make the rooms they serve uncomfortable. They have the same effect as the bright headlines of an oncoming car: the glare prevents fyou from seeing anything else on the road. To solve this:
Make the window frame a deep, splayed edge: about a foot
wide and splayed at about 50 to 60 degrees to the plane of
the window, so that the gentle gradient of daylight gives
a smooth transition between the light of the window and
the dark of the inner wall.



#235: Soft inside walls
A wall which is too hard or too cold or too solid is unpleasant to touch; it makes decoration impossible and creates hollow echoes. Therefore:
Make every inside surface warm to the touch, soft enough
to take small nails and tacks, and with a certain slight
"give" to the touch. A very good material is soft white
gypsum plaster, it is warm in colour, warm to the touch,
soft enough to take tacks, easy to repair and makes a
mellow sound. Whereas cement plaster, though only slightly
different in makeup is opposite in all of these respects.
Wood is also good (if you can afford it!)



#236: Windows which open wide
Many building nowadays have no opening windows at all, and manyof the opening windows that people do build don't do the job that opnening windows ought to do - ie: fully open! Therefore:
Decide which of the windows will be opening windows.
Pick those which are easy to get to, and choose the
ones which open onto flowers wyou want to smell, paths
where you might want to talk, and natural breezes.
Then put in side-hung casements that open outward.
Here and there, go all the way and build full French
windows



#237: Solid doors with glass
An opaque door makes sense in a vast house or palace, where every room is large enough to be a world unto itself; but in a small building, with small rooms, the opaque door is only very rarely useful. Therefore:
As often as possible, build doors with glazing in
them so that the upper half at least allows you to see
through them. At the same time, build the doors solid
enough, so that they give acoustic isolation and make
a comfortable 'thunk' when they are closed.



#251: Different chairs
People are different sizes, they sit in different ways. And yet there is a tendency in modern times to make all chairs alike. A better approach is:
Never furnish any place with chairs that are
identically the same. Choose a variety of different
chairs, some big, some small, some softerthan others,
some rockers, some very old, some new, with arms,
without arms, some wicker, some wood, some cloth.



#252: Pools of light
Uniform illumination serves nouseful purpose whatsoever. In fact, it destroys the social nature of space and makes people feel disoriented and unbounded. Instead:
Place the lights low, and apart, to form individual
pools of light which encompass chairs and table like
bubble to reinforce the social character of the spaces
which they form. Remember that you can't have pools
of light without the darker places in between.

applying patterns (1): House shape

These patterns are my favourites from the book "Pattern Language", as described in my previous post. In this post I look at the ones relating to the overall shape of a house, and check out how our current plans for the new house measure up.


#107: Wings of Light
Buildings which displace natural light as the major source of illumination are not fit places to spend the day. Therefore:
Arrange each building into wings... make each wing long and
as narrow as you can, never more than 25 ft wide. Use the wings
to form "positive outdoor spaces"


After some measuring up on the latest set of plans, I think we fall within this limit pretty much if you count it as having 3 wings - two either side of building and one jutting out for the library. The library and also the screened porch that sticks out from the main building also help to frame the 'secret garden' area behind the house so that's good too.


#127: Intimacy gradient
Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests will always be a little awkward. Therefore:
Lay out the spaces of a building so that they create a sequence
which begins with the entrance and the most public parts of the
building, then leads into the slightly more private areas, and
finally to the most private domains.


If you start at the main entrance, then it works OK. The only thing that potentially jars is having the downstairs toilet in the mudroom area. We're still working on the precise layout for this, the latest is here. I think provided we can get it so that the mudroom part can be closed off without making the toilet feel stingy and cramped, it'll work. I like how the library is off in it's own area. This will let it be both a place for quietness (reading, sleeping) and for partying, around the mid-sized billiards table, which Dave is eying up putting here ... I think this could be cool provided that it has a cover so can be a normal table at other times.


#128: Indoor sunlight
Very few things have as great an effect on the feeling of a home as the sun shining into it. If the right rooms are facing south, a hosue is bright and sunny and cheerful; if the wrong rooms are facing south, the house is dark and gloomy. Therefore:
Place the most important rooms along the south edge of the
building and spread the building out along the east-west axis.
Fine tune the arrangement so that the proper rooms are exposed
to the south-east and the south-west sun. E.g., give the
common area a full southern exposure, bedrooms south east,
porch south-west.




As this was written for the US I presume in Australia we'd need to reverse 'north' and 'south', but the concept is still relevant and our plan works. We have the breakfast area, kitchen, and main bedroom where the morning sun comes, and the lounge and library at the evening side.


#130: Entrance room
Arriving in a building, or leaving it, you need a room to pass through, both inside the building and outside it. This is the entrance room. Not only is this for practicalities such as providing a place to put things while you fumble with keys, or to shelter from the weather, it's also for psychological reasons - eg: to provide a symbolic marker for saying final goodbyes when guests are leaving. Therefore:
At the main entrance to the building, make a light-filled
room which marks the entrance and straddles the boundary
between indoors and outdoors. The outside part may be like
an old fashioned porch; the inside like a hall or sitting room.
Provide seating areas either side, with the indoor seating
part of a sequence of sitting spaces.


Yes yes yes! This puts into words why I like entrance rooms, and generous ones at that, not just at one end of a passage. With the addition of the seating nook, I think ours will feel nice. I'm rethinking though using that lovely door that Dad found as the front door, because it doesn't have any glass in it. I know we could cut out some of the panels and insert it, but that'd be such a shame. Maybe instead this chould be a door to the Library or something, hmmm. Alternatively, perhaps we use the solid door still, but have glass panes either side in the wall? That might work really well, although obviously it means the entrance area has to be wide enough to fit it (but that's no bad thing)


#131: The flow through rooms
The movement between rooms is as important as the rooms themselves; and its arrangement has as much effect on social interaction in the rooms, as the interiors of the rooms. Therefore:
As far as possible, avoid the use of corridors and passages.
Instead use public rooms as rooms for movement and for gathering.
To do this, place the common rooms to form a chain, so it becomes
possible to walk from room to room, and so that private rooms
open directly off these public rooms. In every case, give this
indoor circulation from room to room a feeling of great
generosity, passing in a wide and ample loop around the
house, with views of fires and great windows.


We're on the way to accomplishing this I think, at least in terms of flow. The exception is the library area, but that's deliberately meant to feel separate. Ditto the screened porch area as that's a kind of outdoor garden room as much as an inside space. We even have a loop if you consider throwing open the porch doors between kitchen & lounge.


#132: Short passages
Long sterile corridors set the scene for everything bad about modern architecture. Therefore:
Keep passages short. Make them as much like rooms as
possible, with carpets or wood on the floor, furniture (eg:
seats in alcoves), bookshelves, beautiful windows. Make
them generous in shape and always give them plenty of light.
The best corridors of all are those which have windows
along an entire wall.


Yes. The only corridor we have, really, is the small one going to the library. I'm seeing that this will definitely have windows all the way along looking onto the secret garden and probably waist high shelves too below it. (No point having full length windows as there'll be stuff on the verandah and who wants to look at the back of chairs?)


#133: Staircase as a stage
A staircase is not just a way of getting from one floor to another. The stair is itself a space, a volume, a part of the building; and unless this space is made to live, it will be a dead spot, and work to disconnect the building and to tear its processes apart. Therefore:
Place the main stair in a key position, central and visible.
Treat the whole staircase as a room (or if it is outside, as a
courtyard). Arrange it so that the stair and the room are one,
with the stair coming down around one or two walls of the room.
Flare out the bottom of the stair with open windows or
balustrades and with wide steps so that the people coming
down the stair become part of the action in the room while
they are on the stair, and so that people below will naturally
use the stair for seats.




I really like this concept and I think we could definitely achieve it in the "living hall" area, we just need to carefully design the bottom part of the stairs. Maybe the first few steps has a kind of arc'ed area like in this picture? I like the feel of it. It can get a bit more formal further up when the bannister starts. Also, I think we should give careful thought about having shelving as you go up the stairs for books, ornaments, etc, as well as space for hanging pictures. Perhaps the area midway up, where you turn, is quite wide, almost like a teensy room, with space for a chair, some book shelves, and of course the windows looking out over the view? This would also let us have more 'under stair storage' which is always a great thing to have... and perhaps help the "living hall" feel not quite so cavernous?


#138: Sleeping to the East
As humans, we are sensitive to natural rhythyms and cycles. The best time to wake up after sleeping is at the end of REM sleep (ie: just after a dream), as you'll feel much more energetic than if you awaken at other times. But, the only way to make sure you wake up at this best time is to be woken by the sun. The sun warms and nudges you awake so gently that you will wake at the best point, unlike an alarm that jerks you awake no matter what your dreamstate. Therefore:
Give those parts of the house where people sleep an eastern
orientation, so that they wake up with the sun and light. This
means typically that the sleeping area nees to be on the eastern
side of the house, although it can also be on the western side
provided there is a courtyard or a terrace to the east of it.
Position the bed so that you can see the sunlight from it,
but it isn't shining directly onto the bed itself or else
you'll get too hot.


I think we're OK on this, as the master bedroom is at the right side of the house to allow this.


#145: Bulk storage
There is always some need for bulk storage space; a place for things like suitcases, old furniture, old files, boxes - all those things which you are not ready to throw away, and yet not using everyday. Very often the need for this kind of storage space is neglected, meaning that some other part of the house is sacrificed to this function. Therefore:
Do not leave bulk storage till last or forget it. Include
a volume for bulk storage in the building - its floor area at
least 15-20% of the whole building area, not less. Place this
storage somewhere in the building that costs less because it
doesn't need a finish. It could be in the roof, if you have a
steep roof, or in the basement if building on a sloping site;
it could even be in a separate shed.


Inside the house we are definitely lacking in this at the moment. I think making the stair landing area wider (and thus allowing more under stairs storage) will be a big help. In fact, this would probably be plenty when you consider there will also be sheds and things. But some things are too important to entrust to external sheds.

Also, this reminded me about the wine cellar. Where or where shall we put that? It doesn't have to be a huge place you actually sit in, but we do need space to store it. Hmmm.


#159: Light on two sides of every room
When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty. Therefore:
Locate each room so that it has outdoor space outside it on
at least two sides, and then place windows in these outdoor
walls so that natural light falls into every room from more
than one direction. Don't let this make your plans too wild
however; you can stick to the essense of the pattern with
windows on one side only if the room is unusual high, if it
is shallow compared with the length of the window wall, the
windows large, the walls of the room white, and massive deep
reveals on the windows to make certain that big windows bright
against the sky do not create glare.


This is another one that is obvious when you see it written but I'd not thought about before. With the exception of the pantry, WC and walk-in closet, I think we're OK on this front. I guess in most of those places we could solve it through judicious use of skylights.


#191: The shape of indoor space
Every space which is recognisable and walled enough to be distinct, must have walls which are roughly straight, except when the walls are thick enough to be concave in both directions. Acute angles where walls join are hardly every appropriate. Ceiling shape matters too - there are some kinds of shape which tend to make people feel uncomfortable:



Therefore:
With occasional exceptions, make each indoor space a
rough rectangle, with roughly straight walls, near right
angles in the corners, and a roughly symmetrical vault
over each room.


Now this is interesting. I disagree with it partly, after the experience of visiting Casa Battlo, one of Gaudi's amazing houses in Barcelona. This was very curvy and organic... it looked odd in pictures but standing in it felt very very comfortable. But, that is at an extreme, and we are not going to be able to do that. So, generally I agree.

Also, I like the point about roofs. In our travels we've stayed in lots of B&Bs, several of which were renovated barns. Everyone has always raved about them, big ceilings, etc. But I've never found one that I've liked being in, not to sit and watch TV or sleep, anyway. They are just too cavernous. I always thought I just had odd taste, but now I understand why... it's the ceiling shape!

I think we will be OK on this front with our current plans... The upstairs rooms have interesting ceilings that I can't quite imagine yet but I think they will feel more like dormers? Perhaps I shall ask Dave to do a sketch, he is good at envisaging stuff like that.


#193: Half open wall
Rooms which are too closed prevent the natural flow of social occasions, and thenatural process of transition from one social moment to another. And rooms which are too open will not support the differentiation of events which social life requires. Therefore:
Adjust the walls, opening and windows in each indoor space
until you reach the right balance between open,`flowing space
and closed cell-like space. Do not take it or granted that
each space is a room; nor, on the other hand, that all spaces
must flow into each other. The right balance will always lie
between these extremes: no one room entirely enclosed; and no
space totally connected to another. Use combinations of
columns, half-open walls, porches, indoor windows, sliding
doors, low sills, frenchdoors, sitting walls, and so on, to
hit the right balance.


I like this. I think we will achieve it inside mostly through the use of indoor windows. It gives me a place to display my stained glass collection as well.


#209: Roof layout
It helps to bring the patterns to life it the roof plan is organically related to the nature of your building. To do this:
Arrange the roofs so that each distinct roof
corresponds to an identifable social entity in the building.
Place the largest roofs - those which are highest and have
the largest span - over the largest and most important and
most communal spaces; build the lesser roofs off these
largest and highestroof; and build the smallest roofs of
all off these lesser roofs, in the form of half-vaults
and sheds over alcoves and thick walls. When a wing
ends in the open, leave the gable end at full height;
when a wing ends ina coyuryard, hip the gable so that
the horizontal roof edge makes the courtyard like a room.


This I'm leaving to Eric, but it'll be fine. It's OK in the plans so far, and also on his website he says part of his design philosophy is that buildings "can be 'read' - the internal layout is visible in external form"

Speaking of Eric's website, it's been updated, there seem to be lots of new pictures compared to the last time I looked. And they're just lovely. I feel very confident that together we'll come up with an incredible house because everything I've seen that Eric's done just feels right - even the stuff he does in a more modern style I like, it feels warm and inviting. Having also just visited Oak Park, I am noticing details more and some things, like the curved finish on the top edge of the stone chimney feel similarly nice (sorry can't link directly to it so this is the picture)

How lovely is this?! Not only is the use of the stone gorgeous and helps roots it to the ground, but the shape gives it a character all it's own. It's worth a browse in his project gallery if you're interested in this kind of thing... it'll also give you a flavour of Australia too. :-)


#232: Roof caps
There are few cases in traditional architecture where buildiners have not used some roof detail to cap the building with ornament. The roof cap helps to finish the building, it gives it a human touch. The power of the cap is of much greater than its proportions would lead you to expect - consider how dramatically different these two buildings appear:



Therefore:
Choose a natural way to cap the roof - some way which is
in keeping with the kind of construction, and the meaning of
the building. The caps may be structural; but their main
function is decorative - they mark the top - they mark the
place where the roof penetrates the sky.


The picture says it all really. I totally agree. I even have just acquired via Ebay an old factory vent that might be useful for this, even if it's just on the shed... (I'll post up a picture separately).

a wacky rethink of downstairs

We are struggling to get the placement of the downstairs bathroom right.

It started out opening off the central hall, but that was too prominent and we didn't want it opening directly from a place that would be doubling as a dining room. Dave also suggested it should be near a side of the house so it's easy to access from the garden.

So then it moved to take up some of the space in the mudroom. Except that there isn't enough space there so every iteration we've tried so far just makes it feel awfully cramped.

An idea just occurred to me, sparked by discussing the Pattern Language insights with Dave, which might help - except it requires rather greater rearrangement of the downstairs.

What if we put the mudroom back the way it was to begin with, that we all loved.

What if we made the stair landing, midway up, wider ... space for an armchair in the corner, some books, if you ever had a party with musicians you could even stick them up there like an mini stage! OK, I'm getting carried away, but if the landing had a larger floor area it'd give us much more flexibility.

Then, what if we moved the pantry, so that instead of it being on the side of the kitchen facing the secret garden, it was behind the front porch in the room 'under the stairs'... which is now much more spacious than a hallway sized cupboard because the landing is wider. We'd still have our "living hall" downstairs, it's just not quite so ginormous...but still plenty enough space for Xmas trees and dinner parties.

(We'd have to move the chimney I guess? And if so, the upstairs bedroom would need tweaking because of the new chimney location, but other than that hopefully it wouldn't mess up the structural stuff too much).

Then, that gives us space at the back of the house that was formerly the pantry to play with and squeeze the bathroom. I don't know what this looks like exactly, but maybe something like this:



Although not exactly this, because Dave doesn't like it. He likes the new position of the pantry, but he doesn't like something to do with the verandah and sunroom. I can't work out what exactly though. Something about not being able to walk to the breakfast area to the sunroom, except that you can - although maybe it's because he wants it to be under a verandah? I'm not sure. If that's the case then all we have to do is extend the sunroom & breakfast room verandah areas out a bit more and voila the undercover walkway is back again. But I suggested that and he just frowned. So I don't know *sigh*

It's an idea anyway.

applying "pattern language"

Pattern Language is a seminal book in architecture that I first stumbled across referenced in one of my all-time favourite books "A Place of My Own" by Michael Pollan. It was written back in 1977. I decided, somewhat naively perhaps, to go back to the original source to see what I could learn for Amherst.



The book arrived about 18 months ago and, like the textbook that it is, was initially daunting. It has very small type and 1171 pages! I started thumbing through it but found myself overwhelmed by the sheer scale at which it began.

Pattern #1 for instance states "Where ever possible, work toward the evolution of interdependent regions in the world each with a population of between 2 and 10 million". Now, whether this is right or wrong is irrelevant for my purposes, this is far far beyond my scale of thinking or power of influence! It reminded me in fact of a wonderful geography project I had to do back in high school to "design a town". My town was lovely, radiating out from a central square, and I had great fun designing in lots of parks for my imaginary population straight out of the Brady Bunch. But the exercise was utterly meaningless. So I feared would be this book.

But last weekend I picked it up again. This time I let myself skip forward to the patterns on a scale that were relevant to building a house.

I now understand why it is a seminal book. Where else could you find a book that ranges from the extremes of planning on a regional economy level right down to how you should arrange your kitchen cupboards? (I kid you not, seriously, pattern #200 is all about having open shallow shelves so that you can place things one deep and they don't get hidden). It is much a psychology book as an architecture book, in terms of dissecting why some spaces 'feel right' and others don't.

In the next few posts, I will introduce you to my favourite patterns. By which I mean the patterns that either I instantly thought "yes, of course, that makes sense"... or I was converted by the arguments in the book. They are the patterns which most resonated with me and thus I believe are most relevant for Amherst.

new mudroom layout (still WIP)

A few days ago we got an email from Eric, with a sketch of a new idea for the mudroom incorporating the downstairs loo:



This works better than the previous one because the loo area feels more self-contained. But unfortunately it still doesn't feel right.

I know we'll be using this loo a lot, and that visitors will too. I don't want the toilet area itself to feel like a cubicle in a corridor, not so cramped. I also know that the mudroom will become a dumping ground for 'mess' from Dave and for all that stuff that you have to put away but just can't face doing at that moment. This means the mudroom will live up to its messy name a lot of the time... but I don't want the mess visible every time you go to the loo! The sliding door will help but it also has the effect of making it feel very enclosed, and so I know most of the time we'll end up leaving the door open.

I'm wondering whether the solution is just to bite the bullet and accept that we need a bigger space in this wing. What if we moved over the 'secret garden' verandah by the width of the passage? Or, What if we stretched out that entire side of the house, getting extra space in the lounge as well as the library wing? Perhaps then we could even keep the same floor area in the library by nudging the boundary of the mudroom wall back a bit, thus getting us even more space for the mudroom/bathroom bit? That way maybe we could get that glorious cupboard back with space for all the cleaning junk, and get back to the lovely feel that it had before we started trying to squeeze in the loo.

I feel I'm being awfully fussy but I don't want to forever kick myself when I live there for not fixing it.

some more ideas from our architect

Yesterday we got an email from Eric commenting on our recent blog post about the floorplan. Here's what he said, with our initial reactions:

"I've gone through your blog. Everything you say sounds fine. I've had a couple of ideas for the upstairs bath and the mud room.

One issue with the bath is to make sure that room is still a nice balanced shape. I've put together a little idea which I have attached. The main bath and chair area would be 2.6 x 3.1m with the basin and shower sitting outside of that".



We really really like this. We measured out the size of the main bathroom area (ie: without the shower, sink) and it is pretty big, about two thirds the size of our conservatory here. It seems big enough to feel spacious but not so large that if feels cavernous. I especially like the idea of having the changing ceiling levels.


"With the mud room, I'm concerned that lots of the storage (and usefulness) would be lost. The idea that I sketched up addresses some of that. It includes the WC but keeps the bench space and even adds some shelves for shoes, bags etc. We mainly lose floor space which is mainly an issue if you have a few people in there at once".



Dave really likes this but for some reason that I can't yet pinpoint, I feel uncomfortable with it. I don't know if it's because the basin is in the open, because of the sliding door, or because there seem acres of bench space - maybe I'd feel better if some was replaced with a giant cupboard? I agree though it's an improvement on our previous idea, it's just that unlike the bathroom it doesn't yet feel right to me "gut feel". I need to sleep on it, that usually helps clarify things!


The ideas around the kitchen all sound fine. Deleting the WC can allow the kitchen pantry to increase. I'd be tempted to leave the wall where the WC door was blank for a nice piece of furniture rather than a built in bar. Perhaps the bar could be in the furniture? It would be a good place for furniture as it id directly opposite the the entry. Indeed, the kitchen is quite large. I'd love to spend some time seeing what more we could do with it -- like seats, desks etc.

I like the idea of leaving the hall wall blank... and perhaps this could be a good place for our prized sideboard? That would be well suited to double as a bar, if Dave wants (albeit he'd have to be very careful not to leave ringmarks!)

It will be great to think more about the kitchen layout specifically. I think our fears about it being so large are partly just because we can't properly envision it yet. I'd like to do the same for the entrance hall area too, at least the bit that is under the stairs.


"The balcony upstairs would definitely be fun. It might create some difficulties with the roof. It's worth looking into, though, and see what it would look like.

If you are anything like us, you'll use you outdoor BBQ a lot. At this time of year, we cook outside about five nights a week. By winter, we're all dying for baked food, but it's amazing what you can do on a BBQ. It's fine to delete the sink from the screened area and concentrate on the verandah.

The next step for me is really to draw it up more accurately (probably on CAD) and also do some larger scale detailed sketches of the areas like the bath, mud room, kitchen etc. Once I've done all that, I'll build a model to see what it really looks like. (It might sound odd putting it on CAD before the study model, but computer drawings are so easy to change, I like to start using them in the design stage.)"

Yippee, models! I'm looking forward to one day being able to "fly through" a mockup of the house like you see on those TV shows.

Feedback on new house plans (at last)

We got the most recent iteration of the plans for the new house from Eric back in August. Then life intervened and it hasn't been until yesterday that we had time (and the right frame of mind) to properly dissect them and discuss. Here, at last, are our thoughts on the final round of tweaks we want to make before progressing to the next stage of design.

Let's start with the ground floor.

Just to recap, this is what the plan from Eric looked like (click to make it larger):


Overall we really like it, so rather than enumerate all the things we like, I'm just going to list the things we want to alter, room-by-room. To minimise the extent of the changes (so as not to affect the outside shape) we've tried wherever possible to keep within the existing dimensions. This house is already bigger in terms of floorspace than we'd first envisaged, so we didn't want to make it worse!


Entry hallway

We'd like to have a place to sit to take off dirty shoes, coats, etc. One idea to achieve this is to 'steal' some space from the lounge area, so there's a seating alcove on one side of the table in the hallway - ie:


This would give us a place to sit and help imbue an arts & crafts feel. I'd envisage the seat being a simple bench with a liftup lid for storing things, with a hat rack and shelves above. On the opposite wall I'd envisage there being coat racks.


Utility and Mudroom

We've always wanted to have a toilet downstairs so you don't have to go upstairs all the time. In Eric's plan, this was positioned off the central hall area, but we didn't like that for two reasons. First, it felt like it would be uncomfortable having the toilet so close by if we were using the central hall area for parties. Second, Dave was worried that it wasn't close enough to the outside, so he'd traipse mud through all the time. Which is a very good point, as that would drive me nuts!

So, we decided to move the toilet to the Utility and Mudroom area. This solves the problems, albeit sacrificing a sense of formality. It is also very practical in that part of our justification of having the "Library" wing is that we could convert it to a third bedroom if ever needed. If this happened, we'd want to put an ensuite in part of the mudroom area; so by putting a toilet and basin in we're already partway there.

We experimented with many alternatives for making this change. We wanted for the toilet and basin to be enclosed but not stupidly cramped. We also wanted the mudroom to still be a nice shape. This was the best layout we came up with:


We could perhaps put a window in the wall above the WC sink looking onto the hallway. It could be obscured glass, or the type that's mirrored on one side and see-through from the other? Or, perhaps one of the stained glass panels? Either way, it would help make it feel less enclosed and let in some natural light.

The washing machine and dryer (on a shelf above) sit in the alcove between the outside wall and the back of the toilet. The laundry trough and bench tuck into the wall near the verandah door. There's still a nice big cupboard on the other side of the door for all my hobby and cleaning things. So, overall, the mudroom still has all the key things I wanted albeit a little more squeezed.

If ever we wanted to convert to an ensuite, we'd simply build a wall across from the verandah door to the toilet door. A shower could be put in the space where the cupboard is currently and voila, an ensuite. Hopefully we'll never need to do this but it's a useful option to have.


Lounge

There's not much to say about the lounge. At one point we thought about changing the bay window to be more rectangular, but on experimenting we realised the curved layout looked a lot nicer. So, the only change we have to the lounge is to steal some space to allow for the alcove in the entrance hallway, as described above.


Central hallway

The only definite change we want to make is to remove the toilet and add an alcove for a bar. (See kitchen section for more details).

Overall, we like this space but are having trouble envisaging it. I'm guessing there will be space for big storage cupboards under the stairs (suitcases, Xmas decorations, etc), a bench perhaps, a grandfather clock in the centre, and so on, but I can't fully picture it in my mind. But, we're very happy with the concept of this space. It'll be wonderful for parties and entertaining, and even for everyday it'll be handy for working on hobbies where you need to spread out and want to leave it in situ for a few days, without it being in the way.

UPDATE: We'd also like to ensure there's a place for this sideboard somewhere in this central hallway. Perhaps it can go against the wall underneath the stairs?


Kitchen

Initially we loved the kitchen. But then, on reflection, we started to imagine what it might feel like to have to go into the pantry every time you wanted to open the fridge! Plus, it felt so big...

We've got some ideas to solve it though. First and foremost, the fridge. We want it to be fairly central and - now that we've decided to go with mains power as a backup - we'd like to have one of those large American style double door fridges (or at least plan in for the option!). We've found space for it in what was previously the downstairs WC. This also has the advantage of giving us a bit extra storage in the pantry, plus a roomy cupboard off the central hall which we could use as a built-in bar:


We've also toyed with the idea of adding in some kind of island bench or butchers block on a trolley, perhaps even with a built in tub for washing vegetables (can easily empty the water into a bucket and toss onto the garden). This could live at the end of the table, perhaps, and be wheeled around as needed. Overall, we want to make the kitchen work areas feel a little smaller and closer together.

We also had the thought of making a kind of breakfast bar area, with two stools tucked under the bench, looking over the front window. I'm envisaging that the cupboards in this stretch could have glass doors, so it can act as a display area, and also to differentiate it from the "working" part of the kitchen. This could be where we store dinner sets and nice pots, etc - ie: things that you don't use everyday but that you'd use a lot more often if you had them easily to hand! Perhaps the corner could also function as a kind of kitchen "desk" area, like so many design books seem to recommend.


Screened porch

For everyday, we're more likely to have this set up as a kind of conservatory / informal lounge area than as a dining room, but that's just furniture. The only thing we want to change, as shown in the picture above, is to get rid of the cooking area. For outside cooking we'll use the BBQ so there's no need for this anymore. I can imagine myself filling this room with plants, to give it a feel of a real garden room.


Now moving on to the first floor. This is what it looks like overall in the plans at the moment (click to make it bigger):



Master bedroom

Overall we really like it so it's mostly just tweaks rather than anything major.

In terms of the balcony, at one point we wanted to make it more rectangular than curved. But now that we're keeping the curved bay downstairs we think it'd be better to leave it alone. We're not sure how big the balcony is. If it isn't already, we'd like it to have enough room for a few potplants, perhaps even a small chair (although the latter isn't that important).

We also thought it might be nice to add in another balcony area, a kind of narrow walkway above the middle verandah:


There are already windows on both sides - one in the bedroom, one in the study. We would suggest leaving it as a window in the bedroom, but perhaps making the one in the study a glass door, or a sash window that slides open enough that you can easily climb through. Among other things, this balcony could have the telescope and serve as a kind of "tower room" in spirit. We'd like it to be wide enough to have a small chair - I'm envisaging it being about the width of a footpath.


Study

Overall, we really like the way the room is shaped. It's got a nice feel, and would be fairly easy to split into two smaller bedrooms if it was ever needed. At the moment it's called a reading room but now we have the library this doesn't make sense, so we'd like to re-christen it as the Study. To reflect this, in the drawings we'd like to replace the double bed with a large desk, and perhaps also add some cupboards instead of only bookshelves (as we'll need somewhere to hide away all the computer stuff). Of course, it'll also still double as a guest bedroom, but we'll achieve that via having a sofa bed rather than a dedicated sleeping area.


Bathroom

Last of all, the upstairs bathroom. This is one of the most important rooms and the one we want to alter the most. There are two key things that are wrong about the current plan - the toilet needs to be in a separate room (I hate having it all in one), and there isn't space for an armchair. It sounds crazy I know but I've always wanted one... a comfy place to sit while chatting to whoever's in the bath, and also a place to put things, to sit while you're doing your hair, whatever. We struggled with this but finally came up with a layout that seemed to work, without taking up any more space:


The shower area has now moved to a smaller corner, and in practice would be open as a kind of wetroom rather than an enclosed cubicle. I'm envisaging that we might have glass bricks, or perhaps even some of the stained glass, as the partition between the shower and the toilet, so that light can still get into the WC area. Alternatively, perhaps there could be a skylight in the WC. There's a nice big basin with plenty of bench space beside it and a big mirror in the space where the toilet used to be. Importantly too, the symmetry of the upstairs landing is maintained, with the doors to the WC and the bathroom mirroring each other (and deliberately opening outwards to maximise the space in the rooms).

UPDATE: we now have another idea for the bathroom, inspired by Mum's comment, which I think I like better.


This layout has the advantage of a more spacious WC with it's own outside window and still gives us a nice shaped bathroom. The dotted line would be a solid wall but maybe made of glass bricks or (even better) stained glass panels?

The only downsides are small - we sacrifice part of the bedroom walk-in closet (but it's still pretty big) and have less bench space around the sink. As before, I'd envisage the shower area as being a wetroom alcove rather than a cubicle.

Note also the addition of two extra little windows - one in the WC, and then a matching one over the sink to make it appear symmetrical from the outside. I think provided we made these a different shape to the other windows (eg: diamond, circular?) it wouldn't ruin the outside appearance of the run of windows... it'd just be like punctuation marks either side of the big bay over the bath.

now it's a 2 storey bathroom

Dad came up with an interesting idea for the bathroom in the old cottage. I still find it a little hard to imagine, so am looking forward to seeing the drawings, but I think it will be really good.

Just to recap, this is where things stood, as of end-October, for the old cottage floorplan. Note the bathroom on the right hand side with the bay window:


Then on Nov 10th we got an email from Dad:
"I want you to consider if you would allow me to build the bathroom
below with a baywindow, but rectangular bay as you described, and along
one wall below create wooden steps winding around to a lofe that rests
on the built-in robes below, with an all glass roof above. Bathroom
below has the vanity set in the bay, the toilet (one of the toilets),
and the shower with surround of some description. If you have seen
the colourbond lined bathrooms with stain-wooden trim and plaster,
painted above the dado line, you would know the look I would like to
create, using a small ripple colourbond. The high ceiling space lends
itself well to this creation. I have the glass for the roofspace I
think".

After discussing with Dave, I replied saying, basically, to go ahead!
"We haven't seen the colourbond lined bathrooms you talk about, but
from your description I imagine it could look really nice... not too
modern, still heritage, but interesting. I can imagine perhaps using
a section of colourbond for a showerscreen too... Assuming that the
bath is in a loft space on top of the wardrobe (in the other room)
that you access via steps... the more I think about it, the more I
can see this could be lovely. The only thing is I think it would be
safest to have some space around it to stand, dry off, etc before you
went down the steps. Otherwise I can imagine it might be quite
slippery & dangerous climbing down as you'll be pretty high up if
it's on top of the BIR's. I love the idea of it having a glass roof
over, it'll create a similar effect to what I was envisioning with
having the bath in the bay window".

On Nov 12th Dad replied:
"will sketch the loft bath, which will have a rather large area of
decking and have hand rails all the way up the stairs and around the
landing. The deck will grand a portion of the bathroom below with a 7'
ceiling bulkhead, but the atrium of the stairs will afford a complet use
of the overhead glass roof. I have a 1200x1200 piece of table glass 1/2"
thick that will be the edge of the shower base with two walls of
colourbond for the other. In the areas not affected by wet, the cladding
below the daddo trim will be selected old palings, with plaster painted
wall above the daddo trim. Will look great if you like the heritage
look. Tiles over the handbasin in the bay window of course, and
tiles on the floor. Or slate. You can input that as I don't have
anything except some cream sandstone tiles that I could use, but which
could clash with the overall look. Will photo these and let you
decide".

So, that's where it's at, to date. We're now waiting on the drawings to get a proper idea of what it will look like.

plumbing and septic saga (part 1)

As part of the submission to get planning & building permits for the old house, we need to include information about the kind of septic system we will be using and water supply arrangements.

The general consensus is that it makes most sense to plan for systems to support both the old & new house. Even though it will cost us more in the short term, it'll save money in the long run.

For water supply, we're planning to put in some big water tanks up on the hill to enable us to get sufficient pressure from gravity feeding. They'll be filled by collecting water from the roof of buildings into the small storage tanks (the ones we've already bought several of) and pumping up.

We haven't decided on precisely which septic system to go for yet as it will depend on pricing, but provided it is suitable for our soil and not outrageously more expensive I'm strongly in favour of an aerated-type system rather than the traditional septic tank. This way, we'll get to recycle more of the water.

This was all too boring to blog as it happened, but I wanted to keep a record of it. So, this is a compilation of all the plumbing and septic related discussion that happened in November:

From Dad's email (Nov 11th):
"We have to have a plumber submit a plan for septic system. I
managed to get a Maryborough plumber to see the place while I was
up there. There was a list provided by the council surveyor of plumbers
who are able to do the work in the area, and I called 6 before I got
onto the chap who was willing to come see the place and discuss with me
the placement of the required service. The plumber must submit the
plans for the septic before a permit to build can be approved. Also a
plumber must do all the plumbing work.

I discussed placement of the header tank for the water supply to obtain
pressure to service the system. We will be placing the tank in the
passage above ceiling in the roof space. That position will afford
adequate pressure for hot water to the laundry and ensuite. It will
be less obvious than on the roof of a veranda. It will be well
protected against water damage should a leak occur. The old tank
will be tested and if it is still good and can be used we will place
it there. Otherwise we must get another. The plumber mentioned
also that we need to have a tank higher up the hill or on a tank
stand that will give adequate water pressure for the house.

There is a minimum supply of water required for the permit to be
granted. We require 20000 litres ready to supply for fire fighting,
and a minimum of 5000 litres of potable. We have when full 13,638
litres as they sit now, but we need greater pressure for the house
and future house.

I propose we place a 5000 gal, that is 22,730 litre, tall profile
tank as far up the top of the hill as possible. That is just where
the peak of the roadway to the hobbithouse passes by the fenceline.
Since we must not build on the fenceline I propose we bring in to
the inside of the roadway and plant more trees or such to obscure
it. The most efficient size tank that can be bought is the 5000
gal for cost/capacity/placement. I will obtain a price for you
before doing anything. That way we have to pump the water up to
the top tank periodically. The new house should be served thus
for the firefighting capacity with this tank so placed. I prefer
to not be relying on electricity to fight a fire. The dam is too
distant for the firefightting, except as a supplement supply.
We could meet minimum firefighting needs with the pump we have
if the dam were closer to the house. But precious moments are
lost while setting up a system, and the gravity system is
always at the ready."

Nov 12... extracts from my reply:
"I was a little confused about where you were talking about
putting the giant 5000gln tank... you talked about a roadway to
the hobbit house but there isn't one (or there isn't meant to
be one)... But then I realised you must be talking about the
dirt track that runs through the forest along the fenceline at
the back of our place? I'm still not entirely sure when you
meant exactly but where we'd been thinking the giant tank would
go is behind the old/new house, up the hill as far back as it
can go near the fenceline... but NOT crossing over to the other
hill where the olives are planted & where the gum trees have
started to come in from the forest & where you were thinking of
building your cottage initially. We want to keep all that area
looking natural as we have plans for it as part of the garden".


Nov 12... extracts from Dad followup mail:
"Sewage can wait a bit I think, but still need to hear from
plumber after his talks with the health and sanitation person
about whether we ought to provide for the new house when doing
the system now. That will be a bigger system of course, but
may be cheaper than doing two systems. But it may be better
to have two systems. If costs are right, will go with the system
for new house as that will not be emptying towards the dam. I
think the place for the septic is in the courtyard, if access
by truck is possible into this inner sanctum. I haven't an
idea how large this will be and where the plantings will be,
and so maybe having the sewage elsewhere, say to the back of
the house, is the best plan....

I read of your thoughts of having the large tank behind the house.
If you do that you must go to the concept of using a pressure pump
system rather than a gravity fed system for your water supply. This
way supposes a consistent access to electricity, and so supposes
going on with the other power supply options. I have a suggestion:
Place a 5000 gal tank up on the highest place we can get it. Plant
things to hide it. If when all things are in place for the new
house and new power supply, simply move it somewhere else. A
gravity system is really the only practical system at present.
The woodstove has to be a gravity system to work properly".

On Nov 13 I replied:
"We don't mean to put the tank behind the house close to it,
but instead far up, way near the back fence. This is still going
to be quite high. We don't want it to be on the hill near the
olive trees. If at the fenceline behind the house still isn't
high enough for gravity feed, can't we put it on a tank stand?
For the big tank I would rather put it in it's ultimate place
rather than somewhere that we'll want to move it from. Because
what will end up happening is that it'll be too much hassle to
move so I'll be stuck with it.

In terms of the sewage treatment approach & position, I want to
consult Eric about that as well as Prue. It can't go in the
courtyard area because that will be all dug out to replace the
soil for planting etc. It also shouldn't go next to the old
house in the part that will be next to the kitchen for the new
house, because the plan is for that to be a herb garden area.
Probably it could go out the front of the old house (not sure
how close that is to the gas line though) or down the slope to
the side a bit further towards the dam... but if you can wait a
little while before deciding precisely where it will be then I
can doublecheck with Prue. But first, I want to check with Eric
about the kind of sewage treatment he suggests".


I then got in touch with Eric in case he had any other suggestions about placement of the tanks and choice of septic system type. Here are extracts from his reply...(Nov 14):

"The planning permit will often contain a condition about water
supply for fire fighting. The dam may be enough. In any case, I
always like to put CFA outlets (to connect to fire hoses) on all
water tanks just in case. They add a little cost to a tank (about
$100) but it's a good idea. 5000 gallon tanks aren't that big.
About 4-4.5m in diameter. I'd probably suggest a couple of them.
You will have plenty of roof area to catch water. We used to have
two 5000 gallon tanks plus the dam for some items and never had
any problems. Larger, site built tanks are another option, but
they require a larger flat spot. I'm not sure about the relative cost.

The septic system will need a separate permit where the type of
system will be nominated. Standard septic systems are the cheapest.
There are other options as well which I described in the Design
Brief. Approved systems are shown on the EPA website.
The shire may also require a Land Capability Assessment which is
a report analysing the site, and recommending a system design. If
you need one, the same person can often do a soil test for the
building at the same time. I often use Provincial Soil Services
in Ballarat for that kind of thing"


We looked at the site Eric recommended and freaked out at how many options there were. So then Dave spoke to Eric to get more clarification. This is from a Nov 17 email written to update Dad about Eric's comments, as relayed to me by Dave:

"Eric too thinks it will probably make the most sense to plan
for the one big septic system now to suit the needs of the new house
as well as the old house. This is particularly the case if we want
to go with an alternative to the standard septic system which is what
we are strongly leaning towards. The two broad approaches are either
to shove it all in a tank, or something (that the name escapes me but
it's something to do with aeration) where you have an area that it
goes to and is treated underground naturally... there are lots of
different variants on second type as it's still relatively new-ish.
At the website he lists above there's a link to see all the EPA
approved systems.

The reason we are interested in the second alternative is that they
are much better in terms of recycling water and we need all the water
we can get, frankly, for the garden. They are a bit more expensive
but he did a project recently where he was surprised how little
extra cost it was... basically, it cost only $1000 more to get the
alternative system than a traditional septic tank. $1000 is not a
lot to pay for extra water over the course of years. Our situation
might be different but I would like to consider an alternative
approach not just assume we go with the standard septic tank of old.

For instance, these are some pictures of lovely garden beds looking
all lush & well watered even though the surrounding areas are very
dry. This is all due to the subsurface irrigation from the effluent
& it improves the soil too. You can't grow food on it but it'd be
great for lawn or a 'bog garden' or whatever.
(nb: both pictures come from the pdf "guidelines for aerated onsite wastewater treatment available here)

Have you heard of these systems before? Do you think the plumber
in Maryborough knows about them? I'd assume he must as they're not
brand new but I don't really know how it works... perhaps for some
you have to work directly with the system manufacturer to get one of
their approved people to install it. I don't want to create hassle
for you but as part of the purpose is to have a lovely garden there,
this seems like a very good option to explore & I'm strongly in
favour of anything that is better for the environment. "


On Nov 17th Dad replied, with regards to the question of the water tank placement:
"We can overcome this problem by placing a platform over the
5000gal tank to support a 300 gallon tank like I put at Dawn's place.
The large tank will add to the stability in the high winds of a tower
high enough to give pressure to the secondfloor of the new structure.
For the old house, we can get by with putting the 5000 gal there and
connecting it for the firefighting requirement, as it is sufficiently
high for a singlestorey building, even with the tank of the hotwater
service in the roofspace. So if you are planning to not have any
visible tanks on the hill, so be it. You could place a low profile
tank "over" the hill for a short way and still achieve a substantial
elevation advantage for water above the new house, yet not have a
tower to look at".

... and then my reply, agreeing..
"That sounds like a good arrangement. I can imagine ultimately
perhaps using the platform as a bit of a lookout... and maybe if we
extended it out in front to create a sort of verandah effect underneath
the 5000gal tank it would be useful as a makeshift barn. Anyway, we
don't need to decide on any of that now, the beauty of the plan is
that we put just the 5000gal one there for now as that on it's own is
enough for the old house".

planning permit saga (part 1)

In order to start work properly on the old house (so Dad can get his building insurance, etc) we need to get permits in order. We need both a planning permit which will cover the whole site, generally, and a building permit to cover the repairs to the old house.

This is the saga so far:

Nov 4, email from Dad:
"I have talked to the local draftsman that I will be using for the
old place. He is in Great Ryrie Street and a nice fellow. I got a list
of measurements required of him for doing the drawings. Costs is ballpark
figure $900 to $1000, without seeing the place. He suggested that if an
existing drawing of the building was to be had from the council offices
that could save time. I must provide as well as various measurement,
photos from all sides, copy of title, location of building on land, and
the owners name, and details of address of the proposed work".

Nov 9, extracts from Dad's email:
"I have an appt with the building surveyor in Maryborough tomorrow
at 1100.... A planning permit is needed for the old house as the original
one has expired long ago. That won't take a long time the surveyor said,
but is needed... I will try to call Eric soon and see if he is ready for
planning permit only, not building permit as we cannot begin the new
building yet. But there may be difficulties if down the track the plans
he is making for the old building fitting in with the courtyard entity
of the new and this not being acceptable to the council."

Nov 11, extracts from Dad's email:
"I have very good news. There was a permit back in 1985 for restoring
the house. I looked at photos and a lot of stuff on the old house where
it was in Williamstown. It was to have been placed 20 metres from the
top fence with the lounge facing down hill. I have the plans drawn at
the time for me to use to show the draftsman here before he starts his
plans. The building surveyor will have copies of everything left in the
file made and post them to me, but gave me the copies of the plans and
an aerial photo of the house as it sits on the block which shows clearly
the dam, the forest around and present position of the house. ... We
need to supply a copy of the plans Eric has that will show clearly what
is intended for the overall in the future. This is because we are
required to obtain a fresh planning permit as well as a building
permit."

Nov 12, more news from Dad:
"I have met with the draftsman just to show him what I had obtained
from the council. I will put measurements to the plans of the old house
and give that to him for drawing the building plans. He will consult
with an associate to sortout the 5-star energy rating design features
required now for passing a planning permit under the Brack's government's
new rules. Having perimeter verandas is one, and reducing glare to
windows. Using less window area but enough for light is another. The
high ceiling is a big bonus I think. I have to study the material
sent some time ago by the building control commission that I gave only
a quick look at when I got it. Insulation of walls and floor and
ceiling is another. Solar supplement for heating hot water, and use of
combustion stove for cooking, heating, and hotwater heating another.
Careful use of water and storage in tanks may not help as it is not
serviced by community water. We will plumb the two toilet cisterns
from the olive tree tank so potable water isn't being used for that
purpose. The septic system will also be helpful in dispersing water
back to pasture.... Am sending in post several contracts. One is for
the new house when you get to getting a permit for that. The
specification will apply to both, and the renovations one or the cost
plus one is for now. Read them over an see which one you want to apply
to this project... Will also include drawing of the old house with new
dimensions... I will take tidied up dimensions on a copy of old plans
to Alan (draftsman) on Weds...I have to pay fees for permit first. I
think he said about $6-700 depending on contract value, plus fees for
planning permit and sewage permit.

After getting Dad's emails I'd also got in touch with Eric just to doublecheck the approach and make sure we weren't going to inadvertantly create problems in future.

Nov 14, Eric's reply about planning permit:
"Some shires are fussier than others about how much information
they want with planning permits. I would expect that the main reason
for needing one for this project is for the septic system. However,
they still often want detail about the actual building design. Things
like overall plan dimensions, heights, external materials and colours.
It's worth checking with the shire before putting it all together,
though. For this planning permit, perhaps both buildings could be shown,
but the new house, sheds etc could be indicated with outlines and
labelled "detail to be supplied" or something like that"

Nov 28, email from Dad: "I just posted by express post the permit applications for your signature... I have started the 2 yr building permit for 25 March 2006 to 25 March 2008.

Dec 1st, email from Dad:
"Alan the draftsman has made a start, and aims to have plans ready
for you to look over before Christmas, but will do a first draft for
you to look over before proceeding to final draft"

progress on restoring existing house

So far, the only progress on restoring the existing house has been to tear down the rotting & caved-in extension from the back...



...exposing a wall that also looks in pretty bad shape. Thank goodness it's coming into summer now in Australia, so hopefully won't get too badly wet. Dad's first priority is to build on the verandah which will add protection, and give him a spot to work in wet weather when it comes to repairing the weatherboards.

This photo is also good at showing the wierd shape of the roof. See how it has this crossover bit in the middle? Apparently, almost the entire roof is supported by the hallway walls in the middle of the house. Which, as Murphy's law would have it, is also the section we were planning to knock out.

Now, it could still be done but we'd have to invest in buying heavy supporting beams etc, and we'd rather avoid the expense. So, we've come up with yet another iteration for the floorplan... largely designed on the plane flying back to London!

I'm fed up with designing floorplans (see here, here and here), but I think it was all worth it to get to this, because this is the first one that feels like it properly works, and isn't just a compromise.

Here is the "cottage" floorplan, click to make it bigger:



There are three key elements that distinguish this from earlier drafts.

First, the idea of extending the bathroom out beyond the confines of the existing house shape (an idea from Eric). We like it as not only does it give us extra space, it also adds to the charm of the old house. Dad likes it too, he suggests that it'd be nice to do the extension as a kind of bay window almost, which I can imagine working really well.

Second, the idea of putting a laundry area enclosed on the back verandah. This was often done in old houses, can't believe I didn't think of it before. It saves us a lot of space inside.

Third, and most subtle, is what I'm calling the "open plan compromise". Because we don't want to incur the expensive of buying new supporting beams, we can't knock down the hall walls. But, that doesn't mean we have to have them as solid walls. My idea is instead to leave all the supporting beams exposed and build open shelving around them, kind of like in this:



This will give us extra storage and an effect of open-ness while also preventing the feeling of the entrances opening straight into a room, which I don't like. I figure, if the existing beams are easily sanded we'll paint them. Otherwise I'll just wrap them in fabric or something, I'm sure there's a creative solution.

Dad is going to get some more precise measurements the next time he visits so we can work out exactly where doors are positioned, etc. Then, they need to get properly drawn up for submitting to get building approval.


For now we're focusing on the Cottage. But, just for the sake of completeness, let me also share a potential longer-term version, in which we convert it to be two large bedrooms if we were to ever run it as a B&B. It works, I think, and the only change is to the back corner:

we've got the new houseplans

Two weeks ago Eric sent through a revised set of house plans. They're wonderful and we're feeling like we're almost there now, in terms of the concept.

Here's an overview showing how the new house relates to the old house and gardens:


This is what the house looks like in terms of Elevations. One of my favourite things about this design is that it looks so different from each side. It makes me want to explore. I also love the sharp angles and the way they're mixed, but still in essence simple clean lines just as in old-fashioned homes. Yet there's some complexity too - e.g., the sunburst motif Dave loved from the houses in Tallinn has made it in! Click on any of them to bring up a bigger view.



We don't have the tower room from our wishlist - but when I saw these plans I realised we don't need one. Eric's encapsulated the spirit of the tower within other parts - the bedroom balcony, the bath in the bay window, etc. Even the romance of having somewhere secluded is captured - just via a sideways library extension rather than up.

After a fortnight of living with them there's only one thing so far that we'd like to tweak in terms of this outside appearance. We like but don't love the shape of the balcony railings. We think instead it would be better if it were rectangular and protruding out a little more, supported on stilts, to form a kind of canopy at ground level.

Here's the ground floor plan, click to see it bigger:


We adore the library and lounge especially. We also love the way there's a lot of verandah & porch space (shaded in red), but it's all in different parts so each can have a different feel. I think my favourite feature, after the library, is how both the kitchen and lounge open onto the same little front verandah, which will have wonderful views. We also like how the laundry is next to the library - means there's plumbing in place if anyone ever had to convert the library to a bedroom, so you could put in an ensuite.

We're still trying to come to grips with the big area at the foot of the stairs. Eric wasn't sure what to call it - I don't like lobby as makes me think of bland hotel foyers; so instead I'm trying to think of it as being a "living hall" like at Standen. The more I think about it, the more it seems as if it could be very versatile - somewhere you could have clear for parties, movie screening, playing games. A place you could play around with the decor by season - and especially perfect for a giant Christmas tree. It could even double as a dining room for when we want to have more formal dinners. I envisage the small hallway at the entrance as really being a place to pass through and hang up hats & coats, etc, and then this "living hall" space as being where you'd pause and feel you'd properly got inside.

Given this potential use as a dining room, there's only one thing we'd like to change in this ground floor layout, and that is to somehow make it so that the entrance to the downstairs toilet doesn't open directly off the open area.
But, I'm worried that in attempting to change this it'll ruin the feel of the other parts which we love - so this is something we could easily let pass, in fact it's so minor a quibble we were debating whether to even mention it! After all, it's only going to be very occasional we use the space as a dining room, and we could always just send guests to the upstairs bathroom instead. Any ideas anyone?

Moving on to the upstairs, this is what the top floor looks like (click to make it bigger):


We love the master bedroom. I don't think I'd actually have two armchairs as sketched, but I like there being plenty of space so as to make it an option. We also love the area at the top of the stairs, especially the symmetry of the bookshelves.

But, there are some things we don't like and definitely need to change. The first is the bathroom. We don't like the toilet being in the bathroom - we much preferred the previous version where it was in a separate area just next door. Also, we want there to be a space for an armchair near the bath, which has also been lost. (I saw this in a magazine years ago and ever since have longed for one... you take a nice squishy armchair, put the cushions in waterproof bags and then fit soft terry-towelling covers. So, no need to worry about it getting wet and it's a comfortable place to sit and chat with whoever's in the bath - which is usually Dave!)

In the spare room / study we don't like the position of the bed - because it looks too much like one! We preferred the previous version which had it tucked under the eaves as a kind of built-in almost, so that it could masquerade as a big comfy sofa with lots of cushions. Also, now that we have the library downstairs, this room will become more of a study & office. This is where the computer and all it's 'glorious attachments' will live; where we'll file away all our paperwork. The library can then just be dedicated to books.

Here's a snippet from the previous version showing the upstairs toilet and alcove bed, to show you what I mean. (As with all the photos, click to enlarge):


Overall though, we love it! I imagine walking through and it just feels right. There's enough outdoor spaces for those hot Australian summers, but also enough indoor space too for the very cold Amherst winters. I'm sure there'll be more tweaks as we go along, but we're almost there.

A big test is coming next week - Dave is back in Australia for a few weeks, and he's going to peg this design out on-site. So, he can really get a sense of the spaces and views. I can't wait to see the pictures.

another floorplan... suggested by Dad

Dad has had a go at coming up with a layout for the old house floorplan with the idea of making it as low cost to build as possible. He has just the one version that could work as a cottage or B&B.

Here's his initial take on it, which is as he drew except I've added in furniture so I could better envisage the layout:

(as before, click and then select different sizes in right menu to view it bigger)

I like the idea of having it so that it would be an easy conversion, but there's some things I don't like. For instance, I don't like the bathrooms, because they're internal they wouldn't get natural light unless you left the door open - and even then, not much. I know you can vent them etc but still, I just much prefer bathrooms that have windows.

I don't like how you can only access the toilet going via a bedroom. This is OK for when it's B&B but not so good for the cottage incarnation. There's no space for a washing machine either, although we could easily use one of the ensuites for that I guess.

I don't like how you're boxed in when you enter the house - the first thing you see is a wall! Similarly the lounge and kitchen feel smaller than in other layouts, I'm guessing because they're enclosed.

So, I had a go at tweaking Dad's plan - building on his wall placements but opening it up a little, without making (hopefully) any significant structural change. Here's the best I came up with:



The differences are:

1) the bathrooms have got full glass french doors on them which you can open wide ... this would help to stop them feeling claustrophobic and bring in some natural light. The downside of this though is that it wouldn't feel as private as if it were a clearly distinct separate room.

2) by taking out some of the dividing walls between the lounge, hall and kitchen it makes it feel more open. It's still smaller though, I couldn't work out how to put two sofas in the lounge without it feeling cramped.

3) I've added in the verandah

Even with these changes though, we still prefer the previous floorplan version - although this is with no regard for costs(!) But I feel like this floorplan tweaking could go on forever. How do you know when you've got it right?

floorplan rethink #2

We've got a totally different idea for the floorplan now. It isn't as economical as the first in that it would need some serious conversion to get from the cottage to the B&B layout. But, the cottage would be a whole lot nicer to live in. The previous one risked being a bit pokey.

This factors in the advice we got from Eric: "I have a real affinity to living areas on the sunny / view side as well as opening it up slightly. I believe that we want to keep the character of the old house, but wonder if we can do that while still opening it up a little. The separate rooms (ie for the dining and kitchen) make me a bit nervous"

Here's the new cottage floorplan layout. (To make it larger, click then select "see different sizes" in the right hand menu to view the original size)



It has a bigger verandah (Dad suggested this would be good to help protect the weatherboards). Also, the bedroom and bathroom are a lot larger, and the lounge is now at the front of the house with the best view. The kitchen is still tiny but better than the first version because it's got more space by virtue of being merged with the dining room. What's been sacrificed is the study (now just tiny); the laundry (now literally just in a cupboard in the corner of the kitchen); and storage.


This would be the longer-term B&B version. The most change happens to the back left side of the house.


The main changes are that all the bathrooms are bigger, and there is now a proper "kids room" (the former study) rather than just bunkbeds in a cupboard! Each room also has its own outside verandah area. The dining room is also bigger. What's been sacrificed is the lounge area - but I figure having the outside space makes up for that.

why the old house can't be the dream house

Greg from Petch House asked an interesting question: Why do we not just make the old house into our dream house?

In fact, this is where I started. Dave was more circumspect - more willing to countenance bulldozing and starting from scratch... which is what everyone suggested, but I refused to consider.

I've always loved old houses, especially wooden ones. I think you can sense when a house is a "good house" just by the feeling you get when you walk through it. This old house has that feeling for me, even though it's a wreck, so I thought it'd be a great "heart" to our dreamhouse if we restored it and built onto it.

But, the agreement Dave & I made was that we'd focus on the dream and not restrict it by insisting we had to incorporate the old house. If it did, great, if not, then we'd just build alongside.

When we got further in terms of working through all the details of the dream with Eric, it became clear we were going to have to make *so* many changes to the old house - making it much bigger, adding a second storey, adding chimneys, playing with the roofline, etc - that it risked swamping it and destroying the charm and character. It was also potentially quite limiting in terms of the design.

So, we've decided to build the dreamhouse from scratch, alongside the old house as if they were neighbouring houses in a village. (We have 30 acres so there's enough space). And separately, to restore the old house to be a cottage fitting to its era, retaining its "face" and keeping it as a distinct structure. This means we can be true-er to the old house's spirit, and it'll be a great guesthouse or something we can rent out if hard up for cash. Now that things have reversed and we're restoring the old house first, it'll also be a lovely place to live during the years we build the dreamhouse.

Lest you think the dreamhouse is a huge modern house... that's not it at all.

Most likely it's only going to have two bedrooms and be quite traditional in terms of the materials & styling. But, it'll include all those quirky things we've imagined. Like unusual seating nooks, a sweeping staircase, an entrance hall with room for a grandfather clock, a tower room, etc etc. (To read the full crazy list click here) and here)

If things go to plan, it won't even be a new house - it'll just be newly assembled. We're aiming for most of it to be made from salvaged materials - leftovers from demolition sites of old houses that Dad comes across; various architectural pieces that I find on Ebay, etc. The goal is to build something that has the soul of an old house, that feels like it could have been there for a century or more, but that fits our dream.

It's hugely ambitious and who knows if we'll ever fully get there. But, it's worth trying for and whatever happens it'll be an interesting experience!

seeking ideas for floorplan

Now we're beginning the repairs on the old house, we need to get the floorplan sorted. I have some ideas but would love to get your opinions and suggestions.

It's a bit complicated because we're designing it with two purposes in mind. It will start out as a self-contained cottage which - although small - will be comfortable for Dave & I, or anyone else to live in. Ultimately though, it will serve as an annex suitable for providing upmarket B&B accommodation.

We don't want to impinge on the design of the "dream house" which will be built on the other side of the cloister. We also want to minimise the cost, which means sticking to the current footprint of the house rather than extending it outwards or upwards. Here's the layout at the moment:

It is basically 3 rooms and a hallway. There used to be a lean-to extension at the back which housed the kitchen and bathroom but they weren't covered by the "new" roof and are beyond saving.

Dave and I played around with a few designs tonight. Here's what we've come up with so far. We're going to run them past Eric (our architect) too, just to make sure we haven't made any monstrous mistakes - but he's focusing on the "dream house" so I don't want to distract him! Any ideas and comments are welcome, please just add them below.

First, this would be the plan for it in the cottage mode (click and then select "original size" to get a bigger view). I've drawn in furniture to scale to give a rough idea of space:


Basically, it would have 1 bedroom with ensuite, study / guest bedroom alongside the laundry (reason for this will be clearer in next plan), cosy lounge, leading to dining area and small but functional galley style kitchen.

Second, this would be the conversion to make it suitable for upmarket B&B:

There's no change to the structural walls. The only changes are, the laundry converts to be the ensuite to what is now the second bedroom (formerly the study); the "linen cupboard" converts to a wardrobe; and the giant walk in wardrobe in the first bedroom converts to house built-in bunk beds, so that if we had anyone with kids staying there'd be somewhere for them to sleep. I've seen this "bed in a cupboard" trick done at a Californian B&B in Sonoma and it worked brilliantly. When you're using the bed you have the sliding door open; at other times you keep it shut and no-one's the wiser.

What do you think?

Naming the house

Just read a post at Steve&Julie's houseblog about naming houses which reminded me of the discussions Dave and I have had about naming Amherst.

Our initial idea was to name it after a place in Sussex or Kent, because they're my favourite parts of the UK. Also, it's a really odd feeling, but everytime I've visited I feel "at home" there, as if I belong - far more than I've felt in any other place. I don't think it's because of genes or anything like that since my family all came from "oop north" originally, Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire. Perhaps it's just the landscape, where everything is so gently curved with rolling hills, because it's been in cultivation for so many centuries. Whatever it is it's a magical place for me. (And had we 10 million pounds to spare we might even be doing the "Amherst thing" there... but that's never going to happen and besides, it will be nice to return to Australia one day).

Anyway, that was the initial idea but I'm starting to change my mind. We've poured over maps of the region trying out names but none seem to work. I think it's because the landscape at Amherst is just so different; the juxtaposition of the image in my head when I hear the Sussex name and the reality of Amherst just doesn't jibe.

We also thought about Cricklewood, because we do have wood (or rather, forest) on 2 sides at Amherst, and Cricklewood is the suburb of London where we live now. Plus I like the name. I checked out the list of historical Australian house names on Steve&Julie's site and spotted a Willesden, which is the suburb next door to us in London, so by calling it Cricklewood we'd be following in tradition too, kind of.

I'm not too worried, I know eventually we'll come upon a name and it will just seem right, and then we'll know. We had the same problem naming a dog once. Dave got this puppy and we just couldn't work out what to call her. We'd tried about 3 different names, and she didn't respond to any of them so after a few weeks we decided to let her choose. Dave had some friends round, drinking beer, as you do on a hot summer Saturday afternoon... the puppy was sitting on the lawn looking at them. They just started shouting out names to see which she'd respond to. Went through all the usual kind of dog names to no avail so then just started shouting out random things... well, someone called out "Fishtank" and she instantly stood up, her ears pricked up and tail wagging! That was it. From then on she was known as Fishtank!!!! It was quite amusing too when you were at the park with her, watching the look on other people's faces as you shouted out her name and she came running. Ah, poor Fishtank, rest in peace. (She died a few years ago but she was a lovely lovely dog)

it's all in the silhouette

We just had a phone chat with Eric about how to take things forward with the house planning. Rather than talk in detail through every comment we'd written, Eric instead summarised the key points he'd taken out from reading it to check he'd got the gist. It turned out to be really helpful for us too because he spotted consistencies and key themes that I'd not noticed.

For instance, Eric picked up that the common thread between the houses we've sent pictures of is that they all have a distinctive and often unusual silhouette, especially in terms of the way they relate to the sky. Which seems obvious when you point it out, but it wasn't something I'd explicitly thought of before.

Another point relates to the arrangement and feel of rooms. We're leaning towards rooms that are well-proportioned individually with clearly defined boundaries and roles, rather than spaces that blend into each other. In a sense, we're wanting rooms that have a formality that a lot of more modern open-plan styles often lack - but not in the stuffy sense of the word. But, just as important are the details, with each room having it's own character and intricacies - whether it be in the window shaping, positioning of a nook, or whatever. In a sense, it's these that give each room it's essence.

It's hard to articulate precisely but this feels pretty close and it certainly would explain why I've always much preferred living in old houses to modern ones. Rooms in old houses naturally have intricacies... sometimes designed in from the start because 100 years ago it was more common for buildings to be crafted not just shoved together; other times arising over time just from being lived in. Plus the style of living back then was a little more formal perhaps than nowadays which lended itself to more clearly defined spaces.

Because of this, rather than dive straight into drafting a revised houseplan, Eric is first going to explore some general shapes, especially focusing on the rooflines and details within parts of rooms. He thinks, and we agree, that we'll know instinctively when we find something that works, that captures the feelings we want to evoke. Then that gives us something to build the rest of the design around.

He also loves the idea of having some kind of tower, which is great. I was a little worried he might not be enthusiastic about that as it is rather whimsical! He said it'd be unusual to do in that most of the focus in architecture these days is on simplifying with an emphasis on function - whereas some of the things we're asking for, like the tower, are hark back almost to the "follies" of yesteryear.

Now, when he said the word "follies" my first thought was of those mock castles and gothic arches that scatter the grounds of old stately homes here... which isn't at all what we want! But, I'm not worried because Eric described an example of a kind of architectural folly that is akin to what we want... a "widows walk". Apparently, back when he lived in the US he worked with a team doing some kind of historical buildings surveying. They'd spend several months in each building so in the process he got to know a lot about how old buildings were put together! One of them had this kind of walkway up high off the roof that you could go onto to look out. It was a folly in the sense that you could get the same view virtually from the window, so it wasn't fulfilling any real function.

Anyway, we discussed a few other things but these are the key points... plus, it's late now and I'm too tired to keep writing! I wanted to get down as much as I could tonight so I didn't forget.

plans for the garden

We're talking to Eric, our architect, in a few days to go through everything one last time before he goes away to work on (what is hopefully) the final footprint for the house. In advance of that we've tried to catch up on everything... here is the last outstanding thing, which are our comments on the garden outline from Prue. Prue is a garden designer who's helping us, because I figure we don't have time or money to make big mistakes... trees take too long to grow! We're still at the very skeletal stage at the moment in the garden design but it's good to be thinking about it now because it influences the views from the house. Everything is so closely connected at this stage. Anyway, if you fancy taking a look, here's a link to download it. It includes scans of Prue's outline design as well as our thoughts.

Dad's thoughts on the house plans

Below are Dad's thoughts about the house plans so far. Interestingly, like everyone we've shown it to, he much prefers plan A. Here's a picture of the plan A inside layout:

planAcombined
Originally uploaded by lynetter.


Extract from Dad's email - 8th April
I looked at all the options Eric made, and hands down his option A is best all round. You will accept that I am biased towards his first because it looks more in the country style of a large and functional house without any sense of ostentation. It also has the views concentrated towards the best directions. And the large open plan of the lounge, with the one little bedroom makes it emminently suitable for an area exclusive to you and Dave for most of the time, and suits for entertaining as well. Access walking is closer than in B, but will need cars under a carport.
Other parking easy to arrange further uphill.

Dave's shed cum cookery, cum lab, cum study, cum computer room is well placed for the garden access and helps make it an integral part of the rest of the house so won't isolate him while giving him his space. You will understand that you will make your spaces too about the place, and of course there is overlapping. There needs to be machinery storage so keeping the views downhill predominantly will give a place to put these essential structures so they don't impinge on your daily awareness when musing from your house window in the morning or late evening. I have been up at 05:30 and watched manificent sunrises as the light came over the horizon and watched the roos slowly hopping away to where roos go to sleep during the heat of the day.The same at evening. The strength of your block is that it isn't going to be overbuilt so your view won't include house tops. Not overlooking Tex's place is also important.

Will go through and add my notes as I first went through the plan. Need to be able to read Eric's writing to study the details of internal areas.

1.I assume none of existing trees will be sacrificed in placing buildings.

2.Placing main house (option A) downhill of the old house is great:
*a. old house is a shield to uphill stuff.
*b. Lower on block means easier to hide things other side of dam wall , especially container and Tex's sheds.
*c. Two stories doesn't get up too high and look backwards too easily and over the hill edge to see my carport and tank for the hobbit hole. These need to be uphill of the hobbithole and are over against the back fence. Your main tank will be less noticable unless you go to look at it from a small window looking back.
*d. With main tank uphill to supply head pressure for water the secondfloor areas will be able to get pressure for en suites and flooding the gutter with water when a fire threatens. Your gravity system can be supplemented with regional pressure pumps, but in the main you need to avoid reliance on using power to move water for use, except that you need to move water uphill to the main storage tank. This could be under roof and extra roof space for machinery storage.

3.Carport for cars at uphill means walking down when carrying things, and possibly fewer steps. Assume I am referring to option A as I was very taken with this in it's rough outline.

4.Love the two fireplaces. Very livable area that, with options for party space and yet has nooks for separateness.

5. Appearance of house is very much in keeping with old house. Viewed from the road it will look very friendly, spacious, gracious, and not ostentatious. I have worked on houses with front that no one would think of entering, or make use of for daily living. Just for show.

6. Don't think option C idea of connecting old house to new a good one. Old is on wooden stumps, and unless you trouble to replace these( no need), they present a possible access for whiteant infiltration into the new house. With the best will in the world, you cannot avoid thinking about these little blitters when building. They can use a roof connection to span to another structure. I saw the damage they did at Bethany Guest House and warn you that if you ignore them , they will beat you in the end. There are many horror stories, and yet they are able to be bested with forethought.

That is all for now. Tell Eric that I am very pleased with Option A, and parts of the other options which I will comment on later. Of course, this is your house and my thoughts are only for sharing and considering, not necessarily accepting. Planning is so wonderful because the imagination can soar to great heights.
When I get time I will sketch up plans I have for the hobbithole. Not going to have sod on the roof any longer, but will have a nice look in keeping with the concept, but not having the weight of sod roof. May change my mind again before starting. Can't get height I need without going about 2 feet higher than surrounding slope so another type of roof looks likely, probably old tiles that are placed in the shape of the sod roof but steeper.

P.S. Was able to use the pump to move water from the dam. Will check with the pump people to make sure not going to damage the pump doing this. Water scarce now and so will have to move the stock tank over to connect it to the tree watering system and pump water up to this from dam. Will extend this line to pump to the olive tree site too. May connect olive tree tank to lower supply but don't want to get too fancy, as just a temporary measure. Will go up next weekend to do these and deliver another load to the container. Couldn't take but one of the large cupboards in the tool trailer. Will bring back the the tool trailer and take a lot of stuff of Gran's up to store there as it is better. These are the things you wanted to keep. Took all the bottling stuff.

model of downstairs plan A

model of downstairs plan A
Originally uploaded by lynetter.

So, this is going to extremes, but it's Dave's fault as he dared me. He said "No we're not building a scale model" in his best stern forbidding teacher voice. Which really annoys me when he tries to boss me round like that, so of course I did exactly the opposite. It's amazing what you can do with some random angle plates raided from the tool cupboard, paper and profuse amounts of sticky-tape!

the 1st set of architect plans

The mail gods were kind to us... the first set of house plans which Eric prepared turned up yesterday. That's only about a week to get from Australia to London, which is pretty good. I'd thought we'd be lucky if they came before the weekend.

There are 3 options in total, each made up of several A3 pages. This made them a bit difficult to scan, but Dave painstakingly did it in sections and then pieced it all together into a slideshow. You can view them here.

Last night Dave and I spent several hours pouring over them. At this stage, the idea isn't to pick a particular plan, but rather to use them as a series of "what if's". We decided to do it by picking out all the things we liked and all the didn't like about each plan. Dave also went back to the original (incredibly detailed) brief we'd sent, just to remind himself of all the things we'd discussed.

Overall, we have a whole lot of comments on every plan, and some plans sparked ideas that weren't in any of them! Tonight, after we've had a night and a day to think them over, I'll try to write up our thoughts on each option. Right now, if you forced us to pick our favourite of the 3, we agreed it would be option A... but, there are lots of things about option B that we really like too, especially the outer appearance... what I call the "house's face"! In fact, option B is my favourite from the outside. Also, there are a lot of things about option A, as it stands, that we don't like. Anyway, no more commenting for now!.. I'll just finish with an extract from Eric's letter giving his explanation of each plan.

Eric says...

What to look for

"At this stage, I often like to look at very general aspects of the designs like the locations of certain rooms in relation to other rooms. Also, the general look and feel of the buldings. Note any specific features like storage or room sizes that work better than others.

Option A probably comes the closest to strictly answering the design brief. It has the main rooms discussed so far. I've added a walk through dining area because I reasoned that if 10-12 people are visiting for a big meal, it could be difficult to set up a table in a room normally used for something else (therefore losing the use of that room).

Option B would be my preferred direction for the house to take. I like that it is simple and ordered, but less rigid than option A. The form is asymmetrical and the internal spaces connect in more subtle ways than simply walls and doors.

Option C is the black sheep of these options. it is included as a contrast to the other two. Single storey and the courtyard configured differently. Spaces like the study and cooking/eating areas are quite different and shown for discussion purposes.

Siting. I've generally adopted the concept of the buildings being linked together by the private, inward looking garden space. I'll be interested in your thoughts about this"

Summary

"The goal of this early concept stage is to better understand the design problem. On the one hand, this includes understanding the site features which affect the design. On the other hand, a refined understanding of what we want out of the building. At the second design cycle, these can be put together into a good solid concept which suits both your brief and the site. Since I have been absorbed with these designs for the last few weeks, I naturally have some opinions about which options I think work the best, but also encourage you to form some independent opinions of your own."

This is my first experience working with an architect but so far, I am very happy. I would have struggled to get anywhere near to what Eric has done in translating my ideas of rooms and sense of what a space should "feel" like, into practical layouts. If anyone's looking for an architect I whole-heartedly recommend him. Even though he lives in a country town in Australia at the moment, as demonstrated by my experiences he isn't put off by the idea of working with someone on the other side of the world! He's from Oregon originally too, which is one of the things I liked... it means he knows a lot about older styles of building in America (many of which are influences for me), which your typical Australian architect probably wouldn't. So if anyone reading this is thinking about getting some architect input, especially if you're interested in sustainable, energy-efficient building, he might be your answer. Best of all, he charges a flat rate for the first two design cycles, which I found very reassuring compared to other architects where the prices felt open-ended.

plants for the secret garden: part 1

OK, this is the last post for the night, then I think I have caught up except for the Vacola bottles... but that story is too good to rush!

Last week, Prue asked me for my ideal list of plants for the "secret garden", so she could think about the layout - most importantly, the kind of protection it would need from the elements and sizing.

Here's the list I sent her. I know it will change, and suspect some things are just total wishful thinking, but figured I may as well start with it all.

* Ferns
* Hydrangeas, underplanted with sweet woodruff
* Rodgeresia
* Japanese anenomes
* Helleborus
* Ligularia but only the kinds with tall flower spikes (e.g.,
Ligularia przewalskii), not Ligularia dentata that has flowers I think
look like weeds
* Great plants that have catkins in winter like wintersweet,
witchhazel (especially twisted branches)
* A plant whose name escapes me but it dies back to nothing in winter and then in spring resurfaces, growing foliage that looks a bit like a large maidenhair fern, with flowers on tall stems that are quite small but kind of droopy, look like little fronds of torn material. It was
really popular here last year and I've grown fond of it, we have quite
a few in our front garden in pale pinks and whites [UPDATE: I later remembered this is a variant of Dicentra]
* Clematis x lots
* Scabiosa (pincushion plant)
* Bulbs like crocus, bluebells, snowdrops, snakeshead frittilias - ie:
the more delicate woodland ones, not just blowsy daffodils!
* Moss - not sure if it's something you plant or a fungus that just
happens, but I love moss. We have whole patches of it in our lawn now that Dave is very protective of!
* And totally off the scale... gunnera manicuta if it's possible (aka
giant rhubarb, the kind that's big enough to walk under in summer but
that dies back to ground level in winter)
* Maybe even a camellia with pale colour / white flowers?

Prue's thoughts on the secret garden

Prue is the garden designer who's helping us... see here and here for background

I'd forwarded on Eric's emails to her, to get her input on the secret garden especially in terms of how it should be shaped, positioned, etc. Here's her replies:

Extracts from email from Prue - March 23

"I've been thinking about your internal courtyard and how it should be positioned. It almost appears that the courtyard needs to be designed first and the house and all the rooms designed around it.

(She went on to say that using the garden to tie the buildings together, as Eric suggests is a very good idea... but) I think part of the space could be active for sitting/ small entertaining/breakfasting in, and part be inactive for looking and contempating either from cloistered walkways or a conservatory.

A few thoughts...

It will need to be enclosed on all sides to protect the garden & plants from harsh northerly hot winds and summer sun, also in winter protecting all the plant from cold south westerlies and the frost.

It would also be good to have the option to be inside the courtyard but still have a bit of a view out across the surrounding landsape at some point within the courtyard. This could be done with a wall with window openings (shutters to keep it enclosed when needed) looking toward the north, or a glassed in walkway partway or completely joining two wings of the house looking into the courtyard on one side and out to the garden on the other.

Also perhaps a balcony overlooking the space, on the north or west side as this will cast a bit more shadow across the courtyard in summer eliminating some of the hot afternoon sun but still allow for morning sun in winter.

The inclusion of arbours/pergolas with deciduous climbers will also give protection in summer and light in winter. This could be over an active area

A conservatory extending into the space from a living area, or main bedroom.

A pond or water course that will increase the air moisture content while aiding in keeping its surrounds cool.

A breeze-way along a cloistered walkway. Breeze in the shade nearby to water acts as a bit of an air conditioner.

Recycling water, catching the water from the low side and pumping back up to the high side either for use as irrigation or for a water course.

Probably most importantly would be planting one or two very hardy deciduous trees to give an upper canopy to shade the hotter, sunnier spots in summer ie Gleditsia triacanthos 'Shademaster', or if possible a Jacarandah (they are stunning at christmas time but not too partial to frosts as a young tree)

As the site is on a slope, this garden can be built up to almost level (it would be nice to have a couple of steps either up to a deck or conservatory, or down to a cool shady area) therefor allowing for a generous depth of good growing compost and soil media. Also for its own tank for irrigation and pond which could be built under the house.

.....

A lot of gardening books on Mediterannean, Spanish and Moorish gardens show enclosed courtyards, cloistered spaces and secluded shady enclaves. Perhaps start with those. I also saw in a magazine a year or so ago, and can't remember if I bought it, a corrugated iron and timber house in some exposed area of either Australia or NZ that had a huge internal couryard with enormous rustic timber sliding doors that opened the internal to the external environment. It looked absolutely fantastic. It was all very minimal.

Even Japanese garden design is a good place to search for more ideas. They are big into internal coutyards. Although smaller and a different climate they give a serene feeling and can be replicated for your purpose.

I have also had a client in St Kilda who's house was built around an internal pond which acted as a tank and water storage (overflow and watering capabilities for the back garden). The kitchen living space was built around two sides while the bathroom and a bedroom looked in from the other. It was a lovely outlook from the living space, and functional.


Extracts from my reply - 30 March

I like the suggestion that the space could be multi-purpose, but I still want there to be parts that are quieter and contemplative, "secret". But, given it's going to have some traffic around it anyway, it would make sense to have an area for sitting I agree. In our brief to Eric we asked him to design in a whole lot of different
verandah-ey type areas, so we can have different ones by season, mood, etc.

I love the idea of letting the garden have a view sometimes... shutters would be nice(very Mallorcan!) but even better would be something you could open out / slide back / whatever so it's almost like part of the wall goes away, like in that garden you saw in the magazine. I'm not so keen on the idea of having glass walkways as I
think it might feel a bit too modern, but I guess it all depends on the execution; we could always build a verandah railing around it to soften the effect, or make it feel a bit like an Edwardian glass house. (I love the glasshouses at Kew, especially the littler one that grows all the gourds! Speaking of which, gourds are really cool, don't know if they're possible to grow there, I'd guess they need a
tropical climate but no idea really.... :-)

The balcony idea could work really well too, especially if we made it perhaps a bit more extended than you would normally expect (it could have pillars to hold it up. Then it could function as a climbing frame / gazebo type thing too.

I also like the idea of having a pond that doubles as water storage tank and borders onto some rooms... We could grow water lilies in it perhaps, plus the reflections would be very soothing. In fact, imagine having french doors from an inside room opening onto the pond itself, you could sit and dangle your feet in it!

In fact, I like all your suggestions! The challenge is just working out how to combine it with the house.

Eric's thoughts on the secret garden

The "secret garden" is my name for the garden area that I want to be somehow part of the house. An area that is not immediately on view when you arrive and that is protected enough (from heat, frost, wind, lack of water, etc) that I can grow my favourite plants from my garden here.

Here are some extracts from recent emails with Eric about this, because obviously it has a big effect on the house plan.

Eric's email - 10th Mar

"I've been thinking through the secret garden and believe I know why it is a struggle to visualize. I can imagine the space from within, but it's tricky to imagine how it fits within the whole of the buildings. Here is a line of reasoning that seems to be leading me in a certain direction:

The old house, as we agree is worth working with. It's long face is rotated about 30 degrees east of north. When designing for good exposure to sun (both summer and winter) we like to face north or within about 20 degrees of north in either direction. So the old house still has good potential for good solar orientation.
The natural slope of the ground is pretty close to due north east. For a building to sit nicely on the land, we often place it along the natural slope. So the new buildings may want to be rotated slightly to the east as well. Also, the main views are to the north and east.

In our climate, building generally like to be roughly proportioned in a 2:1 ratio shape with the long side facing north. This achieves a good balance of more north wall for winter sun and less east and west wall to reduce impact of summer sun. It is also possible to create a very thin building with fingers spreading out to enclose a variety of outdoor spaces. This general shape would be quite typical in the tropics, but in our climate would be inappropriate from a thermal efficiency point of view.

(Here's where it starts getting tricky)

A building of this type and size (and most of my concepts so far) will be around 12-15m long in the east - west dimension, and about 6 - 8m in the north - south dimension. With the 12 - 15m in length you can see the difficulty in using the one building to enclose the secret garden. The secret garden needs to be bound by two or even more buildings.

Generally from a climate and comfort point of view, the main rooms like to be on the north and east to take advantage of sun (and in your case, views as well) This puts service rooms along the south and southwest sides. There can still be glimpse views from main rooms to the south, but the main orientation seems to be toward the sun. I fear that if we have the garden firmly on the south sides with only minimal glimpses, rather than being "secret", it may be "forgotten."

(A brief tangent.)

We have assumed that the secret garden is on the south side in order to suit cool climate plants. I wouldn't mind confirming this. During summer, the sun comes mainly from the east, west, and directly overhead. A wall on the north side will have very little shading to a garden in the summer. However, a north wall will provide shade in spring / autumn (about equal to it's height) and winter (about twice it's height.) One query is whether the secret garden should be bound mainly on the east and west by main buildings providing shade and not necessarily as much on the east and west.

(An idea.)

If the secret garden becomes defined by several buildings, what about using the garden itself to tie the buildings together? It could be like a cloister that you walk around to get between buildings. Note the distinction between cloister and courtyard. Courtyards are active spaces with movement through the middle. Cloisters are quiet spaces with movement around the edges.

So, one thing I've been considering is a central garden enclosed on 3-4 sides by various building. But rather that being entirely secret, would be used to arrange and link the buildings. Movement would be around the edges and the centre could remain the secret with glimpses in and places to discover.

My reply -11th March

Hi Eric, thanks for this, I think I understand. I'm intrigued by the cloister idea, I think it could work, I just need to imagine it a bit more. You're right we don't want the garden to be so secret that it's forgotten! Maybe we could achieve a sense of having secluded areas by having a few walls within the garden itself, eg for climbers.

Your logic about what side the secret garden is on makes sense to me. But, I'm going to email this to Prue, because she'll be able to answer the question better than I can, and may have some ideas about the cloister effect too. I'll cc you on what I send. I'm guessing that the second storey might also help to add shade, depending on where it is? Overall, my sense is that if we can create somewhere that would
be "partially shady" in gardening terms, it would be about right for the kind of plants I need. It could even be fully shady... we can get creative with the placement of mirrors to bring in extra light into dark corners if we need.

email conversations with Eric

Eric is our architect, from Greenpoint design. Over the past week we've had a couple of interesting email conversations that I thought I'd include them here for posterity! I can imagine it will be quite amusing to look back on how we arrived at certain ideas for the design once we're at the other side and the thing is built! Right now, we're just about at the point of getting to see the first iteration of Eric's design, I can't wait.

Here is Eric's email to us from March 8th - and I've interspersed my comments on each point from my email reply:

"I am well and truly back in my office. It's amazing how quickly a week goes. I mentioned that I worked on some concepts for you while in the US. I've continued to developed a couple of ideas since getting back. (It's all on the drawing board and stuck all over the walls of my office right now.) A few themes have emerged which I thought it worthwhile to suggest sooner rather than later.

1. After visiting the site, I feel that the general location of the existing house is a very good one for the rest of the buildings. It is elevated and well drained, has good access and good aspect to both sun and the views to the east.
_________________

Great. Totally sold on that. It felt good to me too instinctively, but I didn't want to insist on it in case there were better spots from an energy efficient point of view.
_________________

2. The existing house seems to be in workable condition. Relatively new roof. The framing will need some repair work, but it is all exposed and easy to get to. Need new linings and finishes both inside and out, but that would give us the opportunity to consider it's appearance in relation to other buildings.
________________

Very glad to hear. Again, you would have had to work hard to convince me to knock it down, so I'm glad we can avoid that discussion! I'm afraid I get very sentimental about old houses, they have a soul to them far more than modern brick veneer boxes do, so I will always err on the side of saving them. I'm also happy to reconsider it's appearance, as I know it is in dire condition at the moment. But my only slight hesitation is that I do like its style and faded grace. Even though I guess it is a bit incongrous for that kind of house to be there, I like the fancy bits around the door and the lovely little mouldings and the fact that they have survived these past decades of neglect. I even like the fake brick moulded thing in wood at the front side. I suppose what I'm saying is that I'm happy to change but I want to be true to the spirit of the old house. e.g., if we are having a little collection of buildings, maybe that can be the old stately home of our mini-village. :-)
________________

3. One scenario is too hard to pass up. It is: use the house as a storage shed for the first stage of building, then once you are comfortable in the main house, fix up the old house into the extra bedrooms and accommodation. Most of my ideas so far have assumed something similar to this. It seems a waste not to use the old house.
_____________________

Happy with this too. I'm so glad you agree it's a waste not to use it! Most other people seem to think we should just raze it, I felt like I was being really stupid to insist on at least considering we keep it. However I must confess that my first reaction (given that I love old houses) was that the guests will get the best bit(!!), but I know that's just because I can't yet envisage what the new parts will look like. It is so annoying... I can envisage various rooms, even wander round them in my dreams sometimes, but I just cannot figure out how they're joined up.
_____________________

4. The new buildings can be either physically connected to the old house or separate. I tend to favour separate buildings for a variety of reasons, but am still very open to options.

5. Siting generally. I'm looking at a matrix of options for how the main house, guest house and other misc outbuilding all relate. Will send some diagrams to help explain options.
_____________________

I don't have firm opinions on this yet, I think I'll get a better feel for it when I see some possible layouts. If the old house were to be joined fully, the only place I can envisage it being (so as not to destroy the symmetry) is on the back where the current extension is. I like the concept of keeping it separate though in the sense that it lets it retain its history/sense of identity.
_____________________

6. The English garden space. Just on sheer size of this area (10 x 6 or 9 x 5), it seems to be enclosed by several buildings (and/or garden walls) rather that simply enclosed by single U-shaped building. How this garden area relates to the cluster of buildings will, I'm sure, be the source of some good conversation.
_____________________

Hmmm... I'm open to suggestions but my instinct is that this should be enclosed by buildings rather than walls (or, at least walls that look like they're part of a building). Because, it isn't just a walled English garden, I want it to feel "secret" too, ie: for you not to be able to tell its there until you come upon it. So, for instance, I don't want you to be able to stand at the front door and
look inside and the first thing you see is a big window onto the secret garden. If one side of the garden perhaps ran alongside a hallway, I wouldn't want huge windows looking onto it along the full length... If the house has a personality, the secret garden is the introvert, private escape bit... other parts like the verandahs are
more extravert, outward looking and social.

I have also grown quite attached to Dave's suggestion that the secret garden should not be rectangular but instead L or T shaped - ie: so you have bits that are secluded and you have to walk around in able to see. This might allow it to be smaller. Or, at least make it easier to have trellis across the roof to support mosquito netting, etc.
___________________

7. Upstairs / downstairs. Also looking at which rooms have ground
floor positions vs upper floor. Again, it should be the source of
conversation.
___________________

I told you I sometimes dream about being in these rooms. Based on that, it feels like the bathroom should be on the ground floor, so it can open out onto the secret garden. Maybe even it could have a very large window that is almost the whole side of the bathroom wall looking onto it, but still private by being a mirror on the garden side?

The kitchen should also be on the ground floor because I envisage it opening onto a verandah.

That's all I know for sure.

If you forced me to say gut feel where the master bedroom should be, I'd say up the stairs above the bathroom, on the second floor, adjoining a little sleeping porch bit... in fact, if the second floor is not that big, maybe the large master bedroom is the only proper room up there? (I'm just musing here, I don't feel certain about
this.
______________________

One of the main quests at this early stage is to determine general positions and orientations of various spaces, so that is very much what I am working on and will send to you. I'm hoping to have something to send very soon.

choosing a wastewater treatment system

septic tank site This is a useful 8 page overview about selecting an onsite wastewater or septic system. Given that we're aiming to have toilets that don't use water, it's really only water from things like washing machines, kitchen sink and showers/baths that we need to worry about. I had originally been assuming that if we use "green" products in cleaning that it wouldn't require treatment before going onto the garden but it seems that may not be the case: "Graywater, sometimes mistakenly thought to be safe to discharge, is high in organic material, fecal bacteria, and nutrients. Wastewater from sources other than toilets (including laundry, bath, shower, and kitchen), called graywater, may contain pathogens, and thus is sewage that must be treated". Whatever system we choose though, I want the water to not be lost forever but to be cleaned so that it can be re-used on the garden (and not only on a particular part of the the garden)... hopefully Eric will be able to suggest an approach.

at last! the house design brief is done

Yay yay yay!!!! I have *at last* finished our brief for the architect on what we want in a house. I started working on it when we got back from Australia in November, doing an hour or so a night, and then pulled it all together over the Christmas break. I reckon I spent about 4 solid days on it this period alone. It was a marathon effort not just to get done, but also because before I could get it done we had to get our own thoughts in order. Or, I should say, I had to do it and then convince Dave to read it and tell me anything he disagreed with or wanted to add. He made a couple of comments and I know he's looked through it as I sat with him and checked he looked at each page, so I can't do anything more than that. I hope that he really does like it and agree because otherwise we'll be misdirecting... but I think he does.

As part of the process I read lots of books, scanned lots of photos (Dave did the scanning but I picked what to scan), wrote half a notebook full of scribbled ideas, and went through all the videos I'd archived of interesting ideas from the past 3 years of TV design programmes. It's now all come together in 107 pages of text and photos which you can view by clicking here: brief for amherst house design I'm sure it'll evolve as we get new ideas and things but this is the foundation anyway. Yay yay yay!!!

books about designing a home

We've been reading some books as part of coming up with a design brief for Eric. As part of the initial design phase we get two iterations worth of plans... At the first stage he comes up with a couple of different designs, and then based on our comments he refines that to another design. It's just of the floorplan initially, but even so, it'll be a huge leap forward for us to get that far. To get us off to the best start, however, I'm determined to pull together a detailed brief that captures all our wishes and ideas for the house. It's taking forever to do though!

A big part of it is reading books. Here are some that I've got that are particularly interesting / helpful:

"The Not So Big house" - This was recommended by Eric and it is utterly brilliant. The principles it extolls of designing the house around the way you live are perfect. The followup book "Creating the Not so Big House" is also brilliant
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W1792162A
http://makeashorterlink.com/?D2893262A

"Pattern Language" - This is apparently a seminal book influencing house design. I'm a little bit bemused by the first half of the book being about designing cityscapes! but it's fascinating still, who would have thought that the decline in quadrangles was a factor behind the decline in little local events like dances, fetes etc. It explains why in Venice, where there are hundreds of little quadrangles, there is such a thriving sense of local community.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H5994362A

"The Organised Home - design solutions for clutter-free living". It's been quite helpful to me in terms of sparking ideas especially at the micro-level. It's also been unintentionally very amusing as well. It is written obviously for the Greenwich Connecticut crowd, there are pages about flower arranging, place settings, hostess gifts, etc. A classic quote: "Note in your household journal any table settings that work. Several months later you may have forgotten how terrific the amethyst wine glasses looked with the ice-blue placemats"!!
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X1A93162A
I'm also planning to buy the companions to this book, The Healthy Home and The Stress-free Home.

"Introduction to Permaculture" - The basic principles actually make a lot of
sense, although the one worrying thing that from what I've read so far doesn't seem to have been included is the artistic/"look and feel"/design side of things. In that, I don't think if you are really into permaculture you're supposed to care what something looks like, but just rejoice in the fact that it is all being done in line with the principles. Some of the ideas are really cool though, I would never have thought about designing in for the chook house to have airvents that go into the greenhouse, so that their bodyheat and CO2 etc can help keep the plants warm.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P2B94362A

"Dream Home" by Mark Wakely - This is a musing about what home is, etc. I read it on the plane and it was a nice light read but interesting. It also sparked ideas I'd not thought of before to input into the brief, like designing in certain things so that when we get old we will be able to easily adapt it for our frailties! For instance, making sure that the doorways are wide enough for wheelchairs, and if you have an edging in the hallway around waist level (e.g., where you have boards or wallpaper underneath, then an edging, then just paint above) then make the edging bit a little wider than normal so it can double as a handrail if you ever need it.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F5C93362A

"A Place of My Own" by Michael Pollan. This one of my all time favourite books. I've read it at least 4 times since it came out and it was what sparked my desire to build my own house. It was also *the* book that made me feel comfortable about the idea of working with an architect, in the sense that it gave me a feel for the kind of contribution that an architect can make. And also a sense of why there can be tensions between architects and builders! The book is about this guy who decides to build a hut in the woods for a study. He had his architect help in the design, and also a friendly builder to help him do the work. The book is partly a journal about the process but it meanders off in all kinds of interesting directions. Like, how he ended up getting the practical design drawings for his in-swinging windows from an old Greene & Greene house design in the Columbia University library because the guy who made the frames remembered once working on a renovation of one of their old houses. It also talks a lot about how architecture has evolved, and the significance of flat roofs and Venturi's gable, etc etc.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?U2D91562A

we found an architect!

While we were up at Amherst we decided to visit a few of the local architects, just to get started on thinking about the house. Originally I'd been thinking of trying to do it myself, but the more I got into the planning of it, the more I realised I needed expert help. Just as with the garden, I have an idea of all the pieces but don't know how to put it all together. After some online hunting we found that Daylesford was the only place nearby (well within an hour's drive anyway) that had architects who specialised in green/sustainable development. We made appointments with two of them to see on the afternoon of our last day up there, on the way back to Melbourne.

We weren't expecting anything, especially not after meeting the first guy who was dreadful... I mean he was pleasant and friendly, but basically he didn't seem to care what we wanted; if we worked with him he was going to build us a straw house and it was going to be 100% in line with all sustainable principles, no room for compromise. So we were quite disheartened when we went to our second appointment... but that turned out to be the opposite. We just clicked with him immediately and felt like he really listened to what we wanted and "got it". Our appointment was only meant to be for 30 minutes but we ended up staying for over two hours. On the spot, we agreed instantly that he was the right architect to work with and there was no point in looking any further.

So, Eric at Greenpoint design http://www.greenpointdesign.com.au is the latest person to be embroiled in our dream! :-)

More discussion on the cottage

When I went to Amherst the first time and saw where Mum and Dad were proposing to build the cottage I said no. It was on the peak of the hill and so would have been in full view. Instead I said they could build the cottage down the other side of the hill, so that it couldn't be seen from the main house (and is further away).

Here's a few of the email exchanges discussing the shape of cottage:


Email to Mum - 25th Aug

Our first edition of Mother Earth news arrived today, and amidst all
the semi-hippy stuff there were some really good articles, even Dave
was impressed.

A great how-to guide on making a natural swimming pool/pond which we
were wanting to do anyway but hadn't got round to finding details.

And an article about yurts. They look quite interesting, not like
camping tents, they can be quite flash. e.g., check out the two
storey one here. http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/stories/s876255.htm

A yurt might be a quick way of getting some housing to live in up
there while we were doing work, and double as spare cottage later? It
would have to be carefully positioned so as not to look odd, but the
one in the abc article above I could see blending in. I'm not totally
sold yet but it is an option to consider

Here are some suppliers of yurts, all in the US but give you an idea of pictures
http://www.advancecanvas.com/index.htm
http://www.nestingbird.com/
http://www.yurts.com
http://www.yurtworks.com/

And it seems like maybe they are good for bushfire protection too?
Found this on a post: "Our 15ft yurt in the Brindabella Valley, NSW,
Australia. It has been up since 1981 and withstood the ravages of the
recent bushfires here in a way that was quite bizarre. Two huge
bushfires that destroyed 300 homes in the capital city Canberra, both
swept over the yurt from different directions a week apart. Despite
there being full petrol containers under the yurt and the fact that it
had been painted with old motor oil, the shape of the structure seemed
to somehow move the fire front over and around the building so that it
didn't burn. No one can work out why it didn't go up as everything
around it was badly burned, but that's my theory anyway".

And here is a link to the only Australian supplier of yurts in kit form
http://yurtworks.com.au
If you look in their photos section you see they are the ones who did
that cool double storey yurt. I can see that working really well on
our block nestled into the slope. It is kind of like a hobbit house
in feel but taller and narrower, don't you think?


Mum's reply - 25 Aug

Yurts are fine - but what about a hobbit hole? Half buried in the land,
just the front showing and even that made with the stone on the site?
Also bushfire "safe" - well safer than a normal house. Stable in
temperature, ie well insulated. You can grow things on the roof because
that is just land.. If a yurt was to be a permnanent thing, built
conventionally, it would not be as easy as a normal house because of all
the angles to be cut. A "proper" yurt is round though the couple I
looked at were something like a duodecahedron or similar.

Although, the yurts do have a sort of feel of a hobbit house.

I was looking at the prices - I am inclined to think, without actually
running to the timber yard, that it is expensive for effectively just
the wodd cut to size. Of course, you are also paying for their
knowledge and working out of the lengths to cut, and the angles - I note
they seem to be 22 sided figures. I also note the windows are cheap
aluminium ones. Add into the equation that Dad has certain things lying
about that he would give you - second hand stuff he could scrounge and
you would never know, and so on. I think you could get a more
conventional room or two built for less than that if Dad did it.

Note that the $5000 odd was just for the frame, inside and outside
lining, roof and maybe insulation - you had to supply all else yourself.

The sort of place Dad was talking about building when you came back in
June would fit in well to the landscape. That was not a hobbit house,
which was something Dad said he would like to build one day - perhaps
in his own back yard. Not that I think his land slopes enough to make
it easy.

My reply - 30th Aug

Yes, you're right, the prices of the yurt kits are a little more than
I'd first thought. But it's an idea to add to the mix. I like the
octagonal shape. I don't much like the canvas traditional ones even
though I know they are the proper yurts.

Dad can still build a house as he was talking about it before at
Amherst, but just not in the position on the top of the hill. e.g.,
Why not on the other side of the hill so it was nestled in the slope,
with a view to the right over to Snake dam, and to the left down the
valley? I think you'd get similar views, albeit not quite as
panoramic, and it would be mostly out of sight of the other house,
except maybe for the roof etc. I don't want it out of sight because
I'm worried about what it would look like, it is more because I don't
want to spoil the effect of the main house being secluded. Also, we
now have plans for the slope up to the top in terms of garden, with a
natural swimming pool/pond at the base.

Mum's reply - 30th Aug

Fair enough - it would be good round the other side of the hill. We
were trying to make it out of sight of the hosue itself you know - it
would be much lower than your house so you sould not see it, though the
roof of your place would have been seeable from the little place. But,
it would certainly have been visible from the drive and the road and the
far side of the hill will not be.

preparations for our visit continue

Mum has booked the motel for us to stay in when we're up at Amherst, yay! It's booked from 14th through to 19th October. And Dad has been busy apparently looking for places to hire a dingo tractor/ post hole digger thingy for digging the holes for the trees. He's also apparently heading up again soon to start working on the "surprise" whatever that may be and to repair the dam. I can't wait to be there and to see it again, plus this'll be the first time Dave sees it.

major reworking of garden plan

I made a flying visit to Australia at end June to see my Gran who was very ill, and while there I managed to go see Amherst. This was my first time at the property in person and to my relief it was wonderful. Really green, far more so than I'd expected, so I was very happy. However, it turned out I'd totally misunderstood where the gas pipeline was, so that Prue's plan for the garden doesn't work.


Email to Prue on my return home from Australia - 4th July 2004

While I was there I managed to get a few hours at Amherst, in the late
afternoon of my first day there. To my relief, it's wonderful. I
think it helped it had rained quite a bit so it was all very green,
but the slopes / layout of the land was better than I'd expected too.
There's only a very small part that's flat, and gentle rolling rising
to a slightly steep peak on one edge. But all is workable. Also,
there weren't that many rocks, I'd been envisaging it almost like
gravel, but it wasn't that at all. And the rocks there are, on the
quartz outcrop, are a lovely rose-pink colour. The house is a wreck,
which we knew, but it has good vibes so we can restore it. The dam is
huge and was filling up.

However, after having seen it in person, unfortunately we have to
change the design. For two reasons... first, parts of it won't work
with the lie of the land, eg the lake would look silly as it's not in
a natural spot for it. But more importantly, there is a natural gas
pipeline running under the land which is an easement - we can't build
anything, including planting trees for 20m around it (10m either
side). We knew the easement existed but for some reason had thought
it was way over the other side of the block. Turns out we'd got it
upside down and it runs almost right past the front door of the house!

Don't worry though, I don't think it will stop us having an amazing
garden, we just have to reorient it. When I was at the block we took
some more precise measurements (give or take a metre or two). So I've
now drawn up a map which has the positioning of the house, dam, and
existing trees near the house more accurately. Also, we've made a
start at reworking the plans, using your original design as
inspiration. There are still a lot of blanks, but I wanted to show
you where we'd got to so far, and to see if you had any ideas for how
to fill it in.

Here's some pictures of the plan:











Some of the things that I've changed - but obviously very flexible
still so if you think any of it wouldn't work, or you have better
ideas, let me know.

* Allowed space to extend the house. There is only the one direction
we can extend it, so even though we don't know yet exactly what it
will look like, we know roughly the area it will occupy

* Changed the layout of the driveway to match where the entrance is.

* Drawn in stables, hen house etc. The stables in particular need to
be in the area where they are on the map so that the roof will face
the right direction to catch the most sun (as we're going to put the
solar system on there), plus so that the roof is facing away from the
house - so the panels are largely out of sight. We figure too there
will probably be a garage between the stables and the house, but
haven't worked out precisely that bit yet.

* Added in a terraced planting section, around the part that gets
steepest to the back right of the house, because it just seemed like
it was crying out for it. Then building on that we totally rethought
the pool, so as to put it in a spot where it gets views with the
terraced section as a backdrop. It also means we can put the pool on
the other side of the easement, and have the easement area as grass /
etc (e.g., for cricket, boules, etc) between the pool and the house.

* I haven't drawn in the lake with jetty, as there is really only one
spot that it could go, which is in the distance to the far side of the
property. It would give a great outlook and I'd still like to do it
but I suspect it will be one of the last things we do because of the
cost, plus because it will cover the best grazing pasture on the
block. (Speaking of grazing, there were about 30 sheep on it, and
there was loads of sheep / cow / roo poo everywhere that I'm sure
would help to improve the soil if we ploughed it in). Instead, to
satisfy my water craving, I've allowed for two mid-sized ponds in the
main part of the garden which cycles water from the dam. I even
planned in for a little pump house next to the dam, as I figure it
will need a bit of machinery to make it happen!

* I've combined the meditation pond / gazebo thing with the summer
house / reading room, with the idea of having a cabin thing that is
partly on land and partly on stilts protruding into the bottom pond.
I saw this done once on a DIY show and it was gorgeous. It seems like
it would combine my desire for a jetty (where I could dangle my feet
in the water) with all the other things.

* Planned in a vegetable garden with 3 brick walls and the other with
a wire or wrought iron-like fence facing the driveway, positioned so
as to get the maximum amount of sun. The other reason for having the
3 brick walls is that it will allow us to put a shadecloth or netting
roof over it if need be. Then I drew in the orchard in the section
leading down to the summerhouse just because it felt like it suited.

* We've scrapped the idea of the tower. We might build a treehouse or
little cabin instead, on top of the quartz outcrop, but that will be a
later stage thing. Given the land is so sloped anyway we won't need
a tower to get a view of the whole garden, we'll just go to the top of
the terraced section.

initial tweaks to the garden plan

After we'd done some more thinking about the plan, we had a few more ideas...

My email with initial tweaks to the plan - 2nd June 2004

Last night I looked some more at the design, and I still love it.
It's taken me a little while to digest, when we met I was just blown
away by the thought of it, it suddenly seemed to have moved a step
closer to reality! Now I've thought about it some more though, I do
have a few tweaks I'd like to make. Given that we have to rework it
anyway to move the driveway, would you be able to make these other
changes at the same time? If you disagree with any of them, let me
know, as you're the expert, but thought I'd ask anyway.

* Could the hothouse be bigger, say double in size. The compost area
can just be shunted sideways further

* Could the stable be bigger. Also, could the ducks have a separate
house from the chooks, down near the lake, as I figure they will want
to swim on it. The chooks it makes sense to keep near the house so
it's easy to collect eggs in the AM, etc, but the ducks don't need to
be. Eventually my hope is that they would go slightly wild and
free-range anyway

* Near the tower perhaps, could there be an outdoor picnic / BBQ area?
e.g., it could be a kind of room made of trellis that we could grow
plants up and over for shade, and perhaps the BBQ might be on the
bottom floor of the tower. Perhaps one side of the tower could be
solid, and thus a wall we could use to project films onto (Dave has
this great projector that we use here in London to project onto the
wall of the conservatory, but it'd be even more amazing outside).
It'd be nice down there near the lake. Not that we'd use it loads,
but still it'd be nice. We might even make the tower square, with a
proper enclosed room at the top, ala Sissinghurst, then it could be a
guest room. :-)

* Was the path near the petanque lawn where you've drawn the lines
across the part you were thinking of having trellised? If so, that's
brilliant. Could we extend is also along the rest of the path, near
where the olives are at the moment?

* In terms of the olives, could they be moved to behind the herb
garden, perhaps running into the orchard? That way Dave has room to
plant more if he wants. Also then I can use the bed where they
currently are for flowers.

* I love having the herbaceous border near the house. I just wanted
to check, how long will it look good for? Is it possible to plant it
so there'll be something nice to look at in almost every season - or
at least spring, summer, to mid-autumn? If not, then perhaps the
herbaceous border could move to where the olives are currently and I
could plant a different kind of border there. Or perhaps I just want
something that gives the effect of a herbaceous border but is
technically mixed. :-)

* Just so I don't forget it, could you mark a small pet cemetery area
out near the clump of trees in the distance? Not that we'd
necessarily build it right away, but it'd be nice to have it on the
plan.

And now here are two potentially more difficult changes...

First, I don't know the shape of the house yet, and I won't for
certain until Sept at the earliest when we see it. But, one thing for
sure, it's going to be larger than what's there currently, since I
want it to have a minimum of 2 bedrooms and I want the rooms to be all
quite spacious. All the plans I've come up with so far involve a
similar shape externally, it's just the rooms inside that change.
I've attached a jpg showing this, do you think you could adjust the
garden plan around it? There are verandahs all the way round too,
except on the side near the driveway. I'm really sorry, I know you
asked me for this ages back, but it's taken me a long time to come to
it. I hope it isn't too much of a pain, I think it just means pushing
the pool, etc down a little, and making the patio areas with the big
tree a different shape. Then, in the gaps between the old house and
the extension, that could be a garden area, with a part for
ferns/hydrangeas/etc, perhaps even tucked under the new extension
depending on the slope? The other side of it could be storage - for
tools etc, which'd be nice to have them handy to the garden areas.



Second, I would really like to have a big lavendar/yarrow/sage bed. I
figure it's the kind of thing that would take care of itself and
thrive out in the hot sun. I don't mind where it is, I had some ideas
- e.g., maybe near the stone maze, or maybe along the top side of the
driveway as you came to the house?. The effect I want to get is like
in the attached picture.

Garden plan - 1st pass

Prue came to London for the Chelsea garden show and we met up with her for a drink on Tuesday 1st June. It was great to meet her in person and have a proper chat, although unfortunately I was really busy at work so couldn't stay for lunch like I'd hoped. Anyway, we had a few drinks and a chat and she showed us her first draft of the plan. It's amazing how well she'd managed to fit in everything we asked for. There were a few things to tweak, like the driveway was in the wrong place, but aside from that our initial reaction was that we loved it. :-)

Dad starting preparations

Dad has started arranging things for Amherst, in preparation for when we visit in October and want to start planting. He installed a tank a few weeks before this too to start collecting rainwater from the house roof

Email from Dad - 20th May 2004

Hi Lyn and Dave

I have bought 250 m rolls of 2" aggi coil drain pipe for the Amherst place. A friend was selling for a friend new rolls worth $250 new price for $50 each. Last of a lot of 25 rolls planned for grapevine irrigation. Daisy's garden and soil sell 20 m lenths for $25 so the price is very good. These are for utilizing runoff water from the tank once it is full. When you have planted downhill of the tank, shrubs, trees, etc, you have this pipe passing underground in a shallow trench to the site of the trees, and encicle the trees with a few coils, and pass on to the next tree with the remainder of the pipe and so on until runoff water has been disipatted thoroughly and there is no loss to the spill over of the tank. I will recover the cash of $250 , as I bought the last 5 rolls, from the use of your bankcard to buy food and petrol. I would have consulted you but this was just too good to pass-up and I had the time today to secure it. I will store it here for now. Let me know if I have acted badly on your behalf. I will keep the pipe if you don't actually want it. But moving water in tubes is by far the most effective and efficient. The number of coils around a site increases as you get further from the source of runoff, and by experimenting before digging in you can engineer perfect distribution of water to the various plants served by each line. Careful placement of the lines is needed to permit the loss of water enroute to the intended plants to be useful for irrigation of areas of lawn, edges, etc. You get the idea I am sure. Love, Dad

PS Good news about your planned flight, and to be here for my next birthday. You will have a wonderful time here, and make many contacts. In fact I will give you the neighbor"s contacts that I gathered last month. I said you wanted to contact them and make their acquaintence. Tom and Kath Dixon: 340 Lillicor Rd.,Amherst 3371
Ph 03 54632339 email tsk_dixon @yahoo.com.au
They are across the road and up the hill a stones throw away Tex Williams and wife Charlie Ph 03 5463-2063 345 Lillicur Rd. Amherst 3371 This is your closest neighbor. I said he could put his stock on your pasture, but not to overgraze, and that you would be in touch about it anyway. He hasn't yet put any on. His sheep go under his fence regularly, however, as I saw several go under, and then back again to his side when I approached them in the car.

The carter of sand, screenings, road materials, etc and a man with contacts for equipment for dams, roads, etc is also a contact I made as he delivered for the tank. Dennis and Warren Bond Mother is delightful and is named Marjorie. She let me leave the tank out the front of her place the night I took it up and overshot the turn to Lillicur Rd., and ran low on petrol so had to go off to Ailsa's to sleep without going to the block. 20 Palmerston ST, Talbt 3371 Ph 03 5463 2295 Mother's number where business is based Dennis' mobile 0428-506-776 He also does septic tank installation

wishlist for the garden

To help Prue, we wrote a wishlist of things we did and didn't want in the garden at Amherst. It was quite amusing to do as well as more helpful in a pragmatic way than the dream photos!

Things that we want

BBQ area with a permanent table and space for an umbrella/shade cloth. Also there should be a roof over the BBQ area

Bar area (not necessarily near the BBQ area but it could be)

Quiet reading / meditation area

Petanque playing area where it won’t matter if the grass etc end ups with lots of bumps

Small swimming pool inside a secure brick walled area, so we don’t have to have dorky looking pool security fences. Swimming pool will not be very big and no more than 8 ft deep at the deepest part and it will have steps to get in. It will be around 8 metres long by 3m wide. There needs to be space for sun loungers etc alongside. Also, I would like it to feel secluded and not necessarily entirely in full sun in all places (e.g., it would be good to have trees overhanging in some parts and we’ll just deal with the hassle of leaves). Ideally this would be near to the BBQ area but they would be distinctly separate areas

A pool house, ie: a kind of building that is near the pool that has a place to store towels, get changed, put away deckchairs when it's out of season, etc etc. I don't know what this looks like yet, but there needs to be a space planned for it in the section of the garden that has the pool.

A rotating summerhouse. Ideally this would be like a room with french doors, etc that we could use as a writing or reading or painting room, that would sit on a base and rotate so it could face in whatever direction we wanted. They have them here so you can rotate to follow the sun; that might be good in Australia in the winter, but I expect in summer we would probably be turning away from the sun to keep it cool! Ideally this would be positioned somewhere that there would be a variety of views from different directions to make the most of the flexibility, maybe at one tip of the property up on the hill? You can get them here in ready-made kits. e.g.,
http://www.source-antiques.co.uk/summerhouse.asp (this company say they ship all over the world)
http://www.scottsofthrapston.co.uk/downloads/gazebos.pdf

Cricket net, which also could be inside a walled area. This needs to be about 30 yards long and 10 yards wide at a minimum

Space to play croquet if we are having grass. This doesn’t need to be a formal posh croquet lawn but just a space for informal games

Lake, preferably with a little jetty to sit and dangle our feet over or a very shallow entrance bit we can line with pebbles for wading in. I don’t want it to be muddy at the bottom and I don’t want the water to be brown. Ideally the lake will have some waterlilies

Dovecote, which could even be a full-blown dovehouse you can walk into. Even if we can’t get doves in Australia perhaps we could entice some other friendly birds to stay there.

Tree seat – ie: a big tree somewhere that we can build a circular seat around

Potting shed

Lean-to style greenhouse in one of the walled gardens

Old fashioned style cold frame things

Vegetable garden

Steps in some parts of the garden

Herb garden in the broadest sense, so this can include even odd herbs like in a physic garden

Camomile seat or bench

Feeling that the garden is actually an outdoor house, with a series of rooms, each individual, differently sized, but which lead from one into the other with multiple entrances and exits

Decorative fish pond that we can keep a few pet koi or goldfish in. This needs to be well shaded. In fact I love ponds so the more ponds the better

Use of small fountains etc to create a calming and cooling feeling but not formal fountains… more things like water trickling down a wall, etc

If it is at all possible, I would love to have a bog garden even in just a small part. I figured the only thing would be perhaps in the sewerage recycling bit where it will get a lot of water and fertiliser?!! Or perhaps I just have to bury a pool and plant into that. I like those prehistoric looking bog plants, and things like gunnera manicuta (sp?).

Lots of shade trees which are tall enough to walk under

Use of trellises to add height e.g., using grapevines, kiwifruit, passionfruit etc to act as a roof in some areas

Outdoor lounge room area, with lots of space for lying around on cushions, with a central fire pit. Also a wall that has a flat section that we could project movies onto

Orchard area which has lots of trees with spring blossoms even if it doesn’t give us fruit

Shady woodlandy feel section, even if it is small, because it will be a lovely cool place to retreat to in the heat of summer

Long walk which has trellises etc for things to clamour over

A garden that looks different in each season, or at least some sections of it do

Native plants scattered around the garden rather than there being a special “native” garden for them

Patio area around the house that has shade

Pathways around the garden that are barefoot walkable, and pathways where there is shade, at least dappled, for getting around in summer because I don’t like the heat and I sunburn easily

A place for chickens and ducks to live

A proper serious composting area

Space for a blowsy herbaceous border in the old fashioned sense but on a manageable scale

At least a few places where you can sit to get views down the sweep of the paddocks. One of these could be possibly a tower or tree house?

Sweeping driveway which has symmetrical plantings for at least part of the way

A paddock or two so we can have pet sheep, cow, horses as well as a barn for them

Use of things like mirrors to create interesting perspectives in the garden. Also surprising places e.g., plinthes, alcove to display sculptures, little pot plants, etc

An old fashioned lamppost like in The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe buried somewhere in the midst of the garden

A herb lawn (e.g., thyme/wild oregano/etc) that you can lie on in the sun when its hot and which is fragrant, like at the cemeteries at Gallipoli

A cemetery area, ideally with wrought iron-like fence where we can put ourselves one day as well as pets

A swing that is strong enough for adults to use; ideally something like a tyre swing that hangs from a tree

If it is possible a small fernery (e.g., perhaps we could create a grotto like area for them where they had shade?)

Flowering meadow

Mini-olive grove


Things that we do not want

A tennis court

A formal rose garden that looks skeletal and clipped within an inch of its life for most of the year. I like roses but old fashioned roses that you don’t prune, that just grow wild and clamour over everything. I don’t like roses all grouped together without anything else around

Formal gazebo stuck out in the middle of nowhere as if it’s the main feature. We want the plants to be the stars not the structures

Gum trees with that horrible harsh brown thick craggy bark, or at least not very many of them

A separate kids play area

Giant boulders scattered around

Things that look plastic

Concrete in wide swathes (but it is OK if it doesn’t look like concrete)

Woodchippings

Anything that involves a cupid or dumb statue

Overly modern, stark feel

Overly quaint “English romantic” feel

Topiary figures

photos of garden things I love

As part of pulling together a brief for the garden design for Prue, we've put together an album of photographs of garden features and planting schemes that we liked, which you can view here: http://www.ofoto.co.uk/I.jsp?c=ghiijyl.963ct6x&x=0&y=1f1zun

There are 208 photos in total, and if you view them on the fullscreen rather than thumbnails I've put in the description what the particular thing was that I liked about them. Below are my favourite photos in which I love absolutely *everything*, to give you a flavour:

soil test results

These are the results of the soil testing which Dave's parents did, with some help from Mum and Dad





Overall, the pH seems to be between 5-6, so slightly acidic, although not as bad as I was expecting. The other minerals are worse than I'd anticipated though... I guess it just means we have to do a lot of preparation of the soil in advance; but in the scheme of things it's not impossible.


The tests were done after about 5 years of low rainfall, so all the soil was very dry. After clearing, the land was probably used for grazing, and at testing, grass was dry and sparse to very sparse. The soil is a grey to reddish brown loam
In most areas there is 20 to 30cm topsoil with small to medium sized quartz fragments on the surface or in the soil. The area called up creek and down creek was probably a shallow gully which was filled over the years with soil washed from the uphill forest area. The top soil here is at least 30cm and is a fine dark grey loam with an absence of quartz fragments. This area supports the greatest quantity of grasses. The ph tests showed the creek soils to be slightly acid probably relatred to the humus content and overall the creek soil would be the easiest to cultivate and probably the most fertile.

email minutiae: initial discussions with Prue

I made contact with Prue via the contact form on her website, then we had a series of email and phone conversations as per extracts below.

Prue's reply to my initial contact - 9th March 2004

Thank you for your enquiry regarding garden design for you Amherst property. I have had a look at your photos and the property looks blissful, a world away from life in London. It certainly has potential for creating a beautiful garden.

Some ideas to begin with would be the need for water by way of a large dam to support the needs of the house and garden. It will also have significant ornamental value. The establishment of larger trees to create structure, height and shade is important, while being mindful of retaining views across the paddocks and to the state forest. From here finer details of 'garden rooms' and levels can be created and installed. A long term project, but all good gardens take time to create.

My suggestion would be to talk with you in order to get a feel for your desires for your Amherst property and also for you and I to see if our ideas and personalities are aligned. We can also discuss the approach to the design and the fee structure. I look forward to hearing back from you to organise a time to talk.

My reply - 9th March 2004

Thanks very much for the initial ideas, they make total sense... and don't worry, I'm under no delusions about this being a long-term project! I should also say upfront, I don't know how normal this is for your clients, but I'm keen to be very involved and hands-on. For me the opportunity to create a garden is the biggest reason for buying the property in the first place and so I want to feel like I have a big hand in that creation because otherwise it would be giving up on part of the experience. But, I think it's foolish to attempt to do something on such a grand scale without guidance, even if it is just someone who I can consult to stop me making silly mistakes. I'm by no means an expert gardener and I have no clue about gardening in Australian conditions. When we lived in Australia I didn't pay any attention to gardening...it was only here, around 5 years ago when we bought our London flat, that I started and was almost instantly hooked. Now I would say that gardening is a passion that I can't imagine being without.

At one point I was considering taking a course in garden design - e.g., the English Gardening School in Chelsea offers correspondance courses. But I gave up on that since I didn't want to turn gardening into "work" because I didn't want to risk it stopping being fun. However, I bought the textbook and have read 2/3rds of it so far...so I have some idea of how to start, but a theoretical understanding from reading is very different to that borne of practical experience! I had been just going to start off on my own and see how far I got, but then I came across your website while looking for info about dry gardening in Australia, and thought I'd get in touch.


Following this we had a long telephone discussion and I also sent Prue links to some photos of gardens we'd visited over here...

Prue's reply - 16th March 2004

Thank you for all the photos. It has made me want to visit England again in a hurry to see all the beautiful gardens. Thanks also for the photos of your garden. You have definitely fitted a lot into a small space. I have sent you through some photos of my garden, the first few are 'under construction'. It is looking much more lush now. I'll send you through some updated ones soon.

I have looked through all the information you have sent regarding Amherst and will print off copies of some of the site maps in order to start the design process.

Some plant and nursrey sites to look at are www.flemings.com.au, www.dandenongs-online.com.au, the Yamina Rare plants site, www.rankins.com.au for roses, www.pga.com.au for perennials, www.dinsan.com.au for general plant lines, www.larkmannurseries.com.au for perennials.

Hope that keeps you entertained for a while. I look forward to receiving further info from you regarding your likes & dislikes in plants/gardens etc, and any other info you come up with.

My long reply... so excited to be starting! 16th March 2004

Thanks very much for your proposal. The only thing I would say is do you have any idea how long something like this might take, just so I get a rough idea of how many hours might be involved (and hence total cost)? I think I'd like to go ahead but am worried about embarking on something totally open-ended for which I have no idea what the end cost will be. Even just a ballpark estimate would help. Also, in terms of the research... if you are thinking of visiting Bendigo, Castlemaine, etc... you are very welcome to visit our property too. It's not far from Maryborough, apparently that has a botanical garden and is a really nice little town. Also, if you want to combine it into a nice day out, I just found there's a farmers market in Talbot (5 mins from our place) between 10am-2pm on the 3rd Sunday of each month, starting March 2004 (ie: it's just started). tel: 03 5463 2008 if you're interested in finding out more.

In terms of the research, I will definitely help as much as possible, I'm pretty good usually at tracking things down online. I've been combing through my gardening books here and picking out pictures showing the kinds of things I like. Dave, my husband, is helping me scan them in. Once they're scanned I'll load them up onto the ofoto site so you can see them. It may take us a week or two though to get through them all as there are quite a few, so if you can wait till I send them to do anything more then it might save time in the long run. There is a wide range... I've only been through half the books so far and already have photos of pools, lakes, vegetable gardens as well as various garden borders, etc. I figure if I gather them all together you'll get a great picture of what I'm looking for, better than me explaining it just in words. My problem is that I know what I want in terms of the jigsaw pieces, I am just struggling to work out how to put the jigsaw together, which is what I'm hoping you can bring.

One of the books that has been brilliant, that I'll copy loads from for you, is "Natural Planting" by Penelope Hobhouse. I picked it up cheaply a few years back at a National Trust shop and it's full of loads of wonderful things. From reading that I learned about "new-style" borders, apparently a concept coming out of Germany / Holland. The idea being to naturalise perennials and grasses in plant communities so that they are self-sustaining and thus can be maintained with minimum labour. They have a wonderful wild look to them, so if I can get that with minimum labour then why not!! :-) They showed pictures of it from Westpark in Munich, is that where you worked? Apparently the guy who started this is called Richard Hansen at his Weihenstephan garden (which I've never heard of but maybe will go visit at some point). He has a book called Perennials and their Garden Habitats which was published in English in 1993 that I'm going to try and get hold of. Also, I discovered "Prairie-style" gardening from the US, some architects called Ohme and Sweden? (or something like that anyway).

Once I've done the pictures, I'll then turn to getting hold of a list of plants. At this stage, I'm thinking I will split them between those that will grow OK in the local temperature conditions (split into subsections depending on soil/water requirements), and those that won't necessarily but that I absolutely adore so that maybe we can explore a way of creating a microclimate that suits them, even if I have to cover a section of the garden with shadecloth in the summer to stop plants getting scorched! Actually, I'm hoping there won't be many in this latter category, if any, but we'll see. I can check out from the nursery links you sent whether they're available or not in Australia. Hopefully there won't be too many that aren't.

A couple of final things I was researching yesterday, that I'll just throw out as ideas at this stage... we're right near a forest, and our property was I think one of the ones that got decimated in the 1985 bushfires that destroyed Amherst / Talbot / etc. Hence, I think it would be wise to factor into the landscaping ways to reduce bushfire risk. I've just ordered a book from CSIRO that was released a few months ago which is called "Landscape and Building Design for Bushfire Areas"; hopefully it will arrive in a week or two and then I will summarise the relevant bits for you. However, one of the things I've picked up though from just looking at the CFA website is that having a green lawn is actually an excellent firebreak! Which then got me to thinking... since there is no way I'll have enough water to have a real green lawn other than a small patch, I wondered about artificial grass.

Please don't cringe, that was my initial reaction too. On the one hand I hate the whole concept, the artificialness, but on the other, if it looks real, feels real, helps out from a bushfire perspective (not to mention being easy to maintain and helping to catch water) then maybe it is worth considering? From a little digging around I found it's something that has just started in the US in terms of targeting residential property owners, because they've had so many problems with water there recently too. There are a couple of companies that claim to be able to make grass that you can't tell, from touching it, whether it's real or not. (other than the fact that it looks too perfect). They are http://www.synlawn.com and http://www.astrolawn.com and http://www.sprinturf.com). Now none appear to have distributors in Australia yet, more's the pity, but a lot can change in 5-10 years. The only one I found in Australia is http://www.superlawn.com.au but I would guess they're still not as realistic looking as the latest from the US. Now, who knows what happens to this fake lawn in a bushfire... does it burn, if it does, what does it do?... there are loads of things that might make it totally unsuitable, even aside from the issue of aesthetics, but I thought I'd just throw it out there as an idea anyway.

Extracts from Prue's response - 17th March 2004

I was thinking about plants suitable for Amherst climate and thought I would type a list of plants categorised 'highly, moderately and suitable under good conditions' for you to then look in to.

I have been thinking about how to structure the design process so that it fits into a workable budget for you and I to work with.

Primary stage -designing the overall view and structure of the garden
Initial consultations/research and concept design, detailing open areas,rooms, garden styles, pathways, structures etc in the garden (8hrs)
Site visit (2hrs + travel)
Structuring water and irrigation for the house and garden (3hrs)
Research, selection and positioning of trees/ major plantings (2hrs)

Second stage -attention to detail of plants and features within the garden
Research, select and detail understorey plants suitable for certain styles (5hrs)
Listing and detailing perennials and smaller plants suitable (3hrs)
Details of features, focal points and structures (4hrs)

This is an estimate of the time needed to create the design. The primary stage will be what we concentrate on perhaps for the first six months or so. The second stage we could spend a little bit of time looking in to but not as important at this stage until perhaps you have been home, or planted and established trees, structure, shade etc. It may be handy to have lists of understorey plantings for certain areas of the garden as a part of the first stage.

I know a landscaper who has been installing artificial grass as lawns, but mainly for backyard putting greens for enthusiastic golfers. He may know of some products other than the really fake looking stuff. In a fire the fake stuff melts as it is synthetic. I think lawn would be better if we can store enough water to water it. My parents live in southern NSW where they have had drought for quuite a number of years. Their little bit of sanity, and safety, when all the paddocks were dust bowls was to have green lawns around the house. They however do have irrigation although during the past 1 1/2 years they have had no water allocated to them for irrigating and have ahd to pay huge prices to get the water to fill the house dams and tanks. I think you might be relieved and thankful to have green lawns around the house.

Preventing bushfires

I find the whole thought of bushfires terrifying, I remember Ash Wednesday too well, I was living in Ringwood then so safe enough, but even there the air was smoky and ash everywhere. But, as Dave pointed out, it's no worse than living in London waiting for the inevitable terrorist attack. At least the thing about bushfires seems to be that if you're prepared and brave enough to stay in your house and fight the spot fires around it, you have a very good chance of surviving and saving the house too.

I know that Amherst is at risk because it's so close to the forest. Also, I think it was part of the area that was burned in the big bushfires during 1985. So, in the planning of the garden and house we'd like to do whatever we can (without sacrificing the look and feel too much) to reduce the fire risk. Here are various leaflets I downloaded from various government and CFA sites:

vegetation for bushfire prevention.pdf
livinginthebush.pdf
cfg_newsletter_feb04.pdf
landcare article about designing to avoid bushfires.doc

email minutiae: soil testing

Extracts from various emails to Mum 6th/7th March 2004

I think we need to do a separate sample for each acre or so. According to the CSIRO website there can be dramatic changes of soil even within a single paddock. They showed a pattern where you take samples along grid lines... it's not perfect but is a million times better than taking just one sample and assuming everything around it is the same.

I ordered a pH soil test kit from a garden website in Australia and it's being sent straight to Dave's Dad. It says it can do between 20-40 samples. I spent over an hour searching for kits for the more advanced tests, like for nitrogen, etc and could only find really expensive ones in Australia (where you have to send samples off to labs), so instead I ordered kits from Queenswood's UK online shop. They too are being shipped to Dave's Dad, via airmail. I bought 5 of the advanced test kits (which includes 4 separate tests, including a test for nitrogen). Each of the kits does 5 samples so there's enough for 25 of them.

I don't think it will take too long, at least I hope not... Actually from reading the instructions I think you don't even have to do the tests on-site, e.g., you could just dig out the samples, put them in labelled plastic bags so can see where they appear on the grid, then could do the tests at home. If it made it easier, perhaps you could all stay up there overnight e.g., there's a B&B cottage at the winery with 2 rooms. We could pay for it as a thankyou for doing the tests.

Don't worry, I know it will need loads of water, but that's why we have to be very clever about recycling water... every single bit must get re-used. Also, we will need to invest in improving the soil to make it better at storing and retaining water, as well as investing in having a place to store it. In a sense, we have 30 acres to collect water over, to use on 10 acres.

Because of the water situation, that's why it can't be a straight English style garden, we have to plant things that are suitable for dry areas and can withstand drought. However you can do an awful lot, eg: one of Edna Walling's gardens I saw a picture of is up in Goulburn, that's pretty dry and has been stricken by drought, yet they've managed to keep that going.

It makes the planning doubly important, as the climate isn't going to do us any favours so we have to be really clever about how we get round the problems it creates. There is a lot I can learn from gardens in Spain and Italy, they have a pretty dry climate, and there were many English gardeners who retired to Spain and Portugal and created gardens there too. We are going to try and visit some in the next few years. Also, I've been doing a lot of reading, and have bought several books about dry climate gardening, xeriscaping, etc etc. It's a big deal in the US, especially California with their recent water problems, so there's a lot written. Also, Beth Chatto in the UK has written some useful books that give me hope.
e.g., http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/075281642X/ref=sr_aps_books_1_3/026-3497574-5529207

I have to believe we're going to find a way of doing it, and Dave promises me we will, because the opportunity to build a big garden like that is one of the main motivators for buying the block in the first place. I'd hate it if I had to have a dreary dust-prone paddock around me and no garden, in fact I wouldn't, I wouldn't live there. Just because others might choose to do so they probably have a different set of priorities and aren't prepared to put in the creative and physical effort plus financial investment to make it possible.

soil tests

As part of the gardening planning it's important to test the soil so you know what you're dealing with. Here is an article from http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/farming/smallfarms that talks about simple tests you can do:

Small Farm: Soil physical properties - texture and structure
Carole Hollier, Rutherglen
September 2003

Soil is made of varying amounts of silt, sand and clay. The proportion of these components determines if a soil is a sand, loam or clay or any combination of these. Soil texture has a number of implications for management because it effects the ability of the soil to hold water and its ability to withstand cultivation and compaction.

It is easy to assess texture in the paddock by mixing a small amount of soil with water in your hand, just enough to form a slightly sticky ball. The way the sample feels in your hand and the way it forms a ribbon, allows you to determine the texture.

Sands - Won't form a ball. Forms a ribbon less than 10 mm. Feels very sandy and not sticky at all. Clay content 0 to 10%.

Sandy loams - Able to form a ball. Forms a ribbon 15-25 mm long. Feels sandy and slightly sticky. Clay content 10 to 20%.

Loams - Forms a smooth ball, ribbons to 25-40 mm. Feels slightly sandy and moderately sticky. Clay content 20-30%.

Clay loams - Forms a smooth, plastic ball, ribbons to 40-50 mm. Almost no sandy feel. Distinctly sticky. Clay content 30-35%.

Light clays - Forms a smooth, plastic ball, ribboning to 50-75 mm. Very sticky. Clay content 35-45%.

Medium to heavy clays - Forms a smooth, extremely plastic ball. Ribbon more than 75 mm. Feels very sticky with no sand. It is more difficult to mould than light clay. Clay content greater than 45%.

Soil is comprised of three-dimensional arrangements of solid particles and pores. Soil structure is determined by the distribution and the size of these soil aggregates and pore spaces.

Soil structure is influenced by its physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Good soil structure is vital, as it can affect the availability of air, water and nutrients for plant growth. Agricultural practices can significantly alter soil structure. Poor soil structure can greatly reduce plant growth, making it difficult for plants to obtain water, air and nutrients and also impeding seedling emergence due to surface crusting.

The structure and texture of soil affects the soil's ability to hold or drain water and withstand cultivation and compaction by machinery and stock. For example, sandy soils have low water holding capacity and are easily damaged. On the other hand, heavy clay soils are very dense, do not drain water very well and have small pore spaces.

Sand is weakly structured because the sand grains are only weakly bonded together. A very heavy dispersive clay which sets hard into large sheets when dry has a massive structure. Most soil types fall in between these two structures.

An ideal soil has well formed, loose aggregates which hold water but have adequate drainage and are not easily broken down by machinery and stock.

Organic matter is the remains of living things or products of living things in the soil. Organic matter is important for soil structure. Organic matter on the soil surface (such as wheat stubble residues) protects the surface from the action of raindrops, reducing surface compaction and hardsetting. Organic matter also helps to bind sandy and silty soils together and also improves water infiltration through the soil. Organic matter also acts as a buffer against the forces of compaction.
Continuous cropping and cultivation can diminish organic matter in the soil very quickly, leading to soil structural decline.

The chemical make-up of the soil will also determine structure. When high amounts of sodium are present (>6 ESP%) clay particles separate and move freely about in wet soil conditions. When sodic soils come into contact with water, the water turns milky as the clay disperses. When the soil dries out a crust forms on the surface.
The effects of high levels of sodium on soil structure can be overcome through the application of gypsum. Gypsum contains calcium which stops clay from dispersing when it is wet. Calcium is able to overcome the repulsion of the negative charges which cause the clay particles to separate. It helps the clay particles to clump together through a process known as "flocculation".

Slaking is another problem that causes damage to soil structure. When intense rainfall hits dry soil, the surface of porous aggregates rapidly absorb the water and air is trapped internally. With further wetting the force of the air escaping can cause weak aggregates to disintegrate. This process of aggregates breaking into small particles is known as slaking and can block up pore spaces. When the soil surface dries, a crust will form. Slaking occurs within minutes, whereas dispersion may take hours. Slaking also causes water infiltration and seedling emergence problems.

A simple way of checking for sodic, or dispersive soils, is to take two or three pea-sized samples of clay and put them in a shallow container of rainwater. If the soil is sodic, a cloudy appearance will develop in the water around the clay. The quicker this happens, the more sodic the soil.

Slaking can also be checked using this method. When the clay sample is put into the shallow dish of water, it will crumble if prone to slaking (note that no cloudiness of the water occurs with slaking).

getting started on the garden

We decided to start thinking about the garden before the house, mainly because trees take so much longer to grow. Also, because of that, we don't have time to make mistakes, planting the wrong kind of tree or in the wrong position. So, even though its still going to be very much our own garden, we decided to get expert help in the planning. After some searching online we found Prue from http://www.pruemetcalfegardens.com.au. She's based in Melbourne but has worked in Germany and the UK so is familiar with the kind of gardening styles that I've learned about here. Also, among other things, she specialises in dry-tolerant English style gardens.

email minutiae: measurements

After we decided to go ahead and all was confirmed, before we could sign the final documents the solicitor said we needed to doublecheck the measurements. So, Mum and Dad did another trip up there, along with very long tape measures!


Mum's email about measurements - 29th Jan 2004

Measurements.. we ran out of time to do one of the short sides - it appears to be the same as the back side on map on titles office.

Long sides - uphill side we did in two bits and added together.

467.8 metres uphill side (west boundary)
468.9 metres downhill side (east boundary)
Average is 468.35 metres.

259.1 metres short side, (back side) (south boundary)

Area is 121349.485 square metres
Conversion from square metres to acres is 4046.9 sq m = 1acre (amazing what you can find on google and old exercise book backs)

so your area is 29.985787887024636141243915095505 acres.. I used the calculator on the computer..

I would think we had some small errors - we did allow for height so we were measuring, we intended, the base not hypotenuse but had to gauge that height to hold it up by eye -we used a plumb bob to get the vertical but then eye to work out how high. And the tape measure was 20m and would have had a slight sag in it. Also, the front boundary may have been an inch or so different. Amazing the two side ones show different on map but end up being only 1.1m different on the ground!

So I think you may call it 30 acres with confidence.

The coordinates on the map are, of your shorter side on the title office map, a difference of 9 seconds. Using radius of earth 6378.1km (thanks google) and pi as 22/7 (not accurate enough) I got much less than measurement. Either I made a mistake or the map has approx coords.. gave me about 300m. Hopefully you and Dave can work it out using radians