Learning from others

Today we visited friends who have recently moved into their newly built home. It wasn't strawbale, but their experience gave me a glimpse into the journey of home-building. They built a two-storey modern brick home on a ~650 sqm elevated site with impressive city views. They originally bought the property with an onsite older clinker style single storey house, which my friend despised. They tore it down for their custom build.

My friend said that, initially, she'd imagined building her own home as being a dream opportunity. But sharing the dream with her partner involved compromises, and they both found that their reliance on others (architect, builder, trades) to manifest their ideas resulted in ongoing frustrations and disappointment. Having listened to their stories over the past 18 months or so, I was actually worried they weren't going to be happy at all with their new home. Speaking with her today, she seems happy the build is over and proud of realising parts of her vision.

Almost every aspect of the house had a story. The hallway was large and ran through the house because her partner wanted this as an antidote to a perceived flaw in his own childhood house. The children's bedrooms were painted blue because their daughter had requested it. The island bench in the kitchen had three iterations because the tradies kept getting it wrong.

A few things struck me that I'm going to keep in mind for my own build:

• Moving in is not the end of the journey. In my mind, completing construction was the end goal. Seeing their property one month after they've moved in, it was immediately obvious that there was plenty more to be done. The driveway was compacted but needed to be paved. The front and back garden areas were mounds of dirt and weeds. The interior fittings were pretty much the fundamentals. Things like curtains, light fittings, even matching furniture still need to be purchased. Not all of these costs were factored into the mortgage.
  
• You need to be an assertive advocate for your vision. You are reliant on others to help you manifest your dream, but it's just a job for them. My friends made weekly visits to their site to check the quality and progress of works. I will either have to educate myself or possibly employ someone to be a knowledgeable advocate on my behalf. The build needs clear oversight from a foreperson who is assertive and not troubled by conflicting interests.
  
• Their ceiling height was (I think) 2.7m. Apparently standard height is 2.4m. The extra height helped create a sense of spaciousness and light even though the rooms weren't large.
  
• They used double glazed windows and acoustic insulation for a double effect of eco-friendliness and noise reduction. Strawbale is effective on both these measures, but I will also keep in mind the double glazed windows.

Waylaid by kit homes

So, it's been nearly a year since the idea was born of building a strawbale home. What's happened over that year?

Well, firstly I went off course! I was waylaid by kit homes. In terms of housing affordability and owner build options, kit houses are an undeniably appealing option. We ventured out to a few display kit home properties. Some of them were underwhelming: cookie-cutter, dubious quality of materials. But some of the Victorian, Edwardian and Storybook-styled kit homes were absolutely gorgeous, and I was thoroughly inspired. Here's a couple that the boys just loved.

There's something optimistic and classic about the exterior design. And I do love a deck.

Beautiful polished square open plan lounge, kitchen and breakfast nook. The lounge area had cathedral ceilings.
R wanted to move in right away.

An Edwardian kit home with L-shaped open plan. Kitchen with great amenity.
This house also had lovely signature stained glass windows.

My favourite part of this house: a large undercover, enclosed out door area.
It even had an inbuilt pizza oven. Loving this idea.

I've subsequently struck the idea of a kit home down to number 2 spot on the preference list. Strawbale is just more appealing: aesthetically, environmentally and as an expression of the home environs I want to craft for my family.

However, my exploration of kit homes has been useful in clarifying a couple of things.

Firstly, I recognise that I am drawn to two styles of housing: Victorian and strawbale. I suspect I will be inclined to create something that marries these styles. It might be as simple as vintage style furniture in a strawbale home. Or it might be incorporating elements of the Victorian style more directly into the architecture, be it asymmetrical design, stained glass windows, cathedral ceilings or even kitchen styling. It obviously needs to flow, so it's an idea brewing right now.

Secondly, I've absorbed the fact that it's unrealistic that I would literally build the house myself. I'm just not practical that way and, for that matter, not really inclined anyway. Much of the economy inbuilt in kit homes and strawbale is about your own preparedness to do the hard labour. If it's dependent on me, it's simply not going to happen this lifetime. The best I could hope to pull off is project managing. Even that I feel inclined to delegate to someone more directive and less harmony-loving than me. I do have some people in mind!