Choosing a wood style

I've been inspired, lately, to undertake some DIY projects. In equal measures I'm motivated by a) my school community peers, who are mind-blowingly handy and resourceful; b) desire to save $$; and c) will to train up my own DIY capability so that I can be useful during our future build.

Upfront caveat: I'm pretty useless. That's my baseline. Fortunately, I'm not taking it too seriously at this stage, since our build is many years away and I have plenty of time to develop. My approach at the moment is to learn through experience... read: learn by mistakes.

My first DIY mistake task was to paint some bookcases. As background, I have a vision for my study/dream room to feature a French provincial turned leg table/desk much like this:

...matched with a beautiful fabric office chair and framed by a wall of bookcases. Roughly, this sort of styling, but with books:


A friend of a friend was offloading bookcases, so I scored two large black bookcases and a couple of smaller panel display units. Black wasn't any part of my vision and I decided to paint the new wares an off-white shade. Despite earnest efforts, the paint venture has taken months. This is what I've learned from this escapade:

1. Buy a good paint brush. I used a pastry brush - yes, from the kitchen - because buying a brush hadn't occurred to me when I bought the paint. Perhaps needless to say, I made the discovery that pastry brushes shed bristles with reckless abandon. I now know that the brush matters.
2. Sand before painting. I didn't. The paint peels off at the the slightest provocation.
3. Cleaning up is tedious. Use a drop sheet to catch the dribbles. If you're painting again tomorrow (which was often the case), wrap the brush in plastic wrap or foil - or even sit it in water rather than wasting gallons of water trying to clean it. Oh, and turps are good for cleaning too (apparently, I still haven't got that down pat).
4. Put the paint lid on tightly between paintings. Seems obvious, yet after a few pourings it became difficult to get the lid firmly back on. I learned the hard way that it pays to hammer it back on. The paint pot fell during a windy squall and off came the lid and out came the paint...

My next task was to rejuvenate an op shop table I bought for $40 (and then had to pay $100 to get delivered *eyeroll*). Learning my lessons, I started by sanding.

Frankly, I didn't do a great job of it. The sander instructions said to use a circular motion going with the grain. I did this, but the sander ended up scratching circles into the table. I've since been told to just sand straight along the grain. I've got a sandstone and will take the time to do it properly over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I was inspired to paint my benchseat, which is on view at the back of the above photo. I gave it a brisk sand - it didn't have any finish on it, so was really just to give the stain something to grip. I scrubbed it down with sugar soap and rinsed and dried it before I started painting.

I'm feeling mighty proud of my perseverance actually. I'm pleasantly surprised how rewarding I find this kind of manual labour. Still, it's got me thinking about wood stains. When I was choosing stains, I was instinctively drawn to the darkest stain, Jarrah. I *knew* it would end up too dark though, so I went for the second darkest (out of four) colour, Cedar. It looked lovely instore, but on my benchseat, it's too dark and too red. It wasn't what I wanted. It means the benchseat no longer matches my other outdoor furniture... although I have since painted a plant box the same colour, so at least something matches out there.

I'd actually bought the stain for the table, but just haven't got to painting it yet. I'm inclined to buy a different stain because I'm drawn to something subtler. But what? This matters, because from hereon I want any furniture I buy/restore to be part of the future strawbale home. It needs to be consistently styled.

Off the cuff, I would say that I like a polished golden honey colour. When I look at straw bale pictures, though, I am attracted to an unpolished rustic--almost weathered--wooden feel. Something like these:

I don't have a definitive answer at the moment. It's something I'm going to meditate on.

Addendum
So, I ended up choosing a warm honey varnish to finish my study table. I've been really happy with it over the past two years.

Last year I bought two weathered oak blanket boxes. This is the colour I'm drawn to, with the caveat that I'm actually not drawn to superfluous wood in house anyway. So it's mainly about the doors, window frames, bench seats and skirting (if desirable).

Choosing land

Aesthetics

I once saw a strawbale window view like this:

I happen to know that this house is otherwise awesome. But. Seriously? A beautiful arch window overlooking... a brick wall?

To my mind, the strawbale home is suited to a natural environment. It lends itself to a design that integrates nature.

Not sure this is strawbale, but the design elements could readily be adapted in strawbale.

Prefer a tree-inspired view myself, but I could still enjoy a lengthy daze out of this window.

My neck of the woods looks more like gumtrees than pine, but nonetheless; this. Lots of trees, please.

In my ideal, we would choose a property that was rich in views. For the next eight years, at least, we are tied to vicinity of our primary school. We moved out here specifically to attend this school, so it is very likely we will remain here at least until both boys are in high school. I personally have a preference for living within walking or cycling distance of school, which limits our ideal zones to the following.

Suburb	Vicinity to school	Views	Public transport	Likely size	Price range ($k)	Comment
Ww	Walking distance	Potentially	15 mins away	360 – 7100 m2	$360 - $650	Limited opportunity
WP	Neighbouring suburb	Awesome	20-25 mins away	Acreage	Unknown	Rare as hens teeth
Wd	Neighbouring suburb	Green wedge	25-30 mins away	1-5 acres	$515 - $900	Priced out
N Wd	Neighbouring suburb	Green wedge	35-45 mins away	1-2 acres	$290 - $390	Fire danger

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!

An idea is born

On the home fires front, I've given birth to an idea that I am super excited about. I want to buy a small vacant block and build an eco-friendly house. It is an idea in very embryonic form, but what I'm currently considering is a straw bale home. Here's a sampler of its beautiful earthy aesthetic.

 

 

 

It's apparently one of the most economical and eco-friendly building methods. I'm feeling drawn to building because the more I look at the property market, the more I realise — just like with renting — I'm going to end up paying through the nose to live in a house I don't even like. The dream would be to build a home we will all love, in walking vicinity of the boys' school, for the same cost otherwise of a pre-built home (that presumably we would neither love nor would be within school vicinity).

So, a wish is born. Let's see how it develops.