melissapardoe

Uh Oh – FOX in the wombat village

Animals of Tanglewood – on the dam bank

The kangaroos and wallabies like hanging out on the dam bank early morning and late afternoon. The kangaroos often seem to use it as a boxing ring.

The mystery of the tree guards

Tree guards removed from newly planted trees – we know the kangaroos can’t do it. A trail camera shows us what happens…

Just to be clear…

This is where the council wanted us to build…. High fire risk, high biodiversity…. Home to endangered flora. This is where we wanted to build – land cleared for a gravelling operation – clearing and defendable space finishes before the tree line.

Planning Approval – what a mess

OMG, a couple of months after submission, we get a letter saying that the house will never be approved in the current location. The letter contains lots of factual errors, and a few odd details, but essentially says our driveway is too long. At the preplanning they raised this but said a secondary escape pathContinue reading “Planning Approval – what a mess”

Pre-Planning Meeting

So with a house design finalised and a site selected, we had a meeting with the council planners to make sure they would be likely to approve the plan, and make sure that we had all the paperwork together. The planner was a little concerned about the location, and asked us to come back inContinue reading “Pre-Planning Meeting”

Environment Overlay

Our land is also subject to an Environmental Significance Overlay, ESO2, as it contains excellent remnant bushland, with high biodiversity and very low weed infestation. It’s teeming with wildlife, from koalas (very noisy at night as they call to each other), black footed swamp wallabies to the front of the property, eastern grey kangaroos toContinue reading “Environment Overlay”

Bushfire Rating

Our property is subject to a Bushfire Management Overlay, so before we can apply to council for a building permit, we have to get a bushfire assessment and management plan prepared by a licenced practitioner. After asking around, we selected Euca Planning to prepare the report for us. We knew that we might have aContinue reading “Bushfire Rating”

The design

We finally settled on a design after a number of false starts. We always thought being owner builders would be fun, but decided it really wasn’t practical for us. We looked at a large volume builder (cheap, but not enough flexibility, quality concerns), architect (too expensive), designer and large builder who does custom homes. WeContinue reading “The design”

The Dream Home

We want to be carbon neutral and sustainable, but we don’t want to give up our creature comforts. We’d like to be as self sufficient as far as possible, but again without compromising lifestyle. The house will be big – we love large rooms – and will be built alongside the dam. Three bedrooms –Continue reading “The Dream Home”