A busy month with no posting, so time to catch up.
We've had three visits down to our block over the past weeks with a few interesting developments.
Solar power -
Its looking more and more likely we will be going completely off-grid and setting up with enough solar power for our needs. This has come about because of the ridiculous costs we have been hearing to get connected to the grid. Apparently to connect to the mains power which is not more than 150 meters from our house site will cost 40 - 50 k! Potentially 40k alone to just get the power onto our property and then possibly up to 10k more to connect to the house. All for the pleasure of paying what will be ever increasing power bills.
In comparison we've had Bruce from Solar West (based just up the road from us in Nannup) come out for a long and interesting chat about a solar setup for around $35000. So valuable to have someone like Bruce up the road, who works with Solar power all over Western Australia including in the extreme conditions of the north west. Current plan is we will install the panels on our shed which will give us all the power we need for both the house and also have all the batteries and other vitals of the system stored away from the house.
Permaculture Plan -
Our local permaculture guru Jeff Nugent has completed our desktop plan for the block with a final walk thru and discussion on the 20th November. Initially we'll be focusing on the northern facing slopes near the house site where we'll be installing a number of swales (contour banks) to slow the water down as it runs down hill and building up green barriers to fire.
Strata Group -
Also on the 20th we met with the majority of the strata group at the yearly strata meeting and bbq. A lovely bunch of folks with a mix of permanent and weekender folks, with many looking to move in permanently which will be great to have more permanent neighbours in the fullness of time.
House Plans -
Heaps of work has been undertaken on the house front. Ali has been corresponding with Brian Hodge from Anvill and also Plans for People working on finalising the house plans. At present we've designed a 279 square metre 3 bedroom house, we'll post the plans as soon as we own them!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
All settled!
Thankfully all went well Friday with the settlement and we are now the proud owners of 16 acres of semi cleared chemical free land. This is of course the first really big step in our plans and we are both so stoked to have so easily found a spot that suits us well in such a beautiful part of the world.
A massive weekend for Ali and I and our boys (the dogs). We traveled down on Friday with a quick stop past Mum and Dads on the way thru for a cuppa, timing our arrival perfectly about an hour after the settlement had gone thru at midday, super keen! A warm afternoon was then spent getting a further feel for the place.
Camping is the order of the day for a while and after some Veuve Clicquot celebratory champagnes and campfire cooked stew our first night was interesting, getting an idea of the different winds throughout the night and experienced a few weird lights playing over the tent which looked just like someone approaching with a torch, a bit disquieting. We finally worked out they were car lights from the highway over a kilometre away (we think anyway, may well have been the blair witch).
Visitors all day saturday, first Ali's sister Katie and the kids Hallie, Guy and Minty who had a great time traipsing around the block looking thru the different plants, trying a mulberry or two and bit of stick sword fighting for good measure.
Our prospective plumber then arrived to discuss the installation of the Biolytix wastewater system. A great positive guy who's going thru a similar process on a larger scale 100 acre property.
And finally our friend Becs (with bounding Bruce the labrador) arrived for a cooked meal and a few too many wines in town.
A rainy Sunday brought the planned visit of Jeff Nugent from SARI . Jeff is a permaculture guru who will be helping us with a design for the site. Jeff is a hugely interesting character with many insights about the history of the block and its remnant garden design which was apparently done when the original surrounding farm was divided up to be a permaculture village.
Jeff also had some interesting advice onhouse sites and the relateive fire safety aspects of stump foundations or a concrete slab. Fire safety may well be the deciding factor to go with a slab.
After a morning walking the block discussing the myriad plants and treees, and getting soaked by supposedly the first good rains of the year, my sister Miranda and her partner Darren, and kids Jack Dimity and Bill showed up by surprise, so we postponed the rest of the consultation with Jeff until our next visit.
Darren had some really valuable insights into how we could get power from the boundaries of the block to the main house site, and the relative costs. He is a linesman for Western Power and he and Miranda have a property just outside Bunbury so have recently been through the whole process themselves. Depending on the final tally up (may be as high as tens of thousands!) when we get some quotes from local electricians we may even go the wholly solar route. This does feel like a bit of a high wire act though, with another steep learning curve around batteries and very strict minimisation of our power needs.
Its interesting how the learning progresses; we think we are completely set on one strategy or design but the perspective of those in the know change things almost every time. I guess this is showing all plans are fluid until we talk with someone with current experience and a neutral (non-profit) mind set.
Our big weekend ended as we hit the road with tons to think of on our way back to Perth Sunday afternoon. Thanks everybody who made the trek down to us, its very heartening to hear others as positive about the block as we are.
A massive weekend for Ali and I and our boys (the dogs). We traveled down on Friday with a quick stop past Mum and Dads on the way thru for a cuppa, timing our arrival perfectly about an hour after the settlement had gone thru at midday, super keen! A warm afternoon was then spent getting a further feel for the place.
Camping is the order of the day for a while and after some Veuve Clicquot celebratory champagnes and campfire cooked stew our first night was interesting, getting an idea of the different winds throughout the night and experienced a few weird lights playing over the tent which looked just like someone approaching with a torch, a bit disquieting. We finally worked out they were car lights from the highway over a kilometre away (we think anyway, may well have been the blair witch).
Visitors all day saturday, first Ali's sister Katie and the kids Hallie, Guy and Minty who had a great time traipsing around the block looking thru the different plants, trying a mulberry or two and bit of stick sword fighting for good measure.
Our prospective plumber then arrived to discuss the installation of the Biolytix wastewater system. A great positive guy who's going thru a similar process on a larger scale 100 acre property.
And finally our friend Becs (with bounding Bruce the labrador) arrived for a cooked meal and a few too many wines in town.
A rainy Sunday brought the planned visit of Jeff Nugent from SARI . Jeff is a permaculture guru who will be helping us with a design for the site. Jeff is a hugely interesting character with many insights about the history of the block and its remnant garden design which was apparently done when the original surrounding farm was divided up to be a permaculture village.
Jeff also had some interesting advice onhouse sites and the relateive fire safety aspects of stump foundations or a concrete slab. Fire safety may well be the deciding factor to go with a slab.
After a morning walking the block discussing the myriad plants and treees, and getting soaked by supposedly the first good rains of the year, my sister Miranda and her partner Darren, and kids Jack Dimity and Bill showed up by surprise, so we postponed the rest of the consultation with Jeff until our next visit.
Darren had some really valuable insights into how we could get power from the boundaries of the block to the main house site, and the relative costs. He is a linesman for Western Power and he and Miranda have a property just outside Bunbury so have recently been through the whole process themselves. Depending on the final tally up (may be as high as tens of thousands!) when we get some quotes from local electricians we may even go the wholly solar route. This does feel like a bit of a high wire act though, with another steep learning curve around batteries and very strict minimisation of our power needs.
Its interesting how the learning progresses; we think we are completely set on one strategy or design but the perspective of those in the know change things almost every time. I guess this is showing all plans are fluid until we talk with someone with current experience and a neutral (non-profit) mind set.
Our big weekend ended as we hit the road with tons to think of on our way back to Perth Sunday afternoon. Thanks everybody who made the trek down to us, its very heartening to hear others as positive about the block as we are.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Settlement date set.
Things are edging forward with our block purchase, a settlement date has been set for 8th October, so a bit over two weeks still to wait. We are looking at going down this weekend for a final inspection and to take some pics to post here for all to see.
Will be good to have some new pics to daydream over and begin the all important thinking and discussion about house locations with a clearer picture of the place in our heads.
We're also hoping to meet up with a rep from Biolytix who we are going to purchase our wastewater system from. A Biolytix wastewater system is an Aussie invention which will allow us to put all wastewater (black and grey) into it and get irrigation quality water out.
At the moment we are realising the scope of what we're about to undertake. Off the top of my head the list is as follows;
Will be good to have some new pics to daydream over and begin the all important thinking and discussion about house locations with a clearer picture of the place in our heads.
We're also hoping to meet up with a rep from Biolytix who we are going to purchase our wastewater system from. A Biolytix wastewater system is an Aussie invention which will allow us to put all wastewater (black and grey) into it and get irrigation quality water out.
At the moment we are realising the scope of what we're about to undertake. Off the top of my head the list is as follows;
- Purchase shed
- Decide on shed locations with reference to location of eventual house, Biolytix system and rainwater tank
- Council building approval for the shed which we intend to live in while building, and approval to actually live in it!
- Dig trench for power and phone according to the required specs
- Organise phone and power companies to connect us to the grid - $$$
- Site works and concrete pad laid for the shed and for the tank
- Erect shed
- Purchase and erect water tank.
- Finish work and move in to begin the real list!
Friday, September 17, 2010
The block
Big news today; we've had the final word on the sale of our investment house, all clear on the finance for our tenant which means we can complete the offer process on our Nannup block. A big relief as the process went right down to the wire around 4.30 this afternoon, with Ali doing a great job as usual chasing everyone up.
The process has been quite fraught really, as when we first went down to look at the block it was under offer so we'd had to wait to see if that fell thru (which it obviously did). Bad luck for someone else but great for us. I said on the day our offer was accepted that I felt like we'd just one the lottery, and it feels even better today to know the finance process will be going thru okay. Both of us feel like it was meant to happen.
Even though we were quite sure things would go thru there is always that feeling at the back of your mind that something might happen to mess things up, but thankfully all is well!
So 16 acres on a hillside ten kms south of Nannup will soon be formally ours.
The process has been quite fraught really, as when we first went down to look at the block it was under offer so we'd had to wait to see if that fell thru (which it obviously did). Bad luck for someone else but great for us. I said on the day our offer was accepted that I felt like we'd just one the lottery, and it feels even better today to know the finance process will be going thru okay. Both of us feel like it was meant to happen.
Even though we were quite sure things would go thru there is always that feeling at the back of your mind that something might happen to mess things up, but thankfully all is well!
So 16 acres on a hillside ten kms south of Nannup will soon be formally ours.
So what are we all doing here?
Welcome to the little chronicle of our move toward the good life. The idea behind this blog is to setup a space for our friends and family to keep up with our progress toward the big move from a suburban lifestyle in White Gum Valley near Fremantle Western Australia, to a more sustainable, balanced and diverse life in Nannup Western Australia.
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