Is it possible to have confidence in building a home whilst living remotely from the site?

This homeowner shares the steps they took to ensure they achieved a quality outcome, whilst living 3.5 hours away from their site and future home.

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Hello! This is Episode 326, and it’s Part 2 of my conversation with HOME Method member, June, about their new build of their retirement home in the West Australian coastal town of Green Head. 

If you haven’t listened to Part 1, be sure to head back to Episode 325, where you’ll hear June discuss how they thought about ageing in place in their design, and the decisions they made for their coastal location with its harsher conditions. You can find the episode and a downloadable transcript here.

In this episode, we dive into some of the details of windows and external cladding, and choices made for the location’s conditions and climate resilience. 

June discusses how she worked with her team, and her realisation that she didn’t have to be the one to solve all the problems whilst she ensured she was getting the quality outcome she wanted in her home.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

I also discuss how June and her partner managed communication with the builder remotely, and the methods they used to check the build along the way, given they were living 3.5 hours from the site.

And June shares how they set themselves up to make good decisions based on knowledge instead of guessing.

Lastly, be sure to listen out for the mic drop at the end about June’s home’s energy efficiency star rating. She snuck that in right at the end and blew me away!

It’s so brilliant to hear how June and her partner took the time to set themselves up so well in their project, getting ready before they dived in, ensuring that they could get things right the first time.

I speak to a lot of homeowners who feel they need to be on site so regularly, really staying on top of progress so they can keep an eye on the builder and ensure everything is being done correctly and well. 

However, you can see that with the right education, knowing the questions to ask and understanding the process, you can work well with your team, and manage your project confidently even when it’s 3.5 hours away.

Plus, it’s amazing to hear how June and her partner rationalised what they really needed and prioritised as they managed their budget. 

It’s so fantastic to think of them moving into their finished home and getting to enjoy a place that truly reflects them and their lifestyle, whilst being low maintenance, comfortable and energy efficient. 

As June said “From complete ignorance you can train yourself to build a house that works really well”.

Before we jump in, here’s a reminder about the timing of June’s project.

June joined HOME Method in October 2021. This conversation was recorded in mid April, 2024, with June only a few weeks away from moving into her finished home.

Listen to Part 2 of my conversation with June (and catch up on Part 1 here).

This is the transcript of my conversation with June about building a home whilst living remotely from the site.

Amelia Lee
The glazing that you’ve selected, what did you end up doing for your windows?

June 
We’ve gone for UPVC, double glazing. Again, uPVC doesn’t rust, doesn’t corrode in the coastal thing. And yeah, they’re great. We found someone in Perth that’s got a really good reputation for doing good. And the price of them has come down a lot. From when we started designing, when double glazing was really expensive, a lot of people were importing it directly from China to cut costs. Nowadays, it’s actually not too bad. I mean, we did cut down on the number of windows to meet that budget, because it is expensive. And it was one of the things I was quite nervous about, because I had cut down on the amount of window glazing, and I was thinking have we got enough to have to be dark and pokey because it’s lovely to have all these big windows. But it made us pretty intentional about the window that every window has to be there for a reason. And the size has to be rationalised. Why are we having this size? Why is this window here? Okay, it’s to capture this view to bring light in. It’s to bring winter sun in. It’s to vent, cross ventilate. So every window was very, very intentional, and the size was very intentional. So it made us think really carefully about the windows. And so once the house got to lock up, that was the stage for great trepidation, going to inspect it and going, “Oh, are there enough windows?” And we were so relieved, going, “Yeah, it looks good. It frames the bush, it lets the sun.” Everything worked out really well. So we were super happy about the windows.

Amelia Lee
Oh, that sounds brilliant June and such a worthwhile rationalisation from a budget point of view to be so intentional about what the job that they needed to do, and to make sure that you weren’t just mindlessly adding them for the sake of it, but actually testing that. The PHPP modelling, did the consultant do some PHPP modelling for you? Or did you still just stick with a NatHERS energy efficiency assessment to see the energy efficiency of the home? How did you work that input of information through your decision making?

June
So for the actual design, there’s a government website which I used a lot in guiding the design for passive solar and passive cooling. So maximising your north facing windows, minimising the south facing windows, we’ve only got one window on the west side. But I did want that window because that’s the approach to the house. And if you hear a car arriving, you want to be able to look out a window and see people coming. So for me, that window is really important. So I’ve made it not too big, and we’re going to have to put some sort of external shading on it. And then on the east side, that’s the main outlook on the east side, looks towards the bush. And so we had quite big windows on that side but we’ve got it shaded with a deep veranda. We’ve got a three metre wide veranda there which gets really nice shade over, that’s quite big windows. So that was with the windows. 

We went for 60 centimetre eave, which is what we were recommended to go for. Having been here through autumn, I would say that in autumn, it’s actually really hot and too much sun comes in those north facing windows in autumn. And it was really interesting talking to a neighbour because she’d use very similar principles on building her house. And she said, “Yeah, we’re getting too much sun in autumn, it’s good in spring.” And so it’s problem with the autumn is hotter than spring. So you want the sun in spring, and you don’t want so much in autumn. And the only way really to get around that is to have some sort of versatile external shading. So we’re going to put something over the windows that you can roll up and down basically, with like a shade mesh so that we can control it. Because there’s no way to do completely passively and get those angles right, because obviously, this problem with spring versus autumn. I presume it’s the same on the east coast. From the West Coast, you have a really hot autumn compared to spring.

Amelia Lee
Yeah it can be, definitely, and I think that’s the thing, as long as you can create a solution that has some flexibility to it. Motorised external blinds are a really great option, be it a fabric one that is a dark shade blind, because it will still when it’s down be able to be seen through so the darker the colour, the more transparent it ends up being visually, and also has high solar protection coefficients on it and things like that. And then if you can get it motorised so that it’s attached to a switch control on the inside then that can be really handy for you. They’ve got wind sensors on them. The other option, but it’s probably not suitable given the coastal location, is that you can get a motorised aluminium. They’re like s high grade basically external venetian blind but they’ve got nice scalloped blades and elliptical blades, so they can stay down and rotate in position, as well as be up and down. So you can have them down and rotate them based on what the angles are to provide that shade. And then also just have them disappear both out of view. But I think the sun shade blinds will be a much more economical solution than the metal ones. And obviously, for a coastal location, they probably are going to be a little bit more resilient as well.

June
And I’m not sure how resilient the motorised option would be, that’s something we still got to look at. So in Perth, our house, we had the wind out ones where they come out at an angle. And the problem with those is when it’s windy, they just bang around. So when you got strong wind, you have to put them away, so they wouldn’t work so well here. I’m looking more at the ones that have a channel and they just run straight down into the wind so the wind can’t catch them. Because it’s windy here all the time, which is great for us, but not so great for the house. And also thinking about the bushfire thing, you probably wouldn’t want to go for something that would burn badly. Something just melts and falls off is okay, you probably wouldn’t want canvas or something. I was thinking it’d be really nice to have timber shutters, but then you’ve got to go for specific types of timber that aren’t going to catch fire. It gets complicated, balancing the bushfire, the corrosion, the wind, the sand. Because we’re very close to the beach, we’re only 500 metres from the beach, sand’s flying everywhere.

Amelia Lee
Fantastic for lifestyle though. And so, maybe if we have a chat about construction, because I can imagine if you were thinking about the Passive House principles in the design process, did you then look at doing blower door tests and things like that to test the air tightness as you’re navigating construction? And was the builder somebody that had an understanding of Passive House and air tightness? How did you marry all of that together in terms of the execution of the actual build?

June
So our builder is Passivhaus certified. Not sure if he’s built a full Passive House yet, he’s quite a new builder. He’s a small builder, we were a bit concerned going with a small builder, because it’s a high risk, it’s a new business, he doesn’t have a reputation. But in the long run, I think that was actually lower risk than going with these established big companies who are over committing themselves, basically. Whereas he was managing it very carefully because he’s a small builder. And the other thing is, he’s still trying to build his reputation. So he’s very anxious to do a really good job, whereas the big companies a bit like, “Everyone’s coming to us, we don’t have to worry so much.” So in hindsight, it was really good decision to go with a small builder. He’s been really good. He’s been a great communicator, and he’s been great to build with. And he’s from Italy, was a civil engineer, which also appealed to me. I like the idea of an engineer building my house because he’s going to have a better understanding of structure and things. So that worked out really well.

Amelia Lee
Did he do a blower door test as he was moving through?

June
Okay, so yeah, so we talked about the blower door test. Because we decided not to go full Passive House, and blower door test is expensive to come all the way up here. Everything gets expensive because there’s travel and it takes more than a day, it’s accommodation, we decided to forgo the blower door test, not do that. We thought it doesn’t have to be perfect Passive House here because of the mild climate. It’s not like it’s a really extreme climate, if anything it’s going to be too hot, I guess, rather than too cold. So we decided not to go that way, we’ll just try and build it as well as possible. So that was one of the things that we did make the effort to come up and inspect was once they’ve done the wrap and the tape, we came up, made sure it was properly taped, that every hole was taped over. And we did have to keep an eye on some of the trades. Local trades like the plumbers and electricians weren’t familiar with Passivhaus, and so we had to keep saying to him, “Oh, you can’t put that hole there, and you can’t cut a big hole in insulation here.” And we had to keep explaining to them that the style of this house was that everything had to be really well sealed. After they put all their holes in, they had to get back and tape everything. And we insulated the sides of the slab as well, and when the electrician had to put a hole in, he had to cut through the slab to get the electrical cables in. Then they had to go back and re-insulate that side of the slab they were here to cut away and things like that.  

So because Passivhaus is such a new thing, you have to be really watching what people are doing and making sure they’re adhering to that. Because when we were designing the house, we spoke to a few people, we were put onto some people to look at their houses. So for example, one woman who was building a house of SIPs, and she let us come and look at her new build, and it was great. People were fantastic about showing you their houses, you can knock on the doors, “We love your house, can we see it?” And people go, “Yeah, come on in.” 

And the trades have done some terrible things. The electrician had put this huge hole in the SIPs panel, and that’s not the way you’re meant to do it. You pre meld really nice neat holes, and it’s all really good. You’re not meant to cut the polystyrene on site, it’s meant to all cut in the factory. And I just looked at this and I thought, “Oh my goodness, yeah, you do have to be really careful because people don’t know how to deal with these new materials. They don’t know how to deal with the new ideas. So you do have to be watching them.” And that’s why it’s really hard building remotely because we couldn’t watch everything that was going on all the time.

Amelia Lee
Great though that the builder was Passivhaus trained, because at least then you’ve got a great big leg up in them understanding the principles and the importance of that air tightness. Are you doing a mechanical recovery ventilation system in it?

June
Yes, we’ve got a heat recovery ventilation system. I think that’s going to be commissioned next week. So they’ve got all the ducting done, and they just got to put in the vents and do the balancing and make sure it works properly. And that’s going to be really interesting because one of the things you love about nature’s we can hear the ocean, we can hear the birds, and you get in that house and you shut all the windows and it’s just dead silence, you can’t hear a thing. And we’re thinking, we’ll just open the window so you can hear the bird. Because it’s just so quiet with the double glazing and you’ll never have to open a window because we got the ventilation. So that’s going to be something really different to what we’re used to, living in a house where you just open all everything all the time, unless it’s really hot and you want that air conditioner on. We’re used to just open everything up and enjoying nature. It’s going to be very different being insulated from the outside.

Amelia Lee
And mind you, it’s very windy, or the sands all flying around, or it’s 45 degrees outside, then you’ll probably be very appreciative that you can close the windows and still be comfortable and get fresh air.

June
Oh yeah, in our friend’s house we’re staying in the moment, it’s a traditional old beach cottage. And there’s louvres and yeah, the house is just dirty all the time, there’s always dust and sand and everything’s full of salt and stuff. So I think it will really help the cleaning of the house if we can just seal it. You won’t get all that sand and dirt and dust in it, it’d be nice because I don’t want to spend my retirement cleaning a house.

Amelia Lee
That’s very wise.

June
It’s the last thing I want to do.

Amelia Lee
I mean, we live on acreage, and our house is open most of the time, there’s windows open. Not every window is screened so you do end up having insects coming in and spider’s webs and dust on floors and things like that. So it’s very different than when you’re living in an environment where there’s a fair bit more concrete around and everything’s tamped down a lot more. So I’m really excited to see what it’s like for you living in that kind of experience. And, I suppose, being able to moderate it. That’s the whole premise, isn’t it, that you get to have control, you actually get to have a say about when you do decide to open it up to all of the elements here, all of that sound, the weather, all those kinds of things, and then choose to close it down, should the need arise. So it’s going to be really interesting to see how that goes for you in terms of changing your experience in your home.

June
Yeah, it’ll be really different. And I think yeah, there’s lovely autumn days when it’s still and it’s beautiful, you just open it up and enjoy the outside. That’s another interesting thing is with the double glazing and the European style double glazing, the windows are these tilt and turn. So the windows open inwards, they’re quite big, most of our windows, except for the bathroom ones. So you have to actually design interior rooms so there’s somewhere for the window to open to, because you’re used to having sliding windows or windows open outward and you never have to think about what’s inside of the window. So you actually have to think which way is it going to swing, it’s not going to hit the furniture or stuff like that, which is something I don’t think we normally think about. And it’d be terrible if you designed it and then you couldn’t actually open your window because stuff was always in the way. So yeah, they have bedroom windows where we split it 50/50 and they’re quite nice big windows, half is fixed and half of it opens in, it’s just going to sweep over the top of the furniture. Yeah, there’s a lot of things to think about with the tilt and turn. But you can always just do the tilt, which is quite nice as well.

Amelia Lee
The benefit of those tilt and turns is obviously that you get to clean them from the inside as well. You’re not having to stand around the outside of your house to clean those windows, which is a really good asset of that design.

June
Yeah, and if you can’t take the screens off like our previous house, we actually had to pull the windows out and put them on the floor once to wash the back of the windows if the screen’s on the other side, which is a pain. You don’t want to do that as you’re getting older. Ageing in Place things.

Amelia Lee
I love it, the future proofing, thinking about how easy this home’s going to contain and clean is a very, very wise one. So you’re not spending a fortune getting people around to do that over the duration of living in your home. 

Now, I wanted to ask, you mentioned along the way, managing your budget, making decisions that were driven by figuring out how you’re going to balance the costs of the project, and also navigating hiccups and hurdles along the way as well because you had, as you said, that owner of that business passing away, having to change the construction methodology… How did you navigate this yourself? How did you tap into the resources of HOME Method, navigate it from a mental point of view, manage your stress through all of that, because no project is hiccup free, it’s a custom home, it’s the first time it’s ever been built on this site, so these things do happen. Your ability to handle them makes the difference to how it impacts your life and your project. Can you, I suppose, share some tips and advice with listeners about what you did to set yourself up to navigate this and it be okay, in terms of how you’re moving through?

June
Yeah, well I’m really glad that we took a long time to design the house. To my mind, that was the most important thing, because you only really get one opportunity to build a house. And if you stuffed it up, you can say, “Well, I’ll sell it and move on.” But it’s somebody else’s problem then. So I think it’s really, really important to get the design right. I’m so glad we had a long time to do that. We’ve really had a lot of time to think about it. And there were a couple of tools, ideas I used to plan that. And one of them I called scenario planning, which is you just imagine things you do every day. So I think, “Okay, I come home from the shops with the groceries, where am I going to park the car? How am I going to pack them? How do I navigate to the kitchen? Now I don’t want to have to walk a contorted path from the car to the kitchen. If it’s really hot, will I be parking on the cover if it’s raining? Hanging out the washing, I’ve done the washing, how do I get to the washing line?” Ordinary, everyday things like that. 

And then there’s also the things that are special to you and your lifestyle. So because we’ll be at the beach, and maybe we’ve been surfing, and you come back and you’re wet and sandy, where are you going to wash off, where are you going to wash down, and where are you going to wash out your wetsuit, where are you going to hang it out? And so we did a lot of scenario planning, even to the point of I get up in the middle of the night and I have to go to the toilet, how far do I have to go? Am I going to trip over things? Is the toilet really close to the bedroom? Whereas in our previous house, you’d have to go up and down stairs for a lot of things because it was double storey. And that was a pain. And so we did a lot of thinking, because I sleep really badly so I’ll often get up at night and go to the kitchen. So if I want to go into the kitchen, I have to think about the lighting because I don’t want it to be really bright. So like dimmer switches in certain places so that I go and turn on dim, I can make myself a cup of tea, and then go back to bed. 

So there was a lot of this how will we move around the house, thinking about the different scenarios that you go through on a day to day basis. And we’ve got a dog, a little dog, and if the weather’s bad and you want to exercise indoors, it’s nice to have a hallway, you can throw the ball up and down the hallway with pets. I know when we were children, we loved having hallways in the house because they made your play areas when the weather’s bad. You chase the pets up and down the hallways and you throw balls up and down the hall. So thinking about how you’re going to do your day to day activities, how you’re going to move around the house, it was really, really useful. 

And in terms of actually construction of the house, I actually made a scale model of the house out of posterboard. The first house, when I tried to do the roof, I thought, “Oh my goodness, this is really complicated. This is a really bad design.” And I think if I can make it in a poster board, they can build it easily, that’s the way I was thinking. And if it’s too hard to make in a poster board, it’s going to be horrible to build, and you’re going to have all these awful things. So I think those two things just really, really helped me come up with a design that was going to work and that was going to be good to build, easy to build, and it’s going to really work really well. So that was really good. And then, I think, because there’s two of us, I think that really helps, you can bounce ideas off each other. I think you really need someone to talk to you. Because there’s a lot of decisions you make yourself, but then there’s other decisions that you’re really not sure and it’s good to have someone to talk through. So I think it’s really good to have people you can talk ideas through with, and even just friends, and even if they have no idea what you’re talking about, even just having to express it to them really helps you get your ideas in order. So I think things like that are really helpful. 

And finding as much information as you can, like obviously on your website, the government. There’s this government website that they’ve updated it since we started, it was pretty primitive when I was first designing, they didn’t have much of the passive ideas at all. But they’ve really improved that a lot now. It’s really good, it’s got lots of nice, simple ideas explained really simply. So that’s really great. And YouTube is another excellent source of information, finding out about Passive House stuff and all the wraps and stuff. There’s a builder in New Zealand who does these excellent YouTube videos showing exactly how he builds a passive style house, and that was just fantastic. So stuff like that, which really gets into the nitty gritty of how houses are built. 

And it’s like when you drive a car, you can get in a car and just drive it, but if you understand how a car works, you can be a much better driver. I think if you understand how people build, you can design a better house because you’re taking into mind how it works structurally. And I think the more information you get, the better. Obviously, I was working full time then, and so you’re balancing work, it gets really stressful, especially when someone comes to you, the builder comes through with a question, you think, “Yeah, I don’t have time to look at this. Can I tell you next week? I need a weekend to do it.” And they want an answer now and you go, “I can’t tell you till Monday because I need a weekend to think about it.” And sometimes you do rush through decisions, especially towards the end, the small cascading kind of decisions. 

And I think the biggest mistake we made was we decided to do a carport and verandah using Stratco. And we got that up, and then they’re going, “Oh, how are you going to do the lights?” Because there’s no ceiling space, because it’s a polystyrene sandwich, there’s no ceilings. So we talked to Stratco and they said, “Oh, we’ve got our system doing it.” But, already, we were too far down the track to integrate it properly. And they’ve got a system which is meant to be really streamlined, but it was sort of like an ad hoc decision, and it hadn’t been thought through carefully, and we hadn’t read all the information properly. We haven’t done a good job of that. 

And I think that was the thing we find most frustrating was those Stratco light system, because if we designed it from the start, we would design it properly and understood how to do it and read all the information. But it was kind of done in this ad hoc basis. There was a few times we were just pulling our hair, where do the transformers, the lights go? We haven’t cut the right size holes. We can’t take it down now, it’s there. And so now, our poor electricians, we’re just going, “Your problem.” And at some point, I tend to take problems on board, I go, “We got to solve this.” And I’d be, “No, I don’t have to solve this. It’s their problem. That’s what they’re paid to do, they have to solve it. But I tend to always think, “This is our problem.” And then I think, “No, no, at some point you’ve got to hand that problem over to someone else to say, ‘Do your best, just do your best. And I’m going to stand back and let you do your thing.'” And it’s quite hard to let go some time.

Amelia Lee
You can definitely be, and I think it’s a really good point to make because we can take far too much ownership of those things and forget that there’s a team in place, that is their role and responsibility. And actually, from a risk management point of view, you’re much better placed to ensure that it’s their role and responsibility to solve these things for you so that you’re not over owning the responsibility of those decisions in your project. 

But I think that that just comes with being informed about this stuff that when you actually do your dive into things like HOME Method and the other research that you’re doing, and you see how much there is to know to do it well, and yet you realise that most people are walking through their projects without this level of information, and most teams are not used to having clients that have this level of education, that you are just wanting to make sure that you’re dotting all your T’s and crossing all your I’s and getting it done. So I can understand that the carport would have been a frustration for you because you would have gone, “Oh, we should have anticipated this. We should have known that, we should have…” And at the same time, you have a company like Stratco who has a very systemised, efficient way of delivering for a reason, because it’s what keeps them economical. But what I love is that that only happened on your carport, it didn’t happen on your entire house, and it could have happened on your house. But it didn’t because you chose to get yourself educated and informed about it. Whereas a lot of people have that happen on their entire house, that’s the experience that they have for their entire house. So yeah, it’s really awesome.

Can I just ask you quickly about the builder and navigating that remotely? He’s been operating since September on your site, you’ve only been living there for the last little while. How have you navigated the communication and understanding what was going on site so you had some certainty and confidence that things were going as they needed to, without you needing to be there doing a regular site meeting and inspecting site yourself to see how things are going? How did that work out in your project?

June
So we chose critical times when we decided when we want to make sure things are done properly. So the installation and the building wrap were really important to us to get that done properly, because that’s something you can’t come back from. We say some things you can come back and fix some things you can’t. So it was really important deciding on those. In the initial stages, the builder took some drone footage and a whole lot of photos. And we set up a share site on Google Docs, and he put everything there. So that was great to see that initial build go up, the slab go in, and all the walls and the wrap and stuff. So that went in.

And then I think there was a bit of a break where the other trades were coming in and things were getting a bit complicated, and we just thought, “Oh we’ll stand back and let this happen.” And then got to lock up, had a look at lock up, we’re happy with everything. And then because we’re getting very close to the end now and we’re thinking, “Well, there’s little bits and pieces that we could see that we weren’t thinking, what about this? What about this?” And because we didn’t have that expertise, we didn’t really know. Because the paint is coming up from Perth, and we wanted everything to be right before the painter came up. And there were gaps and things, and things we worried about, the bushfire compliance gaps, and we’re going, “We can sit down and do all this.” And we made a list and sent it to the builder, but we didn’t know what was important and what wasn’t. And we were feeling really uncertain. So in the end, we decided to bring in a building inspector, and the building inspector’s also a bushfire rating person so that was great. So he could check it for the bushfire compliance and the building inspection. And we’re so glad we did that, it was great. 

The builder came up to site for the day when the guy was there, and they went around. And because he was a new builder, he was super enthusiastic to learn. He was really open minded about the inspection, was really interested what the guy would find. And so that was a really good day where we all went around, and the building inspector showed us things. And one of the really good things, he had a thermal camera. And he actually found one section where the carpenters had forgotten to put the insulation in the wall. There’s no window there, but it’s red. So that was really great that we managed to cut that out, and they put some stuff in before the painter started. Because if they’d done it after painting, the painter would have had to come back up. And it was interesting, because once you pointed it out, you could put your hand on the wall, and you could feel it because it was on the north wall. And of course, now the sun at this time of year is hitting the north wall. And you could just feel the heat coming through on that one section where there wasn’t insulation. 

So that was great, we went through it. There were a lot of places on the exterior where we had to fill in gaps for the bushfire compliance. That was the main thing. And most of the stuff, it was just stuff that the paint was going to fill in anyway. So it was just touch up, wasn’t anything we had to worry about. But you don’t know when you go, “What’s this gap and what’s this gap? And why is this not smooth? And they chipped it here. Can’t we just cut that straight, and we just put a few more screws in?” So none of it was major, it was great. It was really nice to know, the inspector said, “Look, on the whole, it’s really well built. This is way better than most houses I look at, inspect at this stage.” So we were both going, “Oh, this is such a worthwhile exercise to do. It’s put our minds at rest. We know everything was minor.” They came up and they fixed everything. And it only took them a couple of days to fix most of the stuff that needed doing. So yeah, that was just great. We’re really glad we got that done. 

I would highly recommend, if people are worried and not sure about their own ability to judge how the house is going, to get someone in and just give them that peace of mind that things have gone right. It was actually quite funny because about the time we were doing it, you put out that email with a link to someone’s house being inspected. Yeah, I was watching that going, “Oh my goodness.”

Amelia Lee
Yeah, there’s an inspector on YouTube that does videos of terrible houses. Like he’s inspecting houses that are just diabolical. Did you use the pre completion checklist that’s in HOME Method at all? Did you use that to guide some of that initial review?

June
No, I haven’t, but that will be the next step. Because we were going to do a pre completion thing. And then we thought, “No, that’s bad timing because that’s too late. We need it done now before the painter goes in.” So that’s why we’ve done this now. So then the next step will be the pre completion, checking to make sure all that is right. But we’re pretty confident it’s going to be fairly minor stuff. Yeah, it’s the stage, I think, now, we know that construction wise, it’s great. So now it’s all really cosmetic stuff. 

Amelia Lee
Fantastic. June, before we wrap up, are you able to share how you used HOME Method and how it helped you? You mentioned interviewing the builder and that kind of stuff. Our members inside HOME Method do their projects all sorts of different ways. You described that you had an architect do the initial design, then you redesigned it, then you went to the builder, had their draftsperson draw it up. So it’s great because you’re a living example of a different approach to that traditional sort of working with an architect, construction, documentation, or the PAC Process, and it’s turned out really well for you in terms of your ability to choose your team really well, and then be informed through that process. How has HOME Method helped you navigate your project, and where you particularly used it to give you the tools that you needed to make good decisions as you moved through your project journey?

June
I think we used it mostly near the beginning. It was very much about informing ourselves about the process, what happens when you build. I hate going into things when I don’t understand what I’m doing. You know, that feeling of, “Is this right, is this wrong?” and you don’t have any way to judge. So it was really nice to have the knowledge there to just go into that process, ask the right questions, and have the confidence that you could make good decisions because they’re based on knowledge rather than guessing. A lot of times, I feel like you want to ask questions, but you don’t know what questions to ask. You go to the doctor, and they tell you, “Oh, you’ve got this, any questions?” And you sit there going, “I don’t know, tell me what questions I should be asking.” And it’s the same, you don’t know what questions to ask. So you need knowledge to actually be able to ask sensible and useful questions. So that was really, really useful.  

So when I got into HOME Method, I just requested to get into everything early, and I just went through everything. You tend to be a bit of a sponge and just absorb everything early. And so I just sucked it all up, and then started the planning process. 

So I was even looking at Interior Design, and I think it’s important to do that. Because if you come to do the interior design later, and then you find you what you’ve done isn’t compatible, then it’s too late. So I think it’s really important to think about your interior design when you’re actually doing designing, where the walls are. One of my pet hates is corner cupboards in kitchens. I hate corner cupboards in kitchens, so we specifically designed the kitchen so there’s no corner cupboards. So things like that you can do very early on, you can say, “I’m going to put the walls like this. And so there’s no way I have a corner cupboard in this kitchen”, and things like that. So in that way, it was really nice just to go through your entire course really quickly as my first path. And then later on, we could go, “Okay, we’ll go back to this bit. And we’ll go back to that bit, and learn a bit more about this or that thing.” So I found having the entire course there, rather than having to do one thing, and then the next and the next.

Amelia Lee
I think you’ve done an exceptional job. Listening to your conversation and hearing you talk about like that scenario planning, which we talk about being that design detective and thinking through how you want to live in your future home, right through to all of those daily detail things, and then the special events, and then really mentally rehearsing all of that movement. All of that is just music to my ears, because that’s the difference. That’s what makes a functional, convenient, fun, enjoyable home that actually supports your lifestyle, because you’ve thought it through and really made intentional considerations. 

And I think some people struggle going, “Well, I haven’t lived in a house in this way before.” We’ve obviously got members who’ve got small kids, and they can’t picture perhaps what it might be like to live in a house with teenagers. So how do they then mentally rehearse what the house needs, and it’s like, “Well, once you actually start opening your mind to seeing your life and your built environment that way, it’s amazing then what shows up to give you clues about what you could need, what’s going to work for you and what you start to see. But if you’ve not even, I suppose, invited yourself to have that perspective about your life and to study the way that you move through space and the way they interact with things, and you’re just going with the status quo of what you’re being told you should have in a home, then it’s very difficult to make decisions that are going to be tailored to you. And I love that you’ve gone through that cost assessment of creating two big multifunctional rooms rather than trying to squeeze your budget around a three bedroom, two bathroom house, and really made some very intentional choices that I’m sure are going to serve you very well as you move into this time. To wrap up, can you share with us what are you actually most excited about? Thinking you’re weeks away, what are you most looking forward to and moving into this home?

June
Oh, we just can’t wait. It’s going to be so nice to live in a house that suit us and our lifestyle. And I guess one of the things that was a really big bonus about the house was that our energy efficiency rating NatHERS rating came back, it’s a 9.2 star, just blew us away. Because when we engaged the builder, I said, “Look, I want something that’s eight star.” Because that’s what I’d read, eight star is really good. Because when you go above that, you’re spending a lot of extra money with smaller gain. So I said, “We want eight star.” And he said, “Yeah, no problem.” And so when it came back at nine star, we were just like, “Oh my goodness. Celebration.” 

So yeah, from complete ignorance, you can train yourself to build a house that performs really well. So that was super exciting. We were so excited to get there. But yeah, we just can’t wait to have our own home and have it functioning really well. Living in rental houses thinking, “It would have been nice to have this, it would have been nice to have that.” We’ll finally have those things, and a house that’s low maintenance, really easy to clean. Because that’s been really important is the low maintenance side, because I don’t want to spend my retirement doing maintenance either. There’s much more fun things to do. And a lot of these houses people build with lots of windows and complicated outline, it’s a lot of maintenance, especially on the coast. So that’s been a really high priority to have a house that you can just live in without having to worry about all the boring stuff.

Amelia Lee
Oh, June, I can’t thank you enough for the time that you’ve taken to share your project journey with us. I think it’s been amazing to learn so much from you about the choices that you made, and how you set yourself up to do this project really well. And yeah, I’m super excited for you and your partner to be so close to moving in and being able to realise this dream for yourselves, and have a home that’s actually tailored for you after, as you say, living in so many houses that weren’t. And I just wish you the very, very best for moving and realising your everyday life in this beautiful location with this home that you’ve created. So thank you so much for being here and for sharing all of your knowledge and learnings with us. I know that our listeners will find it super helpful. I really appreciate it.

June
Thank you, it’s been really interesting. And thank you so much for all the information that you’ve shared with us. It’s fantastic, it’s made such a difference.

Amelia Lee
Thanks so much June.

RESOURCES:

Air Tightness and Blower Door Tests with Jessica Allen, Climasure >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-blower-door-tests-jessica-allen-climasure/ 

Building Science 101 with Jesse Clarke, Pro Clima >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-building-science-101-jesse-clarke-pro-clima/ 

For another coastal home created for lifestyle and comfort, check out this Design Story >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/spotlight-creating-a-new-coastal-home

Access the support and guidance you need (like June did) to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder 

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan