How do you tackle a new home build with affordability and family in mind?

Tatiana is getting started on her project, a new home build on a regional site with some challenging council conditions and a tight budget.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 350, and in it, I’m talking with HOME Method member, Tatiana. She lives with her partner and three boys in regional Queensland, and is getting ready to design and build their new home.

We meet Tatiana at the very beginning of her journey. Their project faces challenges, including a tight budget, council restrictions due to a nearby water treatment plant, and managing sun exposure for the local climate. 

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

Having experienced a previous renovation, but now finding their existing home inefficient overall, Tatiana discusses how much bigger and significant it feels to design and build a new home … especially as someone who hasn’t grown up in Australia. She says it “feels like she’s learning English all over again” as she dives into the terminology-rich construction industry!

Tatiana would love to also follow the PAC Process, or Paid As Consultant Process, where a builder is brought on board as a paid consultant during pre-construction to work collaboratively with the designer and client to provide input on cost and buildability. 

(This is a process I teach to members inside HOME Method and provide tools and templates they can use to check with builders and set up their project well).

You’ll hear how she’s finding a builder to help with this, which has proven challenging given her regional location, and local builders not being too familiar with the concept.

Because how do you present the PAC Process to a builder and designer who has not worked that way before so that they consider it? We talk more about that in this episode.

If you’re preparing and researching for your project, I think you’ll find this episode super helpful, as Tatiana and I discuss the steps she’s taking to get started, and I share lots of tips and suggestions to manage the constraints of the site, and what to consider in the home’s layout to work with the site and climate.

Before we dive into the conversation, let me give you some context on timing. 

Tatiana joined HOME Method in May, 2024. And the time of recording this conversation is in October 2024.

Tatiana is hoping they can be in their finished home towards the end of 2026, allowing roughly 2 years from the time of our conversation to complete their project from start to finish.

Now, let’s dive in!

This is the transcript of my conversation with Tatiana about getting started on her new home build project …

Amelia Lee
Well, Tatiana, it is so awesome to have you here. I’m really looking forward to our conversation. This is our first time getting to meet. You joined HOME Method back in May of 2024, and your new build is a really interesting project. And I know that you’re right at the beginning of your journey, so it’s going to be really awesome for listeners to hear what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been pulling together your thoughts, and how you’re overcoming the early challenges that you’re finding in your project and learning about your site. So, I know it’s going to be a really interesting, helpful conversation that we’re going to be having. Thank you so much for being here. Before we dive into talking more about the project specifically, if you can just give us a little bit of background, telling us about your project. What are you actually planning to do? Who is this project for? And where does this fit into your overall life and lifestyle?

Tatiana
Well, thanks for having me. It’s awesome. And it’s my husband and I, and we’ve got three boys, 14, 10, and 8, so still a relatively young family. We live in a little regional town in central Queensland. We’ve been here for 12 years. We currently own a house, the house where we’re in. And it’s a relatively small house, and we’re very okay with it, but the distribution is not the greatest. And so, just looking at the options, okay, do we buy another house, or do we build? And building was always my option. It wasn’t my husband’s desire, because it is a daunting proposition. But since we bought the house, and this is six years ago or something, I kept an eye on the housing market, and I was always concluding, “Well, this is a good house that fits our budget, but we would have to do this, but we would have to do that.” There was always a renovation. And to me, it was always like, “Well, I’d rather put that money into a new build than go through that process, and get what we need. Than always feeling like we need to add more.” Anyway, so eventually, time went by and my husband was interested in a house, and then we had a few conversations, and we both concluded, “No, that’s not going to work. We’re going to be too tight to try and meet the requirements for the mortgage.” 

And I just pull up my list of, “But have you looked at this?” Little list of things that I had been looking into for a few years. And so, that block of land that we’ve got, that was a really, really good price. That’s how we ended up having a conversation about the potential of building, because it was a good price, because it was a good size for our growing family, and we could afford the mortgage without feeling like we’re up to our necks trying to repay. So, it is a tight budget, but it is ideal for a growing family. Not sure if it is going to be our forever home, but we’re not building to resell in three years or anything like that.

Amelia Lee
Gotcha. And it is quite a big block, isn’t it? It’s just under 2000 square meters from memory?

Tatiana
It is, yes, it is under 2000. Currently, our block is around 700 square meters at the moment, and it works well. But again, we’ve got three boys, and they just want to run. And so, it just was a really good place to have that space. We’re not really looking for a massive house. And actually, we think we can’t get a massive house even if we wanted to, but we wanted just the space. And we’re also considering, because of the size of the block, whether, in the future, we would like to subdivide and maybe build some units and sell the units, or something like that. So that’s another thing. We don’t want to plunk the house right in the middle of the block of land, just to give ourselves that possibility of doing something with some of the space.

Amelia Lee
And just to describe for listeners, the block is actually a really interesting one, because it is a large block. However, it doesn’t have a lot of street frontage, because it’s on a bend of the road in the subdivision. And so there’s this curve of the road that sits at the frontage, and then the site truncates out and back. So, what’s really interesting is that it’s kind of north to the street, or north straight up. And there’s an opportunity, I think, to create a lot of privacy on the block, because you don’t have a lot of exposure and street frontage. You’ve got the opportunity, I think, based on where you site the house, that you can still have really good exposure to getting that solar aspect of the northern sunlight. You’re in regional Queensland, so managing the heat is a big priority, and making sure that you’re creating really great shade opportunities, that you’re still getting access to that natural light, but that you’re mitigating the heat load that it’s going to have on your home. 

But when I first saw the block, to me, it didn’t look like the traditional kind of house at the front, backyard behind it. It actually looked like you would potentially flip it, that you would put the house at the back, and you’d have the yard in front. And the benefit of the block shape is that you then don’t have to worry too much about how do you privatise all of that outdoor space, because the block shape itself was going to set you up to be able to do that. And then, I think, it’s just about how does car access come in? Where do the cars physically park? So that you don’t necessarily have a driveway cutting across all of your block, and navigating your outdoor space with that driveway and that vehicular access. So, it’s got some really good opportunities in terms of, I think, A, where you site the house, B, how you arrange the house, how you keep the form super simple, so that you maximise the affordability of it, and then also how you make sure that you’re still prioritising and protecting a lot of that large open space, so that you do, with your three boys, have a lot of space to run around. That could, then, down the track, be something you could use to subdivide or to have another use on, even if it’s a secondary dwelling or something like that, as you go. 

So, really interesting opportunities, I think, in terms of how you juggle it all. You mentioned that you feel like a new build is a bigger proposition than renovating a house. What are you most nervous about? What are you most concerned about? And then, I think, you’ve been diving into HOME Method since the middle of the year. How have those nerves, perhaps, been allayed? Or have they shifted or changed compared to what you first experienced when you were first thinking about what you’re going to build on this block?

Tatiana
I think, renovating, there was a lot less weight on my shoulders because the house was there. And so, it’s like, well, if something doesn’t fully go to plan, the house is there, the main things. No one’s going to die or, I mean, no one’s going to die, but, you know what I’m saying? Like, it just was less of a weight on my shoulders. We also did it in a way like there wasn’t a whole lot of pressure for those things to happen. We did the kitchen, we changed the layout of our living room, and we added a master room with an en suite. And none of those things were a must. They were all really good to have, because the way we live in our family, we do have a lot of friends coming over for dinners and things like that. And so, the house wasn’t functional, but it didn’t feel like if we didn’t do it, it was going to be the greatest issue on Earth. Whereas with the build, well, we could always resell the block of land and not do it. But everything is on us, every decision, and it starts from so early, and we haven’t built before. And I’m not Australian. There’s so many bits and pieces that you have to navigate to build a house here. 

Even to buy a house. My husband did most of that stuff, and I was like, “This is insane.” Back where I’m from, you got a bank saying, “You’ve got the money?” “Yes.” “Okay, sign.” A bit like that. Whereas here, there’s so many middle steps in between. And there’s so much to wait for, and so many approvals, and when do you send the approvals, and what can be sent? Like, this paperwork can be sent back to you because of this and that, and then like, “Oh, my goodness, I don’t know. It just feels like never ending, and I’m not sure.” And you don’t know if you’re making progress, because of so many little steps along the way. So yeah, it just can be very daunting. So I initially thought, because I found you quite a few years before, when we were going through the renovations, and I thought, “Oh, surely I can just go through the podcast and get my hand around all of this.” But even that, it’s like, well, where do you even start, which first, and you would think, “Oh, yeah, just go in order.” But you think you know one thing, and it doesn’t match the order of the podcast. 

So anyway, just now, we finally decided, when we bought the block of land, we said we’re going to add the cost of HOME Method as part of the investment in the block of land. And we’re just going to do this. Otherwise, we’re going to die in the process. And we’re going to fight way too much along the process about what’s first and what’s next, and how to approach the conversations with different ones, because we both have our own opinions and things, so someone that can give us, “This is what you’re expecting”, as opposed to our own individual expectations of the conversations. It’s just very helpful, because, again, it just takes that weight off our shoulders. And we go, “Okay, so this is someone that’s been doing this for many years, and this is what they would expect. All right, let’s go with that.” So, yeah, I think from May, it’s just made the path a lot lighter, a lot of clarity on expectations and who could, could not be involved with the project. Those two things in particular, the team, and the expectations on those conversations with who could be part of the team.

Amelia Lee
That’s fantastic. I mean, what you’ve described is very common in terms of… I love that acknowledgement of, well, if we’re renovating the houses that we’ve been renovating, we’re replacing an existing kitchen. So the kitchen was already there, we’re replacing it. We’re adding a bedroom. We’re adding an en suite. It’s not the end of the world if it’s not something that we can do, because the house still accommodates us. It possibly just doesn’t accommodate us in the most convenient and functional way. But right now, we have a blank block of land, and the only way that it accommodates us right now is if we decide to pitch a tent or park a caravan. So, if we want a kitchen, we have to build it. If we want a bathroom, we have to build it. And we have to then figure out how do we get plumbing and infrastructure? And it’s a really common thing to feel that. It’s tricky, I think a lot of people look at a new build and go, “Oh, I have to think of everything from scratch, which includes figuring out where all these rooms are going to go, how they’re going to be arranged. And it can feel like a bottomless pit of possibilities, or the sky’s the limit in what it could be. Whereas, if you’ve got an existing house that you’re renovating, there’s certain things that are fixed in space based on the structure and the layout of the existing home. 

However, what I love about what we do inside HOME Method and what you’ve been working through, is that process of how do we actually create constraints for ourselves to start then reducing the number of options that are available to us. And your budget, of course, is going to be one big constraint that will help you figure out what approach is going to suit you best, and how you’re going to navigate that. The site is going to be another big constraint, because it’s going to naturally lend itself to having a house laid out a particular way. if you want to make the most of the movement of the sun and the natural assets. And then your life and your lifestyle that you intend to have in the home is going to add another level of constraints. 

And so, what I love watching HOME Method members do when they first dive in is exploring what that means for you and your site, because then it starts to, as you say, lay out those possibilities for you. And then, I love that you pointed out that it’s helped you clarify your expectations around who needs to be on your team, what steps are ahead for you, and made that simpler for you to feel that you can navigate more confidently. And your perspective too, as somebody who hasn’t grown up in this kind of real estate environment, is a really interesting one. I mean, Australia’s construction process is quite complicated. Its project process is full of a lot of red tape. It can be like that in the States and in New Zealand and UK as well, Canada, to a certain extent. So, it’s always interesting when somebody who hasn’t been experiencing that level of complexity comes in and then tries to figure out, “Okay, what does this actually mean? What’s the terminology mean here? How do I correlate that with my previous experience in where I used to live? How do I draw the parallels so that I have some level of familiarity, so it just doesn’t all feel like it’s all brand new. So I tip my hat off to you.

Tatiana
I feel like I’m learning English again.

Amelia Lee
They say that, actually the construction industry. There’s a particular name for the language that exists inside industries. I can’t remember what it is. But the construction industry is like the medical industry, in so far as it’s one of the most terminology-heavy industries that is specific to that industry. So, it would be like learning another language all over again. So, massive kudos to you that you’re embracing it this way, and that, from our interactions that we’ve had to date and preparing for this conversation, I think you’re doing all the right things in terms of figuring out, “Okay, what do I do next? What do I do next? What do I do next?” So it’s really awesome. Now, can we talk a bit about… You’ve touched on your previous renovation experience, and how you navigated that. I’m curious with this block being a new build, and you’re obviously thinking about what kind of home you’re going to do there, what preliminary research have you been undertaking to get yourself ready to think about the house and the layout and the approach that you’re going to take?

Tatiana
The first thing was, well, I had that block of land on a list, as I said before. And I only listened to your podcast about orientation a little while after, and I knew that you always recommend facing north. But it was a while after that I listened to each one, what to put north, what to put east, south, west, that series of podcasts, that I realised you meant back to north is what you meant by that. And then I looked at the block of land like, “Oh, right, that doesn’t quite fit.” So, obviously, there is going to be a challenge there. 

And so, I guess, just getting myself informed with the podcast. It’s been probably the main thing, it’s been the starting point, because then that led to, “Alright, we’ve got the block of land. This is the way it faces. What does Council need from us?” And so, we picked up the phone, we gave them a call. We said, “We’ve got this block of land.” Council’s got a website where you can look at all the overlays on the block of land, and just looking at what applied to us. 

And so we found there is a bit of a flat overlay. There is the water treatment plant is relatively close to us, and part of the block of land is within the buffer zone of the water treatment plant. So I called again with that information, and I said, “Look, what does that mean for us if we want to build? What are your restrictions with these things?” And so they said, “Oh, you’re flat overlay. You need to build 300 mils up from the highest level, but you cannot fill in the block of land.” Which was a bit of a surprise to us, because every other house around us has brought soil to fill in. And so I asked the question, and they said, “Oh, it’s just, we did a modelling after the houses have been put in, and it’s almost essentially like if you were to put bricks in a bus stop. The next time that the water comes through, it’s just going to fill up higher.” “Oh, right.” So we were in conversations with the builder in terms of, what does that mean? What happens if we put a high base on the floor, as opposed to are we going to have to build on stumps? We would prefer to avoid that.” 

So these are all preliminary investigations as to the options for the base of the house. So then, at this point, we’re looking at having a chat to our surveyor so that we can know the levels of the block of land and how that affects where we put the base, which is something that’s probably one of my concern points at the moment. Because I do want to build within the buffer area of the block. And on a specific corner, because I feel it helps me manage the western sun. And just in terms of not just where in the block of land we place the house, but also in what direction it goes. If it is somewhere else in the block of land, it won’t allow us to do as much to be able to shield the house from the western sun. So I’m really hoping that we could put a base and we could put it in that side, and it’s simple. But it usually isn’t as simple as we want it to be. So I’m getting ready for whatever. 

Yeah, so just picking up the phone and asking the first conversation is probably the way we have been tackling the project so far. And it just made me realize that even if I was to do this again, I would suggest for people who are on the sideline about getting into HOME Method and when, I would even say, “Get it before you look at a block of land, before you buy it. Because the knowledge what you could do with a block of land, if you know that before you buy it, it just changes how complicated or how simple the project could be.” I’m just thinking there was another block of land that we had our eyes on, and it was also a good price, and it was a massive block of land. But it was right near the river, and it had so much not uniform ground. There’s a word for that but I can’t come up with it. Anyway, it was just so uneven that I thought it would have been a good price, but the house, there was no way that we could have built anything close to. Because retaining walls and then the floods, they come up really high. And I’m glad. I know what I know now, and I know that that block of land requires a much different budget to what we can get right now, because that would have been a wasted time and effort and frustration there.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, it’s interesting in HOME Method, I think it’s in step six, we have the step that takes you through the information to collect on the existing site or the existing house, and we talk about getting the survey and finding out all of that information. And of course, the very first step of HOME Method is finding out your local planning rules and being able to navigate that. It’s really great that the Council that you’re working in has online at the mapping. And I had a look before, in preparation for this podcast chat, to see the site and the overlays and what you’re actually navigating. It’s interesting because there’s still a lot of buildable land on the block. And I’m curious, as we go on and you start thinking about the house design and the siting of the house and that navigating the solar orientation, what you’re seeking to achieve. Because I think you’ve got some flexibility in how you can position the house on the block and still mitigate those challenges of the western sunlight and potentially be outside the buffer zone. Has Council told you what happens if you do build inside the buffer zone? Is there another layer of approvals, or are they just generally suggesting that you don’t do it at all?

Tatiana
They do have to approve. We have to explain to them how we are planning to mitigate for the odours in particular. Because the houses there, most of them have been already built. We are almost like the first people that have to present to them with this potential of, “Oh, what are you going to do with the smells that from from the plant?” And so they’re not being very strict. They’re not saying, “Oh, you cannot build there kind of thing.” They’re saying, “Oh, just give us your thoughts as to how you’re planning to not have this smell around.” But in saying that, I’m not sure that much can be done other than some landscaping. But they’re not very strict at the moment with that.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, and when I had a look at the planning legislation, I agree with you, there wasn’t a lot of clear information about what the consequence of that buffer zone actually meant. It’s quite a large buffer zone too. So have you stood on the site at different times and noticed an odour that might come from when the breeze is going in a particular direction? What’s been your experience of being on the site?

Tatiana
So our current house is actually within the buffer zone as well. So we are very close to our new block of land, and we do get a whiff, because the plant is north from us. And so whenever we get north easterly winds, we get the smell. We’ve got a, I think this might be 30-40 year old house where we are at the moment, and I can’t say that we can smell it on the inside all the time. And it’s not very well sealed or anything. And I don’t find it that uncomfortable. But if you do step out, you do notice it, and it is annoying. Like you would prefer not to have it there. But in saying that, it’s not something that I would go, “Oh, I wouldn’t buy that house, or I wouldn’t buy that block of land because of it.”

Amelia Lee
It probably smells like the septic on a lot of rural blocks when there’s a lot of people staying and too many people are taking long showers. And we can talk about this as your design develops and you start to think about what you can do. Identifying, of course, which direction the breeze is coming from or carries the odour in the most prevailing way is really great intel, because you can then start thinking about is there a way that we actually prevent those breezes from entering the home? And then thinking about what buffers you can set up from a landscaping point of view. 

And then also the landscaping selection that you make, because there might be landscaping choices that you make that buffer the breezes from a density point of view. And then landscaping choices that you make that have their own lovely smells, that even if a breeze is picked up through them, they have blossoms, or they have a strong scent that can mitigate some of those smells. And I mean, some solutions that people would have, would they go to a fully airtight house that has mechanical recovery ventilation and filters all of the indoor air? I can imagine, with three boys who are constantly running inside and outside, in where you live, climatically, that’s all doable. Your house is probably going to be open to the elements most of the time anyway. So, I think, thinking about it from a landscape point of view. 

And then thinking about the interior finishes, that they’re not odour sucking finishes, that they’re not soft finishes that are going to take on that odour, and then you deal with that in your indoor air environment. So yeah, I’m really keen to see how we can look at what the house can do, and what the landscaping can do to navigate that. And then, as I said, looking at the actual siding of the house so that you can just see whether you can remove it as an obstacle from a planning point of view, that you’re not building in that buffer. And I can imagine Council potentially has an assessment of what you build in the buffer. Like, if they are being quite gray about what the implications are of the buffer zone on your planning pathway and on your approval process. I can imagine there’s a level of interpretation about what you’re physically putting in the buffer also having impactful events. 

So say, for example, it was the garage that ended up in the buffer, not your living spaces. Council might perceive that differently in their assessment of the approval outcome as well. So it could be interesting to play with those strategies as well, as you think about how you arrange the house overall. But yeah, it’s good that you’ve got an experience of it, so you know what you’re dealing with. Some people, I think, would buy that block, see that hatch on the plan, and then feel like the sky was falling in on them, because they don’t have a lived experience of what the impact of that actually means on their daily life. So it’s good that you’re working from a place of some knowledge, and it’s not as overwhelming for you in that regard. You’ve been looking to build your team, and I know you were debating whether you needed to go down a volume builder pathway based on your budget, or whether you could do a custom build. 

Can you talk us through your thinking and your strategy about how you’ve been putting your team together, where you’re at with that process? And what the approach is looking like for you at the moment that you’re going to start exploring?

Tatiana
Because we are in a relatively small town, and there are quite a few options for building, but some of them are coming and going and they’re often very busy and there’s a few options. But it’s not like you’re in the Sunny Coast or in Brisbane, where there is a never ending list. Like, I can count them with my fingers. So it’s a few for us, but it’s definitely not an abundant list of builders. And so, in that sense, that was relatively simple, because we didn’t have a whole lot of choice.  

But the challenge of that has been most of them, I would say, so far, none of them are aware or have heard of the PAC Process. And that was something that I was very keen on doing. And so then, I was finding that I almost had to not convince, but it’s like, “No, it just means this. It just means that.” Just trying to explain. And oftentimes, I was just met with a I’m confused sort of look. Like, “Ah, right, okay. I don’t know how this is going to go.” And there are some building designers, but not in town. There are some architects, but again, not in town. Not that it is a must for us that they are in town, but we don’t have a whole lot of flexibility to go and meet them, because they’re at least three hour drive from us. So that’s a six hour drive, which with three boys, that presents a challenge to try and take the time away. And to try to take the time away from work, from school or organising. So I have avoided trying to form a team outside of town, because to me, it means, well, if something goes pear shaped, or I can’t do these quick meetings if they need to happen. 

I went very slowly. We didn’t do a full interview in terms of asking all the questions, going on a checklist, like, “Do you do this? Do you do that? Do you do that?” We didn’t quite do that. We went, “All right. We’ll go and meet, we’ll see how the conversation flows. We’ll see what questions we feel like we need to ask in the conversation.” And it was very interesting, because some of those in first interviews were enough for us to say, “Yeah, no, we won’t do that.” Just because we weren’t able to come across. There was one experience where we didn’t meet the builder, we met the admin ladies, and we were really struggling to get our point across. And there was a couple of things that we had to ask five times, because every time we asked the question, we were getting an answer that felt totally unrelated. And so, we just said, “If this is what communication is going to be like for a year or year and a half, thanks, but no thanks. That’s going to be a nightmare.” So, lovely people, it’s just very difficult to communicate. And so we both went, “Oh no, we can’t do this.” So that was enough. We didn’t have to go and ask any more questions or get back to them with anything else. 

And so we did that. And then, eventually, there was someone from a town maybe six, seven hours away from us that happens to do a whole lot of work here where we are. And that was very interesting, because that was the first guy I didn’t have to say a thing about the PAC Process. He just said to me, “Look, there’s two ways of doing things. You can get your plans, essentially the mainstream way of doing things, or you could do this, and this is the way we work. We do this, that and that.” And I was like, melting on my chair as he was saying these things. I’m like, “Oh, thank you. Music to my ears. This is so awesome.” But then, instead, we agreed on, I was going to send him a brief and he was going to get back to us, and he never got back to us. So I’m like, “Oh, okay. I don’t want to deal with that either, because you’re too far away.” By his own confession, they don’t work cheap. Not that we’re looking for cheap, but as in, he confessed, “We charge good because we’re good.” And I like that confidence. I said, “Yep, no worries, that’s good. I like that.” But then he didn’t get back to me. So, like, “All right, okay, well, I don’t want to be pushing people to get back to me, because this is going to be, again, a two year process. I don’t want to have to be pushing for every communication.” 

And then we found this other guy who has a fair bit of experience. He’s been working under the umbrella of a well-known, well-established building company here in town, and has had a lot of experience, but he’s attempting to go solo for the first time. And it seems like we might be their first clients as a solo flying. And he’s really young. He’s younger than us. “Okay, we are both new on this thing.” 

He has the building experience, but then one of the things that we go through in HOME Method program is, how do they run their business? And this is where I’m going, “Well, he doesn’t really have a business just yet, like, fully up and running himself. So that’s going to be interesting.” Because for us, it was a bit of a leap of faith. It was, “Let’s give him a crack. Let’s give him the chance to do it.” He’s working with guys that are well known for the quality work. We spoke to him, and it was easy going conversation. We said our expectation, “What we want is that you communicate to us. If we are talking, we’re good. But if you disappear, then that’s where we have problems.” And he has been like that. He has been, as far as we both can, the conversations have been running smoothly and he’s very helpful. 

But he hasn’t done the PAC Process himself before, so he’s new to that as well. So we’re figuring all of these together, as rookies together. We’re both, at the same time, stepping into uncharted territory for both of us, both in terms of him running his company solo as jumping into our new build for the first time and embracing the PAC Process, which none of us have had any experience with before. It just makes sense, but we haven’t done it before. Like, “Oh, okay.” I don’t know, we’ll see how we go. He’s got a draft person that works with him, which, at the moment, we’re happy to see what he offers this drafts person, fully knowing that drafting person does not equate building, designer or architecting. By no stretch of the imagination, but we have to work with what we’ve got, and at the moment, that’s what we have. So yeah, that’s where we are.

RESOURCES:

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