Energy Efficiency

After receiving the shock of our most recent electricity bill, we decided we should spend some time focusing on the energy efficiency of our new home. With the rising costs of energy, we need to build a home that isn't going to cost us a fortune over the years to heat and cool.

Unfortunately we didn't think about the orientation of the block before we bought it and only found out once we started looking into energy efficiency that our block is not ideal for the house design we have selected. The block runs north-south so the front of the house will be north (master bedroom & garage), living will be south-east and wc, ensuite, WIR, bathroom, laundry and bedroom 2 will be west.

Ideally, for an energy efficient house we would have the living north facing, bedrooms to the south and utility rooms to the west. This would mean our alfresco would end up in our front yard!! No Thank You, I do not fancy sitting in the front yard having a cup of tea in my PJs LOL.

We deliberated for weeks over the orientation of the block and whether we should find a better block or change the house design. In the end we decided we would just roll with both the design and the block we had selected as we were both very happy with the design and location.

We have selected as many energy efficiency upgrades as we can afford within our budget.

• 600mm eaves to the north (ideally these would be 900mm but 600mm is all the builder can offer)
• R6.0 Insulation to roof
• R2.7 Insulation to external walls
• A light coloured Colourbond Roof with Sarking and Whirly Bird.
• Upgraded ducted heating from 3.5 star to 5 Star with 3 zones.
• Double Glazed Windows (excluding laundry and WIR).
• 5,000 litre Tank connected to toilets
• 5,000 litre Tank for garden / lawn watering
• 5kWh Solar Panel system on roof

We will add an alfresco area to the east side of the living/family which should block out some of the hot summer sun. We have 2 meters from the fence on the west side so will consider planing trees or putting a veranda depending on how hot bedroom 2 gets.

We have selected the 24 square home over the 28 square home. It's just the 2 of us at the moment so hopefully building the smaller home is not something we will regret once we have kids. We will still have plenty of space left over on the block so there is always the option of extending if we need/want to.

Choosing a Floor Plan

Originally we fell in love with the Elmhurst 262 by Dennis Family Homes. We both loved the open plan kitchen, meals and  family area with the entertainer sliding doors to the meals and family. We also loved the master bedroom and en-suite layout but were not 100% happy with the location of the master bedroom. We were concerned it was located in a noisy area, very close to the second bathroom, toilet and laundry and being at the back of the house it was also in the "dog zone" (i.e in the backyard close to all the neighbours barking dogs).

We then went to the Melton display village to see the Hastings 282 by Dennis Family Homes. It had the open plan kitchen, meals and family area and the master bedroom was at the front (out of the family and dog zone) but it had 4 big bedrooms plus a study and a home theatre. How much room do 2, (possibly 4) people need? Still, this was the best floor plan I had seen and I was quite keen until Luke said "we can buy two vacuum cleaners, I'll start at one end of the house and you can start at the other". A decision was very quickly made that we did not require such a big home!

After that we spoke with a couple of independent builders thinking maybe we would custom build so we can get exactly what we want. We found it very difficult to get pricing from the independent builders as they need to draft up a house before they could price it and draftsman do not work for free. We did however get some rough estimates and found they were quite competitive with project builders.

Around the same time the current Dennis Family Homes promotion was about to end. We decided to go to Ballarat to look at the Macedon 262. On paper this house seemed to have the perfect floor plan for us, but when we arrived we found the house was nothing like we had imagined! This helped us with our decision that a custom build was not for us.

Fortunately, the Hastings 242 had just been built in Ballarat and it was opening day!! As soon as we walked in we found that it had everything we loved about the Elmhurst plus all the things we didn't love had been changed. The master bedroom was at the front, it had the open plan kitchen, meals and family area with entertainer slider doors to the meals and family and the second living area was a study which was hidden from view (which we could use as our messy computer area). It was also a square shape which means it would take us less of our back yard (we have quite a wide block so could accommodate a square shaped house).

We were so excited to finally find a floor plan that will be perfect for our lifestyle.

How the house will sit on our block. We also have enough space left over to extend the house if we need or want to in the future. 

Finding The Plot

The day my Husband Luke and I decided to build our own house was the day I saw an advertisement for an interesting, cheap block of land. It was quite close to the Bendigo CBD, 650m2, within our budget, and as a bonus it was very close to my Grandma's house. We drove over to look at the block but as it happened the block was an odd shape and only suitable for a double story house. Despite our first disappointment, we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at display houses and fell in love with the Dennis Family Homes designs.

We had discussed building a house previously but we were more interested in buying an established house as we liked the idea of living within walking distance of the CBD (we're not sure why considering we currently live 1200 meters from the CBD and could count the number of times we've walked there on 1 hand!).

The next block we looked at was in the City's Edge Estate, 2 minutes drive from my work, 5 minutes drive to the CBD, 750m2. It was up on a hill and had great views, even though it was slightly over our budget, we really loved the location and believed it would be a good investment. This block also turned out to be an odd shape and again we found there were limited single story house designs suitable. Another disappointment.

The following week the real estate agent called us with some news, a sale on another block in the City's Edge Estate had fallen through and they were asking if we wanted to make an offer before it went back on the market. This block was 700m2 and perfectly rectangular, we were definitely interested and asked them to hold the block for 3 days while we visited the bank for finance pre-approval. We were very excited at the prospect of living in such a prestigious estate, that was until we visited again and noticed the high voltage power lines running right overhead!! How did we miss that? After a weekend of reading about the dangers or living under HVPL we decided not to go ahead with the purchase. MAJOR disappointment.

Over the next month we looked at a few different blocks, and decided we would actually need to move out of town to find a suitable block within our budget. When I say "out of town" I mean a 10 minute drive, instead of the current 2 minute drive to the CBD.

We started looking at blocks in the McIvor Forest Estate in Junourton (10 minutes drive to the CBD) and to our surprise found a great 933m2 block for private sale. It's a perfect rectangle and backs onto beautiful bushland. We immediately knew this is where we would build our home.

Settlement was on 14 days and the block was ours as of 03/06/2013.

Our block at Sunset

Our block the day after settlement. The small trees had already been removed. 

Edit 13/07/2013: We received a letter from the local council this week, the developers are going to develop the bush behind our block! We knew it would be developed eventually but we thought we might have at least a few years of the lovely bush backdrop.