A Concrete Reminder

Well it was a fairly mad time in Perth but it felt good to get stuff done and meet more of the people that will be responsible for the build. Nor did it take long to reacquaint myself with Osborne Park and its amazing compliment of absolutelynecessaryshopstovisitifyouarebuildingahouse. I mean really…what isn’t there? Within a camel’s breath of each other I found tilers - all conveniently located on one street - carpet shops, wood flooring dealers, Rick Hart, Tilly’s Lights, bathroom showrooms, the Laminex showroom and last but not least, Ross Griffin Design Solutions - and Rene, who designed our house.

That’s sidetracking though.

One of the highlights of my week was of a far more humble nature. I met Gordon Stimson of Enviroplumb at the house to go over the underground water tank scenario. I discovered amongst other things that garden space really is to be valued. Gordon let me know that the cost of one 14,000l round above ground tank would cost in the region of $5,000 less to buy and install than 2 x 5,000l underground tanks. Oh so tempting…

But wait. If you put a 14,000l water tank on an area of approx 2.5m squared you are essentially losing that bit of land for all other purposes. Yes, there’s creeper cover…and a great passion fruit already thriving in the area, but most importantly, what happens to the feeling of space? As I mentioned in an earlier post, House v Dream House, there are subtle differences between building a dream home in the bush where space is of no matter and building on a narrow surburban block. The question is, ”Can we afford to give away this space?” And the answer is ”No!” The space is worth more to us than the money it will save. This is all worth taking into account when you size your garden to your house.

But now the piece de resistance.

In a previous post I mentioned how sad it was not being able to salvage more from our house due to the fact that we live overseas.

Take a look at this. Gordon to the rescue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A picture speaks a thousand words… Great stuff. We have Jess Willow’s hand back in the family.

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