After living on Swamp Road for more than a year, we revised the design of the main house. Why? Experiencing the local climate conditions and prevailing northwesterly winds, we decided to incorporate both an east and west courtyard design to provide for weather protection for the various seasons. Spring tends to be windy and the east courtyard would give a protected access area on those days, whilst the west courtyard is for outdoor fun on the nice sunny days. The revised design creates a wrap-around living area to take in the view, and bedroom and office also have more day-lighting and views. We call it the T-plan. We hope to start building in a couple years, if we don't revise it again! Here's a QuickTime fly-around!

Here's the Version 2B for the main house design:

Now that Graham's a building designer, I'm sure our design will change again...
We're interested in curved designs at the moment! See the "cresent house."

This is the original version of our straw bale home design. We had to modify the shed (upper left) into a granny flat (basically a small house) for Council approval, which is where we live currently - so we have left the main house design on the drawing board. Here is the conceptual demo of some of the features we hope to accomplish.

Trendir Modern House Designs - Check out the categories of home types.

Cresent House - Ken Shuttleworth Architect

One of our first inspirations is to create a concrete countertop for the bathroom. Why? Concrete, though high in embodied energy, is one of the less environmentally harmful materials that can be used as countertops. It does not off-gas anything harmful, and its production is not as energy-intensive as that of resins or natural stone. It can be made with considerably less environmental impact than the traditional combination of natural sand, gravel and cement. With the ability to create our own forms and molds, you can make custom designs to accommodate a small space.

This is the site plan (14 July 2007) and some detail drawings for the granny shack. We had to modify the site and shed to meet Council approval. Guy Greener hand drew plans show the proposed shed design. We (Graham and Troy) created the footing details while Guy was in hospital. The amended footing design allowed us to insulated the slab in the living area. Click this for full images.

Products we intend to use in the buildings and why... when we have a roof over our heads!

One of the first eco-friendly products we chose is - Biolytix. Why? Two reasons: The soil test requires an AWTS (aerated wastewater treatment system) because of the soil drainage and the slope of the property, and also their website has the "poo-cam" (view with your own discretion)...but really, it promises to be a good solution versus septic and the end result is water for irrigating plants or trees.