At first glance, it seems like a simple question with an obvious answer. On the face of it, country living just ‘sounds’ healthier: all that fresh air and sunshine and exercise and growing your own food! But is it really? As it turns out, there are a whole lot of factors besides air quality that … More What’s healthier: town or country living?
It can be daunting starting a large garden from scratch. The scale of it makes it hard to know where best to start, even when you have lots of ideas about what you like and what you want to create. To help us get started, we talked to neighbours with fabulous gardens and very helpful … More Tips for starting a large garden from scratch
After finally moving in to our new little house, next on our list (apart from all the unfinished inside jobs we were cheerfully ignoring) was to get started on some proper landscaping. Autumn is a good time to plant deciduous trees here and we wanted lots of them. We were starting with a blank canvas … More Landscaping our ‘paddock’
Ever dreamed of an idyllic life away from the hustle and bustle of the city? Many of us have, and growing numbers are taking the leap for a healthier lifestyle, a sense of community, no traffic jams, a smaller (or no) mortgage, and a host of other reasons. Traditionally, retirees have made up the majority … More Thinking about a sea or tree change? Read this!
Making a detailed budget for a DIY house build is not an easy task. At least, it wasn’t for us: budgeting and managing finances is NOT our forte, as you’ll soon discover! But if confessing our bumbling mistakes and oversights helps someone else in some small way, then they will not be in vain. Well, … More Budget and Costs – the fun stuff!
12 January 2017: After a long and drawn-out process to get to this point, we now had a finished shed frame and a tight deadline to turn it into a house. 11 weeks in fact (our rental lease was due to run out on 30 March). We had two lists: the work we would outsource … More From shed to house in 11 weeks?
*Please note: all recommendations in this post are based on our positive experience, with no benefits or compensation of any kind in return. Using a shed frame to build a ‘proper’ house is very do-able, and in our opinion is a fantastic, budget-friendly alternative to conventional building methods. We expected going in that there might … More Using a shed frame for a ‘proper’ house – things to consider
Thursday 5 January 2017: the shed builder and his team arrived on site in what was already a record-breaking summer for high temperatures in the ACT region. Clearly the weather gods were going to throw everything they had at us throughout this build. To their immense credit, the building team barely took a break in … More Building begins!
It was July 2016 and we finally had a workable plan to move onto our block. My husband, Matt, had just been made redundant and had picked up some contract work, so things were falling into place. We had spent countless hours, evenings and weekends drawing plans, getting quotes from tradies and suppliers, and preparing … More The Shed House – Part 3
On Christmas Eve, 2015, after 11 years of dreaming and planning, we finally took possession of our dream block of land, a 1.6 acre parcel on the edge of a small village in rural NSW, half an hour north of Canberra. We had a house plan we loved, the perfect block to put it on, … More The Shed House – Part 2
Countrified 