Cross roads

Excuse the long absence, but illness paid a prolonged visit to our house and it hasn't been much fun.

However, something interesting did come out of my illness. It all started while I was lying on the couch on Friday watching a recorded episode of Grand Designs. The episode in question involved the construction of a passive solar house in Kent, a ridiculously massive passive solar house in Kent, but a lovely one nonetheless, and I realised why I have been so completely uninspired by our house hunting of late.

(image from daily mail)

You see, I grew up in a passive solar house and it was very comfortable. In contrast to my childhood home (one of many, I must add), most Canberra homes are built without regard to the climate. The orientation is determined by the street or just by sheer madness, as far as I can tell, and it is very rare that you will find a house with north-facing living areas. They are also constructed out of bad materials, have stupid/or no eaves, lack adequate insulation and are generally silly. As a result, they are freezing in winter and stupidly hot in Summer.

No wonder I was uninspired.

And so, on a whim I did a search for vacant land in the ACT and came across something that looked kind of interesting...

Then I did a search for environmentally friendly builders in Canberra and found a passive solar house design that I really liked...

And then I sat back and pondered my discoveries.

By the time Paul had come home I had convinced myself that I was being a little crazy. The land is not in the inner north (which is where we have been looking). In fact, it is really quite far away from town.

But Paul was keen. Quite keen.

Ahhh!

And so we went out to look at the land on Saturday, and spend Sunday talking to various builders (for comparison quotes) who seemed to have no idea what a passive solar house is, and spent the next couple of days talking to some builders who do and to the developers about land dimensions, contours and site access, and... well we are still not quite sure where we are at.

It mostly comes down to budget now. It is far from clear that we can actually afford this little adventure.

However, if it turns out that we can, well... Things could become very interesting around here. Interesting and terrifying.