Sustainable House Day tour feedback

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Principle 4: Apply self-regulation and accept feedback

I was pleased with the turn out that we got on the 2012 SHD with 39 signed in visitors, our biggest yet. It kept Peter Lockyer (builder / architect) and myself (Richard Telford - owner builder) busy for six hours straight. As part of the day we were asked to get visitors to sign in and include their postcode. I decided to map the information that I collected so that I could visualise where people where coming from who visited our house. Most of the visitors came from towns directly south of us, Tallarook, Broadford, Kilmore and Wallan - within the Mitchell Shire. We had some from Melbourne, Heathcote and even a woman from Castlemaine. What was interesting was that there were only a couple of people from Seymour who turned up.

A big part of what I wanted to do with this project is to inspire and empower people to become more self-reliant. Here are some of the comments that we got in our visitors book on the day:
  • Thank you for your generosity in allowing us to see your wonderfully inspiring property. - Deborah
  • Thank you for letting us into your home. It is very inspiring to see what you have done and what we can do if we put our mind to it. - Colleen & Natalie
  • Thank you very much for letting us into your home. You have done wonderfully well turning your vision into reality. - Dean, Wendy, Hazel, Astrid & Isaiah
  • Thank you so much for sharing this amazing project. This is what the world needs to pursue, less commercial consumption and more sustainable living. Well done, an inspiration." James
Seems like I'm achieving what I set out to by the feedback that I've been getting.

A look at where our visitors came from to visit the house in Seymour
The following day we had another tour of about 12 guests with the Seymour Garden Club, which was planned months in advance as bad weather had delayed an earlier visit, making for a busy couple of days. I really enjoyed the visit from this group, with quite a few seniors who always have interesting stories to share over a cup of juice and homemade sweets, especially in relation to living with less energy and waste. I also enjoy chatting with familiar faces and people who we will continue to see into the future. The lovely card and hand made boomerang key rings (always come back?) were a lovely gesture and appreciated : ).
Unfortunately I forgot to put out my visitors book, but the feedback that I got was overwhelming positive. I did overhear one man say, "doesn't it give you a sense of hope seeing this..."

The following day we had another tour, this time the Seymour Garden Club. Photo: Kunie




Comments

Unknown said…
Nice turn out Richard. We had 68 visitors through out place on the day, and that certainly kept us busy.

I don't know how the homes open in the city cope with numbers of visitors between 200-400 in the six hour period. They must not get a very comprehensive tour?

Anyway, keep up the great work in Seymour!

Gav
September 15, 2012 at 2:00 PM
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