Abdallah House - Redesigning a Home

Principle 7: Design from patterns to details I've got the permits, the construction and public liability insurance (A$915 p.a.) and the financing has come through. Now that the plan is all laid out it's time to put ideas into practice... It was a year to the day, from when the deposit was put down, when the earth moved for the project. Peter, Quent and I met on site to peg out the house site in preparation for the earthworks. A local excavator driver (Dave) and his son came on site to see what work was involved in the job. Dave said "hang on a tick, I'll just pop round the corner and grab the Bobcat." So Dave heads off, and we think that it might be a good opportunity to move the red gum slabs that we had stacked and get them out of the way. Quent and I head off to get the trailer; meanwhile, Dave returns to clear the site. Things can move pretty quickly when your plan is in place. By the time we returned the slabs were ready to be loaded. Then Dave cleared the to...

Principle 4: Apply self regulation and accept feedback The permit process certainly slows things down - and the principle of Apply self regulation and accept feedback is all about that. Initially we were told by our local council that a planning permit would not be required, as we were working with an existing dwelling. When we finally got all of the material together for the building permit, we were told that we needed to get a planning permit - which was annoying and expensive. Planning permit applications can take a long time, but after stressing our case, we got the permit in record time - one week. How council earns the A$476 for that piece of paper I do not know, there seem to be hands reaching out from all directions taking your money at this stage in the process and you don't really seem to get anything back for it - nothing tangible anyway. Time pressure has been on, as the state and federal government grant offers run out at the end of June. In order to be eligible for t...