A guest recently came to my house to give me money (I’ve got things worked out pretty well), and remarked that he liked my house. That was nice of him, and it reminded me that I like it too. In fact, after living in it for more than thirty years, I like it a lot. I got a lot right, so I thought I’d brag about it tell you about it. I watch “Grand Designs” on the TV because I have tried my hand at every stage of the process of house-building and have developed my own opinions. Unlike what is called ‘owner-builder’ in that programme, I was architect, draughtsman, builder, carpenter, tiler, roofer, electrician, plumber and drainer, painter and decorator, foreman, labourer and bought and brought all the materials. I was also workplace health and safety officer, but I was quite lenient on the other chaps. I drew the plans on a single sheet of paper with elevations, dimensions, details of cyclone strapping, tables of timber sizes and classifications, etc, and it was passed by the building inspector without modification. Every stick of wood cut and nailed (about 80,000) was driven by me. I had the help of 2 mates for a morning to help grunt some trusses I had made up on to the roof. I even felled the trees in the forest and debarked/desapped the stumps.
So you see, I am very intimate with my house. It has no secrets from me. It gives me daily satisfaction to live here.
The design process was interesting and difficult because there were no restrictions imposed by the site. You may think the many restrictions normally encountered on a suburban block would make design more difficult, but the reverse is true. Those restrictions may be confining and annoying, but at least they define some boundaries and reduce choices to a manageable number. For instance, the road defines the ‘front’ and the garden defines the ‘back’ for a suburban house. Required setbacks from neighbours centers the house and limits the proportions. Instead, I designed to the environment and efficiency, considering prevailing winds, proximity of bathroom/kitchen/laundry to reduce plumbing costs etc. I also wanted connection from inside of the house to environment. Poly-functional endospace if you will. I didn’t want to live in a box. I wanted it to flow in easy stages out towards the wild environment.
At this stage I got some input (orders) from my wife. I had been thinking entirely of structures, building it, costs, efficiency and stuff. She was thinking of lighting, the spaces created and living in it. I would like to say I had an epiphany, a revelation, but at the time I grudgingly conceded points. I should have thought of the Chinese proverb about the value of a pot is not in the clay, it is of the space inside. That is what you use. I dutifully increased the windows and bedroom sizes. Thank you Hilary for your insightful contributions to the design.
The 300 sq m house (500 sq m of roof with carports and workshop), was built for $14,000 including slow combustion stove, plumbing wiring etc etc. No trouble with building inspections, I was over specifications on beam sizes and cyclone-proofing. When you build for yourself, you don’t spare the nail or bit of strapping. It has withstood 3 major cyclones of category 4 & 5. The $14,000 was 30 years ago but still cheap. The magic ingredient was my labour. Plenty of it, but not taxed. Hard work, but very satisfying. Constant up-skilling required, but the skills remain to use again. No deposit required and the foundations (stumps) completed for about $200 paid to forestry and 4 weeks hand-blistering work debarking and de-sapping and digging holes for the 45 stumps.
I was sustained in my toil by my wife looking after the kids and sometimes working as a nurse, and by an echo of the pioneering spirit that enabled the early settlers to overcome the obstacles. Just do it, you have no choice.
Dear readers, you have Buckley’s chance of doing the same thing. Not that you can’t build a house, but authorities won’t let you. Authorities, by definition, authorise. To justify their very existence they have to make rules. Some rules are necessary. Some rules are useful. And some rules are questionable. Many rules now are ‘cover your arse rules’ where the authorities suspect they may be liable/criticised for not making ironclad rules. I for one, am totally pissed of with rules specifically designed to make the regulating authorities impregnable to legal liabilities even when the rules are burdensome, unworkable or even impossible in practice.
Dear readers, you are being herded into a space of total compliance. Your illusion of freedom is like the ads for an SUV. Escape with this magnificent vehicle crashing through creeks, and ignore the ball and chain of the repayments that keeps your nose to the grindstone. The creeping dominance of the government sector in the economy and the increasing regulation of every aspect of society is perhaps inevitable, but I don’t like it. Beware the ongoing takeover of your finances with the abolition of cash, real folding money, in favour of digital bank held ‘assets’. Then the government can impose negative interest rates, ‘haircut’ accounts, impose a surcharge (steal), or simply appropriate at will. If you think that could never happen, then I take it you have not implemented any precautions.
I apologise for starting off on one subject and finishing on another, but that is where my thoughts take me.
Speak Your Mind