Gates of Bedlam Too

Last Saturday we met with an architect about the house. This is a fixed price meeting and commits us to nothing, but we end up with a design report and sketches based on the information that we have given about what we want.

We really had no idea what to expect, but we certainly got on well with him and he seemed to take all our suggestions and requirements on board. He was there for about 3 hours, so it wasn't exactly just drop in, have a quick chat and leave. Admittedly a significant part of it was just general chat - as I said, we got on well.

We're now looking forward to the report in 2 or 3 weeks. By that time, we will have done all the preliminary research and inspection that we're reasonably able to, I think and it will be getting close to decision time.

What we will end up with, no matter which way we go, is a bigger house - and is this really a good thing. In some ways, I guess not, but the new house will actually be more sustainable and use less energy than the current one. NSW has regulations that set minimum sustainability requirements so it will have a water tank, wider eaves, insulation, solar or heat pump hot water etc. As these are things we would have wanted anyway, that's not a problem. We'll also be looking at other ways to minimise the energy footprint of the house.

Yes, and it went just like that !

Friday night we went to one of our semi-regular DVD nights. We're currently watching Twin Peaks - please don't ask me what it all means!

Saturday was an all day rehearsal for MUS' upcoming concert. The rehearsal went pretty well - about as well as they do when you suddenly find yourself in a completely different venue with different acoustics and no longer being able to hear the same parts as you could before and then adding in an orchestra which plays parts you haven't heard before and an organ that doesn't seem to be able to do soft very well in the registration that you want it to play in.

But it is going to be a great concert. I was just a bit concerned when the theme was announced at the end of last year as Songs of Protest. I was concerned as I really didn't think I wanted to sing another lot of prettied up songs from the 60s protest era. Fortunately, it's not that. It's music as an expression of protest over the last 100 years or so. It has songs from the women's emancipation era, civil rights (from the 60s and before), south african songs and many more PLUS it has the Jenkins 'Armed Man Mass' - which is in no way a traditional mass and it is very emotionally confronting in some movements. All in all, it's not a concert for you to sit back comfortably and listen to pretty noises.

Sunday we went up to Aberglasslyn to see a display house. It's high on our list of possibilities and isn't on display in Sydney. yalovetz and i_ate_my_crusts came along for the ride and were very patient with our looking through houses. After that we set the iPhone to take us to Pokolbin to see what we might find in the way of interesting eating places. It took us through some small country roads (I have no idea whether that was really the best way to get from where we were to Pokolbin) and, on a small country road, we saw a sign out for a restaurant that seemed to indicate it was open even though it was about 2.30. We lucked out! I can recommend the Major's Lane Restaurant. I had the quail starter (Preserved lemon roasted Nulkaba quail, walnut,almond, parsley and merlot verjus pesto) and the duck (Glaze roasted duck breast, confit duck and potato galette, caramelised witlof, corella pear and rocket) for main course. Both were excellent and I tasted Styvyn's fillet steak and it was also mouth-watering. In fact, all the food looked good - at our table there was also barbecued ocean trout (which had severely tempted me before I settled on the duck) and salt and vinegar grilled pork loin cutlet. I might write more about this in Elysant's kitchen.

While we were at the restaurant, the weather closed in and we were treated to a tremendous rainstorm. We were outside, but under a huge pavilion, so we didn't really get wet though it got a little chilly. Eventually, the storm passed and we decided it was time to head back to Sydney.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we've decided to rehome ourselves. A quick chat to the Credit Union manager gave us a rough idea of how much we might be able to access in the way of funds so we went looking at houses.

First we looked at buying a house. That would be nice, just one move involved. We even found houses that we liked, though they weren't perfect. But even more important, they were in suburbs that would have made commuting more difficult and more expensive for both of us. With that and alterations, the just affordable really became not such a good option.

So we started looking at the that 'knockdown and rebuild' option. This resulted, after a fair bit of online research, in our first visit to a display village. Now, the ideal would be to have our own individual house design and this may still happen but, well, it's likely to be just a tad too expensive.

So we come to the first pitfall of home building - if we just squeeze a bit more, maybe we can get the custom design or the extra garage or the fabulous, ridiculously OTT entertainment area and so on. Time to come back to planet Earth.

Another pitfall - how do you compare prices that include different things in the site costs and different inclusions? These people have been taking lessons from Telcos about blinding you with options that are not comparable! And how do you take into account, with a project home, the cost of minor interior alterations that 'won't cost very much'?

Undeterred, we have been looking at display homes all this last weekend and part of the weekend before. There is a certain monotonous similarity about a lot of them. Walk in and over on the right (or left if the mirror reversed version) is the formal lounge/dining, then a few utilities (and the stair if it's 2 storey) followed by the living areas. Note that for us the laundry is on the wrong side of the house in 90% of the designs -and if it's on the right side, then it's a plan we have to mirror reverse in order to get the living areas facing the garden.

Undaunted, we sat down the last Friday night and worked out the aspects of our ideal house and even fitted it onto our block. We then worked out how big it was (500 sq m) and realised that it was a good thing that it was only a dream house.

So we made a list of things that were non-negotiable, high priority and nice to have. Actually, nothing is completely non-negotiable as it all depends on whether we can sort out workable alternatives. I'll put up the list at some stage, but it's still a bit malleable.

This coming weekend I have a pre-booked jewellery workshop, so no looking at houses then. The weekend after I have an all day rehearsal on Saturday and a concert the Saturday after that, and after that we go to Canberra for a weekend with my parents, so we'll be proceeding slowly.

Or anywhere else for that matter.

Friday I was puttering around at home. Went to get a pen to write down a message from the answering machine and on the way back to the phone it was forcibly brought to my attention that the various stuffs that had been put somewhere temporarily had accumulated to the level of an OH&S hazard!

The small chest (smallest of the three we take to Festival) had been temporarily put by the side coffee table. I managed to tip quite drastically on it after hitting it with my left foot. I didn't manage to regain my balance and my head hit the side of the entertainment unit (a low one about coffee table height) damn hard!

After about half an hour spent recovering some level of calm, I assessed the damage. A quick examination in the mirror revealed no blood and that my eyes were both responding normally to light - but the tenderness was pretty special and what do I know about head trauma, really? So a trip to the doctor was called for and resulted in x-rays etc, but all is well. Still b****y hurts though.

But the really scary thing was that only a couple of inches different and I could have got the corner of the entertainment unit through my eye.

We've put a few things away now.