Our build journey started with an existing house. The 1970’s red brick veneer, ex-housing trust, semi-detached dwelling, on a 450m2 plot of land had served us well for many years. We overlooked its cookie cutter, shoebox design because it was so close to the beach.
Year by year, as the mortgage slowly shrunk, the feasibility of building our dream home started to creep within reach. We would tease ourselves by walking around display homes and flipping through countless house plans in builders’ catalogues. Before we thought about building, we had to understand everything we could about our block of land.
Location
“Location, Location, Location!” I’m sure you’ve all heard this cliché thrown about the real estate circles.
Our journey started with a tired old house in a great location:
- The block was located a couple hundred metres from the beach and separated only by a park. This was perfect for regular beach goers like us. Not too close that the sea spray rusts everything in sight, but close enough to make a quick dip an effortless affair.
- Our suburb was close to immediate family and close friends.
- We were within 5km of 2 major shopping centres and 2 minor ones.
- Public transport was in close proximity.
- As avid fitness fanatics, there are outdoor gyms, running paths and cycling lanes at our doorstep.
- When we eventually decide to grow a family, there are several schools, plenty of parks and the beach nearby.
So, what about the block itself? The size and shape of land plays a large part in building, as we would find out:
- Our block was about 450m2.
- Frontage was approximately 14 metres.
- The road in front of our house was on a diagonal, making our land look like an irregular trapezoid.
- Our home was semi-detached, meaning that we shared party walls with our neighbours on either side.
Utilities
Now I realise that many people don’t care too much about their utilities and services, as long as everything is working fine. However, working in the utilities industry meant that I had some existing knowledge.
We did the following when looking for utilities around our property:
- We visually inspected the property for power lines, telecommunication pits, sewerage inspection points, natural gas, electricity and water meters. The location of buried gas and electricity assets were marked on the inside of our meter boxes.
- We used the free Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) service to determine any utility easements in and around the property that we could not visually confirm.
- Our block had a sewerage easement running immediately behind and along our rear fence line. We took this into consideration when planning landscaping of our backyard.
- Our block had overhead powerlines on the front verge. Although there wasn’t much that we could do about it, we took them into consideration in how they would impede potential views. We also took note of any construction activities or movement of heavy machinery. As we were planning to relocate our driveway to the opposite side of the block, we had to ensure that our driveway had a minimum clearance of 1 metre from the power pole located on the verge.
Soil
We were relatively lucky with our soil type, as we were building in sandy soil which typically promotes good drainage. When soil samples were taken on our property, building rubble was found in one location. We would later find out that this added an unbudgeted amount to the build cost.
Council Zoning and Setbacks
We also investigated zoning so that we were aware of any specific property requirements set by our local council. This was especially important as we wanted to maximise the size of the property on our land. Both the state government and the local council had detailed zone requirements, which covered design requirements, building setbacks (minimum dimensions between buildings and boundaries), minimum car parking, minimum open space, to name a few. These requirements, coupled with the dimensions and shape of our block, meant that we were severely limited by the choice of available house designs and layouts that we could build. Out of all the available floor plans for South Australian builders, there were genuinely less than 5 “off the plan” two storey designs that would fit on our property.
Environment
Our final design and use of outdoor space were also influenced by the environmental conditions of the block:
- As the house was in a coastal zone, additional measures were required to ensure corrosion resistance. Additional wind loading was also factored into the design and build.
- The orientation of the block (front north facing), and limitations on design choice, restricted of the sustainable passive design considerations that we could implement.
- We avoided placing any large permanent outdoor areas or veranda structures given the shading on the south side of our proposed two-storey house during winter. During winter this would allow enough sun to reach the garden in the backyard. We also decided to make the front yard a space that could be used in winter where there would be more sunlight.
- We wanted to place solar panels on both the eastern and western roof surfaces, in lieu of adequate northerly roof surface. This would allow us to capture both morning and evening solar energy.
- Adequately sized eaves were to be placed above all north facing windows to reduce heating from the summer sun.
- Since southerly sea breezes are common during the hotter months, we wanted a design with adequate window placement to encourage natural ventilation throughout the house.