Although another 1001 decisions have to be made two major ones are hovering in the air for some time:
Are we going to continue to build a small sustainable house and what is the building method we are going to use.
With building costs way higher than anticipated over the last months several scenarios have crossed our minds. Quitting, spend more money, adjust plans, spread the development over several years, build a tiny home and all variations possible. The process isn’t nerve wrecking but is more questioning myself and Francis what our priorities are in life and trying to figure out what the other wants and if that aligns with my preference.
So it’s decision time. Although our decision has changed several times in the last weeks we have made the decision to continue with the build and with a few compromises build a home that we like and envisioned from the start. Yes it means spending more money than we thought (which was little), getting a higher mortgage than we like but at the same time looking at our financial situation it looks doable, keeps a mortgage free life in sight in the future and we will have a home as a result that we (hopefully) like.
The other decision is what building method we are going to use for the house. I am not a big fan of the traditional NZ timber framed homes. Our 25 year old rental home at a perfect location, good neighbourhood and awesome views gives us enough bad examples for building quality with sagged or badly positioned battens, gaps around the window frames which cause a lot of draft, uninsulated areas and birds nesting in the underfloor insulation. The result is a home which is supposed to be insulated but in reality is 2 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.
From the start one of our goals was to build a well insulated, air tight, passive solar home. Not all building methods are however suitable for our site. In the next blog a little more about the choices and narrowing down the alternatives for different ways of building.