The building trade goes into top gear in the weeks leading up to Christmas. You can understand it. Everyone wants their bathroom/kitchen/sparebedroom/garden/garage finished before the holiday, and before the visitors start arriving to make use of the new facilities. For us though that means a big slow down. Providing quotes is pretty low on the list of priorities when hammers and nails need to get banged together pronto. Still. We're waiting and hoping that we might get to start something (anything) before Christmas. And we're keeping the whole process going. This week's piece in stuff is all about the pricing process starting at the beginning. And next week's is about the later pricing process when you have builders involved. I hope it helps. I've learnt plenty in this process already and...we haven't even started yet...

This is a quick post while I race out the door to another meeting with a fab supplier. We've been really lucky with the number of people enthused about our project so I just wanted to say a quick thanks! to all of them, and to you for coming on board. I'm sorry I don't have breaking news of breaking ground but we're getting closer, resource consent has been granted! 
Over at Stuff I'm talking about the design process, so if you are one of the people who have written in saying that you're hoping to build soon, check it out. It's a mad process turning a blank piece of paper into your future home and I hope you get to enjoy it in with all the stress. I feel like I keep saying I'll be starting to talk more about the house build a lot, and I will, but if this process teaches anything, its that good things take time...or is that cheese? Either way, we're chipping away at it and before you know it you wont be able to shut me up. So in the mean time, enjoy the sun and happy house build dreams! #newbuildlove 

We love green things. Doesn't mean we have awesome green thumbs, but we're always keen on digging holes, sewing seeds and hoping for the best. That's gardening...right? 
There are a LOT of weeds at our new section and the bush needs plenty of tender coaxing to bring it back to life. But happily we've had a bunch of practice at brutalizing weeds and replanting natives. As part of the Sustainable Neighbourhoods Programme, we've pulled plenty of ginger and tried to generally look after the streams in our current neighbourhood with neighbours and friends. It's a great way to get to know people on your street or in your community, and its one of those quintessentially kiwi concepts of what goes around comes around. As part of that philosophy, we've started growing native seedlings (in a bath and assortments of pots) for the new section. Every time we pull something out, something else needs to go in its place or the weeds will just keep on coming, or that's our theory. So far so good. It takes relatively little effort to put a bunch of seeds and seedlings in a bath, but when they start flourishing, and the tuis and wood pigeons increase the decibel of their morning calling as their numbers increase, I'll be a happy lady. 

First, thanks! To all of you who took the time to email me directly via this site, The response to the first Stuff article has been great. 
There are plenty of you who have built before or are in the dreaming stage. If you missed it, you can catch up here, and this week's piece is up now.  If you have images of inspirational builds or technologies you think other #newbuildlovers will enjoy seeing, do post them up on Facebook.  And I'm very chuffed that so many of you have been emailing me direct. As this process goes on I might get behind in replying to you all, but I'll do my best.
In the mean time, given that we're in planting season, I thought I'd share this great idea for building the world that will support any home. Gardens. Especially vege gardens! Did you know if you plant out seeds in egg cartons you can just pop them into your garden beds when they've sprouted? The cardboard will break down and you don't damage the fragile roots of your little seedlings. Genius. 
Things are starting to heat up at Building Boxes and pretty soon I'll be introducing you to some of the people and products we'll be using in our build. But until then, thanks for stopping by and happy planting!

It'd be nice if some large piece of machinery were really getting stuck in on the section, but till we upgrade from Tonka to tractor, I'll settle for talking about the process of simply getting started. If you've popped over from stuff.co.nz, hi! This blog will go into more detail about the products and services we use in the build. It'll also showcase how things are installed and why in more detail and you can check out the plans and eco leanings of our build.
You can follow us on facebook, check out more photos on instagram and from time to time I'll tweet about this process too if that's how you like to get your New Build Love news. 
Next week on stuff I'll be heading right back to the beginning and talking about the section - services, orientations, things to look for (that we didn't). I'm definitely no expert, but I'm a fan of not reinventing the wheel so hopefully our mistakes can become your...non mistakes. Hope to see you soon.

I’ve talked a fair bit about our hopes of building a green-thinking home and now we’ve got some serious skin in the game. Our house is going to be a TV star!

The Living Green Show will be filming over summer and screening 2015 on The Living Channel. With all our talk of passive technology and uber insulation, the producers thought it would be a good showcase for these technologies -- I better get me a new pair of TV friendly gumboots!

When people hear that we’re building a new house, one of the first questions they ask is if it will be an eco house. We like green and sustainable thinking, we believe passive technology works and with the world's resources clearly finite, it makes sense to us to use sustainable products where we can. However, we just don't have the cash to build a fully passive or solar house, or use the best and most beautiful eco products. Nor do we have the will or time to go full Grand Designs and build this whole house ourselves. Our project is also further complicated by being on a south facing site. So we need to be extra smart about how and where we orient and build our house.

 We're looking for some sort of middle ground. We want to use products and services that are as smart as we can manage. Everything has to work as hard as it possibly can for us, be it ventilation, insulation or windows. So we're planning a smart green thinking house. One that is sensitive to the environment, built with smart design and systems, but that doesn't break the bank. And that’s what will make this house a TV star! Or at least that’s what we’re all hoping!

From Eco-Tourism, to greener cities and rural sustainable agricultural practices, as well as eco inventions and new build homes, The Living Green Show will travel New Zealand telling the stories of how Kiwis are trying to make the clean, green difference. 

When you are waiting (and waiting) for something to happen, life has a perverse ability to slow down. We have been trying to get our working drawings into council for some months now but they still aint there. The delay has a domino effect at this time of year of course, if they're not in soon, they wont get out before Christmas, and if they're not out before Christmas, we wont be building till well into the new year. If we're not building soon we can't sell out current house, we have to borrow more cash, and not move out, and live in a caravan, and build through the winter, and watch my hair grey and my forehead cave in from the stress...
So to do something constructive towards making all of that happen quicker, we've started getting back into our "Things to do to the house" list. We've steadily chipped away at it, and the big renovation we did a few years ago on the kitchen and bathroom has helped (I'll share about that at a later date). But there is still plenty to do. A large chunk of it starts and ends with paint. We live in an old wooden bungalow, and what we've fixed up, we need to paint or repaint to get it looking at it's glorious best.
My problem of course is the three and one year olds who are determined to help. I'm quietly chuffed I managed to keep Mr one out of the paint today as the trail of destruction his participation would have entailed might have seen me currently huddled under the kitchen table while inhaling a large bottle of chardonnay. I wasn't quite as skilled at duck and cover with Mr three. He helped. And to be fair he did paint a wall. He did however, also paint his hands, feet and hair. Oh well. It's done now. And paint washes off. Now it's just back to waiting...

Everyone tells you building a house takes longer than you think. And it's more stressful. And it costs more. I'd like to report that all of that is a lie. I cannot. 
What I can tell you is that there are bits of it that are all kinds of fun. Taking a three year old to try out baths for example... There's nothing like turning up to a clean, quiet, white, bathroom showroom with a grubby toddler (and he is grubby, no matter how recently he has been in a real bath) to strike horror into the heart of bathroom sales people. Especially when his little fingers start making a trail of who knows what along the lengths of those shiny glass shower doors. It wasn't that bad, honestly, but it was plenty fun having Fox "try out" all the bathtubs and have us jump in too to decide which was the best.
Thing is, of all the things I have let go of, compromised on, and agreed that we can live without, the one thing I have held on to is a bath with a view. My bathroom will have a bath in it. Period. The showers have shrunk and become acrylic rather than those glorious tiled artworks in all the magazines and a LOT of things will be coming from trademe, but the bath is staying. A freestanding bath no less. Lush.
We are finally starting to pick up the pace again after a long (long) push to get our plans ready to go to council, so the posts here will begin to come more regularly. When we're in full building mode I'll be chatting a plenty about the hows and wheres and whys and whos. Have to say, I cant wait. In the mean time thanks for the well wishes and do let us know if you have any questions.
Thanks for stopping by!

So that all-black house I mentioned last post? Here tis. Morning tea with Atlanta provided a whole bunch of inspirational sparks, as well as the opportunity to let Fox and Huxley mess up her house good. Viewing their place again, along with looking at our budget, has reconfirmed to us that Black Corrugate is the direction we'll be heading in. However, with a splash of Cedar. Can you have a splash of Cedar? 
As part of our build we'll self build a small studio space and my hubby came up with the great idea of having the two "speak" to each other with that splash of Cedar. It felt odd to just have one end of our black box being coated with timber, but if the two boxes each have that little bit of interest - facing each other, and with complimentary designs, I think it might just work. And If you're interested in checking out some of the lush light fittings on the inside of all that black. Check out our Instagram page. 

Cladding. It's a tricky one. We love timber and in New Zealand, it's a material that makes sense. There's a bunch of it around, and it does well in the sometimes salty, often sunny and even shaky environment (love to any rebuild folk after the Christchurch earthquake). But it comes at a cost. It's expensive and it needs maintenance to keep it looking good with all that nature has to throw at it.
Down in the Coromandel, a friend has a place that has been hammered by the ocean and wind and its cedar cladding looks great despite of it all. It has silvered to a soft tone and fits right in with the Pohutekawa along the shore line. 
Trouble is, we're not sure we can afford it. 
In contrast, other friends have just built on the outskirts of West Auckland and their whole place, top to toe, is clad in black corrugated iron. It's bold. Demands attention. Screams modern, it's cheap and it needs zero maintenance. 
So we're contemplating...and might even combine the two. We'll let you know what we decide. 

What about you? This or that? Wood or tin?