Building a house

Take a peek at GreenSmart Home of the Year

by Chris on August 23, 2011

I am not sure how many people know about the prestigious GreenSmart construction awards – but yes, they exist, and there are houses being built in Australia where owners care a great deal about sustainable building principles. A couple of days ago, the GreenSmart Home of the Year was awarded to company Eco-Logical Building from [...]

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Which Is Better: Artificial or Real Grass?

by Chris on July 29, 2011

As I walk around residential areas one thing I have started to see more and more is artificial grass. I have even seen builders put artificial grass on the nature strips in front of their show houses. (Can you still call them ‘nature strips’ with artificial grass?) Here are my thoughts on how they compare [...]

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Video Tips On Home Buying, Investing and Renovating

by Chris on May 24, 2011

If you are considering purchasing a home, an investment property or doing some renovations to your house, and you like watching videos, this post for you. There’s a new series of videos from the Commonwealth bank that I personally find educational and entertaining. Even though I don’t intend to buy an investment property or do [...]

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Australian Home Of The Year 2011

by Chris on May 14, 2011

Today at the HIA-CSR Australian Housing Awards ceremony the winner was revealed. Every year building companies from all states and territories of Australia compete in various categories, but there is just one top prize, and this year it goes to NSW builder R W Stidwill Constructions, for winning the Australian Home Of The Year 2011 [...]

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How To Renovate Your House On A Budget

by Chris on April 28, 2011

The following is an article by Ally Tobias of Home Loan Finder. Renovating a house can take as much money as a new house altogether, but it doesn’t have to. People waste a surprising amount of money on decisions that may not seem too consequential at the moment, but actually run them back a few [...]

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Solar Upgrade From A Basic System

by Chris on March 16, 2011

In a previous post I showed how I evaluated a basic 1.5kw system for my house in Victoria … But is it worth installing extra panels? Basically the government supports domestic solar installations up to 5kw although the most support is for systems up to 1.5kw. The effect is that the cost per kw for [...]

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Solar Electricity – Is It Worthwhile?

by Chris on March 10, 2011

There is a lot of marketing information around about Grid Connected Solar Panels but not many facts. Here’s how I evaluated a basic system for our house in a Melbourne Suburb. We use around 16kw hours (kwhr) of electricity per day which is fairly typical; For each 1kw of solar panels we can expect to [...]

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A Roundup of Amazing Australian Houses

by Chris on February 12, 2011

Australian architecture has become one of the most innovative and interesting areas of house design in the world. With a particular focus on sustainability and reference to the continent’s land and nature, Australian house designers are producing some amazing creations. This post brings together 15 of the finest contemporary homes, examples of the Australian vernacular [...]

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House orientation – things to consider (part 2)

by Chris on December 22, 2010

The following is Part 2 of the article by our expert guest writer Anthony Braun, who shares his opinion about house orientation. Read Part 1 here. And now we are left with the only fairly changing factor – the sun. Common sense suggests that the rooms where people spend much time during the day should [...]

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House orientation – things to consider (part 1)

by Chris on December 20, 2010

The following is Part 1 of the article by our expert guest writer Anthony Braun, who shares his opinion about house orientation. The issue of house orientation is one of the first issues we should consider when drawing plans for a new house or doing major renovations in an existing one. This issue is not [...]

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Kitchens and Bathrooms 2010 – What’s hot and what’s not

by Chris on December 15, 2010

“Australians Spend Record Dollars on Kitchens and Bathrooms” was the headline of the latest report by HIA (Housing Industry Association). The K&B industry is booming, apparently – an unimaginable amount of $6.9 billion was spent on new and renovated kitchens in 2009/10. The new and renovated bathrooms follow the kitchens closely with $4.2 billion. I [...]

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