my best home
a great home starts with a great conversation...
Where your house is located can have much more of an impact on your life and the lives of your family than you might think.
Where your house is located affects HOW you will probably travel (eg car or bus or train or walk) for years to come to: your place of work, to shops, to school...to most things. When you travel much more frequently by car of course it affects your commute time, but also means you are getting less time for family and physical activity in your regular day. If you think about it in another way, there is a health impact connected to your house’s location.
Energy is getting much more expensive so protecting yourself against future price rises might be a very smart thing to do. By the way you can also feel good about helping save the planet.
Different energy sources have different costs and different environmental impacts.
Focusing on energy is one of the simplest and most direct ways of reducing your ecological footprint - particularly in Australia where typically electrical energy is derived from coal. A well designed house can significantly reduce your electricity consumption.
Every time it rains uncollected water runs off roofs and roads and goes to ‘stormwater’. Is rain a problem or a useful resource?
Rainfall patterns have changed dramatically in Australia over the past decade. If you look up the yearly rainfall for your area and imagine that falling on a roof and being collected every time it rains for free.
It might seem strange when you think that most Australians use prime quality drinking water to flush a toilet, but that’s exactly what we do.
The choice of materials affects can affect a lot of things. Of course cost & maintenance but ALSO how your building keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer.
Most people know that your choice of materials will affect not only the upfront cost of building but also the cost and time required for maintenance in coming years.
But you also should know that the choice of materials ALSO affects how your building keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer. All materials have an environmental impact somewhere, ask the right questions to make an informed choice.
We only have one planet. If we don’t live ‘within our means’ and look after it, then we are not leaving as much for our kids to have as we had.
There are somewhere between 8 and 9 billion people on this planet and its pretty straight forward that we are each entitled to the same use of the planet’s resources wherever we may have been born.
Let's leave this place in a better condition than we found it.
The location of your home will have an impact on how you travel around during your week, you will get more exercise if you are able to walk or cycle to things rather than having to drive.
As well as excercise you get from living in a walkable place, building materials inside your home can release chemicals that can affect the health of your family.
You can avoid choosing certain material combinations can trap water and dirty air within your home so instead you’ll have a healthy home.