So we’ve moved in – at last

Finally, it is finished, the orchard planted, the horse paddock fenced off, the three dams dug out to make them deeper and higher, and the cattle purchased and we’ve moved in down from the shedhouse – our home while the building took place. So here we are, watching our first sunset – so lovely, it’s almost like a welcome! Tomorrow I start my first riding lessons and our first two horses are getting used to their new quarters.

From the very beginning, I am in love with the very unpretentiousness of Ted’s design – after all, this is meant to be a country house, a homestead, a welcoming place for us and our family and friends. Also, from the first week, we have found that elements that we HOPED would work have worked better than expected:

We’re delighted with the fly roof that covers the house and the verandah, keeping all sun a metre away from the house roof. Ted has carefully concealed its existence by running the side walls past the roof up to the fly roof and installing louvres, which, when open in summer will let all the breeze through and stop the buildup of hot air, and is now gorgeous in winter when we close the louvres and keep whatever heat the sun blesses us with.

Second, we’re so happy with the natural convection current that is set up between the living room, heated by the pot-bellied fireplace, and the rest of the house, as the hot air rises into the peaked ceiling air, is drawn by fans through the airconditioning system and spurts out into the other rooms. I have found, to my amazement, that there is only ever one degree difference between the temperature in the living room and that in the far bedrooms. I am sure we’ll never need to use the gas outlets which are installed through the house.

We’re hoping, in summer, that the 12ft verandahs which ring the house, will most of the day prevent the sun from reaching the glass walls – maybe we won’t need to turn the air-conditioning on at all, saving more power!

The eastern verandah we’re using for breakfasts, the warming sun filtering through the trees as we eat.

and the western verandah, of course, is for afternoons, sunsets and evenings, overlooking the view over the hills around Dungog to the blue of the Barringtons in the distance. Oh I am so in love with our new, weird house!

… and we’re starting to get new friends: