*** 100 somerville

Do you fancy buying a sunny, warm, fully fenced house on a large section with edible gardens?

Then maybe you'd be interested in buying 100 Somerville.



A character filled two story ex-state home with modern touches including a new kitchen, open plan living, large deck for outdoor entertaining, dark floorboards and French doors.

Situated in the suburb of Andersons Bay and perched ontop of the hill, the house gets plenty of all day sun (including winter) to keep you cosy.

The main open plan living and kitchen area has excellent sun, a wood burner (which can be used for cooking) and a scope electric heater.

Featuring:

- Large 876m2 section
- New modern kitchen
- Open plan kitchen/dining/lounge area
- 3 bedrooms
- Fireplace
- Scope heater
- Large deck with french doors into kitchen
- L shaped deck size 9 by 3.5 meters, and 4 by 3 meters
- 2 Awnings (both roughly 10m2 each)
- 1 bathroom
- Instant gas hot water
- Good water pressure
- Full all day sun
- Insulated ceiling and floor
- Native and food gardens
- Laundry off deck
- Fully fenced and secure for pets and children
- Backyard facing bush strip
- Offers over $195,000

This property has room for improvement and your personal touch - a new exterior coat of paint will have this place finished nicely.

This home has so much to offer, selling with regret as it is much loved. Don't miss out on this opportunity :) Please feel free to ask any questions.

Open home any time. Please contact Blair to make an appointment on 03 4728296.

Before we went to the US for a month, Sunshine and I finished one of the side awnings. After we got back, we finished the other. Now we have great outdoor space on the deck to use when its raining - like drying cloths, or potting plants, or some minor building work. The awning down below offers us huge storage for building materials, or a green house in the future.

We used new H5 treated 100x100 posts, with recycled H3 and 4 100x50s. We saved a tonne of money with the recycled wood and they were nice and straight and very dry. We used the top of the line polycarbonate sheeting that comes with a 15year guarantee and cuts out UV rays. The guttering dilivers the water away from all footings. Will dig a gravel trench for over flow and put a small tank for garden watering.

Already we can feel a difference in warmth. Our original plan was to close them in with second hand windows. We still could, but have been surprised by the warmth offered as they are now! It would be amazing if the awning was continued around the front of the house, offering extended indoor/outdoor space below, and helping to heat up downstairs. Going this large (over 15m2) however would require a permit. Perhaps 2 separate awnings would get around that.

More photos

Stuart and Gabrielle give a good tip for growing rhubarb and making cocktails from a rhubarb cordial!

Another very inspiring idea I knew nothing about, until Keith blogged it that is! Rocket stoves with mass heating.

I'm seriously considering building one of these downstairs. We have a log burner upstairs, and we need to install some thermal mass around it to make it more efficient, but downstairs has no heating! On the one hand we could extend the log burner downstairs, but I think I'd rather build the rocket down there for my learning's benefit, try and make it so it effectively heats down and upstairs, then consider uninstalling the log burner and selling it to recover costs... permits will be an issue :(

Here's a great video Keith found:

Here's the book that the video refers to, but I'm gutted to find my local library doesn't have a copy :(

And here's a really good illustration of the functional design from Erica, along with many other photos she took during a build in the US. Thanks Erica!

Update:
I started a Wikipedia article to see where it might take me information wise. Also, an Appropedia page to document our progress and hopefully meet experienced people.

Thanks for the pointer Punk Rock Permaculture eZine

DIY: Urban Aquaculture Manual

Put a gate in the fence between the neighbour's and us. We visit each other often, trade food, and generally help each other out and a gate has been talked about for a long time. We plan to combine energy and produce a lot of food this year I think.

I also put a new door in the back of the house. We picked it up for $40 from Hall Bros (really cheap!). It has a big reinforced window in it so the entry hall gets light now. Even at night, the outside light gives good light through the window.

Lighting is an interesting design challenge in the house. Obviously we have replaced all globes with pearl energy savers at the lowest wattage we could get (11 Watts, still looking for less), and now its a matter of positioning the lights so that they give the maximum amount of useful light. Right now for example, we have 1 light on. It lights the lounge room and the kitchen slightly, as well as our bedroom through the glass doors. I've already mentioned that the outside light lights the hall, and the kitchen light lights the deck through the windows. I don't think there is ever a time we have more than 3 lights on. Thats 33W per hour as apposed to 180W per hour if we had normal light bulbs, or 360W or more if we used twice as many lights. This, combined with fire heating (and cooking), gas, a very small fridge, and no entertainment system is probably why our energy bill averages $45-$50 per month right through the year.

This is a great time of year for gardening. Our produce garden is getting better, with more of a focus on perennials this year, as well as fruits and berries. Next year, maybe livestock! Here's some photos:

The power line fellas came around and dropped a tree in the front section a few months ago. I went down there and put my tarp over it all as a kind of claim to ownership, because the front section doesn't appear to be ours. People might get to thinking the wood was up for grabs.

I eventually found a chainsaw to loan and cut it all up. We probably got about 2 months worth of wood out of it. The next few days I cut up the vine covered trees out the back. At least another month of wood in that pile too. I quite enjoyed using the saw :)