From lockup to handover, learn more about what happens in the final stage in this new build update from HOME Method member, Michael.

Our latest instalment, as Michael and his wife finally move into their finished home. Listen to the episode now.

Hello, this is Episode 391, and in this episode, I’m welcoming back HOME Method member, Michael, to share an update on his new build journey.

This is the third instalment we’ve had from Michael about his project. You can catch previous updates in Episode 323 and Episode 324, discussing earlier parts of the project. And then Episode 347 and Episode 348, where Michael discussed documentation, approvals, pricing, contracts and commencing construction. Check out those episodes to hear loads of helpful insights and information.

When Michael last joined me on the podcast, his roof was on, the home was about to be clad, and his separate workshop hadn’t yet begun.

Fast forward to now, and the new home reached handover in August 2025. 

He and his wife have been settling in, shaping the landscaping themselves, refining the details, and actually living in the spaces they spent more than five years planning and building.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

Michael’s project is a beautifully considered pavilion style home in regional Western Australia. 

It’s oriented to maximise northern sun, carefully detailed for performance in its climate zone, and designed as a long term transition home as he and his wife step towards retirement from farming.

In this conversation, we talk about what unfolded between lock up and handover. The logistics of trades. The unexpected delay with tiling. The coordination of finishes. What surprised him once they moved in. And those small decisions, particularly around lighting and services, that only truly reveal themselves once you’re living in the home.

We also dive into landscaping on a sloping site, reusing soil during construction, working with topography rather than fighting it, and how collaboration with a builder and trades can shape not just the outcome, but the experience of the build itself.

Before we jump in, here’s some timing for context on my conversation with Michael.

Michael joined HOME Method in April 2021. We recorded this conversation in January, 2026. Site works began on Michael’s project in January 2024, and the new home and workshop / studio was ready for handover in August 2025.

Let’s jump into my conversation with Michael now.

This is the transcript of my conversation with Michael discussing his experience of his new build handover.

Amelia Lee
Well, Michael, it is fantastic to have you back on the podcast. The last time that you were here with us was mid-2024. I was pinching myself when I was preparing for this conversation, because it doesn’t feel that long ago, and yet I know that loads has happened in your project over that time. And so, I’m really looking forward to sharing your update with the Undercover Architect community. Since we had that conversation at that time, back in mid-2024, your roof was on, the building was about to be clad. The work to your separate workshop that you were building hadn’t started yet. And since then, you’ve had the building complete in August of 2025, and you’ve had a handover, and we were just chatting before we jumped on recording that you’ve been enjoying the home and doing some landscaping. So we’ve got lots and lots to share. Can you just remind people, before we dive in, about the home that you’re building and what your priorities were for it?

Michael 
We bought the block in August 2020, we didn’t have a design. It’s got a nice north-facing aspect, and it’s got a triangular building area on the block. And we didn’t know how to get the best out of the site. We wanted the best use of the northern sun. So, yeah, we went out to a designer and worked through that process. So, I’m a farmer, and it’ll be retirement home, but at the moment, we’re transitioning. But it’s been a process. It’s been five years now, or a bit over five years, since we bought the block. And probably, we engaged a designer, that would have been February 2021. And the design process was relatively long. There’s escalations through COVID in price. Initial costings were quite well above expectations. And yeah, we stayed engaged with one particular builder in conversations. We didn’t go through the PAC process. He was very good at giving us feedback on design and different elements. And then, yeah, got to the point where it’s time to get on with this. And, I guess, it was late 2023, I think it was, 2024, and then yeah, started the process.

Michael 
And it’s a really beautifully designed home in terms of the maximisation of the site and the glorious views that you’ve got, and that indoor-outdoor connection. I know that designing for the orientation and other sustainability goals have been a really big part of the design and the construction material selections and those kinds of things. So, I’m looking forward to diving into some of the details about that, because there’s been some things that have been happening through the construction process that you’ve been really careful and intentional about ensuring that you continue to incorporate into the home and, yeah, sharing photographs along the way. It’s just been great to see how it’s been unfolding, and to see all of your work and your preparation, and all of the effort and energy that you’ve put into the process really coming to fruition in the home and the way that it’s been created.

Amelia Lee
So now, you mentioned this is your retirement home, and you’re transitioning away from running a working property. You reached handover in August of 2025. So, how much time have you been spending at the home? And how does it actually feel to be in the home after all of this time?

Michael  
So, it was around about 18 months overall, little over 18 months from when the actual site preparation started. We probably engaged in the process for that last quarter of 2024, so yeah.

Amelia Lee
Gotcha. And it’s a single story home, isn’t it? How many bedrooms are in the home?

Michael  
There’s three bedrooms. So, it’s a pavilion-style home. We’ve got living area, laundry and garage on the west side, then we’ve got the master bedroom and the other two bedrooms, so two bathrooms, and there’s a powder room.

Michael  
Oh, look, it feels fantastic. It was a bit surreal at the start to think, wow, we’ve actually got hand over, and quite a long design and build process to actually say, “Well, this is our space now, and we can start making it our home.” Yeah, that was fantastic. My wife spent a fair bit of time down there, and she spent a lot of time packing up what she was going to take down there. And pretty much, she moved in, and just gradually got a feel for the place and what she wanted.

Michael  
We didn’t just rush in and do that sort of thing. And she’s slowly pulled it together, which has been great. We’ve still got a bit of work to do there. And the builder did say he’d hang the paintings and that sort of thing, get his guys to do that. And I think he’d done a great job getting the place a nice quality job. And so, they’re actually coming tomorrow. He had a couple of handovers he wanted to get done prior to his Christmas break. So yeah, he’s coming tomorrow with a couple of trades to sort that out. And yeah, there’s a couple of things that happened after as well. There was some security doors that went on that actually happened just prior to the Christmas break as well.

Michael  
So, I think there’s still a couple of door handles and things to go on. A couple of the big sliding doors that the glazier was holding off on just to make sure the clearances were right and that sort of thing.

Amelia Lee
And I know that landscaping for spring was a big priority for you. How did you factor that in, in terms of that handover and then getting work done on that? Because have you done a lot of that yourself, or have you had people in to help with the landscaping? How’s that worked?

Michael  
We’ve pretty much done it ourselves. So, we’ve got about 100 square metres of lawn on the western side. The thoughts were that’d be a nice, cool spot, bit of greenery and that sort of thing.

Michael  
So, we had a local irrigation company came in and put the retic work in and that sort of thing for that. And the rest of it, I’ve just gone to the soils places and picked up topsoil. So, there’s a lot of natives and that sort of thing. So, we’re just prepared, because basically the site was compaction sand. So, it was very much a priority to get the landscaping done, cover up the sand. So, the paving was one of the last things that went in. So, that was good that we’ve got pretty much paving right around the house. So, there’s pathways on the west and east, and then we’ve got about three and a half metres of depth on the northern side of the house of paving, and then we’ve got a walkway into the entrance on the south side, so there’s good connection around and then it was just a matter of pulling that together with some plantings and that sort of thing. So, my wife loves her gardening, and that sort of thing.

Amelia Lee
Did the builder do all of that paving into the entry? Because they’re steps that step down to that front door, was that all part of the builders work?

Michael  
Yeah, the builder organised the paving, that worked well. So, the paving had to go in. And then we’ve got a couple of heat pumps. The workshop, we ended up building the studio into the workshop, so the heat pump and the laundry also supplies hot water for the bathroom in the studio, and then we’ve got one on the bedroom wing. Needed to get the paving in so they could get placed in position. So, bit of a process.

Amelia Lee
That’s a good way to do it, though, to get the builder to manage all of the hardscape, particularly where it meets the building. And you know you need to get levels right and making sure that there’s no compromisation of overland flow or any of your existing storm water and down pipe locations and all of those kinds of things. So, getting all of that done by the builder as part of their scope of works is a good call, I think. And then, if you are trying to hive off work from a landscaping point of view, then just leaving the soft landscaping for once the builder is complete can oftentimes be a better way of coordinating things. So, did you find, sometimes people get a bit of a shock, for example, about how much earthworks has happened around the construction site, and how much extra soil they actually have to bring in to bring the soft landscaping back up to the levels that they need to. You spent a fair bit of time on site during construction, and you were really involved. Was that something that surprised you at all? Or were you anticipating, or was it not a drama? The builder had done a pretty good job of keeping things, not removing too much that you then had to bring back in?

Michael  
We only really had to bring the topsoil in. We basically filled to a certain level and then check that. And, I think, we ended up about 150 mils below where the designer had designed the survey works and that sort of thing. So, he put in the drainage and that sort of thing. So, we just had to cut. We had a little bit deeper cut at the rear of the site where the high point was. So, the water was all falling away from the house, and then it was just really what we did with a bit of excess sand.

Michael  
What we did do in the process when we excavated the driveway, so they excavated the house and started the house, so they pushed away that site. They didn’t finalise the driveway. So, they’re just coming, driving in on the natural height of the land. And then, when it got to building the workshop, that was a point where they needed to then cut in the driveway. So, that had to drop in. So, there’s probably around about a metre bank along the back wall, and there’s a bit of stone and that sort of thing in there. So, what we did, we actually built a level area to the east side of the house, so that connects on. So, we put a lot of that into the east side, and then we brought in a little bit of chicken manure soil and that sort of thing, and that got spread around. And so, we’ve got a flat lawn there. So, we were working through that at the time. Being a sloping block, it made sense. Rather than take a significant amount of soil off the site that we pushed that over, and then we’ve just kept some of the bigger stones.

Michael  
We’ve got a fairly big pile of stone that we will use to shape the cut on the back wall. But that’s a bit of a process. It’s just a gravel rock. So, we’ll just have a sloping stone wall along the back there. The builder had recommended a landscape designer right at the start, but he only introduced her into the process part way through. So, I suppose, it must have been after lock up, and she did a reasonably detailed design on plantings and introduced some ideas. And so, we’ve modified that. She also introduced a few ideas of shadings for the house, that sort of thing. My wife had given her a few Pinterest photos to use, and that sort of thing, just images. And so, we use that as a base to work off. So, we’ve used a few ideas. Like at the entrance, instead of just having solid pavers, we’ve got stepping stone pavers and a bit of stone in between, and a few things like that.

Michael  
And she had ideas of breaking up where you come through the driveway, you go past the house, and then we’ve got a little parking area down the bottom where we’ve got the flat area, to also have the garden bed and have some slightly bigger trees and that sort of thing. So, you break that area up. You’re not just seeing straight down there. You can work the garden, or give it that little bit of a break. So, I guess, my job’s been going down there and doing a fair bit of work. So yeah, the most important thing was with springtime. And we did have a soft spring, which was really helpful. Albany is a temperate climate. It’s cool in summer, and it was damp right through into the middle of November, which was really good for getting gardens and things right.

Amelia Lee
For establishing a garden, yeah. And it sounds like it’s been a really effective process in how that landscaping has worked. I mean, you’ve always had a really good understanding in the conversations that we’ve had and how I’ve seen you operate. You’ve had a good understanding of the topography and working with that sloping site, and retaining and water was going to be of consideration and those kinds of things. And so, I think that has really supported then being able to bring the landscape designer in at that later stage, and ensure that then there’s some considerations or creating spaces in certain ways, in certain areas. And, I think, just what you’ve spoken through will be really helpful to some people listening, thinking about elements that they can reuse. Because it’s always amazing whenever a construction of a new home or even a renovation happens on a site, how much dirt can be removed, and then how much you can have to pay to bring all of that back when you’re actually finishing off the home. And particularly, if you’re not keeping your builder on through landscaping. And so therefore, it’s not their responsibility to consider that as responsibility to consider that as part of your completion. And so they’re not thinking strategically about how to streamline that.

Amelia Lee
And so, I really love that you’ve always had a handle on that, and then you’ve worked really well with your team to collaborate that. And your build has been really great at bringing in the right people to assist with that. And looking at the photographs, I mean, this home’s already looking like it’s been here for a while, which is always amazing, given that it’s only been finished a few months. So, I love the way that it’s sitting in the landscape, and the approach that you’ve taken with that native planting, and thinking about how the fact that you do descend into the front door, that there’s a very gentle welcoming nature to that, in the way that you’ve done those steppers with gravel and added that planting in around the entry and those kinds of things.

Amelia Lee
So, I can just see it in 12 months time, it’s going to look like it’s always been there. So, it’s just going to be really great. So, has anything surprised you with the difference between imagining the finished home and then actually being in it?

Michael  
I think it’s performing really like the design. You’ve always advocated you draw your furniture into your design and that sort of thing. It’s certainly not a small home. It’s a little bit more spacious than we expected. And I think my wife’s surprised at that. I think I probably had a better understanding of looking at a drawing and getting a feeling for size. So, in the open plan area, so it looks to the north, so we’ve got the kitchen to the rear that looks out over the open plan area, and then we’ve got a dining table on the left.

Michael  
So, we had a nice dining table, I’ve collected a heap of WA Blackbutt timber. There’s a guy that used to make furniture and bought a heap of slabs. We’ve got a nice 2.9 metre long table, and we’ve made that a metre wide, so that suits the width of the room. And then we’ve got a couch, and then we’ve got our fireplace. But I thought I’d feel a little bit tight through there, but it actually feels quite spacious, like there’s plenty of room in and around that. And we’ve got laundry, mudroom, that’s plenty spacious. We’ve got lots of storage. So, yeah, it’s all functioning well. Yeah, the bedrooms are on the east side, and we’ve got nice glazing, but it’s really nice in the morning, just the brightness, the light in the house and that sort of thing. We really enjoy that.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, which is fantastic, because that was always a big goal for you, wasn’t it, to make sure that you had that really light-filled experience and that great indoor-outdoor connection. I think you’ve done an exemplary job of making all of that work. So, if you think back over your time, you had that lock-up happening around September 2024, so then there was almost a year between that lock-up period and the handover in August 2025, and you had the workshop being built in parallel. Can you just talk through us a bit in terms of how construction unfolded? And if it’s tricky to think about that over that timeframe, maybe just talking through what parts of the project felt smooth and it went seemed to just happen without much input required, versus ones that might have needed more of your attention and involvement? Or where things particularly slowed down through that construction phase?

Amelia Lee
If you can just have a chat through what happened over that period of time, that would be really awesome, I think.

Michael  
I mean, all the framing stage went very smoothly. I think I mentioned in one of the previous podcasts, we had a dry summer. And I think, everything progressed really well through the framing stage and then the cladding stage. And there’s a few conversations in and around cladding and introducing NCC 2022 requirements, because it was only may this last year, 2025, that WA took on board those standards. But I thought it was important to build to those standards. We’re in a climate zone six, so we use vapour permeable barriers and that sort of thing.

Michael  
So, that all progressed well, and then at the fit out, so all of the services were put in. That all went smoothly with plumbing and electricals. And there’s been walk arounds with the electrician, and plumbers and where taps go, and all that sort of thing. That all went smoothly. And then with the plasterers, I’d always wanted to introduce wool insulation, and we had natural insulation specified. It was too expensive to go with natural wool insulation. But the plasterer had his own systems, and he used CSR Bradford batts. So, I gave him some of the information that I had, and he took that away and drilled down on all of that, and came back and said, “No, we’re keen to use what we work with.” And all of that went smoothly. It was interesting with the plasterers when they came, and we’re just talking about waste and that sort of thing, and they said, “Well, we actually measure for each room. So we specifically purchase our plaster board so we actually reduce the waste.”

Michael  
That was really pleasing to see the thought that had gone into the process. And all the insulation was fitted very well, and nice and tightly. So, yeah, it was great to see them taking the care in that process. Yeah, all the windows went in. There was conversations with the glaziers that all went pretty smoothly. And then we’ve got New South Wales Coastal Blackbutt flooring, so that went in, that went smoothly. And then it moved towards tiling. My wife was working with the cabinet makers, and then we got held up with the tiler. So, the cabinets went in, and then the tiler got held up on another job, I think it was. The builder can have four or five different jobs going at a time, so logistically, and he only uses one tiler. And I think the guy had had a hand operation or something as well, and then got a few extra jobs thrown at him, so that probably pushed 10 weeks further back. So, that pushed us into January 2025. And then, yeah, the tiler just toiled away on site for, I suppose he was there for three months. And yeah, it’s amazing.

Michael  
Every time I walk into the bathrooms and stuff, you think, “Oh, wow, there’s been so much thought into the layout.” And you get surprised quite often on just the thought that’s gone into getting a great finished job was actually interesting. My wife bumped into the tiler at the supermarket with his wife and just said, “What a fantastic job.” And they really appreciate that feedback, I think. And Albany is an interesting place. It’s one of the fastest growing regional areas in Australia, so the trades are under a fair bit of pressure to perform. It’s quite interesting, but they really work hard at getting the job done. I think it’s the other thing with the builder is just that logistics behind the scene, keeping everyone busy and making sure materials are on site at the right time, and is very, very good at engaging with us as clients, and particularly with my wife, working through the process.

Michael  
So, I suppose that was the hold up. And then once the tiling was done, things accelerated again.

Amelia Lee
And you were talking about in the group, you shared some photographs of the joinery going in, and some of those. When it really starts to feel like a finished home, I think, is when you start to see the cabinetry going in, and you see the tiling going on, and the plumbing and electrical fit off starting to occur. And it gets really, really exciting at that point, and yet it can still take a lot of time for all of that to happen. But I remember you sharing photographs into the group and commenting on how fantastic it was to have those trades and how well they were doing. What really stood out to you about how that phase was being handled? You touched on some of those points, but how did the builder coordinate it? Was the builder involving you in meeting with those trades regularly? How did that all work in terms of that process, and what worked well for you?

Amelia Lee
Fantastic. And I think what you just spoke to in terms of that feedback and bumping into the tiler in the supermarket and being able to give that feedback to them directly. I mean, it’s often recommended that you don’t speak to the trades directly without the builder present, because the trades are subcontracted to the builder, and they’re the builder’s responsibility, and it can create confusion around communication and information being handled. I mean, that’s really important, but it can often then sometimes mean that the bit that the trades person is not at the coalface of hearing that positive feedback and that gratitude that you have for the fact that they took that care and intention and did a really good job. And so it’s lovely that you got the opportunity to actually thank him personally.

Amelia Lee
And because I can imagine, particularly in Western Australia, where the volume builder industry dominates in the construct residential construction industry far more significantly than in the eastern states. So, from my understanding, in most of the eastern states, the volume builder market makes up somewhere between 20% and 25% of new builds, whereas in Western Australia, I think it gets up as high as 40%. And so that volume builder industry handles its subcontractor trade base very differently to an individual custom residential builder who’s only doing between two and five projects a year. And sometimes, trades people think, “Well, I’d much rather just work for the volume builder industry”, even though they might not enjoy the work as much, or they might feel like they’re in a bit of a sausage factory, and just needing to get in one end and get punched out the other.

Amelia Lee
Some trades who want to ensure that they have continuing work on a regular basis, that’s the kind of thing that they choose. And so, I always am full of lots of admiration for builders who manage to handle the logistics of having multiple projects going on at one time, but at the same time not being able to necessarily control. For example, the tiler needing to have a hand operation, and all of a sudden their schedule is not going to be able to be delivered on, unless they find another tiler. And finding another tiler that you can rely on to deliver to the standard of your work as a business operator can be challenging. So, it’s really great to hear that your builder has done a really good job of coordinating all of that. You, as clients, were in a position where you were able to accommodate. I mean, a 10-week delay is quite a significant delay that I think would have caused problems for some clients.

Amelia Lee
And so for you, it sounds your attitude to this whole project, Michael, has always just been so fantastic in that you understand. I think you’ve always had a really empathetic understanding of what’s actually going into your project coming to fruition. And also, and maybe it’s your farming background and understanding of the fact that you can’t always control the elements, and you can’t control what’s going on, and an ability to surrender to, “Well, things are just going to have to roll out the way that they have to roll out.” And so, yeah, I love that. I love that what’s happened is you’ve been able to accommodate that delay, and you’ve also got a really fantastic outcome in the process. And that thing that you say where you walk into the bathroom and get that realisation of, “Oh, wow. There’s a lot that’s gone into this, and it’s really lovely that it’s turned out so well.” So, I think it’s absolutely awesome.

Michael  
The builder was certainly very happy for us to engage with the trades. And quite often, we had met with the trade, and we’d go through the questions. And I’ve come to understand more through the process when he’s got other jobs going, just handling the time frames and that sort of thing. It is a massive logistical thing, and so you can’t get too far ahead of yourself, or you’re just very much about, we’ll make these decisions at this point in time. And so then, quite often, it’ll be, “Okay, now we’re painting. So talk to the painter about, okay, this is your colour. Put it on the wall. Have a look. What do you think?” So, we’ve adjusted the external paint colour a bit. I think it was deleted back a bit by white, just to get something closer to what we’re happy with, put it that way, and that tied it together. And it was great that Jeff, the painter, he introduced some of his ideas. Because we’ve got a little study nook, and we’ve got a feature wall. And he said, “Why don’t you do this in the same blue colour as in the butler’s pantry?” There’s some cabinets on one side that are a dark blue, and that worked really well. So it was a lot of those little bits of feedback.

Michael  
I think the engagement with the painter was fantastic. And you did mention, I think I posted a little video on the HOME Method page, and it was a number of the trades just working away one day when we went in there. I think the tiler was working on the stone cladding on the chimney, and then the guys were doing some joinery work in just setting up some work where the curtains were hanging, and, yeah, there was a lot of action going on. And I thought it was great. There was a bit of positive engagement. I think it is a process that sometimes it can be frustrating because things slow down. But it is working towards an end goal. And it’s really interesting. Some of the trades, you’ve got to get one trade in before another. So, it’s a real process of a step-by-step process. So, that’s where the builders have quite an intricate job. If something falls out of place, then it’s realigning everything.

Michael  
And, I think, it pretty much worked really well with a lot of the trades through the process. And there’s probably one thing that maybe we didn’t get quite right. There’s just a couple of things with the lighting. And we put a fair bit of time in with the designer on doing a lighting design. And remember when the electrician came around, just walking through rooms, what are we having here, what are we having there, and I followed it around with the wiring diagram, and was marking it up. And then it went missing for a while. And so, I just left that. And it was a really good process to just talk about the impacts, where’s the switching going, and that sort of thing. But we’ve got a hallway, and we’d set it up so that we’ve got a door, a sliding door that blocks off the other two bedrooms in the bathroom so there can be privacy. But it ended up that the lighting is switched on from both ends for the whole hallway, and so that’s one thing we’ll get the electrician back. We’ve spoken about it, but that should be an easy fix, just to switch the bedroom section off from the main hallway.

Michael  
So, there’s just a few little minor things like that that happen along the way. And possibly in the bedrooms, I think we didn’t end up putting fans in there, but I think it would have been good to just have some fans in there. We may do that down the track. They’re just a couple of little things that, until you actually live in the home, you don’t really quite understand. And probably in the kitchen, down in the butler’s area, I know that in the morning, when you walk in to put the kettle on or something like that, sometimes you don’t want a bright light. And we’ve got a nice light over the island, just a nice dull light. And then we’ve got the brighter lights. And I think, we might just put in a couple of dimmable lights down the other end. So, there’s just a couple of little minor things like that.

Michael  
And then, I guess, the trades, it got to that stage, I think the builder said, “Oh, well, I’ve got the floor sander booked for the middle of July.” So he said, “That’s really pivotal around getting finished, if for some reason, you have to push him back, then that might be another six weeks before we can get him back.” So we had all these birthdays in the middle of August. So that was a bit of a date. And I think he delivered just after that, which was pretty good. But it was actually interesting watching the builder. It was very much, “Now, we’ve got to slow down. These are the decisions that are made. We need to get the trades in. We need to get that all finished.” So, he is very much about the process. And it was quite interesting. The painter that was doing a lot of the work inside, he was probably informing us more of what was happening on site, or so and so is here, and that sort of thing. So, it was just interesting. You could see the builder was very much about, “Now we’re just going to manage the trades and get this done.”

Amelia Lee
Yeah, I love how methodical that sounds like it was, and also that you had a really clear understanding of that drop dead date of we get the floor sander in, and we don’t want anybody then having to do anything significant, because that really undoes the whole purpose of getting that beautiful finish before hand over. And I think too, those minor things that you discussed in terms of some of that electrical, thank you for taking us through that. Because I think that people can put a lot of pressure on themselves about that day one perfection, and there’s just some things that you just can’t, for all of the preparation and investigation and help that you get, there’s often just one or two things that you have to actually give space to potentially need to pick up once you’ve lived in the home and had an experience of it. Because, I mean, you could have potentially over-designed it and added all of these things just in case, which a lot of people do do. But I think you’re much better served by giving yourself a little bit of space to go, “Okay, well, if we know that, say, we need to get the electrician back, how hard is it going to be to get the wiring to that point, and how hard is it going to be to add that thing in later?”

Amelia Lee
And I find that when people take the approach of, “Well, we will just want to have scope to know that we can make these amendments after we move in if we need to”, then it can often give you a lot more flexibility, and that getting it all right from day one occupation doesn’t feel so stressful and pressured. And I think, the things that you’ve talked about are so minor in the grand scheme of things. When you think about all of the moving parts and components and materials and products and people that you brought together in this new home. I love that that is the sum total of the things that you think you possibly could have done differently if you had your time over. So, it’s really tremendous, Michael, and I think it’s a testament to how, intentional you’ve been and how involved you’ve been in this project.

Amelia Lee
And I hear you talking, and I remember meeting you at the very beginning of all of this, and you speak like a veteran now, who’s really navigated multiple projects rather than just your own. So, you have a comfort and a confidence with the way that you’re talking about things like the vapour permeable membranes and getting that detailing right, and dealing with the trades and seeing that coordination of work. And it’s just a testament to the way that you’ve upskilled yourself through this process. So, I think it’s really, really fantastic. And I know that feeling of when you walk on site and you see all of the people were on site at the same time working together, and that lovely vibe that you can get. And I may sound a bit woo woo, but I really feel like that does go into the energy of the home from a longer term.

Amelia Lee
When there’s people that are enjoying what they’re doing, they’re working together well, you’ve got a builder that’s coordinating things well and has used trades for a period of time that are used to seeing each other on their approach, on those projects and that kind of stuff. All of that, to me, really does get embedded in the home from a long term point of view. So, I love that that has been your experience as well.

RESOURCES

Listen to Michael’s previous episodes on the podcast:

• Episode 323 ‘Building a New Home for Retirement, with Michael’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-building-a-new-home-for-retirement/ 
• Episode 324 ‘Volume Builder vs Custom Builder for a New Home Build, with Michael’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-volume-builder-vs-custom-builder-new-home-build/ 
• Episode 347 ‘Choosing the Best Builder with Budget in Mind, with Michael’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-choosing-best-builder-with-budget/ 
• Episode 348 ‘Designer Detailing and On-Site Decisions during Construction, with Michael’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-designer-detailing-on-site-decisions-during-construction/ 

Access the support and guidance you need (like Michael did) to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder 

My free ’44 Ways’ E-Book will simplify sustainability for you, and help you create a healthy, low tox and sustainable home – whatever your dreams, your location or your budget. Access your copy here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/ways