Want real new build lessons on budget control, solar shading design and working effectively with your builder?

HOME Method member, Michael, shares his latest project update, and provides all the details.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello, this is Episode 392, and this is Part 2 of my conversation with HOME Method member, Michael, about his recently completed new build in regional Western Australia.

In the last episode, we spoke about the journey from lock up through to handover, the detailing decisions, and what it’s been like to finally move in and live in the home after more than five years of planning and building. If you want to catch up on Part 1, head to Episode 391.

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.

In this episode, we talk about the stress of construction – or in Michael’s case, the lack of it. We unpack how selecting the right designer and builder created a collaborative environment rather than an adversarial one. And we explore the role that preparation and education played in building his confidence as a homeowner.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

Michael also shares the details of how their original external solar sunshading evolved during construction, what they learned about winter sun angles and summer heat, and the very real tension between performance, aesthetics, durability and budget. 

If you’re trying to balance eaves, hoods, louvres, waterproofing and cost, it’ll be useful to hear how Michael and his team have navigated this.

We talk about the completion of the workshop and studio, a part of the project that was initially going to be staged, and why Michael decided to proceed and have it finished in tandem with the home.

And finally, Michael reflects on what he would say to someone earlier in their project. His advice about design time, questioning assumptions, understanding your budget, and sticking fast to what matters most will be super helpful to hear.

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 sharing his new build lessons, as his home finally completed.

Amelia Lee
Now, can I understand, I suppose, just speaking to that confidence and that understanding and your stress levels generally… seeing how the builder was handling things, seeing how things were rolling out, how did that make a difference to your stress levels or your confidence about the project going well as it was being executed?

Michael
Well, it wasn’t a stressful process. It was an enjoyable process. And it’s hats off to the builder about that. He’s very good at engaging and, particularly with my wife, he worked extremely well with her about walking in and getting a feeling and talking through it. We ended up having stone cladding on the entrance and stone on the external fireplace, and then we rendered the internal, so it was brick. It ended up being brickwork. And we rendered the internal, the fireplace, and then there’s a feature wall. And we toyed with the idea of carrying the stone inside so we’ve got a beautiful WA Blackbutt entrance door. And then we’ve got the stone. This stone was purchased, but it matches very well the granite stone that we’ve got on a block that we’re using for a lot of the landscaping.

Michael
And the tones go well with the rich colours of the WA Blackbutt and that sort of thing. And we had lots of discussions about how we were going to do the stone internally and then finish it, and then the render would start, and how we do the corner. And it was a bit like, well, it’s really hard to finish that with a nice cut stone, and we might put an end block on there, like a bit of powder coated aluminium or something like that. I said to my wife, “The tiler did all the stone masonry work, and it was progressing reasonably well, but I could see it was going to be another couple of weeks to do the internal wall.” And I just said, “Well, how about we just render the whole area?” And I think that simplified it. So, there’s some of those sorts of decisions that we’ve made as we’ve progressed through.

Michael
And yeah, the render is an interesting finish. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it actually gives a swirling pattern. So, it’s got a white base and then a grayness, and it actually pulls the tones of the walls and the cabinetry and everything really nicely together. And then we had a nice WA Blackbutt sleeper. So we’ve got that as the mantelpiece. And then, because the fireplace took a lot of conversation as far as detailing. The builder was concerned about single brick at the front and heat coming through and all sorts of stuff. So, there’s a lot of thought went into that, and then trying to find a half that would match. And a friend of my wife said her husband was an engineer, and he worked in a number of homes, and he said, “Oh, why don’t you try this person?” And found a beautiful black granite hearth. It was an off cut, and that’s worked perfectly. So, sometimes, it’s just the time. If you’ve got time, and that’s what we had, that yeah, things just fall into place.

Michael 
As far as the confidence goes, I think it’s just trusting the people that you’re working with and having a good team and that engagement through the process. So, yeah.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, I think you’re under estimating the role that you played in how you selected that team. Because I think that what I see Michael, is because of the way that you prepared for this project and upskilled yourself, you were able then to trust your decisions and trust your choices in things, and trust also that it was totally okay for you to say, “Look, we’re not quite sure about what we do here”, but you were always happy, as I’ve spoken to you about in previous episodes, to pick up the phone, ask the questions, have the conversation, pull all of those moving parts together. And that then enabled you to have more trust in the process, more trust in the people that you’re working with, and work really well collaboratively.

Amelia Lee
I think, for people who haven’t necessarily done that preparation, or don’t know how to develop their own ability to have agency in their project, they’re trying to trust their team, but they feel that it’s coming from a place of naivety, or just needing to hand over control. And so, there’s a lot less security then in how that trust works. And so, that then can mean that you’re constantly approaching things with doubt. Whereas I feel like you’ve been able to approach things knowing that you’ve done so much upfront work and you’ve also done what you can. And there’s certain things that you do that are just outside of your control, but you’ve trusted your ability to handle them as they’ve come up, and trusted your team’s ability to work with you, to keep you informed, to communicate together.

Amelia Lee
And I think, to me, it’s a sign of just how you’ve been really amazing as a client in developing your own agency inside your project. And you mentioned your wife working with the builder, and those kinds of things. I think the pair of you, you’ve both used your own skill sets, you’ve both worked really well, and you’ve chosen a really great builder who’s understood how to work well with both of you to drive the project where they needed to, and then also to bring you in and make sure that it was moving along in the direction that it needed to as well. So, to me, there’s so many green flags about how you’ve handled this project. I absolutely love it. So now, you mentioned in the group, as part of handover, that the builder was coming back to do the shade structures on the outside of the home at the beginning of this year. And those shade structures are something that we’ve talked about a lot in the community, because I know that shade during the hotter parts of the year and solar penetration into those internal areas during the colder parts of the year has been a really significant factor in how you’ve been thinking about the design and the orientation and the glazing positions and how that works overall.

Amelia Lee
Can you talk through what was planned originally, and then how that’s evolved, and what you’ve learned along the way, and what you’re potentially doing now that the builder is going to come back and finish that work off for you?

Michael
So, the designer is very good with the solar passive. He understands the sun movement and that sort of thing. So, our home wasn’t going to have eaves. It ended up with some very small eaves on the sides. And the center connection has a lower pitch. So, we’ve got 30 degree pitch on the two pavilions. And I think it’s like 12 degrees.

Michael
And that was one thing that we had a conversation on site with the builder who said, like tying together because we had a brick wall as well, which pushed the width of the wall out, which meant tying in the two valleys and that sort of thing was going to be difficult. So, we ended up having 600 mil eaves on the north and south side of the center connecting area, which has actually been a real benefit, because it also helps protect the entrance and it gives us a little bit of sun protection through that courtyard area. So, I think that’s been a positive, and also a little bit of protection for the walls, so I don’t think it’s impacted the aesthetics of the home. And then the two larger north facing doors, there’s one on the master bedroom, and then the open plan, there’s a six metre opening with glazing that swings around. So, we’ve got some big 250 mil C channel structures above with posts and that sort of thing. And he was going to put some outriggers on there to carry some some shading structures.

Michael
And then we did a design meeting.

Amelia Lee
Oh, when we had our own one-to-one Zoom call to have a chat about your design.

Michael
Chatted about the design, and you came up with the idea of Heka Hoods. That seemed like a good solution, so we just moved ahead with that, and the designer put that in. But then, during the build phase, we’re having some conversations with the builder about how that fits and waterproofing, weatherproofing around them. And also, that one thing that was pointed out, Clare from south of Adelaide, she had pointed out that in her home in March, there was hot weather, and then the shading structures weren’t helping with that.

Michael
So I thought, ‘Well, we probably need to extend them out beyond the 600 mills that we had installed.’ Then the building got clad, sealed up, and of course, the solid structures underneath now aren’t accessible to if we’re going to have a steel structure or something. So, we put a lot of time into it. And when we engaged the landscape designer, she also did some designs for shading. But we’d used Sid Thoo for the energy assessing. And it was important with the movement of the sun that we’re still allowed the winter sun in, and it didn’t manage that correctly. So we put that aside. So, we’re basically putting a 1200 metre cover over the bedroom glazing and the open plan glazing. I reached out to Sid with regards to that, and he said, “Well, with the winter sun, you need to have glazing.”

Michael
So louvers that will allow 31 and a half degrees was the winter setting that he said we would need for where we’re positioned.

Amelia Lee
So doing louvered battens or something like that on a horizontal…?

Michael
Yeah, either timber battens. But the builder was very much about timber should be inside at weathers and it was very much about either powder coated aluminium. We looked at Knotwood as a possible option. They have a 150 by 25 batten, and then they also do have louvers, but most of them are for shading for the west, they’re not for overhead shading, and the angles didn’t quite work out.

Michael
And then we talked to the joiner about maybe building a structure. He would do that. And they had some, I’m trying to think, elliptical blades that we could have set. And we looked at all these things. But every time we looked at price points, it was getting up there. And we also had solar blades or solar shade. We had decided to use that in the courtyard, so we reached out to the manufacturer, and he came back. And we just couldn’t believe the costings of these, we were spending significant money. It was going to be 70 or 80 grand just to do these sorts of areas. So, we haven’t decided exactly what we’re going to do yet, and we’re going to talk with the builder about it again tomorrow. I love the idea of just building a steel frame structure and maybe even deciduous vines or something on the northernmost part, and still putting an aluminium, like a Heka Hood, but an aluminium powder coated sheet for shading. So, yeah, it’s still really open.

Michael
And the set, I think what we will do in the courtyard area, it’s about five metres wide, and it’ll be about five and a half metres deep, is probably use a twin wall polycarbonate in there, and we’ll just have a low pitch on that, so it will sit just up above the guttering, and it will have a gutter on the north side, and it’ll feed into the existing gutters. And that’s something we’ve talked to the builder about for some time, and I think that’s going to be the best solution. So, we can still let the brightness through, but we just don’t want it clear glazing, because then you’re not protecting yourself from the heat. But yeah, so just getting the balance between the weather protection, the light and that sort of thing. So, it’s something that we’re giving a fair bit of time, and living in the house is helping a bit. You can certainly see the sun’s not coming in at the moment, and we’ve got sheer curtains in the house so we can just close them up.

Michael
That helps shield a little bit of the heat coming in. And yeah, I think the solution is pretty close, and yeah, so we’re working towards that.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, it’s always a tricky balance, not just the functional thing, when it comes to covering outdoor areas or putting hoods over windows and door openings, of navigating that shade versus sunlight versus weather protection versus flexibility versus structural detailing and waterproofing, and whether you’re allowing it to let some water between the face of the building and whatever the shade structure is, or whether you need it to shed water from the building’s cladding above that opening to the outside of whatever that show structure is. 

Amelia Lee
And then combining that with balancing budget. Because, yeah, there’s loads of options that give you that flexibility, like those sun louvered or vergola situations or that kind of thing, but they do get up in cost. And I think, as you have found, as soon as you move into that powder coated aluminium realm, which is great for durability on the outside of the home, but yeah, it does drive the cost up more than some other solutions. But I think you’re doing all the right things in terms of working that through. The deciduous vine one’s always a really great option because you can run it across stainless steel cables or that kind of thing, between a chunkier structure,. If you’re not needing a high level of weather protection, the deciduous vine can do a really good job. And the other thing that I like about the deciduous vine is it does a lot to soften the feel of the building and get greenness right up against those outdoor areas, which can feel really lovely as an experience.

Amelia Lee
And sometimes you can do the thing of getting deciduous vine and then putting the twin wall over the top of it. But, yeah, I think you’ve always done a really good job of working through the priorities and then balancing that with the cost and the functionality. And so, I think it’s really good that you’re getting an understanding of what the home’s like to live in and how that’s working for you as well. And again, you’re always pulling together the right people, chatting to the energy efficiency assessor in terms of Sid, chatting to the builder, looking at those products, it’s really good. So, I look forward to seeing what solution you come up with and seeing that all on the home. Because I think that’s going to be the icing on the cake in terms of how that aesthetic of the home finishes, particularly because all around your living area, you’ve got that big area of glazing and that wrap around into the courtyard space.

Amelia Lee
And then the courtyard space is that central feature to the way you move through the home. And so, that’s probably also playing into your mind as the experience of the home will be impacted, not only by how those covered areas work from a sunlight point of view, but also how they look. That will be part of your experience, both in and outside the home. So, it’ll be good to see how that goes. So, I’m looking forward to you keeping us posted on the decisions that you make around that. If you were talking to somebody earlier in their project, what advice would you share based on the experience that you’ve had? Because I’ve watched how much you’ve learned during this project, and you’ve done such a great job of navigating it. What would be your advice to somebody earlier in their project based on your experience?

Michael
Well, engaging with a designer or architect that aligns with your expectations. Don’t be afraid to spend a bit of time there, because I think the better you get that done, the better the build process will be. And I think the builder did say to us one stage, and we were lucky that we had time to design and build these.

Michael
I remember taking some drawings to him and saying, “Let’s get moving on this bit.” And he said, “Sometimes it’s good just to put the drawings in the bottom drawer for a while and pull them out, and then have another look.” And I thought, you’ve got what’s in your mind right now, but then you put it aside and then and come back to it, and you’ll have a different perspective on what you’re looking at, and just challenge things. We challenged a lot of the things that the designer came up with. And we did a bit of a flip towards the end, because my wife got an interior designer to come in and test a few spaces, and we ended up flipping the ensuite robe and study around. She said there was maybe challenging depth in the study, and it’s actually meant our ensuite has been bigger than it’s been. But we did design for accessibility.

Michael
And actually, when you walk into the space, you’d think, “Look, if you needed a wheelchair or something, this is a space that will be easy to move around.” And we ended up saying to the designer, we ended up pulling 300 mils out of the en suite and that went into the two bedrooms, and the other areas shared between those. So, it’s actually been a win-win, I think, just couple little changes like that. And I mean, we’re lucky our designer was very good with the flow and simplicity of design and simple roof structures. And, I think, understood the brief really well. And just stick fast to the things that are important to you, I think, and understand your budget. I know one thing we did is we got to a point the builder uses a quantity surveyor that we ended up using, and then we went out to two of the local builders, volume builders, and had it priced.

Michael
And then we thought, because we went through all the Covid escalations, “This is too high.” Then you can go back and redesign and try to save, and then you find, well, a lot of the stuff escalated, and you haven’t actually saved any money. And sometimes, don’t change the design too much. Just find some ways of maybe pulling back in a few areas. But we’ve been very fortunate that housing values, the block that we bought has appreciated significantly. Now, the home, the investment we’ve put into it, we’ll get the value back. And we did end up, I wanted a workshop, and we designed it that it would have a studio in it down the track. And so, we decided, “Okay the trades are all here, we’ll build the walls, we’ll build the structure.” And then it was, “Okay, we’ll leave the fit out till later on.” And then the tiler was there having a cup. And when I came and I said to him, “What would it cost to tile out the bathroom?”

Michael
And we tiled the floor out there. So, went out and did a proper measure, and came back with a price. And I said, “Well, I think we should just get on and just get it done.” We had a bit of leftover stone that we could use. We had a little kitchenette in there, and bit of stone for the bathroom, so we just went ahead and did that. And the best time was while the trades were there, because getting them back, it’s going to cost more. And so, we’re really pleased we did that. And I think it’s added value to our whole project as well.

Amelia Lee
Most definitely. And it’s been great that you’ve been able to think about those things and not being fixed on certain outcomes as you’ve moved through and that you’ve been able to work so collaboratively with your team in that regard.

Amelia Lee
Because I know, yeah, we had lots of conversations about staging the workshop and how much you were going to complete it to, and what you’re going to do. So, I love that now that it’s been able to be incorporated and as you say, for some people, they can’t avoid that they need to stage it. But it’s always worth having the conversation right at the beginning of the project about what do you intend to stage and what do you want to save till later. Because you can be really strategic then about what work do you bring forward so that then it makes that staged work down the track less disruptive or even less costly, faster to do, because you’ve got certain infrastructure in place up front, or you’ve considered how that’s going to be incorporated down the track. So, I think you’ve done a really great job of working through that, and then just finishing it off wasn’t too much of a drama to get it done in that moment, rather than potentially, you could have made calls about how you’re going to stage it and made it a much bigger undertaking to complete later on as well.

Amelia Lee
So, it’s been really good to see that come to fruition. How do you feel your confidence has changed as a client during the project? How do you feel? You know, you and your wife have been able to operate as clients.

Michael
I certainly pulled back once structures and things came into place, and it was at that stage of, well, what’s going in the home, the tile selections, you know, even the kitchen design, I think my wife did a fantastic job with that. It works really well.

Michael
There’s plenty of space, and she put a lot of thought into what she was going to use. And I think we’ve got all drawers in the kitchen, and a pantry with pull out drawers and stuff like that. So, it functions really well. And she’s got a Thermomix, so she had a space for that next to the induction cooktop. And so, there’s a lot of thought went into all of that. So, I think I just relaxed through that stage, and you probably noticed that I had less activity in HOME Method because she was busy doing her research and working and pulling all that together. I think it’s come together really, really nicely. And we’re lucky to get some nice WA Blackbutt hardwood. So, just working with the joinery guy, with regards to pulling that together, he made a beautiful pendant light. He ended up just shelving, and we’ve got a mud room just pulling that together. And enjoyed working with that. That’s something that’s really pulled it together.

Michael
My wife was very much about we won’t have too many things. We’ll have three main features, so there’s this brick and render, and then there’s the external cladding is the same, and the stone. So, it’s pretty much those things and just pulling that together. And I remember I had a few ideas of putting timber above the glazing and a few things like that. And he said, “Sometimes less is more”, and that’s come together really nicely. And with timber floors as well. And that’s actually one thing, you were talking earlier about the shading, one thing the builder was very definite about was the UV rays and the impact that’ll have on the floor. So, that’s one of the things that we need to get right, is make sure the shading we’ve got low E glass that cuts a fair bit out, but also just that direct sunlight.

Michael
And that’s one thing too, going back to the shading and deciduous is it does cool it down, but also it’s that reflective heat that will come off the paving and that sort of thing too. So, it’s just managing some of that, I suppose, just to step back leading up to handover. It was all that fit out stage, and it was, “Okay, what’s this going to cost us?” And I said to the builder, “We need to know what it’s going to cost this. So we’ll take time.” And it probably took six weeks, but pulled together what that cost would be, and it was only six weeks to go before the end. I’d gone back to everything that the quantitative surveyor pulled together and did my estimate. It ended up being higher than expectations, but luckily, through the building process, some things had reduced. But then, of course, we’ve done the studio and so, working through that was important just to work it out. Because all of our cabinets in the bathrooms had timber faces and timber drawers and we’d build in those.

Michael
There’s a fair bit of timber work, but it wasn’t a significant cost, but there was little things that added up, and just the quality of the finish, the paint work, fixings that the doors, the builders built in cupboards in the laundries and in the bedrooms and that sort of thing. So, that was all done by them, rather than a cabinet maker. So there’s quite a bit of detail that went into that. And it’s hard to get, it’s all labour and time. And it might have been 50 grand above where we thought we were going to be, but that was money well spent, I think.

Amelia Lee
Did you run this as a cost plus contract?

Michael
Yeah, so it was a cost plus. I think the builder was always about either claddings going up, I’ve got that in time and or I’ve got a good deal on the timber. And so, he’s always mindful of cost. As far as we went,, I think, very efficient with trades. There’s no to-ing and going, “Oh, we haven’t got this, so we’ve got to get that.” It’s very organised as far as making sure everything was on site. And he just had good relationships with the contractors and trades that are used. Good chippies that he could trust. And yeah, it was just great to see that process and that engagement.

Amelia Lee
What do you think you did well as a homeowner during construction?

Michael
Well, I’m certainly glad we didn’t get an off the shelf design at the start. So, I think there’s one designer we went to, we had a meeting, and we’d seen his work. We’d been through a couple of houses that he had designed with some friends, and that sort of thing. So, I think we did well with our designer, getting him on board. And then, I think we did the right thing with the builder. There’s the same thing. I remember my wife said, a friend of mine’s like a house, and it was a little while before I walked in, and he just walked in and just everything felt well-built and well-designed and well-finished. I think those sorts of decisions made the ride smooth. And then, yeah, there’s lots of other conversations with other builders. And I suppose, just being mindful that we wanted to build for the long term, we wanted to build something that was not top shelf, it’s a simple home, but just nicely finished and nicely built.

Michael
And I remember the builder saying, ” I’m going to retire in six years. I don’t want people ringing me up and saying, ‘I’ve got issues with my home.'” So, he was always going to build a quality home and make sure there was always opportunity to go on site and everything was transparent. We get an invoice for him once a month, and all the invoices his trades or suppliers gave, that was all supplied. So it was all very transparent,

Amelia Lee
Yeah, which is all part of that cost plus contract set up, isn’t it? So yeah, I think what I love about the design of your home is that it does have a level of simplicity and clarity about the layout and about the way you move through it. And I love the way that the movement through it is oriented to that indoor-outdoor connection and the experience of the site overall. So, you always have that connection to the land around you as you’re moving through the home.

Amelia Lee
And then the pavilion design separating those primary living spaces from the sleeping spaces, and then the arrangement of the sleeping pavilion, so that if you do have guests, there’s a sense of separation from where they are, compared to where you and your wife have your main bedroom suite and en suite. And it’s all being done with the views on the orientation and the topography of the land in mind, and privatising from the way that the land is approached, so that you come down to that driveway and it’s not until you’re actually inside the home that the most significant and beautiful parts of the site are revealed to you as a gift of getting to experience the inside of the home, and walking through it. So, I think that time that you spent in the design and understanding how to get that right has definitely paid dividends in how then the home is to experience on a day-to-day basis.

Amelia Lee
And the simplicity of the form, I remember our very first one-to-one session, and we were talking about those roof forms, and I think there can be a trap when you’re looking at it on the plans and looking at it in elevation. And I see people feel like it looks too simple, and it needs to be tricked up in some way, shape or form. It needs to have more activity or dynamism to it in the elevations. And it can be a real trap that people fall into, where they start then applying and adding things to it that just aren’t necessary. And instead, when you start to see it on the grand scale that you have of this home sitting in the landscape, that simplicity is such a big part of why it feels so lovely to be in and around, in terms of the way that it’s working, and that paired back nature of the way the material palettes been used, that connection between inside and outside, the warmth brought through by the timber, and how then it grounds in the site is really, really lovely.

Amelia Lee
So, I can’t thank you enough for having shared your journey with us, Michael. It’s just been so lovely having this update and seeing where things have got to. Did you have anything to add before we wrap up the podcast?

Michael
I guess talk about confidence. I think I engaged with Undercover Architect in April 2021, I think it was. And I think it’s just the learnings from that has given me the confidence to ask the right questions. And also, I think I really enjoyed your first group of podcasts, which talked about orientation and rooms and that sort of thing. And I think that really helped a lot in that early stages, conversations with the designer. It was just having that understanding of what all that meant in a home.

Michael
So, I think, coming across yourself and Undercover Architect and the learnings, and I just think it’s fantastic. And I think, also I reached out to some of the builders in the Sustainable Builders Alliance. I think they’ve got a fantastic thing happening as well, as building better, and I think the more of those conversations, the more we open up the understanding of the building process. It shouldn’t be about, “Okay, I’m building your home. I’m controlling this.” It’s actually that two-way between the homeowner and the builder and the designer and, yeah, I do think that working together in that is really, really valuable. I know you talk about groups working in silos. Well, the more you work together and share ideas, then the outcome has to be better. So, I think, yeah, hats off to you, Amelia, for that.

Amelia Lee
Thanks so much, Michael. You’ve been such an awesome HOME Method member. I hope that you’ll continue to participate in the group. I love seeing, actually, members who finish their home continuing to add their wisdom and learnings to the group as other members come in and start their projects. It’s always so great to see that conversation happening from your point of view and your experience, being able to feed back into that process. And I’ve seen how much you’ve learned and grown across the course of this project, and you just seem to have taken it all in your stride. And so, it’s been absolutely brilliant to see. So, keep us posted on how the sun shading and the outdoor covered structures go. And yeah, I look forward to continuing to hear what your home is like to live in, and wish you the very, very best for it. You certainly deserve it, both you and your wife, for all of the hard work and effort and energy you’ve placed in making it the way that it is. So, I wish you many, many years of happiness in it, and thank you so much for being here and sharing your journey with us, Michael.

Michael
Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks, Amelia.

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/ 
• Episode 391 ‘New Build Update: From Lock Up to Handover and Moving In, with Michael’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-new-build-update-from-lock-up-to-handover-and-moving-in/ 

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