Renovating a brick home in a bushfire flame zone comes with its own set of challenges and things to consider.

Who do you need to work with? What materials can you use? What do you need to incorporate as you embark on your project?

Elizabeth shares more information about her project plans, and her early decisions as she starts her renovation.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 332, and I’m back with HOME Method member, Elizabeth, and discussing the renovation of her brick home in a BAL Flame Zone area.

If you missed Part 1 of my conversation, you can listen to it in Episode 331. You’ll hear how Elizabeth and her family came to purchase this home, who it’s being renovated for and her intentions for it.

In this episode, we talk more about the investigations Elizabeth will be doing as she dives into her renovation project, and my suggestions on how to keep working to her ideal project timeline. 

We also talk through some of the renovation decisions she’s making based on the home being in a BAL Flame Zone area. 

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

You’ll get to hear more about the construction of the existing home, what that means for renovating it, and the various products and materials Elizabeth has been researching because of the BAL Flame Zone rating. 

We also discuss the professionals she’ll need to involve and how to get them collaborating together for efficiency. 

Before we jump in, here’s a quick reminder of the timeline context for Elizabeth’s project. 

Elizabeth joined HOME Method in September 2019. This conversation with Elizabeth actually happened in person at the end of July, 2024. 

The audio in this episode may be a little different as a result of our in-person recording. I was in Sydney unexpectedly, booked a meeting room in the State Library, and brought my podcasting gear – normally set up for only recording me – to record this conversation with Elizabeth. 

We jump into the conversation with me talking about what will happen if Elizabeth can ideally get a few hours of access prior to settlement of the property, and how she can use that to keep her project planning moving forward.

Now, let’s dive in!

This is the transcript of my conversation with Elizabeth and renovating a brick home in a bushfire BAL Flame Zone.

Amelia Lee
Alright, so if you can’t get access, then… I mean, best case scenario, you do get access. You get to measure drawings, you get to get a builder to have a look at things, you can start the ball rolling, what are your thoughts in terms of, let’s work on that scenario? What are you going to do in terms of those steps that you’re going to take?

Elizabeth
Okay, so both builders I’ve spoken to, I’ve said to them, “I’m not a builder, I need your input on the design.” So I haven’t had the PAC Process conversation with them, but I actually do want to go down that path, because it totally makes sense to me. So that would be when I go to the site visit with them, go through the builders checklist, interview them. I’m not just going to go by the nice guys that I spoke to at the football one day.

Amelia Lee
“I stood on the sports sideline with you. You seem okay.”

Elizabeth
I can tick the box, I’m happy to have a chat with you and have you in my life for the duration of the building and be friends afterwards.

Amelia Lee
And then use the checklist to check all their financials and previous clients and relationships with trades and subbies and licences and all those kinds of things, yeah.

Elizabeth
So I have to do all that sort of thing. But I thought just let them come on site first. And if they just go, “Yeah, nah”, then take it from there. Or they may say, “Yeah, absolutely.” And then we’ll go through that formal process and hopefully educate them and get them on board PAC Process. I touched on it. So look, I want your input, and they were both on board with that. One of them actually has a business partner who does drawing as well. And he said he got them on board specifically because he was sick of clients coming in with drawings from architects, and then going, “You can’t do that.” So his mate went and learned how to do it. So they’ve worked together. So they’re on board, they know that they add value to the process. So that’s good. 

Amelia Lee
Yeah. That’s interesting, isn’t it?

Elizabeth
So that’s the case, I’ve also got an interview lined up with Cindy, Cindy Beach House, that I’m very excited about as an energy assessor. I’ve been in touch with Durra Panel. Love that product. And because we’ve got the flame zone rating as well, I think if we can line the house with that, that also is that extra level of security. So I’ve got some samples. We’ve been stabbing it. We haven’t quite gotten around to painting it up, but we just want to see how it looks. But I fear, I’ve been talking about this sustainability thing for so long, I need to put my money where my mouth is and do it and find out where the compromises are on being able to tick those sustainability boxes and the level of renovation we want to do. So I have the master plan, which depending on the input of the builders, may have to evolve. And then I have my fallbacks. If the money is not there for all of it, then where can I start peeling back. Again, that’s all going to be dependent on what the builders tell me.

Amelia Lee
Okay, and are you doing investigations about material choices for the external facade, from a BAL Rating point of view? What’s been your research that you’ve been doing in that regard?

Elizabeth
Yeah, absolutely. I’ve looked at what I need, what boxes I need to tick. And because I’ve done the TAFE course as well, that was actually a unit. We do a lot of sustainability in that, which is really lovely to see, looking at materials, and we’ve looked at the different fire ratings and what you can and can’t do. So I had an inkling of where I was heading with that. So I’ve just honed right in. So I’m probably going to be looking at Hardie’s fibre cement sheeting to clad the whole house. Because with the windows changing, given they’re all full length doors, obviously, I want windows, not doors on every opening. Thermal efficiency, if for no other reason, then you just don’t need a door on every room. So there’s going to be lots of holes. So I think rather than trying to find brick because it’s brick within your house, rather find brick to match and then have patchiness everywhere, just reclad the whole thing. 

So I think I probably will end up with one of the Hardie’s fibre cement, maybe standing seam. Well, the roof’s actually corrugated already, and was replaced in ’22. It’s a small orb. The roof line is very simple, as simple as it gets. Doesn’t even have Gable ends, so I think they’ve actually done that with the rating in mind. But there are two skylights there, traditional skylights, then they’re not going to tick any boxes. I don’t think they’d even survive a house storm, to be honest. So I need to look at that. And I’m going to need to look at that in context of the light coming to the house. 

So when the house is designed, I don’t know if it’s by good fortune or on purpose, some of the things I learned about what you need to do with the design for the bushfire zone, this house ticks it. So it’s got a very simple roof, not crevices for embers to get caught in. You can see in the gutters, it’s got all the ember mesh. But it’s also got very deep verandas around it, which also offers a degree of protection. So even though the house is north facing, the 2.4 metre veranda on facing the bush means we’re not getting that Northern Light into the house. So I want to investigate what I can do with that skylight to get more light into the centre of the house, but obviously having to tick that bushfire rating.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. It’s tricky, isn’t it? It’s going to be a bit of a looping, looping, looping of this is what we need from a design and sustainability and light point of view, but this is what we need to do from a bushfire point of view, and that iterative process. Which, I mean, I think that you’re fully equipped to embrace that because of the learning and preparation that you’ve done. I think that’s the thing that does a lot of people’s head in because they want to lock down a choice ASAP, and so that revisiting of it’s got to tick that box, no, it doesn’t tick that can be really overwhelming for some. But I think you’re fully equipped to navigate that.

Elizabeth
I enjoy doing the research. I don’t mind going down the rabbit hole. But the positive I’m taking from bush fire rating, it makes the choices a lot simpler.

Amelia Lee
It does. It’s a really good constraint, isn’t it?

Elizabeth
That’s where the creativity lives.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, most definitely. And so when you said standing seam for the cladding, what did you mean by that?

Elizabeth
I wasn’t quite sure if I could use that to clad the house or not. So we’re probably going to go with the dark charcoal, just because the bush setting, I think it’s sort of let it recede. Yeah. In some ways, I’d love the white as well, but I think that belongs near the beach or not in the middle of it, Australian gum trees. So we’re probably looking at a charcoal cladding. So I was thinking maybe the standing seam, but it’s aluminium, I think I haven’t really gone down that path yet, but I suspect I’ll probably end up with the Hardie’s product. Horizon, I think it’s called. And then maybe a mix, so it’s not just a single black box. Get some timber look battening. Big believer in, you said it before, don’t have pretend things. Have real timber. That won’t be an option for us. But some of the metal battens that look like timber are very good these days.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. And is that just so that you can warm it up and have that more, I suppose, contextual palette for where you’re located? 

Elizabeth
Yeah. So just add a bit of interest to it, rather than just black box.

Amelia Lee
And are you able to clear around the house to establish that asset protection zone? What are the regulations around the vegetation that’s on the property?

Elizabeth
That’s a question I haven’t asked yet. I believe we can do some clearing. I don’t know how much of it we would do. I mean, there’s certainly the trees aren’t right on the house. It’s probably the big trees are probably going back about 10 metres. But I haven’t gotten into that in detail yet. I don’t know that I do want to clear them all up. That’s what makes the site so special.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. I mean, the thing with bushfires, and season 12 is a really good resource that we did for rebuild and build better for building in bushfire zones. And that season was really created after the 2019, 2020 black summer fires. And I think, what I learned from that which, for some reason hadn’t dawned on me, was how many homes during bushfires are lost from ember attack, rather than from the bushfires themselves. And the fact that these embers can travel long distances, and then all they need to do is lodge in the facade of your home somewhere, and then one of the guests pointed out your home is basically full of kindling, then the whole thing can go up. So that ability to create that impenetrable facade without the crevices and the gaps and gutters that have leaf guards on them and all of those kinds of things, I think, is a really good strategy. So it’s great that you’re thinking along those lines, and that the building form already lends itself to that.

Elizabeth
Yeah, and that was part of the appeal. I tend to prefer simple forms for buildings anyway, so just seeing the simple rectangle to me ticked boxes to start with. And then when I realised it was in the bushfire zone, I went, “Okay, this could be by purpose.” Even though the legislation wasn’t there at the time, architects obviously aware of how you need to build houses. That sort of thing. So I dare say the architect who built it probably had that in mind when they designed it.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. And so if you don’t get access to the property, does that then just push back all of your timelines and hopefully the builder’s still available, is that what you’re thinking, or are you optimistic about the fact that you’re going to get access?

Elizabeth
Annoyingly optimistic. So I’m hoping we can get access, and I’m hoping that the current owners will let us in when they realise what the implications of us not getting in are. I’ve been toying with the idea of how much contingency do we want to play with? We’ve got the floor plans that came with the marketing plan. They don’t add up exactly, but I have put that into Revit, and I’ve got the existing floor plans drawn up, and I manipulate all that to create my own conceptual design.  

I don’t know if the builders are prepared to run with that, knowing that there will be some changes. I mean, the outside of the house isn’t going to change. And we are prepared for the fact that there’s probably structural beams that need to go in. How comfortable are we and the builders on knowing that there’s going to be structural beams in there, we just don’t know how many. The house is only, was it 310, 12 metres wide. So I’m thinking it might be just the one. So we could probably cost that in with a reasonable degree of surety. And in terms of knowing how many walls are inside, in terms of materials for walls and those sorts of things, we’ll know that, and we’ll be able to know tiles and those sorts of things. So I think we get a reasonable degree of comfort, whether the builders are prepared to go there, I don’t know, and whether we’re prepared to go there with that level of uncertainty, I don’t know.

Amelia Lee
It’s a slab on ground?

Elizabeth
Yes and no. So the house originally had a veranda all the way around it, so 2.4 at the front, 2.4 on the eastern side, 1.7 and 1.7 on the other two. And then there was a standalone garage, which is double garage, but long, cars in parallel. They then, at some point, annexed the Eastern veranda and joined it to the garage and made that a sunroom. But the house is actually quite a big house. I feel it’s actually quite a very, very, very generous, bigger than I probably would have gone for. So we don’t actually need that sunroom. Enough living space, so we’re going to actually turn that into garage.

Amelia Lee
So you don’t have to have a tandem garage?

Elizabeth
Yes, that veranda and the garage are suspended slabs, you can feel underneath it. So from the front of the house, as you approach to the back, although the house is all on one level, it actually drops a couple of metres. So you’ve got full access, the full 25 metre length of the house. So we can get in, and we’ve seen the concrete’s about 20-25 deep. The building inspection said you can put cars on that, no problem. Obviously, we’ll get an engineer on that. And you can see all this big steel underneath there, under the garage part. Not sure, we couldn’t see big steel under the veranda part, but the front of that is close to the ground, which would be where a car would be. The back part will actually be my husband’s study. It’s not as structural. So the rest of the house is piers, bearers, joists.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, and a suspended timber framed floor, is it?

Elizabeth
Yes, you’ve got full access. You can see all the plumbing. You could work on plumbing standing up, which is nice.

Amelia Lee
Yep. And what’s been the commentary about that from a bushfire level? Are you you having to, I don’t know, put a wire mesh around the underside of the house to prevent embers getting in underneath there?

Elizabeth
The underside of the house, so it’s all brick all the way down. There are three access doors, timber doors. There’s a clearance underneath so one of the first things we’ll do is get in and get those doors secured. We may even take the one that faces the bush out, the two side ones, there’s slightly less risk. I also want to line the brick that faces the bush with something that’s not flammable. We plan to use that for storage, like decorations and ski gear and out of season sport stuff. So I’m cognisant that radiant heat can cause ignition, so I want to get that lined, whether it’s fibre cement or Durra Panel or something like that to provide protection underneath there. So we will still leave that as brick render. I won’t re clad all the way down. From the back, it looks like a two story house. So we’ll just leave that bottom part, but just the top part, we’ll do the render. I understand brick’s fine in the bushfire zone.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. Okay, gotcha. And you mentioned that the secondary bedrooms are quite small in the original home. With your internal reconfiguration, are you changing what’s included in the house, or you’re basically rearranging what’s in the house and just making the rooms more, I suppose, appropriately sized for what you need them to be?

Elizabeth
By and large, making them more appropriately sized. My preferred conceptual plan, again, subject to what the builders say, is to on the southern side of the house, there’s three bedrooms and a study, so effectively four bedrooms, and a strange little wardrobe configuration between the two of them. I want to pop that out under the veranda. So the veranda, there’s 1.7, so I just want to pop it out a little bit to a regular eave. It’s the southern side. No one’s going to sit on that veranda. I’d rather have the space in the bedrooms, and the hallway feels remarkably narrow.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, the hallways in those old houses were like 900 wide. It’s crazy.

Elizabeth
When I looked at my 18 year old still put his arms out, “You’re not getting past, Mum. So much fun.” I just  know every time I walk past his room, he’d come running out and block the way and then throw me over his shoulder and run around the house like a crazy person. So I’m going to make the halls wider just for you, Brendan. So in pushing that out underneath the existing roof line, I can make that hallway a bit wider as well. And also the idea of ageing in place. So my husband’s had an ankle replacement. He has dodgy knees. He’s been on a scooter before. So to have that space that you can knee scooter down the hallway, or 21 year old was on crutches for six weeks last year on a football injury, just to have that sort of access there. And, heaven forbid, if we ever need wheelchairs, that sort of thing.  

So I want to pop that out there. I also want to add a little extension on the western veranda for a toilet, because there’s a pool. So the house, despite the big slope on the block, the top of it is totally flat. So you got the house all one level. You go down three stairs, and then you’ve got a big flat grass area and then a pool. And if anyone wants to use the toilet, they’ve got to come all the way in, all the way along the ground, up and back in and up the hallway. And I’ve had 25 years of people doing that and mopping up puddles and thinking, worrying that someone’s going to slip and break a neck or something. So I just want to put a little toilet out there as well. But the rest of it’s basically staying, just moving walls inside. Bathrooms are staying exactly where they are. And they’re good layouts. So they’re that separate toilet, the vanity outside and the shower.

Amelia Lee
So you’ve already got the three way bathroom.

Elizabeth
I’ve already got the three way bathroom. It does have a linen cupboard cutting into part of it, and I’m thinking of moving that out and taking that into my study a little bit, I’m not sure. And there’s another linen cupboard at the end of the ensuite, which I will take out just to make that a little bit more generous. We’ve got a ridiculously big ensuite now, and I know if we go to a smaller one, we’re just going to be “Ugh!” so being a little bit indulgent there.  

So mostly it’s reconfiguring the boys’ rooms and then the living area, opening that up. So we’re giving the sun room to the garage and my husband’s study and his love of cars, and then we’ll open up the kitchen, put in a walk through pantry and laundry. The laundry is actually going to flip over, and what was the laundry will become my study. And then we’ll have more of an open plan kitchen, dining and family room. And there’s actually also going to be another living room next to that, which is not on my list of things I needed to have in a house but the house lends itself to it. And the boys did say, can we have a pool table? It’s not good enough for a pool table, but it could be a gaming room for them. So I wouldn’t have pursued it, but it’s there.

Amelia Lee
So what I love is this idea of the fact that you’re working with that existing footprint of the home, and then looking at how you can work with the existing plumbing, because that’s a big cost in renovating when you start moving plumbing around. The structural one is a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment, because you haven’t been able to get that advice. Are you going to get a structural engineer there the same time as the builder, or are you thinking that you’re hoping that the builder will be able to give you sufficient information?

Elizabeth
I’m hoping the builder will have enough information. Because I figured, for a structural engineer, I’d just go through who the builder uses. I don’t know any structural engineers so I’d probably be guided by them, someone that they’re happy to work with.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. It might be worth asking them if their structural engineer is able to be there at the same time, because, particularly if you’re getting minimal access to the property, and you’re wanting to really line things up, to compress that feedback, and the structural engineer to see firsthand what the existing structure is like. Because they’re the only ones that are really, liability wise, able to advise on that. The builder, of course, if they’re experienced builders, they’ll have some knowledge of it. But for their structural engineer to say it, will be able to give you that feedback. Also, the bushfire consultant, you’re going to try and have them on site at the same time?

Elizabeth
That’s an excellent idea.

Amelia Lee
I feel like you need the cast of 1000s, yeah? So you literally need to go, “Okay, when is this two hour window? And logistically, I’m having every consultant that I know is going to be working on this project here at once.” And you said the bushfire consultant’s only looked at it online at this point, haven’t they?

Elizabeth
Yeah, he went on to the maps, and you just have to look at it from the sky. And our Council’s got really good topo maps online. So you can see all the slopes.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, all the contours?

Elizabeth
Definitely.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. Do you know what your approval pathway is? Do you know what you have to do in terms of approvals?

Elizabeth
As soon as we touch the outside of the house, it’s DA. The flame zone just triggers it. We can’t CDC (Complying Development Certificate Approval Process). I understand there’s some things we could do internally without needing a DA, but the moment we touch the outside of the house, it’s the DA path. 

Amelia Lee
Gotcha. And do you know how long the DA process will take? 

Elizabeth
Optimistically, three months. Spoke to council, and they said the DA process, they said they can turn that around in a couple of weeks. But it’s getting the construction certificate in the next phase, where they need to get the RFS, Rural Fire Service involved. How long’s a piece of string depends on what’s happening, and coming into bushfire season, it could be a very long string.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, that’s really interesting, isn’t it? So what’s your ideal scenario? What have you mapped out, timing wise, in your head about when construction would be commencing and how this would work?

Elizabeth
Back to being the annoying optimist, we would get the builders on site next week, and they will look at my conceptual design and go, “Tick, yep, we can do that.” And the structural engineer will go, “Yeah, tick, that’s all fine.” And then we will start putting in plans to council. And they go, “Yep, tick.” And start ordering windows and Durra Panel and everything, tiles and everything else we need, and start on the 19th of October, the day after we settle. That’s my optimistic plan.

Amelia Lee
That is very optimistic. I’m glad you’re laughing and smiling about this.

Elizabeth
So anything beyond that, I think we’re just going to have to roll with it. If nothing else, we’ve learned over the last nine years with salary development, best laid plans – you make the plan, and it just goes to shits.

Amelia Lee
t’s that thing of holding it lightly, isn’t it?

Elizabeth
Exactly, have a plan and just know that it’s going to change.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. Well, I mean, it all sounds like you’re understanding what you need to do in terms of getting your ducks in a row. And I think that thing of trying to have as many people that need to see the house on site as you can. And you have the benefit of being able to document this, so you’re not going to be waiting for a designer or architect to be available for that, and you can be driving a lot of the coordination of the documentation, and all of those kinds of things.  

I suppose, I think it’s that idea of keeping with the existing footprint and the due diligence that will be important for the builders to do. It’s going to be interesting to see, if they only get two hours access to the site, I’m hoping that they can glean a lot and get a lot of access up into roof spaces, you mentioned under the floor is all fully accessible, so that they can iron out a lot of those things that could potentially be costly to you when discovered during construction.

Elizabeth
That’s the hope. Just need to get access to the house.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, awesome. Well, how have you felt? Because I think people listening to this will go, “Wow, she’s managing to know what she needs to know to do to get this.” When did you find this house? When was it? It’s not that long ago, is it?

Elizabeth
Three weeks, four weeks… Four weeks ago, maybe? Yeah, very rapid.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. So you’ve found it, been able to rapidly make a commitment to it, had that contract agreed to, and then you’ve got settlement identified for October. What do you believe has enabled you to be able to make these decisions proactively and confidently and speedily?

Elizabeth
Knowing what we wanted, knowing what was possible, knowing what wasn’t possible, and without a doubt, I’ve got from doing your courses and, I can honestly say, I hope TAFE teachers aren’t listening, I’ve learned more about design from your courses. Yeah, much more broader, about the materials and the insulation and the realities of those different products, WUFI analysis, all those sorts of things.  

So the learning that I’ve been doing here from the podcast, but getting into that much deeper level by doing the HOME course and the Home Design Masterclass, Interior Design 101, I’ve done the Choose Your Builder and Set + Stick to Your Budget one too. And you know also what I’ve learned through TAFE as well, meant that I knew what I was looking for, I knew what I was up against, what the process ahead, and that there is a process to follow. 

The fact that I’ve been looking at this for so long, and being very picky in what I will accept, because I know what good design looks like now. I know that I was never going to pick a house no matter how pretty it looked if there were no windows on the northern side and if it was poorly oriented. So I had a very good filtering system, and I learnt all that through you. Thank you. 

Amelia Lee
That’s my pleasure.

Elizabeth
And I think just being exposed to all of that, my thoughts on what we wanted, what we needed, were very developed so I could be quite discerning very quickly. 

We also had a good lawyer that we knew and trusted. We had a relationship with a lawyer as well, which certainly helped. And that pivoted very quickly, and people generally knew we were looking to build. So friends were keeping ears open. And I’d had conversations with the dads before, so I knew that there was someone I could work with. So having done that preliminary chats with people, so that also meant that I was a little bit further along the line than if I just saw this house and went, “Oh, okay, there’s a house I like. What do I do now?”

Amelia Lee
Yeah, I love how you’ve prepared yourself for this adventure, and how it set you up to be able to make choices really confidently and very quickly. And I mean, we’ve renovated three houses. And similarly, we would only look at houses that I would look at online first, and I would dismiss houses that I didn’t think were going to work from a reconfiguration point of view, an orientation point of view, planning constraints, all of those kinds of things.  

So I think some people can view those constraints as frustrating, because they feel that it limits their choices. I love that you’ve had the experience that it actually helped you sift and filter and not waste time on things that weren’t going to work for you, and that it streamlined your ability to then make the right kind of choice, and then you’ve been able to execute very quickly on the decisions that you’ve made. I mean, I know the Facebook community where, like, “Finally Elizabeth.” Because everybody’s been really excited that you’re jumping into this too.

Elizabeth
I see the other thing also is that we also knew what we were prepared to spend, what the market was, and what the purchase price was reasonable, but also what a reasonable budget was for renovating too. So we know what sort of money we might be looking at for this renovation, and we know where that fits within the market where we live. So we’re not going to over capitalise. It is a long term home, so if we go over a little bit, that’s okay. We plan to be there forever now. So we’d also done that homework too.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, you’ve just pooled all of this information from all of these different sources that’s informed your ability to make good choices very quickly, and rather than spin your wheels and get overwhelmed, you’ve been able to basically just execute. It’s brilliant.

Elizabeth
Oh, I’m so excited about it. I think if I didn’t have the knowledge that I’ve gained over more than five years that I’ve been a member, I’ve been listening to the podcast, I don’t think we could have moved as quickly as we have, and probably someone else would have gotten in and gotten the house. For what it is, it was a very good price, so I think someone else would now be looking at that house and trying to get access. So that’s our problem.

Amelia Lee
Did you have anything else to share before we wrap up? I’m looking forward to getting you on again in the not too distant future, and hear, hopefully, that timelines been able to be executed, keeping everything crossed for you.

Elizabeth
I’m just looking forward to being able to interact more with the community, from our own perspective, bring all those questions out to all you guys. Thank you in advance. Hope I’m not too annoying. And I’m just really appreciative of the opportunity that you’ve provided to all of us, even just the podcast listeners. The information you provide is outstanding. And as I said, I’ve learned more through you than TAFE, and just that opportunity has just made this possible. And to me, this is a dream. As I said, I’ve been doing floor plans since I was a little kid, so I’ve always wanted to do this, and now it’s happening. I was like, “Oh, so, so lucky, so blessed.” So thank you.

Amelia Lee
That’s my pleasure, Elizabeth. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing your journey with us. I look forward to getting you back and hearing your updates. It’s going to be really exciting to follow this project and see it come to fruition.

Elizabeth
Thank you. I look forward to it too. Cheers. Bye.

RESOURCES:

Building or renovating in a Bushfire prone area? Listen to Season 12 here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/season-12/ 

Here are my conversations with Jane Hilliard from Designful:

• Episode 237 ‘Designing Your Home Using ‘Enoughness’ with Jane Hilliard from Designful’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-designing-your-home-using-enoughness-jane-hilliard-designful/ 
• Episode 238 ‘Creating Your Ideal Home with Jane Hilliard, Designful’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-creating-your-ideal-home-jane-hilliard-designful/ 

Here are my conversations with Sarah Lebner from Cooee Architecture:

• Episode 260 ‘Connecting Regional People with Low-Carbon Homes with Sarah Lebner from Cooee Architecture’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-connecting-regional-people-with-low-carbon-homes-sarah-lebner-cooee-architecture/ 
• Episode 261 Sustainable Retrofitting and Renovating with Sarah Lebner, Cooee Architecture’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-sustainable-retrofitting-and-renovating-sarah-lebner-cooee-architecture/ 

Access the support and guidance you need (like Elizabeth is) 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 

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan