A lesson learned

One of the people that came across our blog reached out to say that they also fell in love with the Porter Davis Waldorf 50, resigned themselves to not being able to have it because they lived in NSW, and then randomly discovered that Eden Brae offered the same floor plan. And like us, they decided to sign up for the Waldorf 50 emotional roller coaster to build their dream.

It reminded me of why we started this blog in the first place.

It may not seem like it because I’ve spent so much time recently not-so-humble bragging, but this blog was initially about giving back to the internet. Sharing our experiences, our mistakes and lessons learned. Wisdom that can only be gained because you first made a bone-headed error.

So in that spirit, I share this piece of advice with you, dear reader: be mindful of how much space you leave between your house and your side boundary.

During the drafting stage, Eden Brae set our house 900mm from our southern side boundary. Makes sense. That’s the minimum council requirement and allows us to have more useable space on the sunnier northern side boundary. 900mm is usually ample space for a thoroughfare from the front to the back yard. You should be able to easily get the lawnmower back and forth, as well as the all important wheeley bins.

The problem I now am faced with is due to a confluence of factors.

First, Eden Brae did a cut and fill before laying the foundations. The southern side boundary now needs to be retained with a wall around 1m high as a result, as indicated by the dash & dotted line on the plans above. With the agreement of my super lovely neighbour, I will have the retaining wall built on the boundary. Nevertheless, the wall will no doubt eat into the 900mm gap between my garage wall and the boundary.

Second, our gas meter and a stormwater pipe have been placed on the southern garage wall. These items are quite chunky in this particularly context and definitely take up valuable width down that path.

The down pipe was on our plans but what I did not expect was just how far the down pipe is from the wall of the house. On the plans, it looks like it’s flush against the wall. Certainly, the down pipes are always flush against the wall, but for some reason the piping section in the ground is placed around 100mm away from wall. Valuable real estate I can ill afford.

The gas meter was not on the plans. Builders and gas installation companies will always choose the easiest option for them unless the owner has contractual rights to determine where the meter is placed. In this instance, this is the closest point to the front of the property where the gas main is, and is also the closest point to the gas water heater meaning that less piping is needed to connect the two points.

Why do I care so much about these things?

Because my landscaping plan has been drafted for concrete paths on the southern side because that was where the bins would be kept. The intention was for the bins to be stored close to the side door to the laundry and kitchen, and then wheeled out front to the street when required. Will the ~600mm wide wheeley bins fit down this ever narrowing path?

The northern side footpaths on the other hand will be stepping stones and gravel, a “soft” surface in terms of stormwater as it allows the water to be absorbed into the ground. Wheeling the bins from our “back door” to the laundry room to the front of the house via the northern footpath is not only a longer journey but a difficult one thanks to the surface.

I don’t know if my future landscaper will be able to solve this conundrum. I really hope they can.

I cannot help but regret not simply asking Eden Brae to push the house just 200mm to the north. My gut at the time queried how close the house was to the side boundary, but I didn’t do anything about it.

I doubt we would have noticed the lost 200mm on the northern side of the house, but I will definitely miss the additional 200mm on the southern side if I can’t fit the bins and lawnmower down this path.