The Gruen Eco Design blog about how to convert your dream of an energy efficient home into a reality.
Moving into our very own Passive House
Yes, we’ve made it
We’ve been living in our new house now for about 3 weeks. And it has been great. It is still a huge mess, boxes and things everywhere. So, it will be a little while until we start tours…
There are still some bits and pieces that need to be done. Luckily our 2 built-in fridges got delivered about a week after we moved into the house (one week living just with a small bar fridge was challenging enough…). however they have not been installed yet. We have one of them running though, which is enough space to store all our food. But it will be great once they are both installed and functional.
We are also still waiting on our oven, built-in coffee machine and the replacement rangehood. The rangehood did get delivered in time. But was damaged in the box.
To get the occupancy permit you need to have the rangehood installed. In our instance that did not work. The range hood that got delivered was dented and not looking good. If we had installed it the warranty would have been waved and we would not have been able to return it. Luckily our passive house has an exhaust vent just on top of the range hood, where the recirculating rangehood will connect to. This was sufficient for the building surveyor to give it a pass. Or we would still not be in our home. Phew!
Our bathroom mirror lights have been delivered. But we are still waiting to get them installed, together with the led strip lights under our timber feature shelves.
We have also ordered a couch for our main living room, that will arrive end of August. Until then we are keeping our old couch. Which is way too small for the room.
There is still no movement or decision yet been made on our dining table, our own bed or what will happen with our multifunctional room. But who cares, sleeping on mattresses is fine. And the front room is currently used as a storage room anyway…
I had mentioned that we had sold our unit. Meaning over the last 3 weeks, rather than enjoying and setting up our new home, we had spent many hours in the old house. Getting things moved and getting it ready for the new owners. Settlement went through on Tuesday.
And while I am very excited about our new home, there is also a bit of sadness and melancholy to leave our treasured family home behind. And wish the new owners all the best.
Now that this is finally behind us, we can start going through boxes and finding new homes for things. The first thing on the list will be building the kid’s beds. At least we have them already lying in our multi-functional room.
We are also still waiting on our solar panels to be connected to the grid. Still waiting on the inspector to sign them off. Actually, we had an inspector come by. Not realising that the solar panels are installed on the upper storey roof. Which he could not access, so he left again…. A bit frustrating.
There is still no update or movement at all on our build-over easement saga or the dislodged pipe. Hence no further movement on the landscaping side of things either.
But we are hoping to continue the works in our studio soon.
Stay tuned for further updates. Once the house looks a bit more presentable I will set up an open house.