The Gingin Project - 'Baan Sa-Wan' :our

"GRAND DESIGN"

.....began when we purchased the land way back in 2005. Eventually we received title, and proceeded to work with two building companies to get the house of our dreams. Unfortunately this was easier said than done, and so after some frustration we decided that we would design our own. Inspiration to give us the confidence to do this came through Kevin McCloud and his TV series "Grand Designs". His splendid book of the same name has been a source of inspiration also. So we set to it - and with the assistance of a bottle of Merlot we soon had a sketch plan of what we wanted. Work did not start in any meaningful way until 2008.  Whilst this seems a long time it is worthy of note - and comforting to us - to quote from Kevin McCloud :  "Spend three years planning your project and chances are you'll be on site for six to eight months, but spend six months planning and you're likely to be on site for three years!" .

The slowness of the process has enabled us to conceptualise our dreams into a reality, and hopefully we are on the way to a completion of your Grand Design.

The design is based on a fusion of Thai floor plans and traditional Aussie outback materials. The house consists of three wings forming the basis of an enclosed courtyard for outdoor living. The three wings consist of one large open space living area, and two sleeping and working wings. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms. The courtyard formed by the house footprint has a pool as it's central feature, and forms a backdrop to all internal views from the house. The rear of the courtyard will be enclosed Thai style by a  wall or fence (TBD) the centre piece of which will be  a mosaic water feature, designed and built by Mairi. A small swimming pool will be the centrepiece of the Thai style courtyard.

That was the easy part - now how to get it built??  The sketch and our ideas were taken to a steel frame construction firm (Statewide building Systems) and they drew up plans and costings. As they don't 'build' we decided to become owner builders  (taking the building thing to another level!!) - engaging our own personnel and managing the project ourselves. Daunting, yes, but exciting and one heck of a challenge.