"gardenlen" wrote in message
...
that's right. also, i think people underestimate how much plants can help
"rescue" a crap house, as well. (a subject pertinent for this group!)

but overall, i think generally good design had better become a more common
thing in australia soon!

yes planting in the right place using the right plant for a purpose,
unfortunately like the yuk factor brigade and the water issues
indoctrination has got too much of a hold, someone commented that
retro fitting is better than rebuilding i dunno lots of variable
there????

probably some variables, but in principle, i'd be in favour of retrofitting;
if only because it's bad enough something useless was built in the first
place - no point making the whole scenario worse by then wasting it
entirely! i'd think even the most appalling houses could be rescued with a
few changes & some landscaping in the right places... not to make it
"perfect". "good enough" has to be good enough imo :-)

if the house is so badly aspecteed along with the land and so poorly
designed with living cooking areas facing the wrong way maybe any
money spent on retro fitting could be seen as a bad investment, like
utting new tuyres on a car wher the body and motor are falling apart
hey??

hm, i don't know. the last house we were in before we moved here had big
kitchen/dining windows & a bedroom all facing due west :-/ that needed some
"rescue" but we were renting, so there's that. it was very unpleasant in
summer, but if i'd owned it i'd have started with landscaping & it would
have been easy to do a couple of other things & it would have been fine (or
any rate, good enough).

until people ahve lived in a purpose built home they will never know
the difference, and anoteh thing for young families wanting to get a
start, this home is very affordable this one at that stage cost
$50,000 to build but at a maximum would ahve pulled up well under
$70,000 that then would have been 22 meters long and 7 meters wide. at
the size it is in the pic's it 15 meters long which is as i have said
the size of a modest family 3 bedroom home of the 70's and 80's
standard.

there are lots of families up there living in those prefabs that are
only 6m X 12m 3 bedroom, funny thing our home cost about the same as
them only lots more comfortable.

so if the community bites the bullet and demands change what then? do
we start stipulating estates with only the right aspect lans being
used and only homes that are of the 'warm-house/cool-house' ilk?

so what of all the old inefficient homes?

well, that's it. if people know how to make some inexpensive improvements
that make a big difference, they can do so :-)

natural progressinon would mean it could take oh i dunno 100 years for
the change to take effect on our resource useage?

maybe instead of wasting tax payer dollars feeding us potty water and
keeping insolvent farmers afloat and paying for water tanks that
simply won't make any difference.

maybe we bit the bullet and and demolish these monoliths?

i just really think that's the more difficult option :-) change takes time,
nothing happens overnight. i don't know what the answer is, but it involves
doing things better from this point on.

however, you need to keep in mind that all water has been recycled from the
dawn of time, & many people in aust drink water that someone else used
upriver - scare tactics about water purifying aren't helpful!!!
kylie