What if you build your ideal suburban family home and the realise it’s not so ideal?

I’ve been itching to tell Morgan and Duncan’s story because it’s just so heartwarming!

Morgan and Duncan built a new family home in a new subdivision and it was meant to have everything; four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living, all new and shiny - this is the dream many families pursue, right?

But it didn’t feel like a dream. While all the boxes had been ticked on paper, the house didn’t feel like a forever home to them. So, they sold their new family home and bough a 150 year old, tiny, wonky, cottage on a large leafy block in Bungendore. A move that many would call mad.

“We’d step outside and the first thing you heard was neighbour’s air-conditioning units,” said Morgan. “Here, we walk outside and hear a chorus of birds.”

They renovated the bathroom immediately, but they knew beyond that, they would benefit from professional help.

Morgan had been doing her homework, and was an avid student of Undercover Architect (and a member of their HOME Method course). She heard about Cooee Architecture on the Undercover Architect podcast and reached out to me with their story. Morgan was worried that their project wouldn’t be fancy enough or have a big enough budget to interest me, but the opposite couldn’t have been more true; their tree change back to an historic cottage, and all the homework Morgan and Duncan had clearly done assessing their values and intention drew me in like a bug to a light.

With a tight budget and a lovely-but-falling-down cottage, we needed to pull together a team with know-how from day one. We engaged Light House Architecture and Science for the thermal assessment consulting to help us sensibly hit our energy efficiency goals. We got the engineer in straight away to assess the dilapidated stumps (which were literal tree stumps) and where the structural walls were. And we interviewed builders, leading us to the lovely Brad from Trend Building Solutions

Every penny saving avenue had to be explored:

• We looked at options to stage the works into three parts over time

• I helped Morgan understand which bits of my fee proposal she might be able to exclude and manage herself (my first client to ever manage their own Building Approval) while I was available at an hourly rate if needed

• We workshopped with Brad, the builder, to see what he was happy for the clients to supply/install themselves

The plan above may not look like much, but as Duncan and Morgan have learned, there’s still a whole lot of work that goes into a full assessment, thorough retrofit, and coordinating old and new, in order to give this beautiful home what we hope is another 150 years of life.

Even though Morgan was one of the most prepared and capable clients I’ve ever had, I understand that a construction process is incredibly intimidating. “I’m not even the alpha for my own dog,” she once joked. It was my absolute pleasure to help her connect with the right people and empower her to take the lead on this project.

Construction commenced at the end of 2023, and we can’t wait to write the rest of this story and show you some finished photos later in 2024.

Morgan & Duncan’s House

(Bungendore | Ngarigo Country)

Performance summary:

• Energy Efficiency Rating (EER): From 0 to 6.7 stars (84% predicted reduction in heating and cooling loads)

• Lifecycle Carbon Analysis: Carbon positive with 6kW solar PV system, view the report. (The clients are installing more than this, but we set ourselves the goal of neutrality with only a 6kW system, so our reports are based on this.)

• Upfront Embodied Carbon: Approximately 25% less than new reference home

• Operational Energy: Approximately 81% less than new reference home

• Area: 113m² Original - 8m² Reduction + 35m² Extension = 140m² (65m² freestanding garage not pictured)

• Service type: ‘Mini’

• Status: Construction commenced late 2023

• Builder: Trend Building Solutions

• EER consultants: Light House Architecture and Science

• LCA consultants: In house - Cooee Architecture using Cerclos RapidLCA

“Sarah has been fantastic to work with. She has excellent architectural expertise, complemented by a wealth of knowledge on sustainable building practices. She is open and easy to communicate with and I learnt alot from Sarah during our design process - no question is a dumb question (and I have alot of them) which I truly appreciated. As part of our process we also engaged a builder early on, and it made for an excellent team. Sarah is also really practical which i loved, she considered what was fit for purpose for our project. I also really appreciated the values that she works to, but where it wasn't possible for us to achieve those things, it was a non-issue.”

”I would highly, highly recommend working with Sarah!!”

- Morgan, client.