Again, for our house builder’s reference (Highmark Homes NZ) and maybe our electrician’s (New Life Electrical Ltd.), our lighting plan

I’m obviously going to need to expand this out per room and per wire plan.  Mighty complicated.  It was hard keeping it straight in my mind.

I received a request (actually a couple) to give a layout of the house that identifies the rooms, so for your edification, here you go.

One interesting note about the plan, you may see that in “Bedroom 3” there is no Closet.  Now for those of you living in the Colonies In Rebellion, and especially in California, you may be aware that a defining feature of a bedroom is a closet.  That is not so in New Zealand.  The only defining feature of a bedroom is that there must be a wall that single bed can fit on and will not block a door.

Actually that isn’t a “law” but if there isn’t a wall that a single bed will fit on the council that approves Consents (permits) will usually balk at letting you declare it a Bedroom, and Valuers (appraisers) won’t consider it a bedroom for valuation purposes.  Also you sorta need a window in the room, again, not a “law” but you better be prepared to talk pretty fast!

As long as a single bed can fit in there, though, its a bedroom.  And believe me I have seen some bedrooms in new construction that I would have considered literally a Closet!

Now in actuality Bedroom 3 will serve as our exercise bike room, and secondary Pantry and Storage.   Bedroom 2 will be our office.

Oh and the floor space does include the Garage.

Thought you might like to know what the size of the house layout will be.

and for those of you who don’t know how to use a rational logical measurement system (and you know who you are “colonies in rebellion”)

Information added for Espaso Verde Landscaping

I think I should explain the “look” we are trying to achieve with our house.  New Zealand has a large amount of “bungalows” done in both a California style and its own variation of the bungalow that I think of as “New-Zealand Pioneer bungalow”.  The thing is Kiwi’s don’t “know” that they have bungalows.  Generally speaking their bungalows are not done with the some of the more high-end customizations and variations that are in most of what are known as California Bungalows (built in Buffets, bookcases, elaborate fireplace decoration, etc.) but that is due to the fact that those added extras increased the cost of bungalows even in California, and in the 20’s and 30’s Kiwi’s had to be much more careful of their spending, they didn’t (and still don’t, truth be told) have the same ratio of disposable income per capita.

Anyways, Matthew and I would like nothing better then to build a California Bungalow, unfortunately that style of construction is still associated with “old fashioned / out of date” and hasn’t had the resurgence in interest in it that it has in the States.  Consequently there aren’t any builders here in New Zealand that have any experience in building New Construction that “looks” like the old style.  As a side note, in the US the new construction of old style bungalows has reached a new high, the last time Matthew and I were in Santa Barbara, we saw along one of the back streets near my brother’s house, 3 new homes under construction (in different stages) that represented 3 different styles of popular California Bungalow construction.  What was really amazing was the fact that while they were completely new, and you could tell that they were new from their placement and surroundings, but they were so well done, that you could have dropped them in an old 30’s neighbor and they would have looked like they had always been there.  They got all the little details right that are so often missed in Neo-Bungalow.

Well because no one here is doing anything like that, I’m going to end up with a Neo Neo California / New Zealand Pioneer bungalow.  It will be a house made with visibly modern materials and construction methods and I will use trim and decoration and “misdirection” on the outside to let indicate it’s design inspiration.  On the inside however, I can be a bit more careful and authentic.  Paint (and the painting method) are important parts of the “look”, I have got a range of Arts & Crafts Colors from Roycrofts paints (the RGB values) that I will use, but the interior detail that when you see it will take your mind to that Arts & Crafts period is a Wallpaper Border.

We will be using a range of Bradbury & Bradbury wallpaper borders (and some actually full wallpaper in specific usages) in our house to achieve an effect that will be tailored to each room.

Here is a sample of the one that will be used most prominently thru out the main living areas of the house.

And here is what it will look like inside our house looking out form the kitchen

And here is our Library (office)

It may be a Neo-Neo Arts & Crafts, but when I’m done I’m hoping it will feel like an OLD FRIEND on the inside!