New Build Update: From Lock Up to Handover and Moving In, with Michael

0:00Hello, this is episode 391 and in this episode I'm welcoming back home method member Michael to share an update on his new build journey. Now this is the third installment that we've had from Michael about his project. You can catch up on previous updates in episodes 323 and 324 where we discussed earlier parts of the project and then in episodes 347 and 348 where Michael discussed documentation approvals pricing contracts and commencing construction and you can check out those episodes to hear loads of helpful insights and information and I've got links in the resources as well. Now when Michael last joined me on the podcast his roof was on the home was about to be clad and his separate workshop hadn't yet begun so fast forward to now and the home reached handover in August of 2025 and he and his wife have been settling in shaping the landscape themselves refining the details and actually living in the spaces that they've spent more than five years planning and building. Michael's project is a beautifully considered pavilion style home in

1:02regional Western Australia. It's oriented to maximise northern sun, carefully detailed for performance in its climate zone and designed as a long-term transition home as he and his wife stepped towards retirement from farming. Now in this conversation we talk about what unfolded between lockup and handover, the logistics of the trades, the unexpected delay with the tiling, the coordination of finishes and what surprised him once they moved in and of course those small design decisions particularly around lighting and services that really only truly reveal themselves once you're living in the home. We also dive into landscaping on a sloping site. Michael talks in a lot of detail about what was involved in that, reusing soil during construction, working with the topography rather than fighting it and how collaboration with the builder and trades can shape not just to the outcome but the experience of the build itself. Now remember if you'd like to grab a full transcript of this episode you can find that plus other helpful links at www.undercoverarchitect.com 4th slash 391 that's the number three nine one. Now let's dive in.

2:05Before we begin I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of country across Australia and I pay my respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I'm especially grateful to the Bungalung people who's land I live and work on and I honour their deep and continuing connection to land, waters, skies and community. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. I'm Amelia Lee the architect behind undercover architect and I believe that you deserve to feel confident and in control as you prepare for and navigate your new build or renovation. Undercover Architect is your secret ally no matter who you're working with or where you're located. We're here to simplify what can feel like an overwhelming journey and to equip you with the tools the knowledge and support to make empowered decisions every step of the way. Through the website online courses and my signature program home method you'll learn how to create a sustainable feel good and functional home that truly reflects you and how you want to live. Access my free 44 ways ebook that will

3:06simplify sustainability for you and help you create a healthy low-tox and sustainable home. You can get your free copy at undercoverarchitect.com forward slash ways that's W-A-Y-S. Now let's get into the episode. Before we jump into my conversation, here's some timing for context. So Michael joined home method in April of 2021. We've had a couple of updates on the podcast before this one and we recorded this conversation in January of 2026. Michael and his wife had hand over on their project in August the year before 2025. So let's jump into my conversation with Michael now. Well Michael, it is fantastic to have you back on the podcast. The last time that you were here with us was mid-20024 which I was pinching myself when I was obviously preparing for this conversation because it doesn't feel that long ago and yet I know that loads has obviously happened in your project over that time and so I'm really looking forward to sharing your update with the undercover architect community. Since we had that conversation at that time back in mid-2024, your roof was on, the

4:10building was about to be clad, the work to your separate workshop that you were building hadn't started yet and since then obviously you've had the building complete in August of 2025 and you've had a hand over and we were just chatting before we jumped on recording that you've been enjoying the home and doing some landscaping. So we've got lots and lots to share. Can you just remind people before we dive in about the home that you're building and what your priorities were for it? We bought the block in August 2020. We didn't have a design so it's got a nice north-facing aspect and it's got a triangular building area on the block and we didn't know how to get the best out of the site. We wanted sort of the best use of the northern sun so yeah we went out to a designer and worked through that process so I'm a farmer and it's sort of our, it'll be retirement home but we sort of

5:13transitioning so but it's been a process, it's been, well it's five years now since or a bit over five years since we bought the block and then probably we engaged a designer in. That would have been February 2021 and the design process was relatively long. There was escalations through COVID in price, initial costings were quite well above expectations and we stayed engaged with one particular builder in conversations. We didn't go through the pack process. He was very good at giving us feedback on design and different elements and then yeah got to the point where it's time to get on with this and I guess it was late 2023 I think it was 2024 and then yeah started the process so it was around about 18 months overall the lower 18 months from when the actual site preparation started and we probably engaged in the process for that last

6:17quarter of 2024 so yeah. Yeah gotcha and it's a single story home isn't it? How many bedrooms are in the home? There's three bedrooms so we've sort of it's a pavilion style home we've got living area laundry and garage on the west side then we've got the master bedroom and the other two bedrooms so two bathrooms and there's a powder room and it's a it's a really beautifully designed home in terms of the maximisation of the site and the you know glorious views that you've got and that indoor outdoor connection I know that designing for the orientation and other sustainability goals have been a really big part of the design and the construction material selections and those kinds of things so I'm looking forward to diving into some of the details about that because obviously there's been some things that have been happening through the construction process that you've been really careful and intentional about ensuring that you continue to incorporate into the home and yeah sharing

7:21photographs along the way it's just been great to see how it's been unfolding and and to see all of your work and your preparation and and all of the effort and energy that you've put into the process really coming to fruition in the in the in the home in the way that it's been created so now you mentioned obviously this is your retirement home and you're transitioning away from being you know obviously running a working property you reached hand over in August of 2025 so how much time have you been spending at the home and how does it actually feel to be in the home after all of this time I look it feels fantastic it was a bit surreal at the start to think well we've actually got hand over and you know quite a long design and build process to actually say well this is our space now and we can start making it our home yeah that was fantastic my wife sort of spend a fair bit of time down there and she's been a lot of time packing up what she was you know going to take down there and we've pretty much she moved in and just gradually got a feel for the place and what she what she wanted where didn't just

8:28rush in and do that sort of thing and she's slowly pulled it together which has been great we've still got a bit of work to do there and the builder did say he'd hang the paintings and that sort of thing get his guys to do that nothing you've done a great job getting the the place you know a nice quality job and so they're actually coming tomorrow they he had a couple of handovers he wanted to get done prior to his Christmas break so yeah he's coming tomorrow so with a couple of trades to sort that out and yeah there's a couple of couple of things that happened after as well there was some security doors that went on that was actually happened just prior to the Christmas break as well so I think there's still a couple of door handles and things to go on a couple of the big sliding doors that that the glazy was holding off on just to make sure

9:29you know the clearances were right and that sort of thing and I know that landscaping for spring was a big priority for you how did how did you kind of factor that in in terms of that handover and then getting work done on that because have you done a lot of that yourself or have you had people into help with the landscaping how's that worked I know we've pretty much done it ourselves so we've got about a hundred square metres of lawn on the western side the thoughts were that that you know that'll be a nice cool spot a bit of greenery and that sort of thing so so we had a ideoregation like leoregation company came in and put the retic work in and that sort of thing for that and the rest of it I've just gone to the soils places and picked up top soils so there's a lot of natives and that sort of thing so we just prepared because basically it was the site was compaction sand so it was very much a priority to get the landscaping done cover up the sand so

10:31the paving was one of the last things that went in so so that was good that we've got pretty much paving right around the house so there's pathways on the the western east and then we've got about three and a half metres of depth on the northern side of the house of paving and then and then we've sort of got a walkway into the entrance on the south side so there's good connection around and then it was just a matter of calling that together with some plantings and that sort of thing so my wife loves a gardening and that sort of thing did the builder do all of that paving into the entry in those in that sort of because they're sort of steps that step down to that front door it was that all part of the builders work yeah the builder organised the paving that worked well that the paving had to go in and then we've got a couple of heat pumps the workshop we ended up building the studio into the workshop so the heat pump on the laundry also applies hot water for the bathroom in the studio and then we've got one on the bedroom when needed to get the paving in so they could get placed in positions so for a process that's a good way to do it though to get

11:35the builder to manage all of the hardscape particularly where it meets the building and you know you need to get levels right and making sure that there's no compromisation of overland flow or any of your existing stormwater and you know downpipe locations and all of those kinds of things so getting all of that done by the builder as part of this scope of works is a is a good call I think and then if you are trying to sort of hive off work from a landscaping point of view then just leaving the soft landscaping for once the builder is complete can oftentimes be a better way of coordinating things so did you find sometimes people get a bit of a shock for example about how much earthworks has happened around the construction site and how much extra soil they actually have to bring in to bring the soft landscaping back up to the levels that they need to you obviously spend a fair bit of time on site during construction and you are really involved was that something that surprised you at all or were you anticipating or was it not a drama you know the builder had done a pretty good job of keeping things not sort of removing too much that you then had to bring back in we only really had to bring the top soil in we basically filled to a certain level and then

12:40check that and ended up go I think we ended up about 150 mils below where the designer had had designed the the survey works and that sort of thing so um people didn't the drainage and that sort of things so we just had to cut we had a little bit deeper cut at the rear of the site where the the high point was so the water was all falling away from the house and then it was just really what we did with a bit of excess sands what we did do in the process when we excavated the driveway so they excavated the house and started the house so they pushed away that site but they didn't finalize the driveway so they're just coming driving in on the natural height of the land and then when it got to building the the workshop that was that point where they needed to then cut in the driveway so that that had to drop in so there's probably around about a meter bank along the back wall and there's a bit of stone and that sort of thing in there so what we did we actually built a level area to the east side of the house so that connects on so

13:43we put a lot of that into the east side and then we bought in a little bit of um let's bit it chicken manure soil and that sort of thing and they got spread around and so we've got a flat lawn there so we were sort of working through that at the time being a sloping block at sort of it made sense rather than take a significant amount of soil off the site that we we pushed that over and then we've just kept some of the bigger stones um we've got a fairly big pile of stone that we will use to sheet the um the cut on the back wall but that's a that's a bit of a process it's it's just a sort of a gravel rock which which is good for you know so we'll just have a sloping stone wall along the back there that's fantastic we did actually my wife the builder had recommended a landscape designer right at the start but he sort of only introduced her into the process partway through so I suppose that was it must have been after after lock up and she sort of

14:45did a reasonably detailed design on plantings and introduced some ideas and so we've modified that she also introduced a few ideas of shading for the house that sort of thing my wife had given a few Pinterest photos to use and that sort of thing just images and so we sort of use that as a base to to work off so we've used a few ideas like at the entrance we've instead of just having solid pavers we've got like stepping stone pavers and a bit of stone in between and a few things like that and she had ideas of breaking up we come through the driveway you go past the house and then we've got a sort of a little parking area down the bottom where we've got the the flat area to also have the garden bed and have some slightly bigger trees and that sort of thing so you sort of break that area up you're not just seeing straight down there you can work the garden or give you that little bit of a break so I guess that's been my you know my job's been going down there and doing a fair bit of work so yeah the most important thing was with spring time and

15:52we did have a soft spring which was really helpful at Albany's sort of a temperate climate it's sort of cool in summer and it sort of was damp right through into the middle of November which was really good for getting gardens and things are starting right for establishing a garden yeah and it sounds like it's been a really effective process in how that landscaping has worked I mean you've always you've always had a really good understanding in the conversations that we've had and how I've seen you operate you've had a good a good understanding of the topography and working with that sloping site and we're retaining and water was going to be of consideration and those kinds of things and so I think that has really supported then being able to obviously bring the landscape design in at that later stage and ensure that then there's some considerations of or creating spaces in certain ways in certain areas and I think you know just what you've spoken through will be really helpful to some people listening about thinking about elements that they

16:52can reuse because it's it's always amazing whenever a construction of a new home or even a renovation happens on a site how much dirt can be removed and then how much you can have to pay to bring all of that back when you're actually finishing off the home and particularly if you haven't if you're not keeping your builder on through landscaping and so therefore it's not that not their responsibility to consider that as part of your completion and so they're not thinking strategically about how to streamline that and so I really love that that you've always had a handle on that and then you've worked really well with your team to kind of collaborate that and obviously your builder's been really great at bringing in the right people to assist with that so it sounds like and you know looking at the photographs and seeing how this garden I mean this home's already looking like it's been here for a while which is always amazing given that it's only been finished a few months so I love the way that it's sitting in the landscape and and that the approach that you've taken with those native planting and and thinking about how the the the fact that you do kind of descend into the front door that there's a very gentle kind of welcoming nature to that in the way that you've done those steppers with gravel and you know

17:57added that planting in around the entry and those kinds of things so I think it's all starting I can just say it in 12 months time it's going to be it's going to look like it's always been there so it's just going to be really great so has anything surprised you with the sort of you know the difference between obviously imagining the finished time and then actually being in it? I think it's performing really like the design you know you've always advocated you draw your furniture into your design and that sort of thing it's certainly not a small home it's it's a little bit more spacious than we expected and I think my wife surprised at that I think I probably had a bit understanding of looking at a drawing and getting a feeling for size so we've in the open plan area we've got so it looks to the north so we've got the kitchen to the rear that looks out over the open plan area and then we've got a dining table on the left so we had a a nice dining table made out of we've got WA I've collected a heap of WA black butt timber as a guy that used to make furniture and bought a heap of slabs it was got a nice 2.9 meter long

19:02table and we've made that a meter wide so that suits the width of the room but and then we've got a couch and then and then we've got our fireplace but I thought I'd have a feel a little bit tight through there but it actually feels quite spacious like this plenty of room in and around that so and I think you know we've got laundry mud room you know that's pretty spacious we've got lots of storage so yeah that's it's all functioning well yeah the bedrooms are on the east side and you know we've got nice glazing but it's really nice in the morning just that the brightness you know the light in the house and that sort of thing you know we really enjoy that yeah we just fantastic because that was always a big goal for you wasn't it to make sure that you had that really a kind of light field experience and that great indoor outdoor connection I don't think you've done an exemplary job of making all of that work so if you can if you think back over your time so we we you had that lock up happening around September 2024 so then there was a year almost a

20:05year between that lock up period and the handover it in August 2025 and you had the workshop being built in parallel can you just talk through us a bit in terms of how construction unfolded and if it's tricky to kind of obviously think about that over that time frame maybe just talking through sort of what parts of the project felt smooth and when sort of you know seem to just happen without much input required versus ones that might have needed your more of your retention and involvement or where things particularly slowed down through that construction phase if you can just have a chat through sort of what happened over that period of time that would be really awesome I think yeah I mean all the framing stage went very smoothly it was I think I mentioned in one of the previous podcasts like we had a dry summer and I think we you know everything progressed really well through the framing stage and then the cladding stage and there's a few conversations in and around cladding and introducing NCC 2022 requirements because they weren't it was only May this last

21:05year 2025 that WA took on board those standards but I thought it was important to build to those standards as we're in climate zones x 6 we use vapor permeable barriers and and that sort of thing so yeah so that all went progressed well and then at the fit out the past so all of the services were put in that all went smoother you're plumbing and electricals and you know there's a few walkarounds with with electrician and you know plumbers and where taps go and all that sort of thing that that all went smoothly and then with the plasterers I'd always wanted to introduce wool insulation and we had knaffle insulation specified it was too expensive to go with natural wool insulation but the plasterer had his own systems and he used CSR Bradford bats so you know I gave him some of the information that I had and he took that away and drilled down on

22:06all of that and came back and said no we were keen to use what we work with and all of that went smoothly it was interesting with the pastures when they came and we're just talking about waste and that sort of thing and they said well we actually measure for each room so we specifically purchased our plasterboards so we we actually reduced the waste you know that was really pleasing to see the thought that had gone into the process and and you know all the insulation was was fitted you know very well and nice and tightly so yeah so it was great to see them taking the care in that process yeah all the windows went in there's conversations with the glaze users that that all went pretty smoothly and then we've got New South Wales coastal black butt flooring so that went that went in that went smoothly and then it sort of moved towards tiling my wife was working with the cabinet makers and and then we sort of got held up with the Tyler so the cabinets went in and then I think the Tyler got held up on another job but I think

23:12the builder can have four or five different jobs going at a time so logistically and he only uses one tireless so and I think the guy had had a hand operation or something as well and then got a got a few extra jobs thrown at him so that probably pushed 10 weeks further back so that pushed us into January 2025 and then yeah the Tyler just toiled away on site for I suppose it was there for three months and yeah it's amazing every time I walk into the bathrooms and stuff you just you think oh wow there's been so much thought into the layout and you sort of get surprised to quite quite often on you know just the thought that's got into getting getting a great finished job was actually interesting my wife bumped into the Tyler at the supermarket with his wife and just said you know what a fantastic job and they really appreciate that feedback I think and and Albin is an interesting place it's one of the past is growing regional areas in Australia so

24:17the trades are under a fair bit of pressure to perform it's it's quite interesting but they they really work hard at getting the job done I think it's the other thing with the builder is just that logistics behind the scene keeping everyone busy and making sure materials are on site at the right time and engaging you know it is very very good at engaging with us as clients and particularly with my wife working through the process I suppose that was the hold up and then once the tiling was done things sort of accelerated again fantastic and I think what you just spoke to in terms of that feedback and you know bumping into the Tyler in the supermarket and being able to give that feedback to them directly often I mean it's often recommended that you don't speak to the trades directly without the builder present because the trades are sub contracted to the builder and they're the builders responsibility and it can create confusion around communication and information being handled and yet that can often then sometimes mean that I mean that's really

25:18important but it can often then sometimes mean that the that the tradesperson's not at the call face of hearing you know that positive feedback and that that that that gratitude that you have for the fact that they did a they took that care and intention and did a really good job and so it's lovely that you got the opportunity to actually thank him personally and because I can imagine particularly in Western Australia where the volume builder industry dominates the in the construction residential construction industry far more significantly than in the eastern states so from my understanding in most of the eastern states the volume builder market makes up somewhere between 20 and 25% of new builds whereas in Western Australia I think it gets up as high as 40% and so that that volume builder industry handles its subcontractor trade base very differently to an individual customer residential builder who's only doing sort of you know between two and five projects a year and and sometimes trades people think well I'd much rather just work for the volume builder industry even though it might not be they might not enjoy the work as much or it might

26:19they might feel like they're in a bit of a sausage factory and just needing to you know kind of getting one end and get punched out the other some for some trades who want to ensure that they have you know continuing work on a regular basis that's that's the kind of thing that they choose and so I always and full of lots of admiration for builders who manage like you say to handle the logistics of organizing various different you know having multiple projects going on at one time but at the same time not being able to necessarily control for example the Tyler needing to have a hand operation and all of a sudden they're schedule's not you know going to be able to be delivered on unless they find another Tyler and finding another Tyler that you know you can rely on to deliver to the standard of your work as a business operator can be challenging so it's really great to hear that your builder has done a really good job of coordinating all of that you obviously as clients were in a position where you were able to accommodate I mean a 10 week delay is quite a significant delay that that I think would have caused problems for some clients and so for you it sounds your attitude to this whole project Michael has always just

27:24been so fantastic in that you understand I think you've always had a really kind of empathetic understanding of what's actually going into your project kind of coming to fruition and also and maybe it's your farming background and understanding of the fact that you can't always control the elements and you can't control what's going on and an ability to kind of surrender to well things are just going to have to roll out the way that they have to roll out and so yeah I love that I love that what's happened is you've been able to accommodate that delay and you've also got a really fantastic outcome in the process and and that thing that you say where you walk into the bathroom and and get that kind of like realization of oh wow like there's a lot that's gone into this and it's really lovely that it's it's turned out so well so I think it's absolutely awesome and you were you were talking about in a group about you shared some photographs of the joinery going in and and some of those you know sort of when it really starts to feel like a finished home I think is when you start to see the cabinetry going in and you see the tile and going on and the plumbing and electrical feed off starting to occur and it gets really really exciting

28:29at that point and yet it can still take a lot of time for all of that to happen so but you are remember you're sharing photographs into the group and commenting on how fantastic it was to have those trades and how well they were doing what really stood out to you about how that phase was being handled you touched on some of those points but just you know how how how did the builder kind of coordinate it was the builder involving you in meeting with those trades regularly like how did that sort of all work in terms of that process and what worked well for you. The builder was certainly very happy for us to engage with the trades and quite often we'd meet with the trade and we'd go through the questions the builders and you know I've come to understand more through the process when he's got other jobs going you know just handling the timeframes and that sort of thing it is you know it is a massive logistical thing and it's you can't get too far ahead of yourself and or you've just very much about we'll make these decisions at this point in time and so then

29:34quite often we'll be you know we've got two okay now we're painting so talk to the painter about okay this is your color put it on the wall have a look what do you think and then you know so we've adjusted the external paint color a bit I think it was downloaded back a bit by white just to get you know something closer to what we we hope you know that we're happy with put it that way and that tied it together and it was great that Jeff the painter he he introduced some of his ideas because he I think in now we've got a little study look and we've got a feature a feature wall there and he said why don't you do this in the same blue color as the you know in the butler's pantry there's there's some cabinets on one side that are a sort of a dark blue and that worked really well you know so it was a lot of those little bits of feedback I think the engagement with the painter was fantastic and you did mention I think I posted a little video on the home method page and it was a number of the trades just working away one day when

30:43we went in there I think the title was working on the stone cladding on the chimney and then the guys were doing some jewellery work in just setting up some work where the curtains were hanging and yeah there was a lot of action going on and it was I thought it was it was great there was a bit of positive engagement I think you know it is it is a process that sometimes it can be frustrating because things slow down but you know it is working towards an end goal and it's really interesting you know some of the trades you've got to get one trade in before another or you know so it's a real process of one you know a step-by-step process so that's where the builders have you know quite an intricate job if if something falls out of place then you know it's it's realigning everything and and I think it was pretty much worked really well with with a lot of

31:44the trades through the process and there's there's probably one thing that maybe we didn't get quite quite right there's just a couple of things with the lighting and we put a favor to time in with the designer on doing a lighting design and remember when the electrician came around walking through rooms what I'm having here what I'm having there and I followed around with the wiring diagram and was marking it up and then it went missing for a while and so I sort of just left that it's and it it was a really good process to just talk about the impacts where the switching was the switching going and that sort of thing but we've got a hallway and we'd set it up so that we've we've got a door a sliding door that blocks off the other two bedrooms in the bathroom so there can be privacy but it ended up that the lighting is switched on from both ends for the whole hallway and so that's one thing we'll get the electrician back is we've spoken

32:47about it but that should be an easy fix just to to switch you know the bedroom section off from the main hallway so there's just a few little minor things like that that happened along the way and possibly in the bedrooms I think um we didn't end up putting fans in there but I think it would have been good to just have some fans in in there we may we may do that down the track they're just to cup a little little things that until you actually live in the home you don't really quite understand and probably in the kitchen down in the butler's area I know in the in the morning when you're walking to make you know put the kettle on or something like that sometimes you don't want a bright light and we've got a nice a nice um a light over the island just a nice dull light and then we've got the the brighter lights and I think just you know we might just put in a couple of dimmable lights down down the other end so there's just a couple of little

33:50minor things like that and then I guess the trades it got to that stage I think the builder said oh well I've got the floor standard booked for the middle of July so he said that's he's that's really pivotal around you know getting finished if if for some reason you you know you have to push him back then that might be another six weeks before we can get him back so we sort of had all our first days in the middle of August so that was a bit of a date and I think he delivered just after that which was pretty good but it was actually interesting watching the builder it was very much now like we've got to slow down these are the decisions that are made we need to get the trades in we need to get that all finished so he was very much about the process and it was quite interesting the the painter that was you know doing a lot of the work inside he was probably informing us more of the what was happening on site I was someone says here and that sort of

34:52things that was just interesting you could see the builder was very much about now we're just going to manage the trades and get this done yeah I love how methodical that sounds like it was and also that you had a really clear understanding of like that drop dead date of we get the floor sander in and we don't want anybody then kind of having to do anything significant because that really undoes the whole purpose of getting that beautiful finish before I hand over and I think to those minor things that you're discussing in terms of some of that electrical thank you for taking us through that because I think that there can people can put a lot of pressure on themselves about that day one perfection and there's just some things that you just can't you know for all of the kind of preparation and investigation and help that you get there's often you know just one or two things that you just can't you have to actually give space to potentially need to pick up once you've lived in the home and had an experience of it because it's it's you can either I suppose go ahead and I mean you could have you could have potentially kind of over designed it and added all

35:56of these things just in case which a lot of people do do but I think you're much better served by giving yourself a little bit of space to go okay well if we know that so we need to get the electrician back how hard is it going to be to get the wiring to that point and how hard is it going to be to add you know that thing in later and I find that when people take the approach of well we will just want to have scope to know that we can make these amendments after we move in if we need to then it can often give you a lot more flexibility and not that that getting it all right from day one occupation doesn't feel so stressful and and pressured so and I think you know there's the things that you've talked about are so minor in the grand scheme of things with you think about all of the moving parts and components and materials and products and people that you brought together in this new home I love that that's kind of you know that's been there that that that is the is the sort of some total of kind of the the things that you think you possibly could have done differently you know if you know if you if you had your time over so it's really tremendous Michael and I think it's it's a testament to how intentional you've been

36:58and how involved you've been in this project and I hear you talking and I remember meeting you at the very beginning of all of this and you speak like a veteran now is you know sort of you know it's by kind of really navigated multiple projects rather than just your own so you have a comfort and a confidence with the way that you're talking about you know things like the vapor permeable wind brains and getting that detailing right and you know dealing with the trades and and seeing that coordination of work and it's just a testament to the the way that you've upskilled yourself through this process so I think it's really really fantastic and I I know that feeling of when you walk on site and you see all of the people work on site at the same time working together and that lovely kind of vibe that you can get and I may sound a bit bit bit woo woo but I really feel like that does go into the energy of the home you know from a longer term when there's people that are enjoying what they're doing they're working together well you've got a builder that's coordinating things well and as you use trades for a period of time that are used to sort of seeing each other on their approach on those projects and that kind of stuff all of that to me really does get embedded

38:02in the home from a long-term point of view so I love that that has been your experience as well and that's it for part one of this latest update with Michael what I love about this conversation is hearing how much Michael has grown in his own confidence he speaks with this steady clarity of someone who understands construction sequencing detailing and the rhythm of a build and that transformation is something that I see time and time again with our home method members as they get educated and they stay engaged in their project now in part two we're going to discuss more of the construction process cost plus contracts detailing of sun shading and Michael's advice to anyone earlier in their project so make sure you stay tuned for that if you've been listening to Michael and you've been noticing his clarity and confidence that didn't happen by accident Michael joined home method early in his project and learned how the process really works and that education has helped him show up as an informed collaborative client throughout his build every step of the way if you'd like that same sense of agency and understanding in your own project you can learn more about home method by heading to homeethod.com.au also to the undercover architect website

39:03and to the resources for this episode you'll find information at www.undercoverarchitect.com forward slash 391 I've popped the links there that you need to home method plus to Michael's previous updates and you'll also be able to grab a full transcript of this episode and of course if you do find the podcast helpful I would be so grateful if you could rate and review it wherever you are listening to it I love reading the reviews and it really does make a difference in the podcast reaching those who need it and it being seen by all of the various platforms as content to recommend to others. As always thank you for tuning in and for letting me be your secret ally until next time bye. Just a reminder all content on this podcast is provided by undercover architect for reference purposes and as general guidance it does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way you should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in any circumstances including but not limited to circumstances where loss and damage may result the views and opinions of any guests on the

40:03podcast are solely their own and may not reflect the views of undercover architect undercover architect endeavors to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published but does not accept responsibility for content that may or has become inaccurate over time.