Cheap Home Designs, 1 Cygnet Court, Queenscliff (2026)

08/11/2020

For those that have phoned us in the past few weeks and found we were 'away', for a 'short duration' (from a message left on our
answering service), I can now report we are back at home after a stint travelling eastwards along the beautiful Victorian coast as far as Mallacoota. I only expected to be away for two weeks on a venture in our pop up trailer, but Irene couldn't face going back home so quickly, hence we doubled the time away. We visited many free camp sites, a few National Parks and two private camping grounds. I don't really like formulated camp sites and prefer to find special places of our own, but Irene much prefers to be near others, if not only for security reasons. Covid provided the opportunity for those in regional areas to head off in their vans and visit places without the crowds of past 'normal times'. That was a bonus for me, but for camp grounds, they were down to about 10% capacity that they usually have. We visited many rugged coast line regions such as Cape Conran. Very beautiful but of course it suffered the terrible devastation of last summer's fires. Lots of Parks structures were burnt to the beach level and it showed a glimpse of just how bad things must have been for the poor residents of these regions, who had to flee to the beach for safety, as many watched their homes burn. We left as much to help in a small way, support communities get back to business again, but there is still a lot of pain associated with their former ordeal and understandably, no one wants to talk about the fires. We fist visited Wilsons Prom going east and again on our way back home westward. Crowds were low but weather great most of the time. We did quite a few bush walks up and down dale, as well as using our inflatable canoe in the Darby river just north of Tidal river. The prom would have to be one of the most beautiful regions to visit in Australia, and it has me fired up to visit some of the coastal anchorages I've sailed to in the past in our boat, many of these localities only possible to visit in a sea going craft. I'll add a few images if I don't stuff things up.

06/09/2020

I'm getting better with my tardiness as I've just noticed that I haven't created a post since February before I sailed away in our yacht to circumnavigate Bass Strait with the company of Irene's grandson Joseph. I recall when we returned in March that we discovered the world had a lack of toilet paper on supermarket shelves, and that people were now greeting one another with elbow touches. Strangely I continue to have people looking up my page, but some must wonder whether I made it back alive or not. Ever more strange is the continued sale of our plans book working drawings. This could be because these new clients were not following my page anyway, and simply rang up to see whether I was still in business, and would sell them a plan. A good number of my later customers let it be known that they had purchased my plans book more than a decade ago, and now found themselves in a position to build. Some don't have a block of land yet, but seem to want to make a first move to building their dream. Covid has certainly changed the world in terms of people's fortunes or demise, and also their behavioural traits. It has brought out the best in some and the worst in others. The time spent in a restrictive lifestyle has no doubt given many a new foresight in how their future may emerge. Many have become unemployed and for some, the decision to start building a home for themselves, is seen as an opportunity to employ themselves as an owner builder, rather than paying others money they don't have to complete the job for them. Over the years of my practice, I have found that around 80% of our clients wanted (or were prepared to), take on some proportion of the owner builder process, whether it be hands on, sub contracting the various building stages out, or simply being the project manager. I have always believed that the more difficult times become in the economy, better the reason for people with limited assets to rationalise the reality of making owner building a path to creating an outcome that otherwise would become an impossibility, due to high costs of employing the Trade, or trying to get loans from a Banking industry that had no inclination to help those most in need. Banks were never interested in the personal touch with 'customers' anyway; their only concern was how much profit they could gain from them. The building industry wasn't a benevolent society either, and often took advantage of offered Government grants to the likes of first home owners ect., by loading up their quotes in direct proportion to the granted sum. I know I'm being sceptical but conversely, the best thing a bank ever did for me was to refuse me a loan to build a house. I was so peeved at the time that it threw my thoughts to taking on the course of owner building when I truly had little money to complete a whole project. What I did have was a block of land and some money to start - the rest came as I built; fortunately at a rate faster than I could build by hand. The right choices had to be made though in terms of building materials and size of project (minimum need). I could not afford to build a 'normal' home and in that respect, it was the right decision and one that formulated a career in designing cheaper homes for a client base that would grow up to hate the program 'Grand Designs' as I do ( how I loath that program).

10/02/2020

I will be away for a few weeks break, sailing in Bass Strait, so should anyone need to contact me whilst I'm away, it would be necessary to send Irene a text message on 0427136998 stating your query. No point in phoning because she would be out most of the day herself. I will however be in contact with Irene from time to time (if reception is available), so she may relay any messages from clients etc. should they be of importance for me to immediately address, but please understand that building or design advice would be very limited and only given if absolutely necessary until such time that I return back home. Hope this doesn't cause anyone any inconvenience.

07/01/2020

The following is a posting I placed on my Sailing Facebook site, with an added addendum.

17/12/2019

It has been more than one quarter of a year since I've made any postings on Facebook. Irene and I bought a new car (Hilux 4WD) and a new outback style Jayco camper van, which we travelled in across the southern coastline of South and West Australia, stopping at Perth before heading back. We were away for three months and spent most of the time away camping in remote places, although it's almost impossible now to not have one or more campers somewhere in view. We were extremely lucky with the weather (only 2 days of real rain), and we got to see some spectacular coastline, and of course incredibly majestic forest in the south west of WA. We climbed mountain peaks in Le Grande national park (as well as other parks), kayaked down a few rivers and gorges, ventured into caves and swam in crystal clear waters adjacent to bleached white sand beaches. Had a few worrying issues with the camper van though, which caused me some degree of stress, all these relating to a poor standard of workmanship and poor quality materials - standards are even worse than the housing industry, but caravan manufactures seem not to greatly care. We have already had it out with Jayco and hope to pick our van back up tomorrow with repairs done under warranty. We were also lucky enough to see the wild flowers in WA before their end, plus whales with their calves swimming in the shallows close to shore, before their trek down to Antarctic waters. Our web site went down for two months without me knowing about it, which I wasn't happy about, as I'm sure it did nothing to improve our business exposure. There was also a delay in posting our Plans Books out, so sorry to all who were patient enough to wait. Hopefully things are back on track now (well almost), so I'll now try and include a few pics of our interstate venture.

12/09/2019

Irene and I will be away on holidays so should anyone wish to contact us (for whatever reason), please do so but you will need to send us a text to our new phone number (just for the holiday extension), which is 0428483544. Please do not leave a voice message on our answering service at home, or try to leave a voice message on our new number phone, because I will not be able to respond to it, due to the nature of the remote places we will be visiting. I don't want to be trying to chase up messages left in Message Bank either; so I repeat, please just send us a text message with your name, phone number and a short message and I will then contact you (either text or direct phone call), as soon as I possibly can. Our Plans Books will still be mailed out as I have someone else doing that for me, and for those wanting plans from us, please text us and I'll explain the situation as to what I can do.
Regards to all good friends and clients - Peter

15/07/2019

I featured a client's mud brick home way back in Nov. 2015 (you can trawl back through my postings), which I then stated was one of my category 'S' designs, but in fact (my mistake), it was one of my 'A' category size homes (from my plans book), built at a place named Glenaroura. I never visited the property myself, plus it was on the market for sale back at that time. The client made various changes to the standard format of layout, which of course most of my clients tended to do anyway, personalising the home to their specific needs. I was never concerned about any changes clients made to my standed designs, and was always supportive in giving advice on how they could best make alterations should they ever ask me. As most readers of my postings know (as do those that have my plans book), the main benefit that clients like about my plans system, is the flexibility designed into it to allow a myriad of changes to layouts, plumbing, wiring, window and door positioning etc, etc; even after Plans Approval and lockup stage. I certainly wasn't an Architect precious about clients changing my copyright designs, nor was there any point in being such, as my clients were building and spread widely across Australia (and overseas), so that meant I was never likely to ever see completed designs, unless they forwarded me a photo. I make the point here though about changes being made by my 'CLIENTS' - NOT the general public who may wish to copy and pirate my work. Here are a few images of the home at Glenaroura.

04/07/2019

Winter has brought about a few changes in our life. We have traded in our Nissan X-Trail for a twin cab new Hilux 4WD, and now await pick up of a Jayco pop-up camper which we should receive by the end of August. Irene and I are keen to do a bit of (land), travelling and expect to head off to WA for a number of weeks, after we finalise kitting out the car and camper, but we also have other commitments to attend to before we go. I'm also presently exhibiting two of my paintings at Swinburn college (Camberwell Art Show), and unless sold, I'll return them home next week. Business wise - I've continued to sell our generic plans at the reduced price of $1000, and Plans Book sales surprisingly are still sought after (even though we no longer advertise their sale). This is welcome of course and 4 recent potential customers have more or less stated they will purchase drawings, so I hope they make a move before we head off, otherwise they'll be in for a timely wait. Most people understandably have their own lives to sort out, so we have found the best laid plans and promises of likely customers don't always come to fruition. We cannot halt our lives waiting on the schedule of others, but we hope we can have all plans purchased, printed and posted before we drive off into the sunset. I have stated more than once before, that I'll continue selling my plans provided the public support our business, but we still have to maintain printer equipment, service fees etc; plus the fact our equipment and storage cabinets take up a considerable space in our residence, so the word I'm putting out (to any prospective customer reading this), is to order a plan 'sooner' rather than wait till 'I drop dead'. Now I have found a few more client's home images which I can feature, hoping of course I haven't already done so in earlier postings.

25/03/2019

After many prompts to create another post, I belatedly get around to prove that I survived another boat trip around Bass Strait. The first two weeks was spent cruising around the strait in a clockwise direction, then stopping at the Hunter group (north west Tasmania), to go spear fishing and fill the boat freezer with fish fillets and a few crayfish. I'm normally bobbing around at anchor by my lonesome (which I don't mind in the least), but this time I had the company of about 20 other yachts on a group circumnavigation of the whole of Tasmania. This happens every 2nd year where boats can cruise in company with added confidence, that they have other skippers to offer help should things come unstuck around the coast. I understand the willingness for boaties to join groups, because there is a massive fear factor looking after a vessel at sea, particularly in exposed waters like the Southern Ocean. I was none the less always happy to 'do my own thing', and not be tempted to be swept along by pack mentality (for good or for bad). There can be a certain 'sheep' mentality when a boat sees other boats anchored in certain spots - all latter joining skippers assume all the former ones must know best where to anchor. Not the case necessarily and on this last trip, I witnessed on many occasions, all the pact anchored in spots I regarded as somewhat 'odd', knowing what the anchoring ground was like from my own former experience. You never know who you are anchored next to and with what experience is on board. Neighbouring vessels can even be in jeopardy if one skipper is careless or inexperienced at anchoring. Anchoring is one of the most important things a skipper should know, but many of the 'racing type heros', seem in my experience to place more value in competitive racing technique than in safeguarding their floating acquisition. It can all end in tears.The trip back home across the Strait was lively to say the least, with strong gusts and hail for the first 12 hours, but the weather backed off to calmness as I approached the RIP and unfortunately an ill timed arrival to meet a full flowing outgoing tide. This last week has just been spent antifouling my boat, and I don't have the same energy anymore as I did years ago - I now feel quite knackered with heaps of sore upper body muscles. It's all part of the deal of looking after a boat and I fully accept the pact one must make to venture out as I do.

Cheap Home Designs

08/11/2020

06/09/2020

10/02/2020

07/01/2020

17/12/2019

12/09/2019

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25/03/2019

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