My husband and I purchased 40 acres in NSW approx 3 years ago and have been taking our time designing a plan that suits us and the land. We have quite a long narrow floorplan which means most of the house is only one room deep to take advantage of the breezes as it is quite a windy area. As we have lots of room we have stretched it out to take advantage of the great views and the northerly aspect.
Our prime focus is to build a solar passive house as we are totally off grid and want to reduce the need for excessive electricity use eg, heating & cooling. Some of the solar passive features we are incorporating are:
* Concrete slab on ground with slab edge insulation (not underneath)
* Exsulite cladding
* As mentioned above most rooms one room deep to take advantage of breezes
* Double glazed uPVC windows throughout
* Highlight windows with electric openers to let out hot air
* Internal double brick wall in living area for added thermal mass
We opted for a house that wasn't huge but has reasonable sized rooms. House is 206.04m2, carport 56.94m2, alfresco 49.83m2, porch 4.93m2 with a Total area of 317.74m2.
Next job is to upload our floorplan, hopefully I can remember how to do it
![Think :th:](./images/smilies/think.gif)