Quoting, quoting, one, two, three

Now as we have no experience at all of building a house apart from that gained from watching in horrified amazement at the antics of people on Grand Designs, we are being guided by our architect as to what needs to be done next. Christian has been telling us to get on with discovering what we'd like to build the house with - everything from what windows we like to which light switches we'd like on our walls. Along the way we've discussed the number of powerpoints needed where, hanging systems, hardwood flooring, tiles, shower screens, louvered windows, cupboard fronts and laundry units... the list seems very, very long. And now that we are forming opinions about things we've started going out to get quotes, which is at once very exciting and absolutely terrifying!

Take windows, for example. Most people would agree that they would like to have windows, probably windows that open in some fashion. If you've lived in the UK you'll be familiar with double-glazing and might take it as read that double-glazed windows are sensible, even in a warmer climate, because they keep out hot sun in summer as well as keeping the heat in during winter. Fine, so you think you might like to have double-glazed window units.

But if you have environmental concerns, what sort of window frames do you choose? Aluminium frames are cheap and the metal can be recycled at the end of its life, but aluminium frames leak heat around the edges unless you go for a 'thermal break' system. Wood looks nice, but what about cutting down forests? How can you be sure that your timber is from a sustainably managed forest, and what about the sort of paint we would need to maintain a timber window in a humid, seaside environment? It isn't going to be low-VOC, water-based paint... PVC and u-PVC used to have a bad name environmentally speaking, but now people talk of them as having 'low embodied energy' and a long life-span without the need for on-going maintenance, so as long as they're responsibly produced and aren't going to 'off-gas' in your home maybe they're the best solution? Or why not go for something different; how about pultruded fibreglass frames? Modern technology means that fibreglass can be mixed with resins (both containing a percentage of post-consumer waste) and turned into a very stable, non-warping, maintenance-free, thermally efficient window frame with a life-span of 50 years and able to be recycled at the end of that time. Choosing your window system is NOT an easy task.

Well we'd like to look at pultruded fibreglass double-glazed units, as our first option, followed by PVC frames or thermally-broken aluminium frames as our second and third choices. We can find suppliers for all these options in Australia, although no-one makes them within a 500 km radius of here (which means un-environmentally friendly road freight costs, but possibly better than flying in the frames from elsewhere - although more on that in a moment!), but price becomes the next big issue.

When I asked Christian how much he thought windows should come in at he felt that $10,000 - $20,000 for single-glazed aluminium frames was a good ball-park figure, and that leaves plenty of room for maneouvre! I know we're going for double-glazed units, which are unusual in Australia, but even so the three quotes I've had so far have come in at $41,000, $57,000 and $80,000! Just slightly more than I'd bargained for. So now I'm in the mad situation where I email UK-based double-glazing companies to ask for quotes to include shipping to Australia, in the honest belief that the price might be lower! Crazy, and not very ecologically sound but there comes a point at which money is the biggest issue and we certainly can't afford to spend the best part of $100,000 glazing our house.

I guess the big question is why double-glazing isn't a popular option here? I think it will become more popular: Australians use a huge amount of energy per head of population in what is a small nation, despite its geographical size. Many Australians live in areas that experience extremes of heat and cold. Perth, for example, in Western Australia, can get to zero or below in the winter and yet has temperatures as high as 40 degrees centigrade in the summer. Sydney drops to around 10 degrees C in the winter and regularly goes over 40 degrees C in the summer. The trouble is, everyone just turns on the air-conditioning. Coffs Harbour has a fairly regular temperature, which is one of the bigger reasons why we moved here. Although this winter has been unusually cold, temperatures normally only vary between about 18 and 30 degrees C during the year. We want double-glazing to keep the heat in during winter and keep the summer heat out, and thus save the load on our solar electricity system so that we don't need to switch on any air-conditioning.

Leaving windows aside, the other amusing quote I've had has been for the material with which to make cupboard fronts for the large storage unit and island unit in our 'kitchen pod', which will be in the middle of our open-plan living/kitchen/dining area. My colourful idea is to front both units with sliding doors that reveal an array of shelves and storage areas behind them rather than individual cupboard and doors. I thought that if the sliding doors were made of translucent resin panels they could slide over each other, creating new colour combinations and we could back-light them so that the units could function as big lightboxes in the evenings. Cool idea, really silly price: I've been quoted over $25,000 just for the resin panels - no sliding mechanism, no cupboard units to mount them on... just the material, in sheets, to make up into the sliding doors! Now that I've sat down, laughing, for a while I'm searching out alternatives.