'We're making the Forever House a reality', here's how it's being done
Renovating a derelict house is no mean feat. Especially when much of the work is being done by students, learning as they go how to transform a building into a warm, liveable, sustainable home. Thats the challenge taken on by the team at the Ara Education Charitable Trust (AECT), creating hands-on learning for South Auckland students. Students from the five low-decile secondary schools involved can face numerous barriers to success that are not of their making. Dr Sarah Redmond, director of the Trust, is determined to support these students in achieving their goals as well as supporting school-leavers with cadetships in the construction sector. Renovating old houses and returning them to the community for use as homes is something the Ara Education Charitable Trust is passionate about, says Redmond. READ MORE: * When wahine tackle the construction sector it's a win for everyone * The hidden costs of poor house design - and what we can do about it * The Forever House: Relocation is the ultimate upcycling project We have been working on the Forever House for a couple of months now . The first few weeks were focused on planning what we are going to do and cleaning out the house of anything that has reached the end of its life and needs replacing. The house is very old and although it has been a much loved home, it had been sitting empty for a number of years before it came to us. As a result, there were wall claddings that needed to be removed and bits of flooring and weatherboards that needed replacing. We took a couple of walls out to let sunshine into the main living area and create a larger dining, lounge and kitchen space. We also removed a couple of windows to replace with glass doors, allowing more light and warmth in and creating better indoor, outdoor flow. The flooring is beautiful and just needed some patching where fireplaces had previously been. We patched these gaps reusing floorboards from a house wed previously deconstructed. The floors are looking gorgeous even without being sanded and polished. This part of the rebuild has left us with a lot of construction waste, so we have reached out to Auckland Council and their Waste Minimisation team to guide us on how best to dispose of thi s. The first step is to sort, sort, sort. Timber that can be reused, timber that cant, old carpet and underlay, scrap metal and so on. We can reuse old timber and are sorting end-of-life timber and the smallest off-cuts into their own bin. We have a lot of old plasterboards, which we plan to experiment with in our garden and compost as it has high lime content and can be useful as a soil conditioner. We have reused some as weed matting on our site. Our site is large and the fight against weeds is constant! We now find ourselves with a lot of new decisions. The goal is a warm, dry, healthy home. We are looking at insulation options and, in trying to dispose of some of our old carpets, we have found a company that recycles carpets into insulation. All the advice we have been given is to go as high as possible in terms of insulation, and we are excited at the prospect of being able to give old textiles a new role in keeping the forever home warm and dry. Our builders went to visit the site of the recycling company Textile Products and were inspired by the innovation and pragmatism that is creating a new purpose for what were waste products. We want to insulate inside, in the roof and under the floor, but also, where practical, in the interior walls, to provide extra warmth as well as sound deadening to give the new owners a quieter home with more private spaces. The next step is rewiring. We have thought a lot about solar power and its affordability over the long and short term, and have settled on partial solar power for heating in the home and an electric car charger. This is an affordable option for us. Eliminating the cost of heating can be prohibitive for many households. The costs of not being able to heat a house sufficiently are well-documented in terms of poor health for younger and older people, including the devastating effects of illnesses such as rheumatic fever and asthma, which have a hugely negative impact on the individual and are costly to our health system. We were hoping to put in double-glazing, but the cost is prohibitive for us. We have been advised that wooden window framing is the next best option, as it doesnt conduct heat to the same extent as aluminium, better trapping heat inside the house. We are now on the hunt for wooden windows to replace the few aluminium windows we have in the home and a nice set of doors for the living area to go out to the deck. This is where patience and some heavy-duty searching of Trade Me and demolition traders come into play! We have a couple of beautiful old iron stoves we are racking our brains to find a new use for, and we have our waste to sort and sell. Selling scrap metal means students get to spend the money on a nice lunch and maybe a hit at the driving range next door. There is a world of information about how best to renovate sustainably. At every step of the way, there is learning to be had, by us, by our builders and by our students. Ways to be involved The Forever House is an inspiring project thats changing lives, which is why Stuff chose to partner with AECT on this challenge. The project is supported by our sponsor Resene. The house was donated by Auckland Airport and moved on site by Andrews Housemovers. Once completed we will auction the Forever House on-site, with all proceeds going back to the Trust. Click here to donate to the Ara Education Charitable Trust (AECT). To donate time, expertise, building materials or make a building product contribution get in touch with the team by emailing editor@foreverproject.co.nz Learn expert advice and sustainable building tips. Follow the progress of the Forever House as the AECT, Stuff and our sponsors turn a derelict house into a warm, dry, eco-friendly and low cost home.