Newington Smart Home - a vision for the future

So last week, we did something quite impetuous - in the most carefully considered sense of the word! While browsing around on the internet, researching for our 'dream' project, Chris came across a tender opportunity with EnergyAustralia/Sydney Water, for a family with a writer to live for one year in a futuristic 'smart home', in Newington, Sydney (Sydney Olympic Village). We think we could be that family - why not??!

Snow

Since we got back to Sweden from Australia in January, the temperature has never been above zero (and frequently minus 10 or more and we've had absolutely heaps of snow – proper, crunchy, powder snow. Everyone says it's the coldest, snowiest winter they can remember.

The last snowfall started around lunchtime on Friday and stopped some time during the night last night, leaving us with another 20 or 30 centimetres of snow. We just got back from a quick walk – quick because it's minus 10 with a bracing wind, which probably gives a windchill temperature of minus 15 plus! My cheeks are still stinging.

Anyway, it's pretty spectacular out, so we thought we'd share a few photos. Enjoy!

J

The Masonry Heater or 'Kakelugn'

We are currently going though a very cold winter here in Sweden – the coldest since I moved here in the early 90s. There is, however, enough sway in temperature to allow the slightly warmer, cloudy days that afford snow. A lot of snow. As it builds up outside, smothering our lawn (just got in from a major shoveling session) and stripping the street of any definition, it feels comforting to get inside and snuggle up next to our ‘kakelugn’.

Poles apart

It seems appropriate to begin my spin on things with a general weigh-up of some of the differences between the two countries I have lived most of my life in. I grew up in Australia and moved to Sweden when I was 28. By the time we move back to Australia I will have spent 20 years in Scandinavia, specifically Stockholm. Not too far from half my life. I’ve had a great time here, but frankly, what excites me more than anything right now is the prospect of going home and living the ‘good life’ we’ve been talking about for a long time.

Dreaming across the globe

Welcome to the birth of our blog! We're Chris (Australian) and Jules (English) and we live in Stockholm, Sweden, with our two children, and we have a dream - some might call it a fantasy - to change our lifestyle in virtually every possible way and live completely 'off the grid'. Stockholm isn't the setting for this dream, but a tiny rural community called Newee creek - over 15,000 kilometres away, in northern New South Wales, Australia.

We catapulted ourselves headlong into this dream two years ago: it started with a relaxing three month vacation/family visit, evolved into regular lets-move-to-australia conversations, followed by a frenzied property-viewing mission, and before we knew it, we were land owners. Owners of a 12-acre, North-facing block, surrounded by pristine bush: signed; sealed; paid for. Gulp. Here's a photograph: