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Australian family life is currently going through a profound restructuring. Up until a couple of decades ago, most households had the nuclear family model, made up of a husband and wife and their children, who typically left home when they reached their late teens. Because of the variability of the property market these days, this model has been rendered unsustainable for a lot of people, especially now that children are staying with their parents well into adulthood and the parents ...

It is winter and time to pull out the warm clothes, earmuffs, and fuzzy socks.  It does not mean that you need to add 30 extra blankets to your bed to warm up your granny flat. There are a lot of other ways to create a warm and fuzzy feeling in your home.

We will discuss seven decor trends that will keep your granny flat warm this winter.

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What’s better than a spare bedroom? A separate, tiny house for grandma in the backyard. Those who have space on their property can maximise the square footage to create independent living quarters not just for the elders, but also visiting relatives, grown-up kids, and house guests. It could also be a great investment for people who want to have passive income through rental payments.

These so-called granny flats are simple yet self-contained accommodations. They have everything a person would need, ...

You have decided to build your granny flat in your back garden instead of dealing with the competitive housing market to find a bigger home or renovating to add value to our property. The immediate benefit is saving space and the long-term advantage is value-adding.

The first step in designing your own home is to work out what kind of granny flat you want. But are you wondering where to start? Luckily, technology can provide a helping hand. We can ...

No, it’s not the invasion of the leprechauns, although I’m sure they’d be very happy in any one of the tiny ‘green’ or eco-friendly homes being built in places all over the world, including Australia. Whether it’s a ‘stop the world I wanna get off’ response to a more challenging and complicated society, a passing fad, or an attempt at downsizing their lives, many people are saying ‘nope’ to the McMansions and the walled communities and opting for tiny dwellings.

This ...

It’s hard to imagine why anybody would say no to a healthy, eco-friendly home if they had the chance to build one or live in one, whether they have any regard for climate change or not.  Of course, ‘eco’, for those who have just arrived on the planet, means ecologically sustainable or friendly, something that doesn’t harm the environment and leaves only a slight, or no environmental footprint when it comes to the release of carbon into the atmosphere. The ...

Whether yours is a transportable granny home, a permanent secondary home in the backyard, a ‘fonzie’ built over your garage or an extra living apartment added to your existing home, the one thing they probably have in common is a small kitchen.
For some home cooks this is annoying, especially for anyone who loves to make a big culinary splash in the kitchen, spreading ingredients and utensils across the entire length of bench spaces. But there’s no ...

These days people are going crazy over granny cabins or extra accommodation on their properties, partly due to the price. Not only is a granny retreat out the back a trendy ‘must-have’, there are now many specialist builders and designers cashing in on the high demand. The attraction is that most backyard homes  only take 10 weeks to build, (some prefabricated designs take as little as a couple of weeks to assemble) depending on the weather and ...

Local councils in Australian states have different, and some rather strict, building regulations and planning codes when it comes to approval for the construction and use of separate lodgings or granny homes. Some can be used for accommodation for granny, for extra income from a tenant, a separate home for the teenagers or other relatives or friends or for B&Bs etc. But the introduction of new planning policies in Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, the Northern ...

If you’re playing with the idea of having a secondary home in the form of a small granny cottage on your block, you’re not alone. These small, extra homes that everybody and his dog seems to be adding to their backyards have so many pros they outweigh the cons by a country mile. For a start, they’re a great selling point if your home is on the market, especially if they’re built and finished to a very high standard. ...