Living Home

21/10/2026

Draughty, damp, too hot or too cold? Your house has been trying to tell you something for years. It just never learned to use words.

Home Tune-Up is a relaxed, practical morning for homeowners and renters. Learn to read the signs, understand what might be going on, and leave with one sensible next step.

📅 Sunday 15 November, 10:00 to 11:30am
📍 Valentine Community Hall, 20 Allambee Pl
🎟️ $5 per person, link in bio (events.humanitix.com/home-tune-up)

Presented by Valentine Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group + Living Home Lab.

What’s the one room in your house you’d fix first? 🔎🕵️‍♀️

07/10/2026

I thought we were replacing a rangehood.

Apparently we were opening another chapter of “things in a house that are annoyingly connected.” 😂

The old one works… sort of.
It’s high because of the window, it’s noisy, and we’d already discovered it was exhausting into the roof space with the backdraft damper installed upside down. 🫠

It’s also survived the Great Forgotten Pot Incident, when we nearly burnt the house down and filled the kitchen with smoke. 😬

So this time I wanted to fix it properly.

Better extraction.
Properly ducted outside.
Quieter external motor.
Future induction cooktop.

Pretty straightforward.

Except a more powerful rangehood means pulling more air out of the house.

And as we progressively seal up all the random gaps and leaks, that air still has to come back in from somewhere.

The simple answer is: open a window.

Which is perfectly sensible… until it’s 90% humidity outside. Or the neighbour has the wood fire going. Or you simply forget because apparently the house now requires operating instructions. 😅

So I’ve ended up asking a slightly different question:

Not just “where will the replacement air come from?”

But…

“What air do we actually want to bring in?”

And that is how replacing one appliance somehow became an investigation into extraction, airtightness and make-up air.

Learning how homes work, one supposedly simple job at a time. 🏡🔬

04/09/2026

01/09/2026

We’ve spent the last few years making this home work better for us.

Now I want to see how much better we can make the home itself work. 🏡

21/08/2026

We know surprisingly little about how our homes actually perform.

That is starting to change.

31/07/2026

For years, I thought I loved property.

Looking back, I don’t think I ever loved property.

I loved the questions.

Why are some homes comfortable while others aren’t?

Why do some quietly support the people living inside them, while others quietly work against them?

That curiosity has slowly led me here.

Living Home.

Helping people understand how their homes are performing, so they can make meaningful improvements that support healthier, more joyful lives.

If you’ve ever wondered why your home feels hot, cold, damp, stuffy… or just doesn’t feel quite right…

Welcome. 🤍

11/07/2026

Domestic Engineering Report: Episode 1

Today’s topic: occupant behaviour.

When we’re improving building performance, we spend a lot of time talking about airtightness, insulation and ventilation…

But the biggest source of unpredictability in any home?

The people living in it.

(Watch until the end.)

No injuries were sustained.

The situation remains under active investigation.

27/05/2026

Sophie teaching us breathing at the meditation treehouse 🤍

“In through your nose. Out through your mouth.”

25/05/2026

Turns out our family ‘eczema investigation’ may have actually been… fungus 😅

Meanwhile:
• house humidity near 80%
• dead rat in wall
• post-op recovery
• washing machine malfunctioning
• dryer malfunctioning

Coastal Domestic Survival, circa 2026.