This Silo Home is an Architectural Wonder!

You take a beautiful farm, an old grain silo, throw in some great architecture and a whole lot of willpower and what you get is this. Hi Amber, it's lovely to meet you. Hi Bryce, nice to meet you too. Hey Nick, how you doing mate? Good Bryce, how are you? Very well thank you and oh my gosh what a place you've got here. Thank you, yeah welcome to the Grain Loft. It's amazing, the views here just stretch on for miles. Yeah we're very lucky to be in this part of the world and to be able to share it with others. We love the farm here so yeah it's pretty special to us. And Nick this is actually your family farm isn't it? You've been here for five generations now. Yeah that's right, so I'm the fifth generation farmer on Kamaruka, this property and our son Thomas he's the sixth generation so we've been here a while and we're primarily a sheep production property. A little bit of cropping as well so a bit of wheat and canola and barley and oats to sort of complement the sheep I suppose. There's quite a few lambs in the paddock at the moment around us actually. Oh lovely. Yeah I mean one of our lambing seasons right now so it's a great view right now too. Yeah we're here at the perfect time then. Yeah. How much land do you have here? Kamaruka is about 1600 acres so yeah and then we've got another property just down the road which is another 1000 acres so 2600 acres all up. Yeah so mum and dad are still living on the other property so there's sort of three generations living on the farm at the moment which is yeah a bit of a challenge for the farm to sort of you know look after three generations which is one of the you know reasons behind taking on this project. What a great idea and this is absolutely spectacular. This has to be one of the absolute best silo conversions I've ever seen. Oh thanks. Thank you. Yeah we're pretty proud of it. We spent 20 years dreaming about this process. There were originally two silos on this hilltop so two flat bottom lice art silos which we used to fill up every year and feed the grain to the sheep and sort of dream about you know what we could do with it and better way of using the silo so it was sort of getting towards the end of its life and I was sort of getting to a point where I was sick of shoveling them so five years ago we decided to get really serious about it and bring on an architect and just to help us with the final stages of what we wanted to do. We couldn't quite get the design right and so yeah when she came up with the idea to cut into the silo and have this little undercover area here was just a perfect way of solving the problem. Yeah I was going to say that this doesn't look like your average silo conversion. It really has been transformed into an architectural masterpiece hasn't it? Yeah. And the way that the silo sits here on the landscape is just so good and you've also really accentuated that with all of this landscaping. Thank you. When we were you know ready for taking on guests here I suppose the last week we had to make this all happen we had a team of about I don't know 10 people trying to get it all together last minute and I was carting gravel in and carting rocks in with the boys and the paving down at the hot tub area that's the original floor from the two silos in here so we just lifted the old slab up and broke them up into pieces and dropped them and cracked them up to make it look like crazy pavers down there which has come up beautifully. I was actually really nervous about doing that I thought oh how is this going to work it's got you know the marks from the previous grain that's been on there and it's just a little bit uneven but very well done thank you you did a great job. And having the hot tub and the fire pit area there as well just really finishes the place. Oh it does absolutely does the build itself is a wow factor I suppose but once you once the stars come out and you just sit in that hot tub you know we've had guests stay here and say oh don't worry about lighting the hot tub we won't worry about getting in it but we just do anyway and and then we get a letter the next day saying oh thanks so much we end up staying in there for six hours last night and so but even just to sit down in that area and watch the birds in the dead tree down there you know just nesting and in the mornings and in the evenings is just spectacular so yep it does not get any better than this. And looking at the silo as well you have got a huge solar system powering this. We do we've got 10 kilowatts of panels there with 32 kilowatts of battery storage and there's a backup diesel generator from EB but we've other than maintenance runs it's only kicked in once since we've been open basically so that's been really good and there's actually an EV card charger in there it's just to give that option which is good. Yeah great idea and you've got an eco septic system here as well don't you? That's right there's a worm farm septic system so basically all the water and the waste and compost can be thrown into that as well so when the worms just basically break it down the water gets pumped off into the landscape and the worms do the rest really and then we can collect the fertilizer from it and use in the garden as well there's absolutely no smell from it unlike a lot of septic systems where you get a bit of a waft every now and then but this has worked out really well we're really happy with it yeah. Yeah great design and now the silo what size is this? So we're approximately 46 and a half square meters 5.6 internal diameter and then height wise. I think it's about seven and a half meters we chose to add an extra ring from the second silo just to give that bit of openness to the inside of it and to ensure that people tall like yourself weren't going to hit their head upstairs. It's actually very comfortable like it's surprising. Yeah brilliant and looking at what you've done here you certainly have not just taken a silo and cut a hole for a door in it it looks like it was quite a process to construct this can you talk to me about that? Yeah look when we dreamt this up originally we just thought that's right we just cut a hole in the door and put a different door in there and line it inside and that but then when we had an engineer look at it he sort of explained that we needed to redo the foundations and then do a steel structure to basically hold it up so we deconstructed the original silos we pulled them down bolt by bolt and with the whole family basically pulled every panel down and we numbered the panels and we lined them up and we cleaned the bolts up thinking we were going to reuse all the bolts and everything as well but yeah basically we just had to start fresh. Part of the design was to have underfloor insulation under slab insulation so that's just to help with the warmth in winter and then in summer it's really cool so because of that insulation and all the pipe work had to be run across from the carport where all the utilities are so everything's underground even the reverse cycle air conditioner pipes it all runs underground to the build so it was just easier to start again and then use the silo as the cladding like the external part of the build so it was a it was a bit of a process but it's come up beautifully so. It sure has what a result this is incredible. Beautiful use of timber here as well to offset the look of the galvanized steel. So we use spotted gum throughout we needed to use a shiplap planning to be able to create that curve that we've got around the bathroom on the outside and also throughout but it's yeah spotted gum just seems to be lovely it's also good for graying off so if we if we choose to no longer oil all of the timbers it will gray off beautifully. Yeah and it weathers quite well it's a very hard Australian timber so it suits the purpose for us. Yeah it's probably one of those scenarios where if the timber grays off it will even complement the building because it'll match in so beautifully with the galvanizing. Yes that's right so the design was to have that effect I suppose but yeah just for the moment we're sort of keeping this sort of look I guess. Lovely brickwork here as well. Yeah thanks Bryce we've had these bricks sitting in the shed on pallets for the last 40 years my dad my dad had them thinking he was going to use them for some project and so we've brought them out and given them a new life. It's always so good when one of those hoarded materials actually gets used. That's right that's right we've got plenty of hoarded materials around the farm so it's good to repurpose things. Absolutely well already I am just so impressed with what you've created here and I am so excited to check out inside the silo can we take a look? Yeah sure come on in. All right thank you this is so beautifully done. First up you can really feel the curvature of this building can't you? Yes it's like it's got its arms out reach to take you in and give you a hug quite a beautiful space to be in. It certainly is and then I absolutely love the way that you have complemented the front of this building with this huge glass window feature which just really allows you to soak in all the views from here. It does it was one of the key points of the build was to ensure that people had as much of an uninterrupted view as possible from in this place it sits above the valley so if you had any kind of closure there it really wouldn't do it justice. Absolutely how did you find the challenge of working within these kind of dimensions and shapes because circular spaces are not easy to build in are they? No it's very difficult actually you'd expect to kind of just be able to oh I would like that lounge I would like that table and be able to put them in the space and you can do that much easier with square lines yeah but with the round every single cut every measurement everything has to be done a hundred times and be perfect even the table that we have is custom or bespoke and that was quite a job to get it to match the curvature of the stairs and to fit two people and everything was difficult. Yeah I think the handrail coming up the stairs just getting that curve right so it would follow that angle and fit into position was just so difficult. Yeah you can't just walk into a hardware store and buy an off-the-shelf circular kitchen No definitely not but the builders you know they enjoyed the project really. Oh he loved it. Oh we all did really. I was always saying to the builder aren't you aren't you sick of mucking around with those stairs yeah and he's like no no I have to use my brain finally I have to use my brain he really enjoyed it almost as much as we enjoyed the process though. Yeah a build like this they'd have to dust off the math books eh? Yeah absolutely. The way that you have tucked the kitchen and under those stairs is beautifully done what a great design feature. It's lovely because it utilizes the space really well where else would you put a kitchen really we had to try to utilize every nook and cranny to make it as roomy and as functional as possible. And again beautiful use of timber in here as well I love these exposed rafters. Yeah so the rafters are all recycled Oregon beans we managed to pull out of a house down in Victoria that were they were not using them anymore so we went down there and brought them back and they fit perfectly so we didn't even have to cut really only cut the lengths and so they yeah it was perfect with the steel beams that we've got up there. Decided to just leave them as they were to showcase what recycled timber can do even if you don't do anything to it. Yeah and especially when you've got something like an old grain silo that you're converting utilizing the reclaimed materials on the interior helps to add that sense of history to the building. Yeah it sure does even the light picture there it's from an old shed that we've got yeah it's perfect. And the beautiful lounge design here as well comfy looking very unique sofa and then having that fireplace there is just a great addition. Yeah no we were always going to have the wood fire even with the design you really don't even need heating in here in winter too much unless it's a day like yesterday when it was really cloudy because the sun just comes in and beats in through this large glass area and warms up the slab so well that you know it's just great having a fire a light just for the ambience so. It's a really lovely fireplace because it has the three panels of glass so it doesn't matter if you're in the lounge or you're sitting in the dining table or even if you're outside you can still see the beautiful flame it's a great ambience and the lounge itself as you're saying it is quite unique it does swivel so it allows us to either be looking outside at the view or watching each other cook or you know just gazing to the fire and you can snuggle it fits too really well. And again just to be able to sit there and soak in all of those views which as amazing as this house is kind of steal the show. Yeah it does it really does yeah. I am such a huge fan of polished concrete floors these just look so good. Yeah so this is a burnished sort of a concrete finish so basically when the slab went down and it was just about to go off they had to whirlybird add a little bit of water when it was basically dry so it sort of creates a heat I suppose and it brings up that sort of a burnt look on the cement which has come up really well like we love it there's some imperfections but they still look great. And I did notice that you've got the air exchanges in here as well. Yeah upstairs we've got like a decentralization unit that basically brings fresh air in from outside and removes stale air. It helps to keep it all comfortable. It sure does and speaking of that as well the insulation under the concrete slab is obviously working really well I mean we're in the middle of winter right now and this is nice and warm underfoot. In winter it takes the warmth from the sun but in summer it stops the heat from the ground coming up so it works in all seasons to benefit the space it's really good. And then one of the things that I love that you've done in here is the way that you have added the curtains in front of this massive glazing here and you've gone really specky with this as well because this is automatic isn't it? It is yeah. We wanted to show that you can have little luxuries and still be off-grid. Yeah. A lot of people think that they have to be completely rough and rustic and yes we're a little bit rustic but to show people that you can have a curtain as simple as that and it can create a completely different feel in the space and it can help to control the temperature in the space and privacy well not that anyone's out there and to have it be electric it's just that extra little pop. Just to save you from one of those voyeuristic kangaroos. Yes. That's right. Yeah it's great. And then through that door there we've got the bathroom can we have a look in there? Yeah sure come on in. Let's go. Hey this is very nicely done. That has got to be the biggest bathtub I've ever seen. The bathtub is a must for me. It's one of those things that if you're going to be in a bathtub you might as well be able to enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah it allows for two people with a lot of room. It's in the sort of like the couch it's one of those things that was me. I had to have that big bathtub too many times we travel and if you both want to sit in and have a glass of wine you find your knees are under your chin or one has to sit on the side but heaps of space heaps of room and it just it's curved it's perfect it's great. And even when you're having a shower you just get to soak in all of those beautiful views. Every window in the space allows for exactly that. You don't miss what's outside wherever you are. Every season that changes changes the view for people. Perfect yeah and beautiful tile work in here. It's again with the curbs we couldn't do the massive big tiles a lot of bathrooms have that are nice clean cut lines as well going sort of vertically rather than horizontally the tiles allowed that curve to just flow through the room. It's lovely. Yeah and the wet room design works really well in here as well being able to have the open shower does make this room feel a lot more spacious. We actually extended the bathroom slightly to allow for a walk-in shower. It's also very easy depending on you know how old or how capable or how comfortable you are and not everybody wants to climb in a bath to have a shower. Yeah. It just works really well. Yeah and thanks to the vermiceptic system you've been able to put a flushing toilet in here as well. Yes we have all the little luxuries that make the difference. Absolutely great design. You've got a nice compact vanity here as well with a lovely mirror feature. Yeah it's good because it does everything the space needs to do. Yeah it stores what we need to store it. It all works perfectly. Trying to complement the ripples on the outside of the silo with the ripples on the vanity. Yeah. Nicely done and mezzanine bedroom upstairs. Can we check that out? Absolutely. All righty. This is fantastic. I love the shapes up here and the way that that ceiling just becomes this beautiful feature of the room. We're really happy with how it turned out. Just to cut back on some costs we just decided to use gyprock but the problem with the gyprock was to get the shape right at the bottom end of it and we had this sort of a weird scallop effect when we first started it and then our gyprocker he decided to cut it and to fold it up and we just loved the way it turned out so and it's just like a feature in itself really. It looks so good and again being up here it's all about the views isn't it? Oh yeah. We couldn't have done anything else but have that big single pane of glass up here. It's about nearly three and a half meters long that piece of glass so as much of the outside that we could bring in as possible we've tried to do. It is quite the view. And for sleeping though you've managed to put a full blackout on that haven't you? Yeah so that was a whole other challenge in itself. It's very difficult to get the three and a half meter wide blind in general so we had to have all that custom done. And the beauty is you can wake up to the sunrise in the winter the sunrise is over here wake up in bed but then if you know if you're staying for a few days you want to have a sleep in you just close the block out blind and you know that darkens it up but in here again you can go back to sleep I suppose for guests that want to do that. Yeah. It helps with the temperature control as well so you know during summer popping that down and you know after you watch the beautiful sunrise pop it down and then it keeps upstairs quite cool because naturally heat rises and we have the fan which pushes the heat down and the air con that pushes the cool up around the curved stairs so the flow there is very good yeah but that blind just has that extra bit of reduced heat. Perfect and I love the addition of this love seat as well this is really special. Yeah it's another space that just it's a different angle different aspect on the view and this seat also acts as there is a little bit of storage under there being a B&B we don't utilize that yet hopefully one day we will get to live here and retire here and then we will utilize everything but at the moment it's probably my favorite spot in the build to sit and just stare. Yeah fair enough too and the bump out that you've created for the bed just works so well. Yeah it sure does you feel like you're in this little cocoon I suppose and we really love the wallpaper as a feature wall at the back it just that looked so amazing we just couldn't go past it so we decided to incorporate that into the build. Everything had to be custom built to go into that space as with downstairs and trying to again mimic the ripple on the silo around the aging we did put a king bed up here because who doesn't love a king bed yeah but it's just special to have that pop out and have the views again from the separate windows on each side you can go to bed at night and fall asleep staring at the stars it's yeah it's everything just lovely the chimney coming through the floor there makes for quite an interesting feature in the room doesn't it yeah it sure does it had to go somewhere because of the bathroom downstairs we couldn't take it through the wall there so we decided to bring it up through the floor here and to go out through the roof quite difficult on the install because it's got multiple angles yes to have it come through correctly through the right roof and not too close to the eaves and things so it also it adds an aesthetic look yeah i think so too and so how long has this space been up and running now we opened in october last year or the very end of september so yeah we've been going for a while now but yeah you must have been getting some amazing reactions from your guests nothing constantly exceeding people's expectations so they see the pictures online and they they come to the space and they get to really feel it and really see what it is and immerse themselves in not just the build but where the build is and the whole area so it's quite lovely there we've got messages before and you know the next morning oh we've checked out and then a photo comes up oh and we got yates last night so it's yeah so there's a i get goosebumps actually because they're just there's something about being able to give people that space to create those memories and to sort of feel like you're part of that without intruding on those moments it's yeah there's something very special and and very very good about moments yeah that you've created the space that makes all of that possible that's yeah yeah yeah i mean we're lucky we we see this every day so we uh you know we we still appreciate it but you know for people that come from sydney or canberra or melbourne they get to come here and see what we get to see every day and yeah we're just so fortunate we can share that with people farms are so pretty and i do feel that life is getting tougher and tougher for farmers as well so to be able to build something like this that capitalizes on the beauty of your farm and also generate some extra income what a great idea yeah no thanks bryce it's um definitely yeah it's helped things that's right because you know things are getting tighter and tighter every year there's just the running cost of a farm and when you've got three generations trying to live off the same farm it sort of makes being able to continue that farming legacy yeah made that possible by having this i guess so yeah yeah we're very fortunate yeah i think it just sort of came to a head when i stopped work it opened the door for us to be able to start actually creating the structure not just dreaming of it it's been a few very tight years and a few quite difficult years but to finally see what we've dreamt of for 20 years come to life i've pinched myself pretty much every day to have actually made something and to be able to share that after such a long time of dreaming of it's been a really great thing i'm wowed every time i come up here i look around and just go you know so lucky to be able to be here in this space and it's so nice to be able to share that with others it's a genuine privilege to live in this part of the world it's very special just looking at what you've created here this could not have been a cheap exercise to accomplish no it was uh probably triple what we originally budgeted for but look it's you know it is building in circles is complicated and yeah and um so probably just over half a million dollars yep yeah to do the build and probably a little bit more with us well yeah the solar was quite expensive that's probably on top of that as well so we yeah we'd be getting close to six hundred thousand yeah yeah but i think you have obviously spared no expense in creating this place from the architecture to the materials used the construction through and through this place all i see is pure quality and you've now created an asset that will be here for the sixth seventh and eighth generation of your family yeah that's right we hope that they want to continue and enjoy doing what we do so yeah hopefully it'll uh yeah move on like that with the next generation and the one after yeah i think when you pour a lot of love into something and you're looking beyond today it makes a difference in what you can create as well yes and what are your future plans for the farm here yeah so continue on as we've been doing with the livestock you know we've got some plans of extending the builds maybe building a few more we've got some lovely hills up the back of this property where we could we could put a couple more farmstays up there and they'd be completely isolated from each other you wouldn't sort of see one from the other and well 1600 acres you've got a lot of land to play with that's right yeah so that's the ultimate dream just to continue it on and that's right just make it a little bit easier for the next generation i guess yeah broadening it so it's offered to more people so doing looking at doing single level accessibility inclusive as well as this thing trying to just allow everyone to enjoy the space oh well i'm very excited to see what's to come thanks bryce yeah this silo is just such an impressive space i really think that you have created something absolutely extraordinary here thank you so much for sharing it with me thank you thank you bryce yeah thanks for coming my pleasure i just think this silo is so cool you can tell that this is a project that nick and amber just absolutely poured their hearts and soul into each and every part of this home has just been so well thought out and so beautifully executed i think that what they've created here for themselves and for their guests is something that is just so very special and what i love even more though is that it's a way of taking this beautiful piece of land yes giving them a little bit of extra income which is amazing but also opening this up to the world and sharing this with everybody i think this is a really beautiful thing that they've done here and again brilliantly executed