The Abdallah House project began in May 2008 in suburban Seymour, central Victoria, with the purchase of a three-roomed bungalow, with bathroom/ laundry tacked onto the side, on a 584 m2 block. The project is driven by permaculture practitioner Richard Telford with support from his partner Kunie, and children Kai and Sen.
In mid-2005 I decided on a tree change, and moved to Common ground Co operative, a small intentional social change community in Seymour. While I liked the idea of building a place at the community, there were downsides, for example if we wanted to leave our home in future, we couldn’t reinvest that energy into a new home.
In May 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, I attended the auction of a deceased estate, curious to find out how much ’the worst house in Seymour’ would sell for. The place was passed in with no bids. As I was about the leave the property I thought to myself, ‘Why not just offer them what I have in savings?’. I made an offer and, after negotiation, agreed on a purchase price of $53 000. We now owned a place of our own: a derelict shack on a small piece of river flat.