I'm Michael Van Heel,

Born in The Netherlands, I completed my apprenticeship there plus ten years of working on heritage buildings from the 1600s onwards.
 I love to travel and on a holiday to Australia in 1999 I met my wife Jude in Darwin. It was love at first sight, and in less than 40 hours we had decided to spend the rest of our lives together. I went back to The Netherlands, handed in my notice, and returned to Australia four months later.
I enjoyed working for small building companies in The Netherlands, Tasmania, NSW, and Victoria; the camaraderie and team work.
But I had also wanted to try working for myself. For the last twenty years, I have owned my own carpentry business and don't regret it for a minute.
Being a company of one means I can control the quality and standard of the work that represents my name.

 Fairy Wren Cottage is home, situated in the Huon Valley. As soon as we bought Fairy Wren Cottage, I gutted it (think shagpile carpet in the kitchen) and renovated it. This is our second renovation, our first was gutting and renovating a Miner's Cottage. To have personally done this twice, I have a very good understanding of renovating, working to a time frame and keeping to a budget. I live here permanently and don't leave the island when it is colder. Actually, I enjoy the colder weather!

Together with Jude, we homeschooled our daughter Liliana from Prep to Year 12. Every family is different and for us homeschooling was the right fit. Liliana completed Years 11 & 12 at the same time as completing the Diploma of Family History at the University of Tasmania (Utas) and is now a qualified Family Historian. In July 2023 Liliana returned to Utas and is furthering her professional development through studying a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in History. 

As well as renovating our cottage, we have planted a 3/4 acre bee friendly organic garden. It is important for us to live as sustainably as possible. Resilience and regeneration are words we think about a lot, along with how we can do things with the lowest environmental impact. One way we do this is by using reclaimed timbers if they don't compromise a project, valuing materials and giving them a second life - for example, making a new table top and replacing the old one instead of throwing the whole table out and buying new.