Build a house. No really - it can't be that hard!
We originally hatched upon the idea by looking at pictures of Tiny Homes, and then as we were exploring projects done by others we happened upon earthbag building, and the world of the eco-self-build opened up. At that stage it seemed that affordable, self-built, eco-friendly, larger-than-tiny homes were possible!
Kyle has some experience in the construction industry, and Jenny dabbled in several architecture/engineering-related areas of study in her misspent youth. Both of us currently work in education about an hour from the central NSW coast in Australia.
Jenny's parents recently documented how they built their own camper van, then drove it from Malaysia to Scotland and back over the course of 3 years. Whilst we weren't particularly involved with their journey, this project (and several others close to us) have left us both with a sense of what is possible with a little expertise in googling, moderate common sense, and a lot of grit. We think they'd be rather pleased by this. Thus, we don't feel that our enthusiasm for this project is naive or unrealistic, and we are quite comfortable that it is possible for us to do albeit a not inconsiderable challenge.
At the time of starting this blog, the current plan sits along the lines of acquiring around 20 acres within a 1hour commute from our respective workplaces and building an earth-bearmed passive-solar earthbag house, probably with split levels of some sort, with a related aquaponics greenhouse, massive veggie garden, and space for pigs. There are many reasons why those various aspects have been decided upon at this point. Rather than explain them here we assume that over the next several years they will be discussed to death, explored further, changed several times, and possibly experimented with, all of which we intend to document here. Partly this is for our own benefit in keeping track of it all, and partly because the single most helpful thing we've found so far is when other self-builders have thoroughly recorded their own journey, and we figure we owe something back having benefited from their experience.
All of this, we recognise, will put us at the mercy of the Australian tendency to over-regulate. We anticipate jumping through many bureaucratic hoops along the way.
We originally hatched upon the idea by looking at pictures of Tiny Homes, and then as we were exploring projects done by others we happened upon earthbag building, and the world of the eco-self-build opened up. At that stage it seemed that affordable, self-built, eco-friendly, larger-than-tiny homes were possible!
Kyle has some experience in the construction industry, and Jenny dabbled in several architecture/engineering-related areas of study in her misspent youth. Both of us currently work in education about an hour from the central NSW coast in Australia.
Jenny's parents recently documented how they built their own camper van, then drove it from Malaysia to Scotland and back over the course of 3 years. Whilst we weren't particularly involved with their journey, this project (and several others close to us) have left us both with a sense of what is possible with a little expertise in googling, moderate common sense, and a lot of grit. We think they'd be rather pleased by this. Thus, we don't feel that our enthusiasm for this project is naive or unrealistic, and we are quite comfortable that it is possible for us to do albeit a not inconsiderable challenge.
At the time of starting this blog, the current plan sits along the lines of acquiring around 20 acres within a 1hour commute from our respective workplaces and building an earth-bearmed passive-solar earthbag house, probably with split levels of some sort, with a related aquaponics greenhouse, massive veggie garden, and space for pigs. There are many reasons why those various aspects have been decided upon at this point. Rather than explain them here we assume that over the next several years they will be discussed to death, explored further, changed several times, and possibly experimented with, all of which we intend to document here. Partly this is for our own benefit in keeping track of it all, and partly because the single most helpful thing we've found so far is when other self-builders have thoroughly recorded their own journey, and we figure we owe something back having benefited from their experience.
All of this, we recognise, will put us at the mercy of the Australian tendency to over-regulate. We anticipate jumping through many bureaucratic hoops along the way.
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