The road less travelled

a scary number

2011-08-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone to an architect after discussing my plans for the house with her. It was a good conversation that enabled me to get a good idea of what I would be looking at with regards to the cost of building my house... and scary. Realistically I'm looking at $65,000. Yep, there are three zeros there... time to tighten the belt a bit!

floor options

2011-08-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to go with an earthen floor in my house. It fits with the natural 'ness' of the house and is economical too. However having just read this post http://small-scale.net/yearofmud/2011/08/04/the-decision-to-use-pink-rigid-foam-insulation/#more-1585
I am thinking I may need to do something other than just the traditional earthen floor.
The soil is very clay which is great for building but not for drainage. I may have mentioned the plan to put french drains in to guide the water away, but going from the experiences of Ziggy I may need to put a vapour layer underneath the floor.... I was planning on doing that in the foundation as well so hopefully will be able to work out a way to do both at the same time.

bed alcove inspirations

2011-07-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

http://remodelista.com/posts/bedroom-paneled-alcove-bed-roundup

video spam

2011-07-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Interior Decorating

2011-07-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

Not my strong point! But I can see bits and pieces.

Cushions for the cob couch - a long one along the entire length to sit on, I'd like to stuff it with wool, probably sewn out of a thick cotton material. I plan to form the couch so that it is not just straight backed but has a comfortable back. I might make a headboard that is padded but maybe not. Pillows and cushions along its length in a hodge podge of colours that I have knitted and felted. A blanket that I am already working on made from all the left over bits of wool that I have knitted into squares and sewn together - it has all the wool I have spun in it from my very first very uneven skein.

The interior walls will be light colours to draw the light in, and with many niches in the walls for candles to reflect that light too. The plan is to have probably only three, possibly four, electric lights. One in the kitchen, one in the bathroom and one in the cool store. The possible fourth light might be in the main living area, depending on how much of the kitchen light spills in there. I am hoping to use candles and lanterns more for light sources - the muted light they brings is calmer and helps preserve the natural circadian rhythm.

The curtain to shut off the bed alcove will be a heavy fabric, possibly felt, maybe quilted. I also want to use quilts or felt for the other windows to act as temperature control, keeping the sun out in summer and trapping the heat from the stove inside in winter.

The kitchen curtains I hope to be able to match to the design on the dinner set my grandmother gave me a couple of years ago, greens and olives and golds.

All the doors will be wooden and probably handmade. I'll preserve the natural look of the woodgrain and the warmth that wood brings with natural waxes and oils. Natural waxes and oils will also be used on the earthen floor to provide water proofing and shine.

A wander through an unbuilt house part 2

2011-07-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

The bathroom is on the southern wall, so has a hybrid cob/strawbale wall - did I mention that before? can't remember but I have now lol. On this southern wall next to the bathroom is a door that leads to the coolstore. Thick walls, a double door entry (one door, short hallway, second door) and on the other side of the second door, pantry heaven. This room will hopefully mean that I don't need to have a fridge, it should stay cool enough to store fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs that need to be kept cool. I will also have a freezer in here to store meat and frozen vegies. Lots of shelves to store food and bins under the shelves for bulk goods like beans, flour and rice.
Next to this door the first kitchen bench starts. The house curves around at this point so the kitchen window takes in views down the valley to the south and over the hills to the west (or more likely over the trees and gully). There is my wood stove on the western wall and the bench goes all the way from the storeroom door to the stove. There are shelves under the bench with a curtain covering them. The sink is under a window looking down the valley - the dream would be an old fashioned farm house style sink but we'll see what pops up at the time. There will also be shelves in the wall, probably between the sink and the stove, to store the plates, cups and saucers etc.

Next to the stove, a table and chairs for eating, under a window that looks to the west. The northern wall has the greenhouse on it, soaking up the sun and warming the house. Where the wall from the kitchen meets this area it drops to be half height. This forms the back of the cob couch that runs along this wall to the doorway. The greenhouse is behind this half wall which provides thermal mass to soak up the warmth from the sun. The top half of the wall is a window to allow the sunlight to come in and light the house and warm the floor. There is a vine growing over the greenhouse which shades it in summer so the house doesn't get too hot and when it loses its leaves in winter lets in the sun to warm the house. Plants in there will provide us with food and greenery hopefully all year around and I'd love to have a second bath in there to enjoy an almost outside bathing experience. The cob bench on the inside of the house is basically a shell that has a wooden top that opens to provide extra storage space. In front of it sits a coffee table made of black heart sassafrass.

Furniture is minimal in my house, this is on purpose - I don't need much.

So that is a wander through my house - the dimensions probably don't make sense and it will probably change as time goes on and I get closer to actually building, but so far I think it works. Works as a thought experiment anyway ;)

Drainage

2011-07-09T00:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of things have had me pondering drainage lately. When I dug the grave for Rob Anybody I was happy to notice that the soil around here is full of clay - great for building with cob! The other thing is that it has rained a lot here lately. First it snowed, now it is raining. Road closing amounts of rain. The Huon River is swollen and running fast. The combination of clay soil and huge amounts of water is basically sodden, puddly, water-not-going away ness. For a cob house this is not good!

There are a couple of things I can (and will obviously) do to prevent the water damaging my house. Good drainage in my foundations is one of them. I plan to dig a deep foundation trench, lay gravel, ag pipe, more gravel then larger rocks and then the foundation. I'll slope the trench so that it follows the natural downhill of the slope and runs into the creek that borders the property.
I will also probably dig some french drains further up hill of the house to guide the water away from the house and to a more useful place. I'll try and build the house as high on the block as I can , but also don't want it too close to the road so there will be a balancing act there.

Another vital part of it will be making sure the stem wall - the part of the foundation that is above ground level and forms the "boots" of the building - is high enough that any water splashing off the ground doesn't get the cob. I will also include a damp layer in the foundations to stop rising damp. I will have eaves that extend a good way out from the walls too - generally a standard feature of Australian houses any way - and will be collecting rain water for drinking so any splashing from water off the roof will be minimal.

The clay soil, while being great for building a house, will also be crap for the garden. It will need lots of compost and aerating for it to easy to grow anything. The Lancre Witch has suggested that we slash the grass (which is currently about waist high) and leave on the ground as mulch and do that over the next few years as the building process gets going so that the as the grass breaks down it is nourishing the ground underneath.

a wander through an unbuilt house part one

2011-07-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

So I am excited about things moving towards building my house but can't draw very well, not well enough to do justice to the vision in my head anyway! So here is a written wander through n the hopes it helps :D

We approach the front door from the east, it is made of wood, arched and heavy. Iron hinges and a door knob adorn it and allow entry. If you arrive by night a hanging lantern lights the entrance which is sheltered by an arched roof mirroring the arch of the door. Once you pass through the door you are standing on a raised semi circular step. On your right is an old wardrob that belonged to my great grandfather, used for storing coats, shoes and other transitory clothing and items. On the left a staircase rises up to the loft. We'll go there later ;) Ahead of you is the living area. An open plan space with cob benches curving around the walls on either side of the fireplace. The west wall has large windows facing to trees and verdant gully and opens onto the outdoor entertaining area. Go down the curving steps onto the earthen floor which has been warmed by the sun and enjoy the view for a moment. Under the stairs is a curtain which covers the entrance to the sleeping alcove - a cosy cave designed simply to accomodate a bed. Windows are small and set into the walls to let in the morning sun and to provide space to put a cup of tea, a candle or book. The walls of this space are thick and the one furthest from the front door has a small book shelf built into it to put the many books and knitting projects I tend to accumulate near my bed. The curtain is thick and handmade and preserves the warm air within the space overnight as well as providing privacy.
Next to the bed alcove is the only enclosed room in the house - the bathroom. The internal wall lets in light through the bottles embedded in the wall and there is a window high on the wall to let in outside light. A clawfoot bath wit a large shower head over it is in the middle of the room and surrounded by a shower curtain. The toilet sits in the far corner against the outside wall to enable the composting bit underneath to be emptied. A handbasin is next to it and in the opposite corner behind a curtain is the washing machine. The floor in here is tiled with salvaged tiles. The door is another hand made wooden one set in a fairly thick section of wall to create a definite change between rooms.

Above the bed alcove and bathroom is the loft. With wooden floor boards and many shelves in the walls to store things, this room will probably start out as a play area for the small people but will be my spinning/weaving/knitting room later. Light comes in through a skylight and the loft is open to the rest of the house. There are niches to hold smaller lights and objects in the walls too.

This is what it means to be grown up

2011-06-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

So many things I used to thin would mark me being grown up. First I thought it was when I got a job, then when I bought my first car, then when I moved out of home, then when I had a child, left my ex, then little things like booking the car in for a service on time, remembering that rego was due despite the fact I didn't recieve the letter... But today is a big one.

On Saturday we came home and discovered that our English angora, Rob Anybody, had Floppy Bunny Syndrome. I spent the next 24 hours nursing him, keeping him warm and hydrated, trying to get food into him, every hour. He looked to be pulling through but sadly at around midday on Sunday he slipped away. He was calm and peaceful and not in any pain. My son Ianto is heartbroken (Anouke is too young to comprehend death). But the thing that has made this a 'grown up' moment is that I have to bury him. It is a chore I would rather not do. I really don't want to go out in the rain, dig a hole and place my lovely bunny in it and cover him over. But there is no one else to do it, and I feel that I should too. This is something that has to be done. It can't be got away from and it feels heavy. I can put off dealing with his hutch til the sadness subsides, I can leave the fibre I harvested from him and hadn't got around to dealing with yet but I can't put this off. So today I feel like an adult. And it sucks.

Shetland sheep

2011-06-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

My desire to have a sheep or two has lead me to a bit of research and I think I want a shetland. They are an unimproved breed which dates back thousands of years and was probably introduced to the Shetland Islands by the vikings. As they are unimproved they are very hardy (vital if something was going to survive in the Shetlands!) and have not been inbred for wool production or meat production at the expense of survival skills like easy lambing.
Because they were a breed that did well in harsh conditions near the arctic circle when they are in better conditions they thrive. They are good for fleece (which can sometimes be harvested without the need for shearing) and meat so are a good all round small sheep.

3 tonnes of firewood - more than just fuel for the fire

2011-06-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

We got a huge pile of wood delivered the other day. The overwhelming thing about a huge pile of wood in your drive way is that you then need to move it somewhere else. By hand. The process has highlighted a couple of things for me. That physically, I am not that great. That to live the life I want to, I actually need to start doing it. Now. That it will involve physical labour like moving firewood. That I actually don't mind that physical labour. On days like today when I am grumpy and irritable moving the wood brought some peace to my mind. Getting off the couch and outside into the sun using my body calmed my mind and erratic emotions.
The reality of the huge pile of wood is more than just warmth in the middle of a very cold winter.

More vegies

2011-06-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

To add to the list
brussel sprouts
turnips
celery
beetroot
leeks
radishes
capsicum
tomatoes
saffron

I also want to build a root cellar for storage of winter vegies that don't get preserved, probably in the south facing hillside.

On another note, please don't hesitate to comment - different eyes see different oppurtunities and problems!

Garden list

2011-06-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

Fruit
Avocado
apples
apricots
pears
oranges
lemons
limes
quince
cherry
passionfruit
peach
plum
kiwi fruit
strawberries
raspberries
currents (red and black)
cranberries
tomatoes

Vegetables
Potatoes
silver beet
broccoli
carrots
cabbage
zucchini
pumpkin
corn
cauliflower
asparagus
beans
pea
onions
garlic
chilli

Herbs/spices
parsley
cinnamon
allspice
pepper
mint
thyme
tarragon
rosemary
oregano
basil
fennel
vanilla

nuts (also for the wood)
hazelnuts
chestnuts

Things I would love to have
coffee bush
tea bush
grains like amaranth, rye or barley

Trees/flowers
silver birch
lavender
chamomile
daisies
nastursium
calendula

Jackie French's garden

2011-06-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.jackiefrench.com/garden.html Looks like that. I love it. I read her book "Backyard Self-sufficiency" last night and it is brilliant. Previously I had only read John Seymour's self-sufficiency books and they are very different.
Jackie does gardens that require work to set up, planting and waiting and caring, while I am young and active, but by the time I am too old to prune trees, mow lawns, pick fruit from the tops of trees etc most of the garden should look after itself. By planting groves of trees and creating an artificial forest that nonetheless takes advantage of the way actual forests grow she has managed to grow coffee bushes, avocados, bananas, and many many other plants in a similar climate to here (if anything more extreme as she quotes temperatures as low as -9 C and as high as 52 C) that I never thought I would be able to grow. In my visions of the future things like that were things that would have to become very rare (or if TEOTWAWKI happens as I think it will non existent) and to think I could still have avocados, as a regular thing not a treat! Even now they are a treat but it is concievable to have them all year round planting and gardening the way Jackie French does... Unbelievable.
The other brilliant thing about it is that it matches the type of garden I see in my head. I have such a clear picture in my head about how my house looks and how the garden looks. Now I have a block of land it is even clearer. And a garden as productive as that that looks like a jungle just fits. It matches a vague memory I have of my great grandmothers garden. I can't have been any older than 4 but it was wonderful - full of little nooks and crannies created by well established plants and a wonderland for a small person.
I just have to get over my gardening block. I have always read gardening books and been totally overwhelmed. Crop rotation, companion planting, fixing soil, rules about what works and what doesn't... just completely outside my realm of experience and completely intimidating.

So my gardening block is slowly melting, and my head is full of ideas. Into a delirium of lists and plans - but I'll put those in a seperate post for ease of finding :)

The End Of The World As We Know It

2011-06-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

It all sounds very dramatic, TEOTWAWKI. Sounds like bombs, war, illness, death and pestilence. I don't think it will be though. I think it will be a case of 'not with a bang, but a whimper', especially for people who, like me, live in small country areas that are distanced from cities etc. The world as we know it is one based on capitalism, more more more and materialism. Personally I don't believe that this system is sustainable much longer, so the end of the world as WE know it is more likely to involve moving back to small villages supporting themselves, a barter type system rather than a monetary one, using sustainable and renewable resources and having less... Just my thoughts on it ;)

random lists

2011-06-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

Electrical stuff I plan on having ( I was going to say need but that depends entirely on your definition of 'need')
Laptop/computer
mobile phone charger
freezer
light
washing machine

don't think there is anything else off the top of my head... Its not a long list although I am sure there would be people with a shorter one!

Random thoughts I had over the last week

- Would like to have a seperate room with a fireplace, bath and arm chair as a retreat
- in loft have shelving in walls for storing wool and related stuff.
- bottles built in wall niches for candles

Not much else I can remember off the top of my head - spent the week avoiding anything too strenuous due to migraines and a bad back and my brain has apparently turned to mush...

Oh yes - also wanted to note down to build a cob chicken house and a cob rabbit hutch. While the current bunny (Rob Anybody) is ok outside in the heavy frosts we have been having he has been moved up to the apple shed due to wind/rain etc. I think he would generally be happier with a home that protected him from the weather better than his hutch does currently and so build one when we have our house.

We have been getting very heavy frosts quite frequently this winter (after having only one or two all season last year) and it is staying cold for a lot of the day. While the corner we are planning on using gets the sun earlier than where we are currently living it will still be cold up there during the harsher winters. I plan on taking advantage of the sun by building a greenhouse around the northern facing wall with a wisteria or something else that is green in summer/ bare in winter growing over it. This will hopefully fulfil a couple of purposes.
- Provide extra heat in winter by magnifying the sun onto the cob wall which will absorb it and then release the heat when it is cooler.
- Provide somewhere for me to grow veges year round

Huh, apparently I had more to blather on about than I thought!

More animals

2011-06-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Bees! Forgot to add bees to my last list. To provide honey, and wax for candles. Note to self, research how to make non petroleum based lighting other than with beeswax.

ETA
http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-oil-lamps-and-candles-for-free/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-your-old-glass-into-beautiful-oil-lamp/#step1

http://www.instructables.com/id/Lard-Lamp-a-solid-fat-burner-made-by-lost-wax-ca/

organising a small space

2011-06-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

I am planning on living in a very small space - essentially one big open room so I lie seeing how other people do it.
I plan to keep minimal furniture - my great grandfathers wardrobe, the bed my dad made, my beautiful coffee table and my spinning wheel and chair. The rest will be built in - the couches for the living area built of cob (possibly hollow with a lid for storage space). The bed in an alcove raised off the floor to enable storage underneath. Bookshelves as part of the walls (the walls will probably be a bit thinner behind the bookshelves but books will provide insulating qualities which will counteract that. Seating for the dining area will be also built into the cob, possibly heated by the flue of a rocket heater, will probably have to get a dining table though ;) I'm planning on having lots of niches in the wall for candles and lanterns too. The look of cob houses lit by candles and lanterns is so warm and homely. I love it.

Linkspam

2011-06-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

http://beautifulgreenlife.com/2010/03/28/cobbit-ville/

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.119717531427566.20024.100001679607910

http://www.barefootbuilder.blogspot.com/

http://www.artisanbuilderscollective.org/index.html

Off the Treadmill

2011-06-06T17:17:00.001-07:00

2011-06-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

So many aspects that I have planned to include in my house and great to see that other people have done it successfully and beautifully.

Philosophical moment

2011-06-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

This morning as I was browsing pictures and websites I was contemplating the fine line between inspirational and intimidating. I have found that if I look at too many completed buildings then I get intimidated. I start to think that it is way to massive and complicated for me to do. And it is a massive job. But I CAN do it. I realised that if I look at it as smaller jobs within the big one it isn't as scary, and that doing things like building a frame that aren't jobs traditionally done by women will be hugely satisfying and empowering. And all this led to one massive realisation. That a huge part of my fear was because society doesn't see building a house as something I can do - as a woman, as a single mother, as an individual person. Building a house is seen as something you hire people to do. Just like making clothes, spinning wool, milking a cow, making cheese and butter... So many things that once upon a time would have been done for ourselves, by ourselves but we are now so divorced from that they are seen as mystical things that only those qualified are able to perform (which would lead to a rant about childbirth but that is for another time and blog ;) ).
Whenever I mention to people that I want to build my own house, with my own hands, the reaction is overwhelmingly negative - even from people in the process of building thier own houses. Most of them got people in to do the framing etc and find the thought of me building a load bearing cob house to be completely outside the realms of reality. I have internalised this to a great extent and it has been colouring my intentions and ambitions. Now that I have realised this though, it won't hold me back any more!

measurements

2011-06-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

for future reference. a building 'square' is equal to 9 square metres. Why we couldn't have just stuck to square metres, I don't know but there you have it. Following this logic the wood stove I like will heat a house 72 metres square. I have no comprehension of how big that is in real terms. Must measure it out one day to get a feel for it.

Animals

2011-06-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

Dog - for company

Bunny - for fibre

Guinea pigs - kids, need I say more?

Lamb (to become sheep obviously) - for fibre If I breed her possibly for meat too. although lambs are a lot harder to contemplate in my freezer than calves lol

House cow - for milk. Calves for meat.

Hoping that no one is expecting anything other than completely random in the blog...

living fridge free

2011-06-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

So the plan is to live in my house fridge free - facilitated by use of a cool room/cellar.

Life has progressed since i started this blog. Currently we are sharing a house with another family who have similar living ideals to us. They own the house a long with the 10 acres that it is on which has facilitated many more ideas. They have lived fridge free before using their fridge (switched off) as an insulated cool room and kept it cool by using freezer blocks which they rotated twice a day to keep it cold enough to store things long term.

In thinking about how I will do it a few things have come apparent. one is that we will most likely have a house cow very soon. This means access to fresh, raw milk relatively easily, which in turn means that we can just go day by day - no more needing to store milk for a long time. Butter will be fine in a cool room. Hopefully I will be making cheese from any excess milk which will also be fine stored in the cool room. Vegetables will hopefully mostly be coming from the garden so can be picked as needed and long term storage will be (you guessed it) the cool room.
Meat will be mostly from the freezer I think. This will also form long term storage for things like berries picked over summer and other fruits, sauces I make in big batches that involve meat and probably some vegies as well (green ones mostly which will be blanched and then frozen).
The cool store will be designed with lots of shelves to house bottled things - fruit, tomato sauces etc - and other long term storage foods - cheeses, soaps (need cool storage), bulk lots of flour, rice etc.

In slightly unrelated news, having justified spending money of fibre and related stuff by calling it skilling up for TEOTWAWKI, i have had the inkling of a thought about starting a market built on barter. Not sure South Lumberjackistan is ready for it, but if I'm working on the premise that the monetary system is not going to last a huge amount longer then this is the way stuff will go anyway... hmmmm. How to start...

ideas and ramblings and lists

2011-06-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

don't know if I posted this gallery before http://www.cultureartist.org/Cob_Gallery/cob_building_gallery_page_1.htm

and things to do list so I don't forget...

- find surveryor and get surveying done
- get design drawings done
- get design drawings drafted
- get sample of cob mix
- get engineers report
- planning permission

- collect things that can be stored easily - bottles, small windows, oil lamps, candle holders, small amounts of wood, tiles
- find out if alternative oils can be used in oil lamps other than kerosene
- estimate how many electrical appliances are NEEDED and how to minimise electricy usage with those
- look at earth on site to see if contains clay
- find out sand pricing
- gravel pricing
- start collecting tools

Obviously this is a list of things that will happen over time, but it is good to get it going and out of the whirlpool of my brain!

We have the potential for a bit of land now on a rent to buy arrangement - we are currently living in a share house and the owners have generously floated the idea of sub dividing off a corner of the land for us...

musings on insulation

2010-07-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Having decided to have a wooden ceiling - partly because I like the aesthetic of wood, partly because I am hoping I will be able to find suitable wood cheaply/free second hand and partly because I know Dad can 'do stuff' with wood and I will be able to as well - the next question becomes what to insulate the ceiling with? I'm going to use wool I think. It fits with the natural materials I am using in the rest of the house, doesn't burn easily and is a great insulator.

I am hoping that the council permission stuff won't require insulation in the walls as cob relies on thermal mass rather than insulation to regulate the temperature. If they do require it I will turn to cob/strawbale hybrid, at least on the southern wall. Using flakes from a strawbale sandwiched between layers of cob. I need to do more research on this though.

Speaking of the southern wall, I am hoping to make use of the southern wall (which won't get sun) and build a cold store and dry store on that side of the house. The plan at the moment is to build a drystore off the kitchen and as you go through the dry store have the coolstore on the other side. I'll slope the floor down through the drystore to the coolstore so that the cold air pools in that area of the house and hopefully that will mean I don't need a fridge.

Which brings me to noting down the fact that I want to have the least amount of electricity I can. I am hoping that I will only need one or two power points installed. I would like to try and get by with alternative lighting (which I think I have mentioned before) and the bare minimum of things that need electricity - the freezer (especially if I start to grow animals for food), somewhere to charge up the computer and mobile and maybe a food processor. Cooking and hot water will be taken care of by the stove (also some of the heating) and I will build a fireplace in the living area if more heating is needed. I am also contemplating a solar hot water system for summer so that I don't have to have the stove lit all the time.

Random thoughts

2010-07-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

- when building in windows and doors, gaps need to be left above them to allow for the cob to settle. In "The Hand Scultped House" they suggest waiting for the cob around the window to settle, then instal the lintle allowing room for more settling between the lintel and the glass or door . One of the bookmarks I have (I'll sort them out one day, I swear!) has another method however - putting straw above the window/door and cover it with cob then continue building - this allows for movement and settling, insulates and would allow for quicker building.

- quick building is potentially an issue. Depending on the weather during the summer I am building I may need to be able to have the house weather proof quicker or drying/curing conditions may not be optimal

- because of weather concerns I will probably raise the roof first, supported on posts outside the foundations (the roof needs to have large eaves to protect the cob from weather anyway) and build the walls underneath it. This should make it easier to build if weather is less than ideal, provide a space to store materials and tools and protect the foundations, walls and floors as we build. The pay off for this is that finishing the walls up under the roof will be more tricky and potentially so will building the ceiling, unless the ceiling is built at the same time as the roofl

The stove

2010-07-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

I want a wood fired stove with a wetback for the hot water. There are a few reasons for this. One is that I want the least amount of electricity use possible so having my stove used for cooking, heating and hot water helps achieve this. The blocks of land I am looking at will most likely need some trees felled to make them suitable to build on and this will provide wood for a while, and I plan on planting trees to cover the rest of my wood use so hopefully there will be a minimum amount of time when I am buying wood and the rest of the time I will be self sufficient. The third reason is purely selfish - I find a wood stove comforting and aesthetically pleasing.

In an ideal world the stove I get will be this one

http://www.pivotstove.com.au/products/p-266-esse-esse-ironheart-wood-stove

A long journey in front of me...

2010-07-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

I'm starting this blog in an attempt to keep all my links and research and brainstorming in one place. One of my major aims for the next 10 years is to build my own house, and hopefully do it mortgage free. Being a single parent relying on the government for my income this is not going to be easy!
Thankfully my plan doesn't involve a huge mansion, but rather a small cob cottage. The main building will have enough room for me to live there by myself when the children are grown and gone, with rooms that are part of the building but not integral to it for the bedrooms. The idea being that when they have left home those rooms can be closed off unless I have visitors.

I have chosen cob for a few reasons - environmentally it is great, using a mix of clay, straw and sand. It has great thermal mass so I will be able to use passive solar heating and it should stay a nice even temperature all year round. It is durable - there are many houses around the world that are hundreds of years old made of cob. It is flexible, the only limitations on design being your imagination. It is cheap - most of the things needed can be found on the building site. It is empowering. I can build myself a house that I own outright, from the foundations to the roof. I will be able to do all the upkeep on it myself too.