The Alternative Lifestyle Site

Transition Projects #3: The House (part 1)

We first saw our home about 5 months before we decided to buy it. We didn’t even bother to take a look inside.

Nope, it wasn’t for us – too small, wrong position and frankly it just didn’t look like something we would even consider. Not that it was awful, it was just that unless we could buy a house that would meet all our eco-friendly ideals OR get some vacant land so that we could build with those ideals in mind, we didn’t want to waste anyones time.

So what changed?

We took a look at it with new eyes.

We decided that the fact that it faced totally the wrong way (for energy efficiency) could actually be an advantage. We decided that the fact that it was a weather board home would make it easier to retrofit. We decided that since it was quite, quite small that it was a reasonable thing to expand and extend it. And so we purchased this little house, facing the wrong way but with so much potential. Buy it and make it a sustainable home that was the plan and slowly, we are taking our steps in that direction.

So, what did we buy?

It’s a little house, sitting on not quite two acres, with some nice native trees on the southern and western boundaries, with 100 or so productive Chestnut trees to the north, twenty neglected fruit trees and lots of long grass.

Really, we would have preferred a couple more acres but properties in our chosen areas cost quite a bit so this was our compromise. Despite all the things that were “wrong” with our chosen purchase, there was so much we could do to make it better and we really started right away.

We did a couple of things initially to mediate against the Sun in Summer – blinds were attached to all the outside verandahs to stop the sun actually shining on the glass of our windows.

If the Sun hits the glass it acts like a radiator inside the house. Not a good idea when the temperatures are heading towards the 35 degree Celcius mark on a Summer day! We roll up the blinds in the winter and they really do a good job of cutting the heat and the glare in the summer.

In the winter we have a wood burning combustion stove, carpets, lined blinds on the windows and so long as the heater is on we are toasty warm. However, we use a lot of wood.

The ceiling and the walls do have insulation in them, but it’s not very thick and we know that to increase the level of insulation will make a lot of difference both in Winter and in Summer. Still (we remind ourselves) this is why we purchased this particular house.

We just knew we could take something at was doing just about everything wrong and turn it into something that does just about everything right! With that in mind, the plans were hatched to build an extension.

An eco-extension, “out the back”, on the western side of the house. We already knew what materials we would use and for us the material that touched our hearts was straw. Now I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in the wheat belt of New South Wales and was surrounded by paddocks and fields of wheat but this product just sets my pulse racing!

So we did a Strawbale Owner Builders course, purchased a book on the subject and we set about designing the changes to our little house.

This series of “Transition” posts will outline our journey and I really hope you will enjoy them. As I sit writing this today, there is a man on the roof putting on the last few sheets of iron that will finally link the extension to the existing house! Time for a bit of a celebration I think as now we have one roof over our plans and dreams and although it’s still a long way from finished, it is at last – one house.

If you would like to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the following “Transition Projects” posts, if you would like to gain access to a whole range of tips and advice on how to save energy (and money in the process) just put your name and email address into the box at the top right of this page. I’ve had so much fun making the videos so I really hope you get some great ideas from them.