This is a good place to build some.

A few days ago, I was pretty solid on this idea, but now my confidence has been shaken and I need to start again. Whatever am I rambling about? Earthships, that's what. If you don't know what an earthship is click here.

This one thing has me excited to move back to Canada. Like, looking forward to going excited. And I need that shit like I need air. In a recent blog I mentioned being encouraged by the lower cost of buying over there. And this is tied to that. There is no way I could afford to build an Earthship here in Sydney. The land is too expensive. We'd have to live way out in the country, and we can't do that because Obi needs the city for work. And because I have no desire to live in the back of beyond ever again. Additionally, we are ridiculously over-governed here and getting approval for this kind of house is unheard of. There are currently three Earthships in Australia, but none of them have approval as legal residences. Canada, being closer to America, more exposed to the idea and generally more laid back, makes this goal do-able, though I'm not stupid enough to think we wouldn't struggle to get permits and I know we probably couldn't live right in the city, but as Vancouver is no where near as sprawling as Sydney that's also not as much of a problem.

And besides, it rains a lot. Over here, I'd be worried we'd run out of water (the house lives off rain water) but in Vancouver? Yeah, no problems there.

It just opens up so many possibilities. And what an awesome challenge! Imagine your home providing a good portion of your food. No worrying about GMOs, and I don't know about the rest of you but I'd be loaded if I didn't have to buy so much food all the time! You could even keep a fish pond and chickens if you were really keen. You don't pay for electricity, you use solar/wind. You don't use town water. (Hmm, if I connect to town sewers, but not to town water, do I still pay water rates, or is it just land rates?)

Part of the struggle to convince Obi is that these houses don't tend to look normal. Because hell, the people who build them don't want normal and they want to show off their unique housing. More power to them, but I want a self-sustaining home that looks more or less like a regular house. I mean, I don't need it to look the same as the ten other townhouses next door (as seems to be the fashion in Canada) but I don't really need it sticking out like a parked hippie van either.

At this point, I need to get educated as much as possible on the subject, but I'm holding out on buying the books until we have money to do so with. I need to understand the science well enough to explain it to Obi and convince him, and that won't be easy. Building at all is in his "too hard" basket for the foreseeable future. Building the kind of home he's never even stayed one night in and can't envision? Well I can certainly see why that's a problem!

There are places you can rent to try these houses out... but they are in Mexico. I don't want to go to bloody Mexico! I mean I'm sure it's lovely, but it's just not on my list anywhere. It would be an expensive vacation just to give us the experience of this living style. And that money could go on the house

I was bummed yesterday (when I started writing this) because instead of having someone else with equal enthusiasm to feed off and be encouraged by, I'm essentially in this alone for now. And that's hard when you face a challenge you're not certain you have the skills for, you know? I'm one of those people that if no one believes I can do something, I assume they are probably right. But now? I'm dusting myself off and starting over. Obi wasn't keen on a lot of my ideas: He wasn't ready to move in with me, but he did it anyway. He didn't want to use cloth nappies, but I presented a strong case and swayed him. He thought home birth was dangerous and weird, but he caught our baby in our bathroom. There's no reason he wont come around on this idea too, right?
And he's a good man. He's all about not squashing my dreams. He tries to understand. And that reminds me I have to try too. He isn't like me. I think I've seen him genuinely excited twice in our relationship, and both were in the relation to media. He doesn't lay awake at night before a holiday, doesn't wake up early on Christmas... Unlike me. Sometimes I'm so excited about LIFE I can't sleep because I'm too happy, there doesn't need to be a reason lol. So I need to stop being surprised when he doesn't jump at things with the energy I tend to bring.

We have three years. Could we not, in that time, learn what we need to learn, earn the deposit we will need and then enough money to take 6 months off work once we land in Canada to focus on construction? Could we not buy the kit version of an earthship, give it a go, and build onto it/build a bigger one later if we want to?

I'm sure we could get his parent's church involved. Perhaps they'd be willing to pitch in some cheap labour, in return for our help in future. Someone will likely be renovating their house. Think of what I could do with discarded tiles! Old bricks! And of course, bottles. If I got Obi on board early enough, we could ask his people to save all their glass bottles for a couple of years (as this provides a large part of the internal wall structure for these houses).
We have a friend who has his plumber's ticket, a cousin studying to become an electrician...

So I have all these ideas in my head! What do I want my home to be like? What does Obi want? (he's scared because he doesn't know and thinks buying a house first would help us know what we want in a house, but I disagree. You don't have to own something to know if you like it.) He wants two stories, which would be challenging for an earthship in that climate, but I'm sure not impossible. I want a real kitchen. Something modern-ish. I want at least some of the walls to be regular plasterboard that I can hang photos on. Do I want the indoor planters to be raised, or set flat with the floor? Flat would require less building materials, right? How many bedrooms? Could all the kids share sleeping quarters while they are young, and then have a separate play room? I never used my bedroom as anything but junk storage when I lived at home. Can I combine my love of ikea space-saving furniture with this eco-house? I don't see why not. I don't want the black water system, I want to be connected to the city's sewage system. I'd connect the gas too, gas hot water, stove/oven and back-up heating. Yes. I want thermal blinds... do I want hardwood floors or tile? I guess it depends on what recycled materials I can salvage hey?

Everything starts with an idea!

Well the baby is awake, so I guess that ends my blogging for today.