Last Thursday we visited the established ruling order of Vaux-sur-Sûre. Or rather.., we visited the local “urbanism” office to see if our design would pass the scrutiny of said government.
We also visited our small piece of the Earth, chatted with our neighbours and visited a gathering of Dutch Wallons.
Oh.., and we put our house in Rotterdam on the market. So if you want it.., or know anybody…

Local Scrutiny

This is the second time I visit the local government to ask for advice on the design of the house. Last time I was joined by Lotte.., this time I was accompanied by our Belgium architect Marc Steffens (Architects Team in Hergenrath).
For the most part we ignored all the regulations the locals had put on designing a house. Lotte came up with a great design (and we’ll share that in detail when we have a permit), but she did so while taking a few liberties.., which were all very well justified and explainable.
After 10 months we went back with pretty much the finished design and a Belgium, French speaking architect.

Details

The proverbial Devil did raise it’s ugly head.., we do need to change a few things on the house. But, the main design of it stays intact and that’s a big win.
It appears that it does not need to adhere to all the rules.., just enough to be able to get permit. And it turns out that our contact in Vaux-sur-Sûre is kinda the authority when it comes to urbanism in that region. When she gives a Go, it is pretty much a done deal.

Finishing Touches

Lotte is putting the final hand to the drawings.., Marc is getting the information requested and as it seems now.., we are pretty darn close to actually applying for a permit. When this happens we will reach another milestone in our adventure. When the permit is actually granted we celebrate, but only then.

Neighbours

We visited our lot to take a few photo’s (look above) for the permit.., our architect needs them.., the Belgium one that is.
Laila boldly went to our neighbours and started chatting with the misses right away. Later joined by the mister and she did quite well. Her French is already so good that she can have a conversation.., granted.., her grammar and pronunciation needs work.., but when you can understand and make yourself understood.., that is just awesome.

We are visiting our neighbours more extensively during Easter. They didn’t much time.., and we want to ask some questions (more on that later).

Dutch Wallons

There are a lot of Dutch people moving to Wallon.., to Belgium in general.., living is just better there. For some it’s the money, or the people, or the status, or the piece and quite, or the food, or the beer.., or any of the above.
This meeting (gathering)  seemed to have a high average age.., well.., higher than ours anyway. We were the youngest (believe it). We didn’t get the idea a lot lived in the area of Bastogne.., too far away I guess. All in all, we didn’t really felt we’d belong there.., although the host is one to know.

Ah well, it’s been quite a week for us.., busy to no end and exciting. We are getting close.., reality is sneaking up on us.

I love it…

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A little bit of history. In our Great Weekend of Desperation we were determined to end the search for land once and for all.

During our search we’ve travelled through a good part of Belgium and a bit of France. Trying to determine where to look was half the battle won.
Of course, getting a feel of what we would need was a good start.., during our first trip we realized that this was not going to be easy. Then, during our second trip, we decided that Belgium was no longer an option, mainly because of the prices. It seemed the further we got from Holland the cheaper the land became. We did, however, decided that the Ardennes would be the area we’d focus on.

We visited countless sites (seriously, I have no idea how many). We came across very nice lots, and not so nice lots, expensive lots, lots with a beautiful location, but facing the wrong way.., lots not big enough, lots to big.., lots filled with tree trunks.., you name it. Luckily we had a process to guide us. If the lot did not meet the criteria, we’d leave it. With some lots it was hard to determine, others were quite easy.

One lot in particular tickled our fancy, a great view, kinda steep, big enough, out of town, sort of facing south. But, after a revisit we, together with Lotte, concluded that the tree orchard next door would grow on for another 20 years and in another 5 year would block out the sun completely, and that was a very big no no. So, we let the Sleeping Slope lie…

Somewhere in early November 2008, after nine months of searching we hit pay-dirt. We found what we were looking for.
In a desperate attempt to “get it over with” we planned a whole weekend, rented a room in Bastogne, wrote down a list of potentials and decided to drive around until we found a piece of land or die trying (not really, it’s just to illustrate the seriousness of the weekend).

Our first stop on Saturday morning would be Chenogne.., and that’s all she wrote.

We found what we were looking for and the video documented that first, and now historical, visit (it really is kinda cool that we taped it).

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To me, the past month has gone by in a flash. We seem to be constantly thinking and talking about the house in one form or another, the design, the passiveness, the power, the labour, the money, all these things (and more) demand attention. We have to be careful not to get overwhelmed by the whole thing, which is quite hard.
Our new creed is: “One step at the time”. One just can’t rush a good thing. So, a month may seem long, but enough happens that I can’t blog about, or is just not interesting enough.

So, what can I share with you about the past month?

The biggest thing, or at least the most formal, is that we set a date to sign the official deed to the land. Now that is good news. The land will be undisputedly (I love that word) ours.

Architect

Our architect has been busy. She’s past her second whatjamacallit in her study. This means she’s on the right track, something we already knew, of course.
She also made a few models for us to look at and I have to say, it looks mighty promising. I won’t post them here, because these are the first tryouts, sketches of ideas. But, the house is going to be magnificent, not in size, but in design, and not the fancy artsy design stuff, but functional, liveable and innovative.

Off the Grid

We’ve also been searching for an energy solution. Obviously we’ll be off the grid, and the idea is to never get hooked on at all, ever. Even during the build we’ll not be connected. It’s an expensive business getting hooked up to the grid and we’ll invest that money else where.

We do have very nice neighbours form whom we could “borrow” some power, but only during the build.

This means we have to find a way to power our future home with alternatives (sun, wind, whatever).
Heating the place is one thing, we’re building a passive home, which means we heat the house with sunlight and insulate it thoroughly, and only use a heater to assist our “passiveness”.

Electricity is a whole different ball game and for now it seems that wind power is the way to go. It’s way, way cheaper than solar power. But, the wind doesn’t always blow, so we might need a few supplementary solar panels.
But the cool thing would be something like the Sunmachine. The idea is brilliant, but unfortunately not applicable for domestic use.

Ah well, this is a quest which is far from over. Seems like we’ll have to face one challenge after another.

Any suggestions a more then welcome.

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Chenogne, that’s the little village where we found it. You might remember that this was the first lot we looked at during our Great Weekend of Desperation. At the moment one finds something it is way too early for one to brake out the champagne and celebrate. Although we did put it in the refrigerator, we didn’t open it.

We only popped the cork after a trip to Brussels and a meeting to sign the contract and arrange the mortgage. And maybe it’s because it’s in Belgium, but everything went as smooth as.., well.., you fill that one in.

Details

So, a few details then. It’s 4100 m2, that’s about 1.013 acres for the imperial ones. It is situated pretty good on the east-west axis. The lot is 20 meters wide and 205 meters long (66 x 673 feet). The first 40 or so meters are for building the house. The rest can’t be used for building, it is strictly agricultural. Which means we have a freaking big backyard. This will be used for the vegetable garden, the chickens, bees, donkey, goats, fruit trees, compost, whatever.

Chenogne

Chenogne is a small village, maybe 40 or 50 houses. It’s ten minutes from Bastogne which is a small town, but has everything we need. It has quite a history too. Major highways are also near by and Brussels is only a 1.5 hours drive.
We’re on the edge of Chenogne, like we wanted, not in the middle of a town. There isn’t much more to tell, it’s just grassland for now, with a horse on it (we don’t get to keep it). It’s been agricultural for ever, nothing ever happens in that town (until now). We think it’s perfect, it took us 9 months to find it.

Fase 1 is complete, now for fase 2, getting a building permit, but that’s a story for another time.

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