This week February started with the promise of receiving offers from contractors. But like those tv programs about building your own house show you that things don’t always go as planned we of course have not received any.

Mistakes

I have often wondered if the people who participate with these programs are all stupid for making the same mistakes but now I figured that some mistakes are not mistakes at all, they are just the way things go and you just don’t know that and you think “I am sure that that won’t happen with my build”.

So what did happen, well our consultant John called the contractor Vincent who then told him that he did not want to work with the pressed earth blocks we were planning to buy because he could not find any expertise, no house has ever been build with these blocks, walls yes, Finovens yes but Vincent was in no hurry to burn himself on using a product which he didn’t know and couldn’t guaranty.

Unfortunately Vincent had these blocks since half December and just now decided to mention this fact. Believe me Vincent is one of the good guys. He is willing and able to listen to a foreign woman speaking basic French with surprising patience and he even understands that we would like to build a house as ecological as possible.

John and I had a talk with another contractor, a big one here in the neighborhood who kind of smirked at the idea of building a house with strawbales and asked the standard question about mice. I really hope Vincent comes up with a good offer because I can see a future of discussions if I have to work with this big contractor.

Instinct

So back to the pressed earth blocks. I kind of saw it coming, I had this feeling, this premonition. The suplier told me in October that as soon as I could I should order the blocks because they had a long drying period.

The blocks are expensive and I was hesitant to order them. I kept pushing it forward, waiting for the offer from contractors to see if we could even afford them but time was going so fast. If we even wanted to use these blocks then I should have ordered them at least in January for them to be dry in April/May.

I got really nervous about it but still I did nothing. Turns out that sometimes, yes only sometimes doing nothing is the best thing to do.

Replacement

Now Lotte was back in the game; searching for a suitable replacement. She and we settled on sand-lime bricks ( Couldn’t really find a good translation for it from Dutch so I really hope these are the correct bricks) with isolation. I called Vincent who enthusiastically told me he knows the material well and he will get the offer as soon as possible.

To be honest, for me it is a relieve that we are choosing a material wildly available and known here in Belgium, although the pressed earth blocks would have been the best choice for us it was not in the cards.

So I guess this is just one of the many things that will probably change with this build, it is for us to adapt or stick to our guns, at least we are one very little step forward….hopefully.

One way or another the building of our house is going to happen this year. We hope with the materials we have planned but it all depends on the offers we are going to have from the builders. Last week I went with our consultant to Ecobati to talk with someone who can organize a sustainable build with the cooperation he has organized. It all sounds very promising but right now I am in a ” wait and see ” state.

Both contractors will present their offers in February so there wont be a lot to report during January. For now we look out at a grasland which is shrouded in a fog. We hope January will pass by quickly so we know where we stand. 

I thought it was time for an update. The update is that we have no update. Again.

Designs

This week we finally got the designs back from the Belgian Architect. They have handwritten the translation in French but I was to weary to complain. I am just glad we can move forward now. Rogier went to a copy shop and we now have 5 sets of very expensive A3 prints with drawings of our house.

Contractor

Next week I will have a talk with our consultant on how to proceed from here. We will ask our contractor ( the one who is doing the foundation ) to make an offer for building the walls, roof and windows and if he wants on the insulation. Since we will be using sustainable materials for the insulation he might not want to go there because he has no experience. There is a company in Liege  - Ecobati – who are experts on sustainable materials and can do that part. I would have preferred a contractor who can do the rough build and the sustainable part but people keep telling me there is no such company here in Belgium. I will also ask another contractor to make an offer on the rough build,  to compare prices.

The problem with everything taking so long is that we are getting time sensitive with the rammed earth blocks we are planning on using. They need to dry for a long time so prefferably we need to order them pretty soon. We don’t want to do that now before we know how much this house is going to cost.

Keeping Calm

I am trying to be ZEN about all this because there is not much I can do. For these last few months I had to rely on the cooperation of others and that didn’t go well all the time. Now that we have the drawings we can finally take another step forward in this project.

Our friends Bridget and Michael from rammed-earth.org suggested we start growing our own sedum for the green roof, it will save some money and we do have the room for it now. So we bought a few plants at the garden center and started cutting and planting the cuttings in seed-trays.

Come spring we will plant them out in one of the veg beds we have dug where they will stay until they are ready to go on the roof. For now I bought these two variety’s Sedum Reflexum en Sedum Sieboldii but I am planning to buy more.

1. Rammed Earth Blocks

In the beginning we started out thinking we wanted to use rammed earth walls. We did a course in England led by the guy who build the Eco Shed, Michael Thompson and where enthusiastic about it.
The reason we decided not to do rammed earth walls is that it is labor intensive, you need to get the right mix and the earth you use needs to be stone free, which is nearly impossible here, we would need to sift it a lot hence the labor intensity, with Rogier having a bad back we would need to get help.
We have found a company in Holland (Oskam v/f) who produces beautiful rammed earth blocks.

2. Straw Bales

Straw bales have a great insulation, are cheap and you can build walls yourself with it.

3. I-joists

Floor joists and roof rafters. A lightweight and very stable option to massif joists and rafters, a reduction of 2/3 of wood opposed to regular massif wood.

4. Insulation – paper fibers or wood fibers

We haven’t decided yet on insulation but paper fibers or wood fibers are a good option. The fibers are blown in with a machine so there are no chinks.

5. La Pierre Bleue Belge

This is a stone found in Belgium that we are going to use to build the walls of the attached hot-house

6. Plato Pine

If we can afford it we will get Plato Pine for the outside . This is thermally treated wood which won’t need maintenance, painting or oiling.

7. Slates

We probably have to use slates made from stone, which will be expensive but the Belgian company Eternit makes artificial slates with solar panels on the slates. Visually it looks amazing. We need to figure out what the efficiency is opposed to regular solar panels.

8. Green Roof

On a part of the house where there is a flat roof it will be covered with sedum plants. With sedum there is hardly any maintenance, it looks great and it is a good sound barrier. We’ll enlist help from a friend of ours who started de Dakdokters, a company in Holland, they specialize in green roofing.

9. Tigchel Wood Burner

Build from the same rammed earth blocks this wood burner is a slow burner which will give out heath throughout the day. It will also provide us with warm water and will provide the floor heating.

10. Recycled materials

Obviously.., we will try to use as much recycled materials as possible.

It is November now and we where supposed to have a foundation at this point. It all did not go according to plan and we have the feeling that we will be saying this a lot during this project.
It is all because of to many people working on this project and being depended on their help to get the work done. Lotte had found a Dutch engineer who was willing to do the calculations for free which was great but it also meant that we had to wait a little longer then normal.
Then the local commune had to come and check the poles for the foundation our contractor had put in, that took some time as well and above all that it turned out that our Dutch engineer was not ” allowed ” to work here in Belgium so his calculations need to be signed of on by a Belgian engineer.

Holidays

Together with a few Holiday weeks we have had here in Belgium means that we did not met our deadline to have the foundation in before the frost started.

We are disappointed about all this but we have learned a lot as well. I have learned that I should listen more to alarm bells ringing in my head and take charge of this build instead of waiting for others to do so.

So now we wait, for winter to end and for the frost to disappear so we can start with the foundation and continue with the rest of the house.

Today I had another meeting with the contractor and our consultant.
Yes we have a consultant….., John is a Dutch guy who moved to the Ardennes about 12 years ago and is an experienced builder. He has contacts with local contractors, electricians etc. Which is what we need ’cause apparently everything works with connections here.

Normal

First let me tell you that we have not made it easy for ourselves. The normal way to build a house here is to find a local architect and contractor and start building. And with local I mean really local, like from the same commune or around.

We on the other hand have a Dutch architect who designed the house as a last project for her university agree and we also have a Belgium architect because of legal reasons. At the time we didn’t speak a lot of French so we started searching on the Internet for a Belgian architect who had experience with sustainable building and could speak Dutch and French. We found Marc from Ateam but he is not really local, he lives about 2 hours from Chenogne.
We didn’t know then that it is not the normal way for building a house here in Wallon.

All in all it is not a really big problem until you want all parties together for a meeting. Then things become complicated.

Language

So if I can hand out a little bit of advise for anyone who is thinking of building let alone move to another country where they speak another language is to learn the language as soon as possible. I know it is hard to discipline yourself when you still live in your own country and nobody speaks this new language around you but looking back it would have been so much better if I did have that discipline.
Not only with building this house but also with dealing with the commune. We were fortunate because the people at our commune at Vaux-sur-Sûre are very nice, patient and open for new things.

Advise

We will probably post a lot of advise here cause it is a learning process for us as well.
Nothing goes the same as in our own country and it is taking us some time to figure this out. Unfortunately it is costing us money as well, which is such a waste. Money is better spent drinking these great Belgian Beers!

Groundbreaking News

Literary.. Today they came to test our soil. This is to see what kind of soil there is on different kinds of depths. In our case it was more to see if we have any hidden caves which would be a nice tourist attraction but not fantastic for building a house on.

It was fun to see how this survey takes place. For me it was not something I see every day.

Probing

The guy did 3 tests at different parts of the land where we are going to build the house. He calculated the difference in height en positioned his machine with a remote control. At the back of the land he went down to 3,5 meters and found stone at 1,5 meters and found no ground water ( which is good..) in the middle and the front he went down 2,5 meters and found stone at 1 meter and again no ground water ( which is still good). The stone he found was of slate quality.

I joked that it might be an idea to get this stone to use for the roof slates.
He told me very seriously that this slate might not be of the quality to use as roof slates…

So all in all, and as expected, we have good soil to build a house on but it is good to know for sure.

The next step: Foundation!!

The plan is simple.., you already have a piece of land.., you just buy and transport some sort of living quarters.., add a few utilities and presto.., you have second, and temporary home.

But.., of course;

“The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!”

Now.., the second part is maybe a bit heavy and it sure isn’t that dramatic; we have our joy.
But the first part nicely illustrates that all we plan not always actually goes as planned.
We told you about moving our new home, now let me tell you about the rest.

Nonolet

After fixing the roof.., our first and foremost priority was being able to do some serious business. And we needed to be able to do that every morning.
A flush toilet was out of the question; for two reasons: We didn’t want black water, as in, we didn’t want to deal with excrement in our dirty water. There is no sewage in Chenogne and we were/are not in a position to have a big septic tank. The other reason is we did not wanted to waste water; although it turns out, we’ve got plenty of water.

At some point in the search for a solution we came across the Nonolet. We got the semi stand alone version. The urine still runs out with the rest of the water. But the main thing goes onto the compost heap.
The toilet is completely odourless (indoors anyway), and, well.., it just works.

Catching the Water

To use water; you have to catch it first.
There is a water supply in Chenogne (although I’m not sure about this).., but anyhoo.., we are not connected to it. We will not connect the house either, so the temporary home is a try-out for the real thing.
We have a huge 5000 L tank and although it was delivered at the wrong address we eventually got it to the right place, with the help of a friendly neighbour.

We did not bury the tank completely, something that is recommended.., but we will cover it with soil, eventually.
We did, of course, connect all the rain pipes to it and as of this writing, the thing is filled to capacity. That means we have just about 5000 L of water available to use.

Heating the Water

Normally, filtering water would be a next step, but I’m writing this in chronological order and we hadn’t figured out to a tee what we would use for filtering and since we could shower with the water from the tank; we wanted to that with just a little bit of heat in it.
So, although figuring out exactly how to connect the gas and finding exactly what we needed took some time, the solution at the end was simple and elegant (not sure if it’s really elegant, but it did make for a very nice sentence).
We bought a 18.5 KG tank, filled with propane, in Belgium, which is quite a bit cheaper than Holland, and connected it to the existing pipes; figured out how the water heater worked and ping.., we have hot water.

Filtering the Water

Actually, it’s purified water, well, you purify it by pushing it through filters. We’ve got six.., I think.
We got two systems.., one cleans the water straight from the tank, this water is used for the dishes, for showering and eventually for laundry too. This is just one big carbon filter.

The second system is more complex, more elaborate and it provides us with clean drinking water.., and when I say clean.., I mean the cleanest.
It does this via reverse osmosis. The membrane used for this is at the end of the filtration system.., there are 3 more filters. I do not know exactly what they al do, but the water looks beautiful and tastes great.

And again.., hooking all these systems up was quite the challenge.., just making sure there is no leakage was tricky enough. Plus the system is pressurized and when something pops.., well.., you get wet.

Draining the Water

Here is another challenge.
We had a big hole where all the waste water and urine would run into. It would drain over a period of time, but with more people and a bit more intense use this would no longer do. The pit would fill up and started to stink and attract all sort of nasty things.., so we had to something about it.

Several solutions were discussed and some were pretty need and viable solutions, but sometimes hard to implement and somewhat expensive. In the end we choose to just have a drain under ground, cover it with grid and dirt and plant some grasses on it.
This sounds easy enough, but it took quite a lot of digging (in tough soil) and quite a few wheelbarrows full of grid and dirt to get the job done, all in all it was about a days work.., but it was hard work.

To Do

We still have to hook up the heating. The exhaust (chimney) is already in place, we just need to get another propane tank and hook it up, that ought to do it.

Next to that, we plan on closing the porch. It now is half open and it renders the porch unusable with bad weather.., which is annoying. So we close it up, with windows and a door. This will take some planning, a bit of money and a lot of work.., but we’re getting used to that.

Last thing would be to prepare for winter. Make sure everything is insulated and such. This will be, however, a totally new experience. Up until now, we would just turn up the heat and everything would be sort of all right. Even going out would not be such a very big deal.

But now we’ll be out in the country.., out in the Ardenne.

Coming winter will surely be a challenge…

We all know that building a house takes time. At least, building a proper house takes time.
When you realize that most homes build nowadays have a life expectancy of 20 years (which is shorter that most mortgages) it makes sense to put a bit more effort into building your home than the average contractor.
Hence.., it will take some time to build a proper house.

That is how one gets to decide to put up a temporary home, preferably right next, or behind the house to be build. And that’s what we’ve been busy with the past weeks.

Buying a Home

What we decided upon is a couple of units and I’ve just been told that is a very generic phrase, so allow me to elaborate on it.

With (much) bigger projects, contractors tend to build temporary offices near the project, which is obviously convenient. These offices can be made out of one or two ‘units’, up-scaled to anything the contractor needs. Even two stories with 10 or more units per floor.

These units are also used for temporary living and that is what we choose to use. All other options seemed to expensive, to small or to impractical.
Eventually, we bought the units from a couple in Limburg (Holland). They’ve been living in them for 2 years while building their home. Our challenge was to find a way to transport our new home for 220 km to Chenogne.

Moving a Home

At first you might think this is easy, which it wasn’t, but in the end.., it wasn’t so bad. It just took a lot of hard work, and a very, very long day. But, you cannot just put these units anywhere.., a bit of groundwork has to be done beforehand. And Niels (you remember Niels right?) and a friend of his offered to do the work for us.

Moving Earth

Now, this was to be done the week before the units were to be moved. We wanted to place them as quickly as possible and the couple whom we bought the units from had a permit deadline.

Anyhoo.., the boys worked for three days in bad weather and had to level the piece of land where the units would be placed and make a 70 meter long path for the trucks to drive on.
Laila had a freaky week in which she had to rent groundwork equipment, book a hotel and buy gravel for the path.., all in French (sort of) and pretend she was working at her regular full time day job.

The Longest Day

As far as I can remember we never had a day quite like this.
We got up at 4 AM, because we had to be in Limburg at 7 AM. Then 6 hours of loading and off loading the units,  a 2.5 hour drive, waterproofing the roof and forgetting to eat and drink our lights turned somewhere at 8 PM.