Last Thursday we visited the local government in Vaux-sur-Sure. These are the people we have to convince that we have a good idea . We were a bit nervous about the whole thing, it was our first talk and everything hung in the balance, they could say no to pretty much every idea we had.., they didn’t.

Shed

The main thing we wanted to ask was, if we can build a shed before we build the house. Normally this is not done, but because we’re such nice people we can. Condition is that we put the shed into the final drawing, we will.
The only thing is, we have to build within the building zone, we wanted to build it in the agricultural zone, but hey, who’s complaining. 

So, for now it seems that the shed build for August is still on!

Design

Lotte’s design of the house is also on par. There should not be a problem. Just a few minor alterations, but mostly, the design stands.
The alternative materials, extra windows for sunlight and solar panels are not a problem, either. Just as long as the house fits in the neighborhood and is finished within 2 years.

Windmill

This is the only thing we have to drop. We cannot build a windmill (or turbine) in the agricultural zone. The highest, and clearest, part of the land is in the middle. But, we can only build in the building zone and a 6 meter high windmill may not have a building within a radius of 6 meters… on top of that, the turbulence of the building would render the windmill practically useless.

Good Start

We are very relieved that the first talks (which were in English by the way, not French), went so well. Nice and helpful people.
We still have a green light on the project. Now, for building the shed, our second challenge (finding the land being the first).

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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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Anyhoo. Just wanted to post a happy new year message and put our plans for 2009 on paper (or on the web).

Plans

First thing will be finishing up on the land purchase. Although everything is OK and signed, the land still isn’t officially ours.
Then for the first half of the year Lotte (our awesome architect) will graduate in which time the design of the house will be done. This in itself is quite a challenge and will be quite an achievement. But we’ll get there!
That’s the first huge step, the second huge step has to be the building permit. Although we do not foresee problems, one can never now. As soon as we have the necessary drawings we’ll apply. We hope to finish this around 1st October, at the latest.
In the meantime we’ll continue to learn french and find suppliers for our building materials. This includes everything from wooden beams, stone for the walls, rooftiles, solarpanels, windmill, etc.

You are reading correctly, there will be no house building this year.
2010 will be the year for that.
And what a year that’s going to be, can’t wait.

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