First things first, we need to get a barn up on the land, and convert one bay in it for us to live in whilst we build the house. We need planning permission to put the barn up, and apparently that can take up to 3 or 4 weeks - eek! What happens is, we submit the plans from the company that makes the barn, and the council give consent to build because it is a rural section of land and we are allowed to put a barn on there. Great. **EDITED** - we were under the impression that you couldn't live in a barn, whereas actually thats just a technicality - you can sleep in your barn, as long as you don't plumb a sink in.. (?!). How exciting! We are learning the dark ways of the council very quickly. So now we don't have to feel naughty when we put our bed in the barn, along with a couple of nice lamps... and all my clothes...
Before that happens, we need to buy a car. But not any old car, Steven wants a Mitsubishi Delica 4 wheel drive 7 seater van that converts into a campervan. Conveniently there are about 3 in the whole of the south island. So having driven a total of about 4 hours to see 2 of them (which we won't be buying) we are probably off to see the 3rd tomorrow. In Nelson, which is right at the top of the South Island! We will look at it as a bit of a road trip holiday though, and go camping on the way. I'm hoping this van is worth it but apparently it will be.
This week we are also going to start planting trees on the land! We need a wind break from one direction, and want to plant in the general area around the house so it doesn't stick out so much when its built.
Oh, and we are thinking about putting up some alternative power generators - wind, water and solar. To get the energy company to put a transformer on the power pole, and for us to run a cable to the property will be $10,000NZ. Which is sickeningly expensive! And also we want to have our own power sources eventually anyway. We could do quite a lot with $10,000 in terms of alternative energy stuff so need to do some research. If anyone has some time you could email me ideas!!
Here is a photo of the land I took the other day. I love it. When I see it I feel like lying down and rolling around in the grass!
Due to the direction of the sun, where I'm standing and the wide angle lens you can't really see the sea in this one, but rest assured it is there! We are going to build at the far right of the grass bit in this picture. See all those trees bordering the field? They're mine, ah ha ha ha haaaa!!!!!
Here I am looking back up from where the barn is going to be.
And um, here is a photo of Steven ordering a giant pizza from Pizza Hut new zealand. He is happy here because pizzas are sooo cheap. We are going to be very fat.
Oh, just while I was uploading those photos, Steven came over and told me that you can buy a wind generator for about $1,400. How exciting! We are off now to visit some alternative building guru in Dunedin to get the lowdown on putting in our Strawbale application. I tell you what, there are some great characters over here. We've been given lots of advice and told where to seek out the alternative people (anyone with solar panels all over their roof and lots of chickens really).
More land photos soon. I'll have to take my camera down to the river, it is soo gorgeous.
xxx
1 comment:
Yes.... it seems I'm going to have to undertake some kind of construction project to ensure people keep reading my blog. Maybe I could create a worm farm on my balcony....generate some primitive energy supply....what do you think? I could draw some plans and post them, get my readers to help.... xxx
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