We have renovated a few old houses and cottages but this is the story of our self build in Argyll. We decided the time had come to stop compromising and build a sustainable house.
We spent about 3 years looking for a plot which was big enough to build a house and have a decent sized garden in which we could grow food. Suse had a hankering to head west to some water and nice views so we had a few pleasant weekends away in the campervan exploring.
We were very impressed by the Earthship at the Sustainable Communities visitor centre at Kinghorn. This is built of rammed earth tyres, so it is using local materials and waste materials and is a lovely organic shape. They also have displays of various forms of sustainable energy and you can see how effective water power is at generating electricity, compared with wind and photvoltaics.
We attended the annual Ecobuild Show in London and stoked up on ideas there too.
In February 2006 we finally found our plot. It extends to 1.1 acres, formerly the orchard and tennis court of an Edwardian mansion 6 miles south of Tarbert, Argyll, over-run with rhododendrons and bog plants. It doesn’t have a great view of the sea in summer, but is near enough, nor is it within walking distance of a pub, but by the time we had seen it we had all but given up and we fell in love with it.
Having left instructions to buy it (and money) with our solicitor, we ran away for a couple of months’ holiday. We had drastically cut down our publishing business and needed time out to learn how to live a more relaxed lifestyle. Our time in Spain and Wales was spent duly relaxing and researching earth-built houses. We visited the House for the Future at the Museum of Welsh Life and were most impressed by that. Naturally, we also visited the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth and bought lots of books.