Welcome to the first blog on www.sustainablesmallhouses.com.
On this website we plan to share the learning and knowledge we gain on the journey of designing and building a small sustainable house on our section at Pahi, Northland, New Zealand.
There are a lot of books out there about how to build a sustainable house but we wanted to understand what it takes in reality. What choices will we have to make? What dilemmas will we face? What compromises will we need to find and what trade-offs will we be forced to make?
When seeking to answer these questions we realised there’s not a lot of information online that could help us understand the real practicalities. We’re heading into this project with a clear vision of what we want to achieve and how much we want to spend but the exact how, what and why of how the build will go is not entirely clear.
The only thing we know for sure is that our current goals will clash as the project evolves. We expect there to be a constant friction between our sustainability goals and what we can achieve on our budget.
We expect to be tested every step of the way. But we know we will only find the answers to our questions by doing it.
This website will record the process we are starting. We will post information we collect along the way with a focus on the process, decisions made and sustainability topics we encounter.
Since this is a “training on the job” experience for us, by posting this information we also very much welcome help, comments, suggestions, feedback, links from anybody interested – experienced friends, family or whoever has knowledge to share in this area.
We also hope that this website will over time provide information for others who are thinking of doing something similar. We believe sharing communication and education on sustainable housing will help encourage the uptake of and to transition to affordable, beautiful, healthy, happy, green living.
Now, let’s get started!
Margriet Geesink
2 thoughts on “Every journey starts with a single step: building a sustainable small house”
All the best Margriet and Francis. I look forward to following your progress. Hope to be up your way at the end of Summer
good luck, Francis, Margriet … looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Size the day!