In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reflecting on, and talking to people about my desire to build a sustainable house. Building a house has always seemed such a daunting exercise for me, and even now, although I’m really keen, it’s quite a huge undertaking. I’m clear about that.

I’ve begun talking about it to our friends, wondering whether they might think I’ve gone off the deep end. Some have been quite interested in my little project. Others, not so much. One of my friends laughed. He asked me if I just had a rich uncle die and leave me everything. Another, when I said I wasn’t sure if I want to build on our current block of land, where we’re living now, or perhaps buy somewhere else, somewhere that lends itself more to that kind of house, somewhere in the kind of environment that has its overhead cables underground, perhaps with a view, maybe in a more sustainability-conscious community – she suggested I keep things simple, that we don’t need more financial encumbrances at this stage in our lives. “Build where you are, it’s already yours, why do you need to move?” she said.

And you know what? What she said about simplifying life really stuck. I am on a mission to simplify life. For both Moshe and me. You know, we just have so much stuff! I’m sure we don’t need all of it! I don’t think we need all those books any more do we? And all that stuff that we can’t fit into cupboards because this %*$#ing house just doesn’t have enough of them!

So, the long and the short of it is that sustainability, for me, is now becoming about the whole of our lives, not just about our house, or the heating system, or the recycled components. That’s why I changed the game from “BuildingOurSustainableHouse” to “Sustainability”. Some areas of our lives are way too complex. How we manage things, what we spend our time doing. Years ago, Moshe and I started a “creating our lives” endeavour. We first did that back in 1991, and it was magical. We produced some amazing results from that game. Moved to America. Took the kids to Disneyland. Paid off all our debts. Amazing stuff. Every so often, probably about once a decade, we go through this same exercise. Creating the overall context, mapping out our lives, creating goals, and the structures by which to fulfil on them. And here we are now, doing it all again. It’s exciting!

So, it goes like this. Back in March, we went to Daylesford for the weekend of our joint birthdays, and we created a new context for this next phase of our lives – being creative, productive and fulfilled together. From there, we listed all the areas of our lives that we wanted to include in this new game, and now we’re taking each area and kind of reinventing it. The first area we’re working on is our finances. We just gotta simplify that bitch. (Sorry, went out for dinner last night, talked about ‘The Wire’.) So, as Moshe and I toss around ideas, talk about things, I’m beginning to not see building a completely sustainable house in my future. Perhaps inclusions of as many elements as possible, but I’m now more interested in the simplest way for us to have the kind of home that Moshe and I have wanted for… well, most of our thirty-some years of marriage, and less interested in expending huge amounts of time, money, energy on having some cutting edge whatever. If you know what I mean. What exactly we will do, I’m not sure yet, but I’m working on it. I’ll keep you posted!

I have a new project. (Well there’s something new!) In the next little bit, in the next six to eighteen months perhaps, we’ll most likely begin building a house. Moshe and I have spent most of our married life living in one of two “one-day-we’ll-renovate-and-have-our-dream-home” houses that we’ve owned, or in rented houses or flats (apartments). Now, we don’t know exactly when we’ll be able to get serious about building, or if it’ll turn out that we just won’t be able to build, in which case we’ll need to consider alternatives such as buying and renovating, or simply buying. Or possibly, just renovating our current house. Doesn’t matter though, I’m on a mission to create a plan for building (or renovating as a backup) our own sustainable, green house. And all within our budget. According to one of my daughters, that could be a major problem. Turns out that the current conversation about building sustainable houses is that they cost a whole lot more than a regular house, and people’s budgets consistently get blown out.

So, my game is to see if I can do this without blowing the budget. I’m sure I’m not the first or last person to want to do this, but let’s see how I go. First thing I need to do is get really well-educated about this subject. I’ve watched the odd TV show here and there over the years about the amazing homes people have built, but I really don’t have any knowledge that’s of value to me in terms of building my house. So, this is the place to begin. Get educated.

I joined Shmeco, a site where people are invited to “exchange their ideas, stories and experience on sustainable living choices”. I found a bunch of Australian websites and blogs that I bookmarked and subscribed to, as well as Inhabitat, which isn’t Australian, but is so inspiring, and Michael Mobbs | Sustainable Projects. I bought a one-year online subscription to Green, and I’m investigating participating in the Sustainable House Day on 11th September.

Here are some images of eco-friendly/sustainable houses that I find interesting:

More updates on this project as news breaks