The Sustainable House Adventure

After having managed six months of self-denial, we're addicted to the concept of a family adventure.

So we've moved to Tasmania (which is hopefully less climatically challenged than Queensland, ie. regular rainfall and weather consistantly under 30 degrees celsius) and bought a block of land - we aimed for suburban, but ended up with just over 3 acres of gloriously rock free soil on a gentle slope with fantastic valley views in which we intend to build a sustainable home.

The goals are to build a house that:

1. Is low in embodied energy, and has low ongoing energy requirements.
2. Has 'low toxicity' materials, no PVC, no chemical paints, stains or finishes, no off-gassing particle boards etc.
3. Is low in cost, eg built for under $60,000
4. Is aesthetically pleasing with a good resale value.
5. Is simple in construction and can be built by the average owner builder.

We're keen to try our hand at making our own windows, and paints and we might have a go at a homemade solar hot water system.

In Queensland we lived in a CCA treated timber home, this time, we want to get it right, from the ground up.