Things.

Things have been quite a challenge here. Of course we knew when we decided to follow our dream and try to design & build an eco house that doing so with three small children was going to be difficult. We agreed to do it anyway. If everyone gave up on their dreams because they were too hard nothing amazing would ever happen right? I'm still not regretting the decision, not one iota, but the last few months has presented more than it's fair share of hurdles. The thing is there are many reasons why building a house rather than buying one is right for us. Firstly, we want to live there forever. We don't want to sell it a few years because it has rising damp, or not enough bedrooms, or not enough space out back for a studio. I want to plant an orchard and watch it grow, have it feed our family, enjoy its yearly cycle and marvel in it's progress. For me it's so important because I've never had a real home. My family were basically New Zealands equivalent to trailer trash and we moved a lot, sometimes several times a year. I lived in foster homes periodically and from 15 I was out on my own completely. I want my kids to have a real home. One they can always come back to. Secondly we need to live sustainably. This house with need little or no cooling or heating. It will have solar power, water tanks and permaculture garden to feed us. We will have little or no bills to pay and teeny tiny environmental footprint. In the end it will all be worth it. It's important to remember all of this when there is SO much going on, so many things that need your attention, so many things seemingly going wrong that you think you are going to just collapse and die from the stress of it all...

Hence the lack of blogging. 

A few major things have happened that almost made us give up. Luckily we never both wanted to give up on the same day, or we'd be wallowing in quitsville. Instead we cheered each other on and vowed to fight until the end. It aint over till the fat lady sings and all that. Things seem to be looking up a bit this week and hopefully soon I can return to some crafting and some blogging and some generally feeling good.As the state government has in it's infinite wisdom decided to scrap the rural first homebuilders grants, we now have four weeks to sort the remaining issues out and sign a contract with our builder. Wish us luck. If all goes well you will be some long awaited progress starting in July. Our builder has predicted a 25 week build so we will hopefully be living the dream by Christmas. If it doesn't go well, well, lets not even go there.

In other news our special little fella Otis turned 1. Happy Birthday little man.

He had a wonderful party and especially enjoyed wolfing down some cake for the first time. You are such a pleasure to be around Oty, I'm trying really hard to not miss the specialness of your first couple of years while we madly try to get this house done, I hope that I'm succeeding.

xx t