Posts by — Amy Suarez

So you’ve decided to buy some land and build an off-grid home. Good luck.

If you are in the United States, chances are strong you will succeed. In the UK and Canada you will be beset by beauracracy and even if you triumph over the system, there are plenty other traps for the unwary. Here is a checklist of simple ways to stay on top and out of trouble.

Time is money
Unless you are going for a second home, building your off-grid place is no quick route to home ownership and it takes an average of about two years from finding a plot to moving in, so make sure you factor in the cost of renting or paying the mortgage on your existing home over this period. Half of this time is likely to be spent securing the relevant permissions and finding contractors.

Beware of false economies

Government may not heed it – when do they ever listen to the people?  - but big business is getting the message.

Zillow, a division of Forbes, is celebrating the off-grid housing boom in a blogpost titled “Stories of People Who Are Doing it: Living Greener, Off-the-Grid.” Here is an excerpt:

“Off-the-grid” may conjure images of die-hard survivalists, but the term actually has a spectrum of meaning.
“Now more people are starting to understand how quickly we are driving toward the edge of our ecological capacity on the planet,” said Katrina Morgan, principal architect for Fermata Consulting, a green building consulting firm. “They are not just fringe types anymore.”Many of those disconnected from the electrical grid are living in homes powered by renewable resources like wind and solar. Some eschew other public utilities, like municipal water and sewage systems. Others forage for building materials. Many live communally. Here are a few of their stories. (more…)

It never hurts to be prepared for an emergency. The beauty of living in a city is that 85% of the homes are row homes. It’s easier to guard a row home than guard a 50 acre plot of land.

In order to survive an emergency, you have to be prepared. Not just with food or supplies, but to guard your home and family against any unwanted guests.

Before we start on instructions for window slats, here’s a list of supplies you’ll need: (more…)

After number crunching the cost of renewables Larry and Debbie Fulton from Texas, ended up with an financially-efficient, energy-producing home. “We wanted it to make sense,” said Larry. “We wanted to approach it from a standpoint of return on investment.”
Their 5 acres in Bulverde near San Antonio has a geothermal system for their heating, ventilation and air conditioning, along with enough solar panels to power their home and an electric car, a Nissan Leaf.
The Fulton’s also have a rainwater-harvesting system and 40,000-gallon collection tank, providing them more than enough water for the home and landscaping.
It’s a so-called “net-zero” home, producing more energy than it requires, and should allow the Fultons to indefinitely forego monthly utility bills (and gas bills for their car other than when it is charged during trips). And its proving to be a very good investment. (more…)

The third National Day of Unplugging, begins at sundown today (Friday).

We’re overdoing it with our go-to gizmos, unpluggers argue. We’ve become distracted, unavailable, oblivious, twitchy, obsessive, needy and, in some ways, insufferable. We need, they say, to give it a rest.

The National Day of Unplugging was started by a New York-based nonprofit called Reboot, which is working to reinvent Jewish traditions and culture in ways that resonate for a new generation of Jews and others. The unplugging idea appears to be gaining traction, says Tanya Schevitz, Reboot’s San Francisco-based national communications manager. (more…)

Making tea for the installer is not enough

So you decided to buy land and build a home yourself.  You dream of a valley, water from a natural spring, a small wood with old Oaks.  But there are also some practical things to consider if you plan to build in a remote setting.

Beyond the end of the pavement and the web of water, sewer and electrical lines, land is significantly less expensive. That lower land cost is offset by the cost of utilities. It’s important idea to understand your utility needs before signing a land purchase agreement.

Water and Septic

Water and sewer present as much of a challenge as electricity. (more…)

California March 2nd — Redlands mom Lara Carlos is part of a parenting movement that bucks the mainstream.

Her three children, ages 7, 6 and 4, have never touched fast food. They were breastfed well into toddlerhood, carried close to their mom in a sling and are home schooled.

The Carlos kids, whose father, Kerry, is an acupuncturist, have never been seen by a medical doctor or taken antibiotics. Discomfort from illnesses is eased with herbs and chiropractic adjustments, never Tylenol. The youngest was born at home with a midwife, as will a fourth baby due any day (more…)

Here’s a novel idea for powering your off-grid lifstyle.

In this picture a woman from China’s Shandong Province carries a five-metre long balloon full of natural gas which she siphoned from an oil plant in order to heat her home.

One member of staff said: ‘We warned them that it is like a hidden bomb at home, but they wouldn’t listen’.
According to people in the area, the gas lasts for around five days. (more…)

Many millions of homeowners continue to experience foreclosure, and they can count on further bad news from the great real estate bust — Midwestern farmers are experiencing the biggest property boom in a generation.
The dream of going off grid after you lose your home just got a step further away after the rapid run-up in land values.

Even by Wall Street standards, last year’s farmland appreciation was eye-popping. The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank said recently that land prices jumped 25 percent across the Great Plains, while the Chicago Fed reported a 22 percent increase in the heart of the corn belt. (more…)