In the beginning… Home-Sweet-Home…
The beginning of our Off-Grid journey was before we started building our first home together.
The build itself took 2 years from start to finish.
At the end of 2011 we finished construction and moved in just before Christmas.
We built it in our spare time / after work… and we jumped through all sorts of hoops to get finance to help us pay for it.
Despite the Banks and lending institutions changing the goals posts…We did have some wins! – We bought the frames and trusses for below cost price!
The frames and trusses had been made for someone else.
This initial owner of the house project had poured the concrete foundation and the frames and trusses were ready and waiting… but for whatever reason they went to mortgagee sale – the bank sold the section and the materials stayed with the supplier.
The materials sat idle (stored undercover in the yard for over a year) before we were discussing with our sales rep that we were starting to look at options for building our first home.
You couldn’t have asked for a better deal (plans, materials all below cost…)
Naturally, when we were ready to get power to site, we went to find out how much it would be to get the power supplied by the Grid.
Turns out it was going to cost over $30,000…
Thirty thousand dollars…
We definitely didn’t have that kind of money to throw around.
So we looked into “alternative power” options.
…To be continued! Look out for the next blog post
Keen to find out more? Click here to sign up for a weekly dose of sunshine delivered to your inbox.