I could be living the eco dream right now. I could have been living the eco dream for the past four years. But no, I cannot live my eco dream with its sustainable lifestyle because we have no occupation certificate for our eco house.

• Without an occupation certificate (OC) it is an offence for us to occupy the house.
• Four times the developer has attempted to get the OC and four times they have failed.

To read more about the OC read our post The Building Inspector.

Changing Lifestyle

In 2016 we decided we needed a change in lifestyle. We had been through the years of working double shifts, building up a successful business. But now the time had come for us to downscale. We wanted a life less hectic. A life where we could have time to do the things we wanted to do. A life where we could choose the pace. And for us the pace would not be the rat race but rather something more genteel.

We found our ideal in a village in the Western Cape.

Living the Eco Dream in Portugal

We did not have to move to the other side of the world as Kylie and Guy who moved from the UK to Portugal. Read their story and their change to an eco lifestyle in Eco & Beyond.

Luckily we only had to move to the other side of the country. Easy. We bought a business in the village and we were set for our second careers, living our eco dream in our beautiful new eco home. The icy cold Atlantic Ocean not too far away; the Boland and all its offerings a stone’s throw in the other direction. And the Winelands and all its gastronomic delights on our doorstep.

But sadly this dream has not, as yet, come true. Our house sits empty, gathering dust and more cracks and sometimes even rain! See our post on Winter Blues to see the rain streaming in through the garage ceiling.  To read more of our story turn to How We Got Here.

First Buyers in Eco Estate

Buying or building an eco house was something that had interested us for years. So, when a new eco estate came on the market we were the first in line. And I do mean the very first. A new life AND the lifestyle we wanted! This was going to be our eco dream come true. Reduce our carbon footprint with solar power and double glazing, all appliances AAA rated for efficiency, eco pool that uses no chemicals, light steel construction, magnesium (fire proof) boards, eco friendly insulation, all the good stuff. What a great concept!

What could go wrong?

No matter how great an idea or concept is, if it is not executed well it can turn out to be a disaster.

Unfortunately, we have a disaster. Not only is the house un-occupiable as there is no occupation certificate but the effect of constant litigation on our retirement funds has been catastrophic.

First House

As our house was the first house to be built on the eco estate we did not have too many options. There are downsides to being the first!

• We had to sign a building contract with the developer’s own “master builder”.
• Our house on our plot had to be a Type D house. There were various house designs but the Type D was the only 3 bedroom house. For downscaling the Type D was perfect.
• We had to have solar power. Of course, that is what we wanted – we wanted to be as self-sustainable as possible.

Sadly, the ethos of the estate has changed since the early halcyon days when everyone was committed to eco and sustainable living.

• Being an eco estate we were only going to have a drip feed of municipal electricity.
• Solar power was to be the main power source for all houses on the estate.

It turns out that only the first 3 houses have solar power as the main power source.

How eco is this eco estate? I’m not sure the estate fulfils my dream of eco living anymore.

Eco houses or not?

The estate has 6 light steel frames houses. Ours is the only one built wholly and completely by the developer. The finish on some of the houses is professional. Those artisans and builders obviously had the skills required to work with these specialist materials.

Unfortunately “our” builder did not have the skills to work with the materials used in our eco building. Our building disaster bears testament to that.

• Our walls showed cracks within a year.
• External cracks allow water penetration. Hence we have internal walls with moisture readings of 98%-100% saturation. We recently had the moisture levels re-checked and sadly, the readings remain at saturation.
• “Our” cowboy builder just did not have the skills to work with the materials he was using.

There are now 3 brick houses on the estate. Apparently if bricks are sourced locally then brick houses are also eco houses. I wonder how eco all that cement is?

Why Eco Living is Important to Me

The world is in a global warming crisis. Sure, the world has been through previous ice ages and warm ages. But human activity has accelerated global warming and we can (and must) all do our little bit to help.

The website from Wessex Water 14 Ways To Live A More Sustainable Lifestyle is very informative.

Changing lifestyle is a gradual thing. To change everything all at once is wasteful and probably very expensive. But by moving constantly in the right direction, we will get to the target in the end. From switching off the lights to turning down the heating, supporting local business to buying organic, driving less, walking more, and a myriad things in between.

The green image at the start of this post comes from the CoEvolve website. Take a look at How to Teach Your Kids About Sustainable Living.

Teaching our children about climate change is so important. Not only are the younger generation fearful of the condition of the planet they will inherit, but as we teach them to become more aware we also become more aware.

Obki is a new fantastical, imaginary alien on Sky Kids. Take a look at Obki in his first series.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

There are many websites to point us in the right direction for sustainable living. Pebble Magazine has some wonderful tips like buy less, buy better and make, mend,  sew and share. Take a look at their website How To Live A Sustainable Lifestyle.

Reduce

Reducing excesses like:

• throw-away fashion
• use of single use plastics
• reduce food wastage
• on a daily basis only buying the foods we need

Reduce can / should include reducing the amount of meat, chicken, farmed fish we eat. Less is often more.

Reduce the number of car trips we do. Can we reduce the number of holidays we take or can we go for more local holidays and keep long trips for special times? Is it possible to buy local produce and buy exotic foods more rarely?

Reuse

How did we get to being such a throw-away society? Throwing away without a second thought,  to the detriment of our oceans and all fauna, flora and our lives.

I am a recycler of note and have been for decades.  

• Remember the days when glass bottles and newspapers went to the local Scout Hall for recycling?

Then came the can recycling and anti-littering jingle “Zap it in a Zibi bin”.

When we lived in England in the 1990s I had separate bins outside. The dustbin men knew (after a while) to leave the one bin of recycling that was dealt with separately. Bizarre for little South African me having to set the example for recycling! (Go South Africa!)

Separating makes sense and is easy to do when it’s a habit – glass, cans, papers and plastics… and of course electronics and batteries… each in separate containers.

Not wasting is deeply ingrained in my psyche – I am a post World War II child. My parents went through the war years saving everything that was usable.

How did the world become so “easy come, easy go”? Throwing away and tossing

Conclusion

Sky News has The Daily Climate Show. What is scary is to see the millions of tons of carbon dioxide that we humans have pumped into the atmosphere.

Our planet is under immense strain. It seems bizarre when talking of living the eco dream and sustainable living to turn to NASA astronauts! NASA astronauts comment on the effect of seeing earth from space and the cognitive shift they have from the overview effect.

Michael Collins, astronaut on Apollo 11 said of Earth:

The thing that really surprised me was that it  projected an air of fragility. And why, I don’t know. I don’t know to this day. I had a feeling it’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s beautiful, it’s home, and it’s fragile.

And William Anders wrote:

The Earth we saw rising over the battered grey lunar surface was small and delicate, a magnificent spot of colour in the vast blackness of space. Once distant places appeared inseparably close. Borders that once rendered division vanished. All of humanity appeared joined together on this glorious-but-fragile sphere.”

And really, in the words of Edgar Mitchell: “you want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’. ” Yes look at that and DO something to save our planet. No more empty word. Action is needed and needed now.

We must all do our bit to save this fragile sphere of ours.