Post 1: Progress so far toward establishing our home in a new intentional community

Okay, folks! It's about time I start a blog to chronicle the saga of building a sustainable home.

This blog will supplement the overview page at http://www.peswiki.com/index.php/OS:Sterling_Allan%27s_Sustainable_Home which is part of the http://safehavenvillages.org/ intentional community project, with mission statement:

Safe Haven Villages are intentional communities based on principles of sustainability, educational outreach, healthy living, natural healing, individual responsibility, cooperation, and renewable energy. We are dedicated to an earth-friendly, family-friendly environment through commitment, honor and integrity (CHI).

I should have started this blog earlier, considering all that we've been through already, to get to this point; but at least I'm getting it going now.


The main context here is that we are rolling over the value of our Eagle Mountain (UT, USA) home in a 1031 exchange to 1) purchase land for the community, 2) purchase materials for our home. We'll rely on the community, primarily, to help with labor in building the home, seeing as we used a large portion of the value of the home to secure land for the community, including for our home.

This will be a highly challenging time for me as I will be required to ...

1. keep earning a living, keeping my Free Energy News and Directory service running;


2. come up with a design for our home;


3. find land on which to build the community;


4. get a building permit;


5. help with the Planned Unit Development (PUD) for the community property;


6. get roads, power (e.g. temp), and water (e.g. temp) to the property;


7. build the home;


8. find the best renewable energy sources and match them to appropriate appliances

It entails learning new building methods, including thermal mass integration, radiant flooring, rainwater capture, cistern plumbing, gray water handling, renewable energy power and integration. I would like for the home to be completely self-sustaining, including power, water, food, and sewage.

Some of the major developments to date have included:

• Getting our Eagle Mountain home ready to sell


• Establishing the Safe Haven Villages founding documents: mission statement, vision statement, membership types and expectations


• Getting an offer after just 23 days on the market


• Finding a solar guest house to rent while we build


• Moving to the guest house on Oct. 23, 2009


• Closing on Oct. 28; funding on Nov. 3 (we now have 45 days to identify three properties to choose from; then 180 days to build or otherwise roll over the value of the Eagle Mountain home)


• Locating (thanks to Susan) a number of interesting properties (land) to choose from, in Sanpete County, UT, USA; making several offers.

And so, we pick up with the saga. As of today, we just looked yesterday at a couple more properties, so we need to weigh and decide where next to put an offer or counteroffer.

For the Safe Haven Villages social network members, here's a report I just posted on the two properties we looked at yesterday.
http://utahsafehaven.ning.com/profiles/blogs/property-report-40-acres-w

Here's a video I shot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHcPaJyrw_c

This blog will contain the more public information, while the social network site is more private.

We invite and look forward to your input if you have good ideas for us, as we are on a tight learning curve here, and we hope to integrate some of the best products/approaches presently available into an appealing design.

We want our home to be affordable and a showcase of sustainable building and living.