Utopia is Now!Selfsufficiency,modern technology and natural products for living

[cthulhu]

A little personal pre-story:
I lived for about 12 years in cologne, changed my flat there very often, never was satisfied with the living quality, felt like in a small, expensive cage.
When my son was born and a bomb nearby went off (very close to the palladium where nma play the christmas shows) we moved to the countryside. An old barn, warm, in between woods on a hill, a terasse with gras..everything you can wish for.

Then we seperated, i lost my job, lost my driving licence, went back to cologne to find work and have public transportation. Got fed up with my job, had a nervous breakdown until i realized i didn't have problems with my job but the job itself was the problem.

So i went back to the countyside without having a job. Told myself living quality is more important than working quality. Found a nice, old, cheap flat in the small town i grew up, began a new job education (my first was in tv-business, then i lbecame a cook) and felt good.
Then the mother of my son told me that she will move to hamburg. WTF?

So i went to hamburg, found a job i don't like, have an expensive, loud, tiny flat, but i can see my son from time to time.

But now the time has come to go back again. And now i want it all. No compromise on living. Thinking big, thinking utopian, thinking if you really want it, if you're prepared to work for it you can make things happen.

The answer is: tiny, selfsufficient housing.

By watching KenFM i found an austrian, young company, who are dedicated to build selfsufficient housing or caravans.
https://www.wohnwagon.at/
have a look into the webshop for some inspiration.

They offer you complete little caravans. They have solar power, wood ovens, water cleaning plants on the rooftop and natural toilets for which you don't need to be connected to the sewage. They also offer kits for building it yourself and they offer many products to combine to your own house or flat if you want to improve it.

Modern buildings are full of chemicals and waste producing materials which don't have the power like natural products.
There's amovement which has discovered wood as the best material you can build houses with. best insulation, better air quality, fireproofed! and growing back.

The caravans have wooden walls combined with sheepswool to insulate. And you can use clay.

There are so many things you can do to become more self suffiecient and improve living quality, your breathing of air, your feeling of natural warmth, atmosphere.

So how do you live and how do you feel about it?

[cthulhu]

found this:

https://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/

[Pol]

Kinda like you used to.
I work a few hours 7 days a week, leaving the rest of the day free or for more work depending on what's happening.  Mostly I work in a food prepin the food before it opens , most people would probably think it's crap but I like it . Main job I don't need to leave the building so no travel. In the shop by myself so no boss to annoy me and I'm not under any pressure. I've had a lot more skilled and better hourly paid jobs but I definitely wasn't any happier .
House  - I live in a fairly large Victorian modernized flat with some period features, again it's the best flat I've had n I've basically got it the way I want it . Stewarton is a small mostly friendly town  ( pop 8000 ish ) which is semi rural with good transport links to Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Irvine etc .

[Master Ray]

Personally, I live in a flat that's so outdated it's not even funny, I'm pretty sure some things about it are illegal... but it's the only place I can afford to live.  Not for nothing has my rent not been put up in a decade.

cthulhu, those places you mention sound great...

[Johnz]

I lived on a sailboat for 20 years so I am very used to living off the grid. It has its pros and cons. I decided last year to move into a flat. So far I really like it but I still have the boat which is also my workplace. So I feel very privileged that I  get to spend most of my time outdoors. I work in marine conservation and make up the measly pay by taking people out sailing and doing some translating work in the off season.

I am a big fan of the tiny house movement which is getting more popular here in NZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_house_movement

I particularly like the idea of getting together with some friends to buy a piece of land and have a little tiny house community. It's affordable and also a nice way of getting old if you don 't have a family. I grew up in Germany so I imagine that there will be a bunch of bureaucratic hoops to jump through that we don't have here in NZ. But it's amazing what you can do if you don't require too much space. 

[cthulhu]

I always thought that i'm just not the type person to plan for the future, work hard to finance something, build a house. This feeling that i have to be free, don't take any obligations, maybe just not able to funktion normally, to get a bank-credit or just live a normal life..
I always wanted to be an outsider, because i felt different and still do. But the times have changed and are changing even quicker. Thoughts that i had many years ago and which left me kind of isolated are now becoming mainstream, they're coming to the surface, like that money is pure evil private and controlled thing to regulate kontinents and isn't any more a democratic vehicle to exchange; like that cannabis and hemp is a superior plant and that smoking weed isn't the thing that only fookups do and that gets you straight to heroin, no' it's a spiritual medicine way less harmfull (mostly because of smoking but you could eat it or vaporize it) than alcohol or pills and it's becoming legal in many countrys now.  society is now more and more open to new ways of doing things, of thinking things.

and so i think now that working for a good place to live, a tiny house, a green house is the main priority for me.

Jonz said it: "the idea of getting together with some friends to buy a piece of land and have a little tiny house community." this is something to go for.

I think about it this way: you can buy a mostly, even fully, selfsufficient, tiny, caravan for about 80.000€ and instead of paying the rent you pay the credit back until you own it. and the costs for energy, which i suppose will raise constantly, you won't have anymore, because you have solar power, get your water more clean and fresh than anything by the weeds on the rooftop, which clean it naturally and your toilet doesn't need a sewage connection. that should give you some more freedom to choose a place to put it on, even in germany.

@Master Ray
I think i lived in many place equal to your flat. it was always about a place that you stay while earning money and i never was satisfied or had the feeling to have a nice place to rest for myself. the damn money problem..

[Johnz]

You should be able to get something for a lot less than 80.000 euros. You can get something like this from 25.000:

https://reset-house.de/#fotogalerie

And there are cheaper options still, if you're willing to do some of the work yourself. Power is an isssue. Solar panels and wind generators are nowhere near as efficient as people think, especially not in a northern European winter. Potbelly stoves are great for keeping warm though.

Anyway, good luck with your plans!

[cthulhu]

Very good input, thank you. It's good to have different examples and offers of what is possible.
I thought of the austrian company i mentioned as an example and would have gone to a system which involves ready parts to use for building by yourself.

But my plans have somewhat changed drastically overnight. When i was back in my hometown last weekend, to look around and see what's happening and to look for an input or possibility to work and finance that project of a tiny house, i stumbled upon the closing of the one, lightly alternative, musik playing pub in the town. and decided to buy that.

i'm totally flashed right now, it was a very intense cool ride the last days, thinking about it, talking about it, making phone calls, having an opportunity then losing that opportunity because there was another party interested. but they pulled back yesterday, so again an up after a down, and so i went to the doctor today to get myself a document that i'm sick and cannot work, tomorrow i will go back and have a talk with my best friend and business partner, and on saturday we will look at the object and meet with the owner.

this is a huge project for us and we don't know how this will go, but it's such a relieving thought to start your own business...and frightening.

but you can be sure that if this is going to become real, new model army will be played very often there..;-) 

[Ghosttrain]

How about a Justin solo gig ? 

[jc]

Congratulations Klaus, wishing you all the best in this very exciting venture.

Hoping to be able to visit you there for a gig.

Cheers

jc

[Master Ray]

All the best on this new venue.  There are few 'rock / indie / alternative' venues near me, I wish I had a place that played decent music, I'd become a regular visitor!

[cthulhu]

thank you guys!

so i had a look at the object with my friend and my concern was the kitchen, because i want to expand and develop the kitchen and it could have been that it is just simply to small for my ambitions and we looked at it, and it is just perfect!

so now the problems are: my partner. and best friend.
for me this is the perfect opportunity and i was looking for something like that and i'm fed up with my job that i have now, my son is becoming 16 next month and so i feel good leaving hamburg for my hometown to start a business.
my friend likes his job very much, his daughter is beginning school next year.  they were looking to go near our hometown, leaving cologne, so thats a match, but he has very much different things on his head. for him the change would be more intense and the work that has to be done would be more exhausting because he needs more time for his family.

so i have to be prepared to try to get the financing by myself and my company consultant said, that it would be so much harder to get the credit for the business plan if you're alone.
we had a very good relationship with the owner when we visited the pub, who said that we would be perfect for the business. she is keeping the offer for a while, but i don't want her to be waiting to long.

at first i thought i could finance a tiny house like the ones which Johnz posted for 25.000, put it in the business plan to have a cheap monthly payback and rent, but when we visited the pub it became obvious that you cannot rent the flat to someone other than the barkeeper, because its directly above the pub and way to loud. so i will live there. then there is another flat above that which i can rent and produce more income monthly for the credit to pay back.

so my plany for a tiny house have been put back for say at least 15 or 20 years. then i want to be debt free and have some money.

if you want to have a look:
http://www.grammo.de/

@Ghosttrain
a very good idea and i also did think about that already. i want to have live musik regularly there and for that i have to get like a paper to become a promoter. i would have to pay some special tax for an artist not from germany, my tax expert told me.

@jc
if that thing will go down as i wish, i will try to get some of you guys after a gig in cologne with a one hour travel to my pub, closing it for us only and letting you sleep in my flat or at the pool table;-)



and of course i need a new name:

- BooBs, Tires and Explosions
- Don't Panic!
- Sinneswandel
- 72
- Komm Unity
- H.P. Lovecraft
- Cthulhu
- !

[Stephanie]

Wow, this looks like a great place and I really, really hope things will be working out for you!!!!

I am sharing a house with my best friend, we have been living together for over 20 years now - never thought we would, the 8 years ago her father inherited a house where we are now living, finally being able to make my wish come true to get a dog.

Well, we have 3 now, we take in the ones most people don't want, plus we have rabbits and guinea pigs...so my job serves to keep them happy and healthy.

We have just learned that we will have to buy the house or move out - the offer is excellent but we are always a bit broke, to say the least...I know I can get the loan but paying it back and saving up for emergecies...this is serious "adulting" which I am not good at but it will have to happen. 

[cthulhu]

Thank you!
This is and has been a rollercoaster ride and i feel that i'm transforming somehow. like you mentioned serious adulting...

there were many ups and some downs, like a new aggressive investor appeared who has the money, i'm travelling hamburg-cologne for meetings and dates with the bank, while i'm still working fulltime and sometimes my thoughts change to: "no, this is crazy to be responsible for so much money, and you won't ever be able to pay it back and you owe so much to the bank for a lifetime."
these thoughts come like panic attacks and i wonder what would be right and what could be wrong...

but anyway...this is still going on and still looking good. we had a date just last friday with the bank, the first time person to person date, the businessplan was rated very good, this bank wants to finance it but they want to get another bank in the boat, so we have to make another date with the other bank and it looks like we could get the deal done by mid january, because of the holidays in december.

[Johnz]

Best of luck to you!