Resilence Lifestyle

[judicatr]

Here's a great example of a "resilience lifestyle" in action! Sadly, with the state of the US economy and its likely future, this may become more common in America. I'm not sure what the situation is in the UK, but would welcome any thoughts on that matter from that perspective.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nsize.html

Cheers,
Your American Friend

[2ndRateMind]

Over here, we're trying to squeeze more and more people into the existing housing stock. EU Immigration, and more people living in one person households, and flat house building figures, means that demand is far outstripping supply for houses. Net result is that prices are set to rise, and the hangover from the banking crisis means that most lenders are looking for a 10% deposit - 4.5x annual salary for first time buyers. So, this leads me to think 1) housing to live in or housing to let is a good investment opportunity for people with spare cash, and 2) younger people are going to continue to be priced out of the market.

So, I guess, yes, we are likely to see innovative, low cost solutions like the one in your article, if the planning authorities allow them to go ahead.

Cheers, 2RM.

[Partimehero]

Saw this article back in December last year. Looks a really good option but it wont take off. The reason for that is because our local authorities are scared to tackle the homeless / housing shortage problem. Its been going on for years and years. It could've been solved a long time ago.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... risis.html

How many houses could've been built for this amount of money????

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/l ... 79089.html

The family in America prove a small cosy house can work but its only a short term solution. The kids will grow and the house will get smaller and smaller. Its a good example of ingenuity though

[judicatr]

Interesting... I hadn't realized that housing was in such short supply in the UK.

Our problem in the US is the opposite. Since the housing market collapse in '08 (some say its beginning to recover), short sales and repossessions and folks just walking away from their homes have increased. New home construction has slowed as well because of the number of existing homes available. While home prices overall have declined because supply has increased, much more strict lending rules have replaced the ridiculously easy lending that had been going on. However, since many people, because of the recession, are out of work or don't have good enough credit or don't have the required down payment they can't take advantage of the lower home prices and available supply. In short we've got homes, we just don't have the people who can afford the homes even if they are cheap. Which is why you have the couple that is featured in the link.

I've been talking with the wife about moving further east in a few years. A 1700 square foot home with .5 acre of land runs anywhere from 150K to 220K. Often more land is available you're just further out in the country. My hope is to get an acre or 2 have a grand vegetable garden and wage war on the invading rabbits and deer.

That said, anyone willing to move to the 3rd world enclave we call Detroit can have home for a few hundred dollars. Sure city services are spotty, crime is absurdly high, and the street lights in your neighborhood have been out for years, but if your interested in "urban homesteading" as a modern pioneer there are opportunities available (see link)

http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/urban- ... hted-motor

Cheers,
Your American Friend

[Arzosah]

Housing is very short in a lot of areas in the UK, judicatr - not as bad as after the war, after all but bad enough - lots of people live alone in houses meant for small families (like me!) lots of people separate/divorce and want two homes, where they used to have one, immigrants *do* take over some localities and create very local shortages, some areas are taken over by pretty rich people who want local housing stock as holiday homes, and historically, local councils used to provide good quality, fairly low cost housing - but then became legally obliged to sell off their stock, to tenants that wanted to buy. There's a lot of factors at work. And our population density in general is very high - south east England, where I live, has a population density of 1,170 people per square mile....

Your 1700 square foot home, with half an acre of land, over here in this area, it would cost a lot more! I went onto a property website called Rightmove, my favourite, and looked at a commuter town I know, Crawley - it has a lot of very bog standard housing, including lots of flats for people in their 20s working in London. And this is one I found: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 58816.html for £690,000 - you can't really get half an acre of land unless you pay for a humongous great house or possibly are in the middle of nowhere, or you have family on a farm who can get planning permission to convert outbuildings.

There are some empty houses here, but not whole estates of new ones that were built and never occupied - I believe that kind of estate exists in Eire, but I don't know personally.

None of it helps with resilience though!

[judicatr]

Housing is very short in a lot of areas in the UK, judicatr - not as bad as after the war, after all but bad enough - lots of people live alone in houses meant for small families (like me!) lots of people separate/divorce and want two homes, where they used to have one, immigrants *do* take over some localities and create very local shortages, some areas are taken over by pretty rich people who want local housing stock as holiday homes, and historically, local councils used to provide good quality, fairly low cost housing - but then became legally obliged to sell off their stock, to tenants that wanted to buy. There's a lot of factors at work. And our population density in general is very high - south east England, where I live, has a population density of 1,170 people per square mile....

Your 1700 square foot home, with half an acre of land, over here in this area, it would cost a lot more! I went onto a property website called Rightmove, my favourite, and looked at a commuter town I know, Crawley - it has a lot of very bog standard housing, including lots of flats for people in their 20s working in London. And this is one I found: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 58816.html for £690,000 - you can't really get half an acre of land unless you pay for a humongous great house or possibly are in the middle of nowhere, or you have family on a farm who can get planning permission to convert outbuildings.

There are some empty houses here, but not whole estates of new ones that were built and never occupied - I believe that kind of estate exists in Eire, but I don't know personally.

None of it helps with resilience though!

Arzosah,

Couple of things...

1) That is a really beautiful house!

2) HOLY CRAP! That's 1.13 million dollars! I will never complain about housing costs in the US again. WOW! How do you guys survive? Thanks for giving me some perspective... God bless you guys.

3) Now that I'm over the sticker shock... my personal ambitions were something along these lines... http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhom ... 335?row=44 Its 1700 square feet on 5 acres which is a bit more than I'd like but it does have a lovely stream on the property. It would be about 130K Pounds.

4) What exactly is "counsel housing" I've read about counsels and they sound like local government entities, can you explain for me a bit. Please pardon my ignorance. I hope I've not strayed too far from the thread topic.

Your American Friend.

[jansman]

I was brought up in a council house. Every area of the Uk is divided into 'Boroughs' overseen by the local Borough Council. Moving upwards every part of Uk is divided into Counties , each overseen by County Council. These in turn answer to Central GVT
We all know what GVT does. County Council oversees county infrastructure basically, roads, schools, fire and police etc. Borough Council deals with local issues like rubbish collections, maintaining parks gardens and open spaces, environmental health-and COUNCIL HOUSES.
The housing system came into it's own just after WW2. Returning soldiers needed affordable housing to rent. Under the Labour GVT at the time this was popular. These houses provided indoor bathrooms, a kitchen and a garden. These things were often absent in the old private landlord system. Many folks lived in slums. This system provided good housing at reasonable rents.
In the 1980's Margaret Thatchers Conservative GVT BROUGHT in the 'Right to Buy' scheme, which meant a Council Tenant could purchase that house with a huge discount. My own parents did. It was Thatcher' dream to turn us all into property owners!
Many tenants succeeded in buying, but many defaulted too, and lost their homes. You see, those tenants were not really suited to having a mortgage. A bit like the sub prime lending in America by Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae.
Moving on, there is now far far less Council housing stock, and to qualify for a tenancy you really have to be in dire straits. Unfortunately many of these old estates are social dumping grounds now. I know it is where I was brought up. Also we have come back full circle to the Private Landlord system, with sky high rents and housing in shocking states of repair.
Hope that explains Council Housing.

[grenfell]

No mortgage , growing their own food , surviving on less , not consuming! What would happen to our society if we all went down that path , dome and gloom the banks would collapse with no new debt being created and the supermarkets would loose their serfs opps sorry customers .
In truth I can only say fair play to them for living within their means.
I do think , however, the journalists have missed a trick here. If they had published this with black and white pictures it would have very close parallels with the photos taken by photographers such as Dorothea Lange during the thirties and the Great Depression.

[preppingsu]

I've been thinking a lot about this and I envy the opportunity this family have had.
But it would be nigh in impossible to do that here in the UK.
I think investing in a piece of land at the right price is a great idea. But it's never available at a price we could afford. And then very often it just sits there being a piece of land because planning permission is very hard to get.

So we have to think about how we can achieve a little of their lifestyle ( and many others) where we live now.

Reducing our consumption - energy etc. How can we switch to alternatives for heating and lighting.
Think about what you throw away - we are a very throw away society and that costs money. What can you reuse, up cycle, recycle etc
Certainly grow your own as much as you can - you know where your food comes from, in the long term can save you money (look at seed saving) and can build community through swapping vegetables, seeds, knowledge.
Become less reliant on the organisations around us eg supermarkets and become more community based eg shop locally or at a farm shop.

In fact this is a very permaculture way if thinking as it encompasses every area of your life.

[jansman]

I've been thinking a lot about this and I envy the opportunity this family have had.
But it would be nigh in impossible to do that here in the UK.
I think investing in a piece of land at the right price is a great idea. But it's never available at a price we could afford. And then very often it just sits there being a piece of land because planning permission is very hard to get.

So we have to think about how we can achieve a little of their lifestyle ( and many others) where we live now.

Reducing our consumption - energy etc. How can we switch to alternatives for heating and lighting.
Think about what you throw away - we are a very throw away society and that costs money. What can you reuse, up cycle, recycle etc
Certainly grow your own as much as you can - you know where your food comes from, in the long term can save you money (look at seed saving) and can build community through swapping vegetables, seeds, knowledge.
Become less reliant on the organisations around us eg supermarkets and become more community based eg shop locally or at a farm shop.

In fact this is a very permaculture way if thinking as it encompasses every area of your life.

Absolutely!
It is just what I am trying to achieve here at Chez Jansman. Right now, we are able to produce all the eggs we need. We have rabbits for meat ( they are very productive) and both of these projects provide all the manure/litter for the compost heaps. This makes the garden (apart from the concentrate feeds I have to but in) a closed loop system. Our property has a very large garden for a terrace , so the veg garden is the size of half a standard allotment. Mind you, last year I experimented with a container garden. That was a real success. Which shows food can be grown in a asmall space. Quite a bit of food too.
I agree that we have to head this way, things are not going to get better economically imo any time soon.
The weak point here for us is electricity. Even if I could afford solar, the roof is not suited to it. Some form of micro generation would be good. Problems to solve in the future.