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Upcycled living – let’s give it a go…

 

We wanted out, but not out-out…

So where to start. If we had our profiles on the site you’d already have developed a certain amount of opinion on us and why we’re doing this upcycled living thing. Most notably would be our ages and the associated ‘mid-life crisis’ aspect of starting a project like this.

Realising that we were paying a mortgage on a home in a town we didn’t love and would be paying out till retirement for the pleasure, we quickly identified the barge life as a way of dropping off the debt radar, so-to-speak. Our previous home was the same proportions as a typical barge so we knew we’d fit in one but there was the slightly awkward issue that where we wanted to live there isn’t any water to sit one on – and, as we all know, the gentrification of the water-ways means that there is less and less mooring to go round anyway.

Taking our lead from great-great-great-grandad Noah we quickly came to the conclusion that you don’t need water to have a boat-home (though it’s handy if it rains for 40 days, etc). ‘If you build it, they will come’ I remember reading in the old testament (??) and although we didn’t want two of everything coming on board, to create a home that would provide upcycled living for us as well as a home for the local wildlife would be amazing – not to mention hopefully showing a way for young people to get a home at a much smaller price than anything else in the area. Why create one rod for your own back when you can create two – or even three!?!?

Having looked around we soon realised that there was little by way of other similar projects that we could learn from – we felt that surely we weren’t that wide of the mark that what we hoped to do just wasn’t practical, but with an absence of similar projects it was looking like we were sailing into the unknown.

This changed with the discovery of ‘De Ceuvel’ in Amsterdam – a community created on a disused and contaminated industrial site using upcycled old barges as office/workshop/cafe accommodation and inter-planted with phytoremediation plant species that would clean the site of its pollutants over a number of years. The game was a-foot – we had to give it a go!

Like us, you should definitely check out De Ceuvel and see just what’s possible – but be warned, you may well start to question why we all live in little brick boxes here in the UK….

Upcycled living, recycled living – second-hand rubbish – call it what you will.

Can a house build really be affordable? What does ‘affordable housing’ really mean? If you live in the south east (of the UK) it apparently means the one and two bedroom houses on every ‘exclusive development’ and ‘executive apartment’ block being built – no less expensive, just smaller, but still presented with a large serving of aspirational marketing and hot-air.

With a very small budget and no access to extra funds this will be a genuine test of the system – can affordable housing really be created or are we all doomed to working every hour God sends just to keep a roof over our heads. And even if we manage to create this affordable home, is it going to be comfortable, modern and attractive rather than looking little more than a desperate attempt to beat the system at any cost?

To make this work there are some key things needed: A plot of land cheap enough to buy (i.e. without any planning consent and in a crappy position), a means of constructing a home with as little new building work as possible and, finally, fitting it all out with as much kit that we can find for free or minimum cost.

The idea of the barge as a starting point is based on the fairly simple idea of starting with a solid floored and walled structure already in place, and simply slapping a roof on top to create a weather-tight build. Okay – very basic view of things but you get the idea.

To complete the build to a presentable standard will require the full resources of the world of upcycling and recycling. As this is a ‘new-build/conversion’ in the eyes of building control the need for structural elements and insulation, etc., will all require the use of fully specified materials so this leaves our final choice of internal fixtures, fittings and furniture needing to bear the brunt of the cost savings.

So the time has come to try an experiment with ourselves as guinea pigs – create a beautiful instant home from upcycled sustainable materials, on the most unpromising site we can find, whilst actually improve the ecology of the area by us being there, on a stupidly low budget…

The lows and (hopefully) highs of our adventure can be read about in our Blog from the purchase of our ideal (!?!?) plot through to the trials and tribulations of the planning procedure and beyond.

Why ‘The Drunken Boat’?

The name of our home-to-be is taken from the poem ‘Le bateau Ivre (The drunken boat)’ by knock-em-dead French poet Arthur Rimbaud, in 1871. Lynne has especially been a fan of the man, his works and his refusal to do what society said he should do for a long time. When we started on this project it was a natural choice – the poem describes the journey of a boat that has slipped its moorings and describes the sights it sees on its journey as it passes along to the sea, thrown from place to place, reflecting the nature of the journey we find ourselves on getting our self-build project to the end. The fact that a barge from the Lee Navigation is going to end up ‘beached’ in the middle of West Sussex just seems to fit the name nicely.