Little Beans House!

My advice to any women is to never build a house when you are pregnant...especially if you are the main builder and project manager!!!It was a very intense, enjoyable but also exhausting experience. It took 7 weeks to take the old structure down, mostly due to other commitments in the community (running workshops, guiding volunteer programmes, cooking etc) but also because the existing house was incredibly strong, even though it was very damaged with damp and a termite infestation we actually broke a sledge hammer knocking it down. The structure was made from cob wrapped around bamboo and it gave me a deep respect for this resilient and strength of this material. We also wanted to recycle as much of the 'waste' as possible; all the old cob went back in the pit, all the wire, gravel, straw etc was all organised and re-used. After the demolition we had only 2 bin bags of waste.

There was already a large (and ugly) concrete pillar roof over the old house we demolished so we used this as our frame for the new house. We were building on a North facing slope in the tropics so our foundations and drainage had to be sufficient for the job, we created a french drain around the perimeter of the house and terracing and a retaining wall behind the house to stop mud slides and run off.

The main building material was adobe bricks and cob was used for sculpting and creating fixed furnishings. We used recycled teak for the floor, secondhand windows and door and used glass bottles and blocks to allow in extra light.

The entire build from demolition to moving in took around 9 months; we didn't work on the house every day as there was also a volunteer programme to manage, courses to be run, cooking, gardening, oh and giving birth! we lived in the house for just over 1 year. it is now home to another family who are living at the community and in 2018 it saw the birth of their baby boy!