ecobuilding | Les Vignes Basses

Hank The Tank

Having the ability to store water seems to create an innate sense of secure satisfaction now that our ferro-cement tanks are finished. Collecting and holding lovely cool, clean and fresh water in a passive way.

1 Comment

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Guests, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

diy, ecob, ecobuilding, energy, Environmentally Friendly, ferrocement, Les Vignes Basses, passive, permaculture, permaculturedesign, rain water harvesting, security, storage, straw bale house, water, workaway

Constructing Empowerment

International Women’s Day is a demonstration that our modern world fights the good fight daily in terms of equality, anti-discrimination and liberty to transcend gender boundaries. Some areas are making this transition in leaps and bounds whilst others are laggards stuck in their traditional ways with little or no thought towards progression. Thinking about this started a reflection process about our house build and the stereotypes which I unwittingly fought (and still fight) against on a daily basis.

8 Comments

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

action, building, confidence, construction, diy, ecobuilding, empowerment, energy, fitfam, fitness, gender equality, greenbuiilding, International Women's Day, Les Vignes Basses, life affirming, mental health, Natural Building, permaculture, permaculturedesign, permaculturedesigncourse, selfbuild, selfsufficiency, straw bale building, StrawBaleBuilding, sustainability, Sustainable, wellbeing

Home Sweet Home

Progress on the house was somewhat slowed over the summer by the heat of the day, which lasted literally the entire day, from 11am-8pm throughout July and August. However, steady progress was made on the interior of the straw bale house.

9 Comments

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building

animals, autumn, ceiling, community, dancing, diy, ecobuilding, ecofriendly, education, electrics, france, house, insulation, learning, nature, selfbuild, sharing, stove, straw bale building, straw bale house, summer, sustainability, woodburningstove, writing

What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks?

Shakespeare knew where it was at; windows really are making all the difference to the house. It’s starting to feel like an indoor space now. Surprisingly we found the windows super easy and satisfying once we had all the right components.

5 Comments

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

autoconstruire, diy, doityourself, ecobuilding, france, learning, livingnaturally, maisonenpaille, Natural Building, permaculture, permaculturedesign, selfbuild, selfsufficiency, strawbale, StrawBaleBuilding, upskilling

The Splendour Of Render

An account of the ups and downs, ins and outs of using lime render on our straw bale house.

2 Comments

Posted on November 24, 2017 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Guests, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

alifelessordinary, diy, ecobuilding, education, france, learning, lesvignesbasses, Natural Building, natural materials, nature, no debt, sharing, strawbale, StrawBaleBuilding, Sustainable

I’ll Huff And I’ll Puff… 🐖🐖🐖

Anyone close to us will know that for the last couple of years our lives have been dominated by our straw bale house. After the foundations got underway and finished last year, we began building upwards in earnest on July 15th this year. The aim was to have the superstructure of the house completed by winter time.

5 Comments

Posted on October 15, 2017 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Guests, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

brightonpermaculturetrust, building, ecobuilding, learning, Natural Building, permaculture, strawbale, strawbalehouse

Homemade Powerwall

Always being up for a challenge, we decided to have a crack at creating our own homemade Powerwall using recycled laptop batteries sourced in job lots on eBay.

4 Comments

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Sustainable Futures

batteries, battery, batterystorage, cleanenergy, diy, ecobuilding, ecofriendly, freeenergy, laptopbatteries, liionbatteries, permaculture, recycle, renewableenergy, repurpose, solar, Solarenergy, solarpanel, solarpower, Tesla

You Put The Lime In The Coconut…

For the past month or so our lives have been consumed with making lime putty. Processing quicklime and turning it into lime putty, ready to be mixed with sand just before it goes onto the walls of our straw bale house as render/plaster.

3 Comments

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

alifelessordinary, carbonneutral, diy, ecobuilding, ecofriendly, france, lesvignesbasses, lime, limeplaster, limeputty, limerender, nature, permaculture, quicklime, StrawBaleBuilding, Sustainable

Rubber Rings & Stoney Things

Tyres and gravel have been a consistent theme at Les Vignes Basses over the last few weeks. With a lot of help from our friends, many bad backs and copious amounts of alcofrol (surprisingly, it has come out level!), we have completed the rammed tyre foundations and the structural box beam.

4 Comments

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

alifelessordinary, beer, doityourself, ecobuilding, followyourdreams, foundations, france, gravel, lesvignesbasses, levelling, music, naturalliving, organic, permaculture, rammedtyrefoundations, shovel, StrawBaleBuilding, Sustainable, tea, tyres, wheebarrow, wood, wool