A Grumpy Guide to Building Your Own Off Grid Home

Ever picked up a self-help book, building renovation manual, or even a home maintenance/D. I. Y handbook, and it all looks terribly straightforward and presented to appear within the scope of us all? When you reach the realms of environmental projects or eco-homes, the enthusiasm verges on gushing. But if you have ever taken, or intend to take, the bold step beyond dreaming, planning and visualising, onto the rollercoaster of actually doing it, then you may find that things aren't as straightforward as they seem.
As you variously go through stages of idealism, hope, despair, tantrums, fulfilment, fatigue and just plain grumpyness, you may appreciate that this is quite normal for mere mortals like us who have never really tried anything like this before. To give the less rosy side of the story, here is the grumpy guide to building an off grid, eco-home, or in other words, the full, real-life story of a couple trying to provide a sustainable place to live without harming the World, this is our story.