Young family win their three-year planning battle to live in the ‘Hobbit house’ in Pembrokeshire


“A family has today won a three-year battle to save their real-life ‘hobbit house’ from the bulldozers after it was built without planning permission for £12,000.

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Be the Change You Want to See – What this Blog is Really About

Over the years we’ve profiled thousands of affordable and sustainable housing ideas that include affordable homes made with natural building materials, earthquake and hurricane resistant housing, renewable energy, appropriate technology, permaculture, and on and on. In fact, we’ve covered almost the whole range of homesteading and sustainable living topics in addition to our main focus on natural building. We’ve done this because all these things are so closely interconnected. How can you have a sustainable home without a sustainable toilet, a renewable energy system and home garden? How can you build a sustainable home without affordable land? Most affordable land nowadays has depleted soil, so how do you improve degraded land to support a homestead?

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Stone houses and almost no electricity


“Valle Bavona is surrounded by hydroelectric power plants, but in the 1950s its inhabitants rejected electricity. Keeping away from modernity has been a plus for the valley. Since it had no electricity, no new buildings were constructed and the valley retained much of its authenticity.”

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