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| 01 April 2008 - The employed housed before the employer. | This has got to be the most frustrating part of this project - trying to get started. If I am in this situation and I have the luxury of a fairly average income, what about other people less fortunate than myself? My maid, Cynthia has a house in Mandela Park, (Imizamo Yethu) in Hout Bay. It is NGO subsidised by kindly Nial Melon from Ireland. Her 72m2 house cost her R58 000 - with no interest. True it started cracking up and falling apart almost immediately and after 5 years of living there she has not been able to get the builders back to repair the structural cracks, but Cynthia has her own home, something her employer is lacking :-) |
| 26 March 2008 - How much money do I need? | Whilst researching building an Eco Home for under R200 000, I have experienced a lot of people telling me what I can't do and not a lot telling me what I can do, backed up with facts. The architects I have approached so far all tell me that it is impossible. That they cannot design a tiny 50m2 house that I can build on my land for R200 000. They say I cannot build a garage for R200 000. That their fees, the structural engineers fees, the surveyors fees, the councils fees, the scrutiny fees, the connection fees, this ones fees and than ones fees will pretty much take a huge chunk of that money and I will still not have broken earth on my property to start the building itself. In my first baby steps towards building my own home in 2006, I gave an architect R40 000 to design a dream house that I cannot afford to build. This excludes any other fees including the structural engineeer, one who quoted R80 000 as being the usual rate for his services. Architects and structural engineers make their money by charging a percentage of the cost to build the house they design (eg architect +- 7%), so the more expensive it is, the more they get paid. I obtained a R500 000 mortgage bond, but wanted my perfect house and I was stubborn and would not compromise on the design and the end result was that we ended up with a house that would cost millions of rands to build. Millions I do not have. REALITY CHECK: Determine what money I really have and plan and build according to that. The reality is I have R70 000 now and a non guarranteed R160 000 in August. The rest of the money will have to come next summer. Now my neighbours in Harbour Heights manage to build for under R200 000. How is it possible for them? Ah, they are on the other side of the street - literally. Different zoning laws. They can and do build shacks, 'Wendy Houses', modest block homes, tyre and sandbag retaining walls etc etc because the laws that apply to my side of the street do not apply to them. In fact, the relaxed laws that do apply to them are ignored anyway. They are not forced to comply to the building codes I am saddled with. Eish! So much for the drive for equality, she mumbled loudly. I can't even build a temporary home on my property whilst I collect the recycled building materials I need to build the main house as council will not and does not approve of temporary accommodation structures in my zone. Other people can 'squat' on my property and be very, very difficult to remove, but I cannot squat on my own property. It makes perfect sense in the new South Africa. So what is next? | | 16 March 2008 - Trading flying for a Home of my own |  My Moms solution to my housing budget :-)
Last year I put this project on hold because I was compelled to fly the XC Open World Series. I was passionate about flying this particular competition series and I gave it 100% commitment and in doing, so I put my land at risk, taking out a bond in order to fly. You know that catchy phrase - 'Fly Now, Pay Later'...... ouch.
Passion leads you to do incredible things. It allows you to live your dreams and I am glad for it. But now I want to experience building my own home. I will write about my experiences here for those interested. I have to re-order things a bit under design, financing, progress photos, places to buy recycled building materials, eco considerations and other useful contacts and information - so give me a few weeks to get started.In the mean time, my Mom has been very helpful with research and feels that she has found the perfect solution for my budget :-) Oh and she mentioned that the toilet will have to be a portable. |
| 11 March 2008 - Building up and selling a company to finance my home | Raising finance to build a home is something most people find difficult, but the desire to 'own' a piece of land and create a home is primal. In most cases it means putting ourselves into debt with financial institutions which is something I have always tried to avoid. If I did not have the money at the time, I would do without the item until I made the money to buy it cash. My car was the exception and buying my land was the other because they are such big amounts and it was impossible for me to do it any other way. Like most people. Still, I agonised over signing on the dotted line. A lesson I learned from an early age from my father was that he encouraged his employees to get into debt - to buy a nice car, a house etc, because, as sales staff working soley on commission, they would become motivated to sell more in order to cover the costs of their now higher standards of living and in so doing, make him more money. The fear of not making enough money to cover the monthly bills made them easier to motivate and control. I totally equate debt with legalised slavery. With this thought process you can see how difficult it was for me to ask the banks for money. But I did - because I saw no other way. When I bought my property in 2003, I paid it off so fast that I took my title deeds back within three years. I drove myself into working long hours and I skimped and saved and lived hard just to get rid of that collar around my neck. Next I had to finance the house. I did not want to apply for a loan again as now that I had something free and clear of debt, I did not want to risk losing it. I knew I could not build a home with the income I generated from supplying boats to the film industry so I started a second company - Gaynor Sports Talent - and became an agent for sports people wanting to use their skills to perform on camera for extra money. For four years I ran what quickly became a very successful agency. We were the biggest and the best, as they say, in our niche market. But in order to offer an efficient service, I ploughed the money we made back into the business, building an awesome website , opening offices in town with a studio and supporting a staff of six people through winter and summer. The summers were great, but in winter the film industry becomes quiet and the work less and well, the staff still needed to be paid every month and that is something that can never be late and there were the other costs of running a company which needed to be met. My employees had their own debt commitments and there would be a domino effect if I failed them. It was tough and the stress took its toll. Paragliding kept me sane and the poem 'Impressions of a pilot' summed up how I felt at the time. But then there was my 'Loss of Innocence' as told in 'Flygirl - On Winning and Losing' and I hit a wobbly. Without the love of flying to sustain me, to give me relief from the stress of work, I knew I had to sell Gaynor Sports Talent.  Samantha Olivier Sam wanted my company for herself, but could not raise further finance. I agreed to sell it to her with the understanding that she would pay me the agreed amount of R500 000 as quickly as she could from the proceeds she generated through the company. We worked out that if she ran the company properly and reduced her overheads by working from home in Midmar Street in Belville, she would be able to pay off the debt in two years. We drew up a contract that favoured her should she find herself in difficulties as I did not want to make owning her first company difficult for her and made the repayment period over four years - just in case. I ignored my accountants advice to charge interest on late payments. I believed in her. At the time she was a Trustee to my Will. And I wanted her to succeed because if she succeeded, I succeeded in getting my house. This was the money that was going to build my own home - as I had once helped her to buy hers.  It was not to be. Samantha changed the name to Gas Sports but has been slow in repaying her debt. It took almost two years for Sam to pay the first years instalment and eight months into the second year she has not paid a single cent towards the second years instalment. My only legal recourse is to pay lawyers and advocates to take this to court - and the contract is so badly written that lawyers on both sides say it is open to interpretation and could go either way. I am not a gambler and only one thing is for sure - only the lawyers will benefit. Samantha knows this and is using it to her benefit. But why would she willing put herself in such a situation? Why would she not want to get rid of debt as quickly as I would is beyond my understanding and that is where I made a mistake. I forgot that Sam and her husband were old hands at living in bad debt. I thought they had just made a mistake and deserved a second chance. But the mistake was believing that others have the same values as myself. We are all individuals and our priorities and comfort zones are seldom the same.
Lesson: Don't allow friendship to cloud good business judgement. And now? - How do I build a house without the funds that I sweated blood for for four years? This is how I am going to do it. | | 23 February 2008 | Is building your first home an adventure? I think so. I am not so naive as to think that it will be easy, but an adventure it will certainly be! In 2003 I bought this beautiful piece of property in an area called Harbour Heights, which is home to the colourful fishermen of Hout Bay. I can't help but feel that I had a lot of help from the Universe on this one and I have protected my land over the years like a mother protects her young. Fiercely. |  |  |  | 
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| But things are changing in South Africa at an astonishing rate and like many, I now have serious doubts about a stable future. I put my property up for sale expecting it to take two years to get my price as I went through the immigration process, but a developer made an offer within days. He had bought the property next door, Marlin Spike B&B and wanted my property to expand the development. Unfortunately he was unable to put a deposit down and supply bank guarrantees and so the deal fell through. Perhaps it is for the best. Time will tell. |
I now have a new project. I am going to concentrate on building a renewable energy efficient home at a price I can afford, which is not a lot and live on my property for the next few years. I expect it will be spartan, but I want to experience building my own home and I want to live in something I have created. I had hoped to do this in Australia, but it looks like I will get to do this here before I go. I think it will be an adventure I will enjoy. The basic systems like electricity are breaking down here in South Africa and in order to survive the future with as little inconvenience as possible, we as South Africans, have to look to ourselves as our ancestors did. We have to become self reliant on a continent that is reverting back to its natural state. And so I am going to explore this route using recycled building materials as I did with these beautiful Table Mountain granite stones. They were delivered free of charge to my land from a nearby building site and I adore them. I want to feel like that about everything in my house. Unable to build my home alone, I have turned to my neighbours in Harbour Heights for help. I visited Pam and Denzil whom I had met many years ago and we got chatting about how I could do it. Pam runs her own hair dressing salon from home in the Heights and Denzil drives tourists around and shows them the sights of the South Peninsula like Cape Point etc. He also offers a shuttle service from Cape Town International Airport. The couple are two of the many small business entrepreneurs living in the Heights. Unfortunately it turns out that the building laws for my property are not as flexible as they are for my neighbours across the road. My neighbours in the Heights are used to finding ways to get things done for as little money as possible and I hope to still look to them to show me how to achieve my dream. This is how it was done in the old days when being part of a community meant something, days when people worked together to help one another. This is the environment I have chosen for 2008. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 April 2008 )
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Building an Eco Home