WHY & HOW we bought our home | Finding the perfect house to renovate for sustainable living

It took some BIG PICTURE thinking to find the right house to retrofit for our new 'sustainable in the city' lifestyle. We tried the usual techniques and found that they did not work for the 21st Century where climate change impacts are real and very NOW! I ended up creating a heat map to find the 'hot spots' in Auckland and discovered the areas to avoid in the process.
We soon realised that location, location, location was all important - but for quite different reasons than the traditional meaning. Living in a walkable neighbourhood frees you from car dependency and the large (and increasing) costs that surround owing multiple vehicles because you have no choice. Orientation to the sun allows you to grow your own food and heat your home for free, and paying attention to potential climate change impacts on your home means that you can protect yourself from sea level rise, flooding, landslides and forest fires.
Once you have found the property in the right location you can renovate to create a warm, dry, healthy and comfortable home that is easy to maintain. Plus you can then create a kitchen garden to provide fresh health food for free!
DEFINITION OF A POCKET FARM
[noun] A pocket farm is a small area of land that has been repurposed to grow food and/or keep small animals (worms count) as its primary purpose. It is an oasis of sustainable agriculture and wildlife habitat in or around a densely populated area. May include: balconies, patios, driveways ... or anything you can think of really!
VISIT CORNWALL POCKET FARM
Secret Gardens secretgardens....

[@mariecoghlan746]

I enjoyed listening to your criteria for your house purchase. When I looked for my house it took more than a year. I looked for what I called the ‘magic triangle’. Access to supermarket/s doctors, dentists, public transport to eliminate the need for a car. I also wanted a bungalow so if old age and infirmity became a problem it would be easy to access the house. I’ve now spent 20 years living in the house. I grow fruit and vegetables, flowers etc for supporting wildlife. My time searching was worth the wait. You spoke lots of sense evaluating your potential purchase. Well done and live well.😊 greetings from Ireland.😊

[@cornwallpocketfarm]

Hello! It's lovely to hear that 😊 It makes so much difference in the long run, doesn't it!

[@mrsmscuriositycabinet6925]

Lovely to hear the thoughts of a fellow urbanite (a new fangled word for a Barbera Good "self sufficiency in suburbia" type ) on how we should be adapting in the locations we already occupy rather than moving out and dig up/pull down more nature. The key also is for this way of thinking and living to become the norm, which means as many of us starting from where we are and doing what we can, rather than the few who have the means rushing for the flat uplands. As a non-driver with chronic pain & fatigue, I am 100% on board with the walkable/cyclable/public transportable. I like the idea of the 15-minute city (despite the political backlash it gets from certain quarters). We had to make a lot of compromises because any outside space is London is like gold dust and as for insulation well...The poor Victorian/interwar housing stock of London means that's thin on the ground. And then there is the English trend of councils favouring conservation of pretty features over the pressures of climate emergencies in their planning policies. Still we are doing what we can, squeezing edibles into every corner of my postcard stamp garden, double glazing, planting climbers up the wall for insulation, wrapping ourselves in woollen, siphoning shower water down to the garden in summer to water the plants. Oh, and I'm going to adopt ZFF going forward. That is brilliant but sums up reality entirely!

[@cornwallpocketfarm]

It's always wonderful to hear from a fellow 'urbanite' who is also doing what they can 😊 I often feel like I'm the only person thinking like this and making changes to their life ... I'm certainly an oddity in Auckland! It must be difficult in London as it's so much more built up. Good on you 😊

[@greerhopkinson9267]

This has given me some good food for thought!

[@cornwallpocketfarm]

I'm glad 😊 It took us quite a while to work it all out as we were going through the process so I thought I'd pass on what we learnt!

[@burgesscr]

This is just brilliant -- thank you for such a well-thought-out discussion! I am one of those people who would love to be out in the countryside, but you're so right, this just isn't sustainable in the long-view. At the present I live in a very small home in a semi-urban environment, and have lamented my lack of acreage, but listening to your thought process for what makes a good place to live helps me to realize I've got it pretty darn good right where I am. So thanks for helping me see my place for all its benefits!

[@cornwallpocketfarm]

Thank you 😊 I'm so pleased 😁

[@mllep3259]

Around here there are a lot of people who put 2nd stories on their house and expand it to a huge size, thereby shading their poor neighbors houses and yards. This is the main reason I would want more land around me when I buy, just to keep someone from possibly stealing all my sun! I'm not sure what it's like in NZ, but for the Bay Area it seems hard to stop this. I only want a small house for similar reasons to yours and have loved seeing the progress.

[@cornwallpocketfarm]

Yes, it's similar here too. That's one of the reasons we liked this house - the direction of the sun is from the road so can't be built out. Our neighbours could possibly build up but it would be on the east and west so not that critical for sun 😊

[@donnaateah6363]

they staged the house for sale.

[@cornwallpocketfarm]

Yes, they did 😁