Our first homestead experience - the learning curve!

Buying our land
Spring 2001
Our original plan was to buy a piece of land and build an American log home on it.
The plot needed to be within easy commuting distance to the coast (as this was where we were working), and be big enough to allow us to gradually expand the living area to accommodate a business run from home.
The Costa del Sol was booming, and land prices were reflecting both the high demand, and the ease of obtaining planning permission.
The Finca we now live on was one of the first we looked at. The views were spectacular and the distance from the Coast perfect-about a 20-minute drive.
The Agent assured us that every plot in the area had underground water ready for tapping. She also claimed, that town water and electricity had been applied for, and were due within 3-4 months.
We were searching for our dream plot in late spring and although the access road was rough, it was passable in a standard family car.
The only down-side that we could see, was that the plot was not actually on the road. It was reached by using a right of way, through 2 other plots. The agent told us that this was very common and that the right was stated in the deeds.
The price was very good. So, we decided to buy it there and then. We placed our 10% deposit and went for a celebration.
About a week later, we had a well drilling company survey the plot to establish where they should drill. Guess what? Our plot had no underground water!
We immediately cancelled the purchase. Mainly because of lack of water, but also because we had begun to have some reservations about the long-term security of the access across land we did not own.
We lost our deposit, because we had not stipulated that the purchase be subject to finding water.
First lesson learned and paid for.

The next plot
We eventually bought another plot a little further inland but on a good road, and with water and electricity at the gate.
Before buying it, we visited the local Town Hall with the seller and asked about building our log home. The area Architect told us that it would be no problem, and welcomed us to the area.
Four weeks later, with our purchase complete and home plans in hand, we went back to the Town Hall to start the planning process. We met the same official, who now insisted that he had never met us before, and that; “No permission would ever be given for a log or timber house in his area.”
We later discovered the he was related to the seller!

We had paid a premium for this site, as it had water, electricity and good access. We had also followed our notary's advice, and under-declared the value to the tax office by 75%! (“Standard procedure”, according to him.)
Reselling the property at this point would have cost us €15,000 in taxes, fees, and Capital Gains Tax. Not to mention the possibility of a huge fine for under-declaring the original purchase price.
Meanwhile, our log home, which we had specified and paid a deposit on, was put on hold. The company in the States that was making it, told us they would only honor our deposit for 6 months.
Time to think our strategy out again.
Between the loss of our deposit on the original plot, the deposit on the log home, and the money tied up in the current plot, we had managed to lose or lock up, €80,000 and we were still paying rent.
You must admit, it was not an auspicious start to our new, more economical lifestyle.
Every mistake we had made was down to bad professional advice, corrupt officials, and babes in the wood type of naivety on our part.
All of it had been avoidable. If we had only had the opportunity to talk to someone who had already been through the process, we would have been much more careful.

Buying our land-again!
About six months later, we decided to stop the crying, hair pulling, gnashing of teeth and blaming, and get back in the saddle. You have to give us points for pit-bull like tenacity!
However, tenacity is not the same thing as knowledge, and our experiences were not quite over.
We had done some research, and discovered that it was common for rural properties to have tankers deliver water. The water is then stored in water deposits built high on the plot, nullifying the need for a well or town water supply
This opened up the possibility of going back to the first plot we had lost our deposit on. The other point in favor of this site was that a number of log and timber houses had already been built in the area.
We called the agent and were told that the plot was still available, and that the two plots through which it was accessed were also for sale. One or other of which might have water under it.
It turned out that neither did, and with twice the amount of land, the total plot was twice the original price. (And no, we did not get a discount for the original deposit. You don't get refunds on stupidity, just hard won experience!)
The land area was stated as 20,000 square meters in the deeds, 28,000 square meters in the agents’ specs, and 12,000 square meters in the local tax office. The local Town Hall did some creative calculations and told us we could build up to 500 square meters on it. Enough for a good-sized business, when needed.
Three weeks later and €38,350 poorer, we were the proud owners of our very own finca. There was however, one problem, and it was a big one; we could not afford to build on it.
The rest of our money was still tied up in the other plot, and we had no hope of selling the site without losing a stack of money.
Rather than wait for something to change, we decided that we would build a shack and live in it until we had enough money to build a real house.
We chose a site well away from where we intended to build the house, and had it leveled. The JCB driver reckoned it would take him three days to cut out the site and the track down to it. His rates were €250 a day, estimated cost €750.
Thirteen and a half days later, he gave us a bill for €3,360. (Advice: stay on site 24/7 and if it looks like it is going over budget. Stop it!) We had been working down on the coast, believing that the job had been finished on time and within estimate.
The result of this overrun, was that we could not afford to build the shack. We were stuck in rented accommodation, desperately trying to save and/or sell our other plot.
It was one and a half years later that we finally had enough saved to start building, and by that time, the land law had changed and no building was allowed on our plot.
(By the way, the promised town water and electricity has not materialised to this day.)

Enough is Enough
Late Winter 2003
Health and safety is a wonderful thing.
In Marbella, the communal bins are underground. They consist of huge containers fed by chutes at ground level. Emptying them, requires massive trucks with a crane on the back to lift the containers out of the ground, swing them over the back of the truck and release a catch that allows the floor to fall open with a tremendous crash. This is followed by the rubbish; cans, bottles etc. tumbling into the truck bed. Snazzy, huh?
This process is considered so dangerous, that the entire operation is accompanied by a very loud and high-pitched beeping. To empty all three containers takes approx 15 minutes.
Oh, did I mention that the bins are always in the apartment block car park? Or, that all the bedroom windows face the car park? Or, that in summer all the bedroom windows are open at night? Or, that to avoid causing traffic problems, the trucks call at some time between 3-5 AM, every night?
To avoid knocking some poor blind, deaf, nocturnal, and invisible person on the head, every resident is startled awake, every night, at an arbitrary time.
Health and safety. Where is it when you are driving to work in the morning, sleep deprived and deaf?
After a year and half of this, we were ready to confess to any serious unsolved crime and get a few years kip in the local pokey. Or alternatively, to live illegally on our own land- which we had paid for as a build-able site and paid the taxes on- and deal with the consequences later.

Our choices seemed to come down to building a house from scratch (we had lost the log home and the deposit), or buying a kit house.
The problems with these two options were; we could be stopped while building, or worse, allowed to build, and then have the house demolished by the local Town Hall.
We needed another solution.
After some research, we discovered a grey area of the law concerning “temporary buildings”. Like all Spanish laws, this one was very vague and open to interpretation. We decided that our interpretation would be that if it had no foundations, no concrete in it, and could be dismantled or removed within 24 hours, it was temporary.
This narrowed our options considerably; a caravan, a mobile home, a camper van, a garden shed, a yurt, a marquee, or a geodesic dome.
The caravan, mobile home and camper van were dismissed as being too small and difficult to get on site. (the road had now deteriorated to the point where only a 4x4 could negotiate it.)
The garden shed looked like a winner until we tried to find one, in those days they were not common in Southern Spain and very expensive to import.
A yurt looked like a good bet, but that was only until we read about geodesic domes. On paper, it seemed to give us the space we needed and have the ability to withstand high wind speeds - which we get two or three times a year.
We tracked down a company in the States that manufactured them, and having discussed all the available options and sizes, we decided on a 30’ diameter dome, with a mid range canvas cover (with a 7-year guarantee), 20 porthole windows, an 11’ x 20’ bay window, and a basic winterising package. Total cost $14,500 US. Delivery time was six to eight weeks. During this waiting period, we would need to build the round base and floor, according to their specifications.

A 30’ diameter circle gives 700 square feet of floor space. The dome is 15’ high at the centre, giving enough height for a mezzanine floor. We had planned to put in an “upstairs” of about half of the floor area. (Luckily, we did not build this before the dome arrived. More on this later.)
A dome is a half sphere, constructed out of galvanised metal poles, designed to be joined into hexagonal sections, which eventually come together at a single point at the centre of the roof.
It is then covered with a skin, usually made from a tough waterproof canvas. The skin has the door and window openings already stitched in, and the windows (made of marine quality clear plastic) are inserted later.
Building the Dome
We laid the base three times.
Having read the specifications for the base and floor, we decided that we would have to redesign them. We could not find 4x4 inch posts, nail plates or post rests anywhere in Andaluica. Most of what we could find we had to dismiss, as it would require cementing into place, which defeated the “temporary” part of our specification. We finally decided on a “simple” design; cavity blocks resting on the ground, supporting railway sleepers as the base, supporting 6x2 inch joists, and the floor built on top of this.
Let me explain a little more; the blocks would be laid out on the ground in a square, then filled with dry earth and pounded. Then the rough 10x6 inch sleepers would be laid on top, in a square, and “leveled”. Our 6x2 inch rough planks would be laid on top of these in a circle, and leveled. The Tongue and Groove flooring would be laid on top of this and trimmed to size.
We laid the blocks and sleepers 3 times! (A slight slope is good for the occasional spilled drink; it flows out of the house on its own.)
The joists are fixed to an outside ring of the correct diameter. The ring is not actually a circle. It's made of 20 pieces of 6x2, 56 inches long and cut at a precise 27.5-degree angle.
We had bought a radial arm chop saw for this job. It was rated at cutting a 45-degree angle through 8x2 timber, so it should have been more than adequate for the job.
It was actually rated at 8x2 finished timber, which is only 13/4 inches thick; it wouldn't cut all the way through our rough 2-inch planks.
We cut all the angles with a handsaw.
Once this was finally done and all of the joists fixed in place, and the measurements taken over and over, we were ready for the floor.
We opted to secret nail the T&G flooring by hand. It was three and a half inches wide and five feet long. It only took us four full days in direct sun, at a cosy 38 degrees C in the non-existent shade, to lay all 550 pieces!
We trimmed it and covered it with tarps.
The Dome Arrives
We were now ready for our Dome and we had finished the preparations in only seven weeks and three days. Only a few days to wait - or so we thought.
The dome did not arrive in the promised eight weeks; in fact, it took ten weeks. That would not have been too bad, but the shippers took another three weeks to let us know it was in Barcelona. They then informed us that we needed to employ an import agency to arrange for the import duty and VAT to be paid, before it could be sent on.
It took the import agency four weeks to negotiate the figure, and a further two weeks for us to get over the shock of the bill for 46% of the purchase price (including shipping!).
Once we had paid the ransom, it only took another four weeks to get the kit as far as the Malaga transport depot.
Two trips in our ancient Range Rover later, we had the whole kit on site!
It was August by now. Every builder in Spain was on the beach, in the shade, sipping cold beer.
We, on the other hand, were about to start putting our new dome up, in 45 degrees C. (note: this is the temperature in the shade. In direct sunlight, a normal thermometer will hit 60 and boil!)
All of the poles had to be sorted by size and individually labeled. Then laid out around the base according to “the puzzle”. Then the fun starts.
The kit arrives with a step-by-step video guide that makes the whole process Childs play- if, you happen to own a USA spec video player. If not - you are left with what we generously called, “the puzzle”. A loose-leaf folder of drawings and tips, some of which do relate to the actual dome we had ordered, and some that could conceivably be the plans for a time travel machine.
The puzzle states that; “the erection time for the frame is 10 hours, with 5 people.”
Under this, in very small print, it says; “may take longer the first time”. I wonder……how many times do most buyers put it up?
Well there were only the two of us, so, five days later we put the last bolt in.
(Note to self: in August, in Andalucia, any metal left in the sun, will burn you when you touch it - every time you touch it!)
Now all we had to do was put the skin on.
Back to the puzzle; “The skin is very heavy and stiff. It is packed inside out and only needs to be fixed to the midline of the frame with the ties, and then, with the aid of long ropes attached to the bottom, unfolded over the top. This operation should only take 15 to 20 minutes, with 8 people.”
We phoned around our friends, and two days later, my son arrived. With our team now boosted by a full 50%, and still 5 people short, we got to work.
10 hours of blood, sweat, tears and curses later, we had it on. Pit-bull family, rules!
Before the week was out we had the windows and door in, the floor polyurinated (no that does not involve any toilet functions!), and we were moved in. No bed, kitchen, bathroom, water, light or gas, but we were rent-free at last!
We lived in the dome for four years. During that time we built a kitchen, bathroom, closets, and the mezzanine floor.
Let me tell you a bit about domes:
Firstly, 700 square feet is not 700 square feet. The walls start to curve inward right from the floor, so when my head touches the roof, my feet are still a yard from the edge of the floor. This leaves you with a lot of unusable space around the walls.
At 7 feet above the floor - about where you would want your upstairs floor to be - the walls have curved so much, that you have about half of the original floor area available and can only stand upright in a small area in the middle.
We did build a mezzanine level over about half of the floor, we could walk upright in a two and a half foot strip and the rest was crawl space. Not a great addition to your living space, unless you are expecting the seven dwarves to visit. It did provide a ceiling to the bathroom so it was not a complete waste of money.
The insulation package consists of a space age material called, Reflectix. It comes in rolls and has to be cut it into triangles and inserted between the frame and the skin.
It may work in some climates, but not here. We get a daytime to night-time temp differential of about 20-degrees C. The skin expands and contracts to such an extent that the Reflectix is pulled about, and tends to fall out every two to three days. We tried every type of fixing we could find, but nothing worked.
In winter our wood burner - rated at 14.5 Kw - was hard pressed to raise the inside temperature more than 15-degrees C.
It comes with a detachable roof, which takes 45 minutes and a 15-foot Apex ladder to take off or put on. Perfect if it never rains! If the roof is left on, the temperature inside can hit 55-degrees C, making it impossible to stay inside during the day.
It leaked the first time it rained. We sealed it. The next winter it leaked again. We sealed it. This time the leaks got worse. The only way to seal the top is to climb onto the skin, and when you do, it stretches, opening the weave more.
We used clear plastic sheets between the frame and the skin to keep the rain from destroying our belongings. By the second year we had a routine of painting the outside with black rubber paint in winter, and with white emulsion in summer.
In the autumn of 2007, we had a 10 minute shower of 2-3 inch diameter hail stones. They punched straight through the skin in hundreds of places, destroying our home.
The best advice I can give you about Geodesic Domes in Southern Spain is; “buy a yurt”.
The walls are straight, the roof light opens and closes in seconds, and they are easy to insulate - ask any Mongol living on the Asian Steppes!

Our New House
In October of 2007, we moved into our current home. It was built higher up on our land, close to the road.
We designed it to overcome all of the problems we had had with the dome, and it incorporates all of our hard won ingenuity.
The design was dictated by the availability and cost of materials, and uses as much recycled and renewable material as possible.
We built it for less than half of what the dome cost, and it is almost twice the size.
It keeps us warm in winter, cool in summer and protects our belongings (even from hailstones).
We provide for all of our needs without drawing anything from the local communities’ resources.
Our expenditure is decreasing each year, and as for the quality of our life?
Why not come and experience that for yourself? Then you can tell us!