I was blowing through cash so I gave up rat race to build house made out of MUD – it’s 96% cheaper but weather is brutal
A COUPLE were sick and tired of blowing through their cash to afford housing that they gave up their boring jobs and built a new home completely out of mud and are now convincing others to join them.
This new way of life comes in 96 per cent cheaper than the average price of a house but the only downside is the brutal weather.
Kate Edwards and Charlotte Eve have spent over a decade teaching people that having a mud house is actually a pretty cool way of life and could save you a whopping amount of money, stress and future worries.
Based in Lyme Regis by the sea, Kate and Charlotte set up Edwards & Eve Cob Building company to showcase the wonders of cob – better known as mud and straw.
They offer courses on cob building and have long been showing others why converting away from a regular new build made of bricks and glass could have huge benefits.
The pair said: “Our aim at Edwards & Eve Cob Building is to empower as many people as possible to build their own affordable and sustainable home from the earth; and educate as many people as possible about the benefits of cob and earth building”.
“We enjoy building projects for other people and carry out renovations on earth buildings, but we particularly relish sharing our cob building expertise on our cob building workshops.
“This way many more people around the UK and globally will be free to build their own homes and share their knowledge with others too.”
Using cob for building work dates all the way back to the 15th century when animals on farms used to stomp on straw and mix it in with mud to create a hard and malleable substance.
People took this new material and turned it into huge buildings and other useful things for their homes like desks, seats and even windows.
Charlotte told The Telegraph: “It’s the perfect eco-friendly substance. It’s sustainable, cheap, and you get raw material from the garden.
“It’s easy to work with. If you build a wall and want a larger window, you saw the cob. If you want a smaller window, you add cob. It’s that flexible.”
Both women run the workshops that train way over 300 people a year – from surveyors and architects looking to learn more about the materials to first time buyers who want to build instead of rent and buy.
They’ve had people fly over from Japan, Bulgaria, US, Canada, Germany and even Norway for the courses that have proved to be a great success.
Kate was a psychotherapist and Charlotte worked long hours in advertising before they made the move to become cob specialists.
Charlotte went on to say: “Our courses have become more and more popular as people look for alternative ways of owning their own affordable home, escaping the rat race and becoming ‘greener’.”
For the couple – who now have a two-year-old son together – their journey started when they found a tiny, unwanted, run down thatched cottage in the cobbled backstreets of Norwich.
They grabbed the keys to the home and started a massive revamp project with plans to more than double the size of cottage using cob.
After the ambitious effort started to take shape the house started to look more like a home and the finishing touches were added just in time for a family Christmas round the couples new place.
They told The Guardian: “The first night in the cottage was freezing – it snowed, and the ancient windows let the gale blow straight into the house, with the mice following behind. We had to draw our water from the old well.
“The build itself was stressful. I remember making clay plaster in the dark in a snow blizzard whilst Kate clay-plastered inside, trying to get the house finished in time for family visiting for Christmas.
“Christmas Eve we were frantically laying the oak floor and painting walls.”
Overall it took just £10,000 to complete it all and create a huge home fit for a pair of risk takers.
A brand new staircase and fireplace were added completely for free as they’re made of cob found in the back garden.
Kate even ended up thatching the house herself using reeds from the marshes around the area.
For comparison the average house price in the UK sits at a scary £291,000 and has been on the rise over the last few years.
“Our old jobs are a distant memory now. We’re full time cob builders and tutors, with a 2-year-old son, and the three of us spend all day playing in the mud,” Charlotte said.
“I feel that we are living the dream – away from the noise, pollution and stress of modern life, in our mud home by the water.”