Build from Scratch, or Renovate?

There are three main ways to create a gorgeous natural home for yourself. You can either build the thing from the ground up, find an old structure and renovate it, or buy someone else’s project. I’ve now done two out of these three, and have been considering the pros and cons for a long while now. So here is the Mud Home take on the matter.

Before and after: Baykal and Feryal building from scratch in Turkey.

Build from Scratch (Green Plots)
 
Pros:

1. You have a clean site to work from (though I hate it when people consider this to be a tabula rasa. It’s not. You’re moving into an existing ecosystem and a landscape that responds to you). But from a building site perspective it means you can plan a home from the footings up, and incorporate everything you want in your design.
2. It also means you don’t have nasty surprises rearing their potentially toxic heads.
3. You get to choose all the materials, and can opt for the best fit for both you and your landscape.

Cons:

1. If you’re going the legit route, then the bad news regarding green plots is you’ll probably have to get involved with an architect. This means you’re now dealing with officialdom, and paying an arm and a leg for that dubious pleasure.
2. Usually, though by no means always, building from scratch costs more because you literally have to bring in (or forage for) every piece of the structure.
3. Depending on how you build and your attitude towards your environment, you could either be a boon to your ecosystem (the way some people work with their landscapes is very inspiring) or a complete destroyer of habitats. This is largely dependent on how big you build and how obsessed with speed you are. Mostly, the smaller and slower the build, the happier the rest of your land’s inhabitants are.

Before and after: my barn transmutation in Spain.

Renovating (Brown Plots)
 
Pros:

1. I can speak from experience and tell you it gives you a very very good feeling to bring an abandoned building back to life. Renovating is arguably the most sustainable of all builds, because rather than intruding on a natural landscape, you’re breathing life back into a space that was previously developed.
2. Another amazing thing about renovating is that you will have lots and lots of materials that can be reused in creative ways. I saved an absolute fortune by upcycling old oak beams from my roof in the interior, and reusing old roof tiles to create good draining terraces, to name just two ways I reused stuff.
   
3. Depending on the state of the structure, many renovations also offer the substantial bonus of a dry place to store your stuff while you’re working, which is more important than you’ll ever realise until you start.
   
4. You contribute to a place’s heritage. If you’re a foreigner, this could win you plenty of local friends who support you, especially if you ask said locals about the history of the area.
   

Cons:

1. Of the two I think renovating is harder work and takes a lot longer. You’re going to need plenty of patience.
   
2. You spend a lot of time undoing mistakes, digging out mortar, cleaning, and repairing.
3. You also have a lot less freedom in design because the structure is already standing. I found with my stone barn, one thing that was bugging me by the end was that the whole thing was so much bigger than I really needed. Had I designed that barn from scratch, it would have been very different, but of course the thing was made for cows and straw storage, not me:)
   
4. Dealing with debris and dust was something I personally hated about renovating. Digging out concrete mortar and cleaning out dust is nasty, dirty work which can potentially cause health issues. Some stuff (asbestos for example) may even be toxic.
   

When you renovate, you have a lot of free materials you can upcycle, like this door for example.

Taking on Someone Else’s Project
 
There didn’t used to be many modern natural builds to take over, but that is definitely changing as more and more people try and set up alternative lifestyles or permaculture-based homesteads. So these days you could find yourself taking on a project that someone else has half-finished, or perhaps completely finished. This method brings its own raft of considerations, bonuses and headaches.
 
Pros:

1. You almost certainly will have a fairly functioning living space, and that my friends is worth considering. One of the hardest things about the entire process of these projects is the day-to-day living while you’re building. You need a space to cook, sleep, eat, and wash. When you buy someone else’s project you probably have these already existing in some form or another.
   
2. You will have the satisfaction, a little like a renovation, of bringing a project or vision back to life. Perhaps you can sort out issues the other person couldn’t. Perhaps you bring new energy into the place.
   

Cons:

1. You have no idea what kind of cock-ups the previous owner has made. They may have been a complete amateur and bodged the whole thing up. You will undoubtedly spend a lot of time undoing and uncovering mistakes, or changing things that are not to your personal liking. These projects are very unique and no two people have the same viewpoint or needs.
   

Be Generous Folks!
On that note though, it’s such a downer when people take over someone else’s project and start blaming every failure and every problem on the previous owner. It’s just not conducive to success or happiness, and ignores how incredibly difficult those beginning couple of years are when you first start a project. The attitude of gratitude builds dreams in my opinion. It’s the make or break of a good life. See what the previous owner gave you, rather than continually moaning about their mistakes. There is probably some similarity between you and the previous owner, which is why you were drawn to the same land, and at some point you have to take responsibility for choosing to become the new guardian.
 
Extra Things to Note
Many of the pros and cons depend on the particular building regulations in your area. In Europe it is sometimes easier to get through the red tape by renovating. I said sometimes, because hey there’s enough red tape around here to encircle the planet three times over.

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