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On the road to a hemp home!

By Janet Price
Hemp Farmer | Treasurer, iHemp NSW

Part 1 – The beginnings

Knocking out pise (rammed earth) walls.

Have you ever viewed ‘Grand Designs’ and mused over why so many end up over budget?

Most of us start out thinking we can save money by project managing, doing some things ourselves, or even being an Owner Builder! Add to this daring to be the first to do anything different in the building game… and a woman…and an elderly one at that!

I returned home in Yr 2000 to care for my ageing dad, who like most farmers didn’t want to leave to go into some place in town. As was the tradition, my brothers were given the option to buy, eventually turning down the valuated price. I had always yearned to return home after living in sixteen homes over twenty-four years as an Australian Defence family, and this was my turn to be still.

The original mud home, built by my dad, was looking tired. A ticket to the Home Show and the opportunity to hear about the benefits of hemp from Dick Clarke led to Dick’s clever design.

Woohoo; Dick’s business was carbon-neutral – he couldn’t justify coming over the mountains to look at my current home; and finding a Certifier who was brave enough to approve a hemp home; and a builder who even knew what hemp was, was some of the initial headaches…

How was I going to build this beautiful hemp home?

To be continued…