Noel may have solution to tax on property

As home owners face into a budget that is set to bring in property tax, water rates and increased utility bills, a man living in Piltown, Co Kilkenny may have the solution.

Noel Higgins, 39, lives in a self-made 16x8 foot wooden house on wheels. His home is exempt from all the usual bills that a house incurs. His only bill is for his mobile phone.

His wooden house cost a mere €6,000 to build and took less than two months to construct.

Originally from Co Mayo, Noel has been living in Raheen, Piltown, since March. He moved there to help his friend Michael Micklis on his biodynamic farm.

Much of his house is constructed out of recycled and reclaimed materials. It has a steel chassis, the stud wall is made from white deal and is clad in Irish-grown Western Red Cedar. The corrugated tin roof came from a shed and the cladding on the inside is water damaged tongue and grove boarding that he got for free. Insulation is raw sheep’s wool. The floor is mainly made from salvaged floor boards and the windows and doors came from a salvage yard. The kitchen is built from a fallen tree that Noel bought from a friend.

Electricity is provided by a 50 watt PV panel that charges a 12 volt battery — enough to generate a light, charge a mobile phone and run a laptop and radio/CD player.

Heating is supplied by a wood burning stove that Noel made out of an empty gas cylinder. He cooks on a two-burner gas stove or on a flat plate on the wood stove. This also heats water in an old Burco that is connected to the stove with a copper coil. A fold away clothes dryer is made out of an old cot.

The house, though small, contains everything a person needs to live.

“The table is hinged so it can be let down against the wall to create a bit of extra space. The bed can be used as a seat and there’s a decent bit of storage under the bed and in the loft overhead,” he explained.

“I live the same way as if I lived in a normal house. You have to downsize and learn to live with a bit less but it makes you look at what you need and don’t need.”

He said he didn’t find it difficult to adjust to living in a small space. “I enjoy it. I can pretty much reach everything from where I stand. It’s also pretty low maintenance.”

Noel, an electrician by trade, believes we need to change the way we approach the building of houses. “We use so much concrete and steel in buildings and there’s no need for it. Housing has become so standardised. Estates have no inspiration in them. They are just rows of houses, all the same. One size fits all. There’s nothing personal about them. If you build your own shelter you mould it to your own needs. It’s the other way round now; people mould themselves to the house that’s built for them.”

Although it takes a certain type of person to live in such a house Noel points out that people often have to change the way they live out of necessity.

“This type of house is definitely part of something for the future. Not this house specifically but this way of building with natural and sustainable materials.”

Noel is available to talk to people who would like to build something similar. If enough people are interested he will consider hosting workshops. He can be contacted through his ‘Teach Nollaig’ page on Facebook.