Ecology issued us with a revised offer of loan yippee! So paperwork-wise we're good to go. However, our solicitor has gone on holiday this week, holding up the exchange of contracts. This in turn delays completion, which means that we might not be formally ready to move into the houses by the time the new tenants on the place we currently live in are due to move in. Grr!! So we're looking at mid-end September at best for moving in.

We have hit a steep learning curve with the immediate practical job that needs doing - re-pointing and replastering walls in 25 and 27, as well as Hemcrete-ing the interior of the front walls. We are using lime plaster from a local company, who import it from France - there's none made in UK anymore. We chose it because the walls are solid red brick and need to breathe; 'modern' gypsum plaster suffocates walls. For more info go to: www.anglialime.com
Hemcrete is essentially lime plaster with hemp stalk fibres mixed in for their insulating properties - neither 25 nor 27 have any wall insulation nor wall cavities, so after extensive research and price comparisons between the Breathe insulation system, wood fibreboard and Hemcrete we settled on the latter. We'll be applying it ourselves by casting and shuttering onto the inside of the walls - some straight onto brickwork, some onto the original plaster once stripped of wallpaper and old adhesives.
Lots of people have offered us the loan of plastering tools & equipment, tutorial DVDs and advice, as well as elbow grease! Thankyou Jnanamitra, Harsharatna, Samira, Dave & Jood, Paul, Noel, Karl, John and Jenny, John Taylor, Das, Margaret, Tom B...anyone ive missed too!
If we'd had a chance to arrange the plastering and this first phase of Hemcreteing as a public workshop we would have, but it took us by surprise somewhat. If you're interest in coming to help within the next two weeks please do contact us, and ill put out days we're at the houses working by text - likely to be Sunday this weekend and most days next week.

 beautiful wallpaper is revealed beneath

 200l hemp shiv bales in our living room

35kg sacks of batichanvre - a lime binder for hemcrete

the front wall of no. 25, all bare n nekkid for the first time in probably 200 years

 mixing one part NHL 2 lime with 3 parts coarse sharp sand and a bit of water to make mortar

 wetting the joints between bricks thoroughly before repointing bricks - lots of the mortar is crumbly

 sporting glamorous dustmask and protective overalls, Frankie strikes a pose

 Das n Hel try all manner of methods to strip wallpaper and associated gunk off walls upstairs

 more mixing

The rewiring is progressing apace, some fittings are now on ceilings, but it cant enter phase two and the leccy cant switch on the new circuits until we've plastered over the channeled in drops and around the fronts of sockets...pressure!

Its all a bit tense in Camel-land...x

We've given notice on our current main abode! Which expires 26th August - so we're in the end stages now. Unfortunately, having been so proactive hasnt pleased our solicitor, and the mortgage provider have asked us for lots of updated information since we started this process of purchase with them 2 years ago...
All us Camels are running around preparing the house for imminent works like Timber Treatment and Rewiring, and afterwards replastering and insulating at the same time. These need to be done before we move in. Then we're organising workshops in more hemp/lime solid wall insulation, eco-plumbing (woodburner/immersion heater/solar thermal central heating system), making wooden double glazed windows, making wooden garage doors, over the autumn. As well as having roofing work done. Argh!

The garden is benefitting from brutal pruning - we discovered another rose behind several buddleia trees!

And the accounts and annual return are done. At the 11th hour.

Today me and Helen went to the houses and pulled up carpets, innoculating ourselves with evil black foam underlay dust particles. Puled out tacks. Pulled off gripper rods. Swept up afterwards and ate our new favourite biscuits - tripple chocolate chunk cookies from the Fairtrade shop at the top of the road. Vegan! Fantastic!!
Tomorrow we'll go back with boys and remove every 4th floorboard in the rooms upstairs.

We have guarantors for all of our Radical Routes loan.

Those residing at Burrell Rd are purging and packing up our stuff in a zombie-like fashion. Street stalls are the way to go, no lugging stuff to car boots or charity shops! Its nice looking out the window and seeing people rummaging through your stuff, intent on picking out that shiny pebble they didnt know they wanted.

Being at the Foundation Street houses during this time; being part of the process of making them liveable while theyre empty and partly demolished...its a great aid to personal purging. Of my own material possessions, and emotionally. This is the first time ill have lived in a place i can call my own, that i can make structural decisions in. So i dont need most of what clogs up my bedroom like cholesterol! And im just about to turn 26; into my second quarter of a century. Big change. I want to pare down the impact of my life, go travelling on my bicycle with all that i need in my paniers, roam. Its helping me value space, and minimalism.  Ive held on to a great deal of 'stuff'. My first stereo (that doesnt play copied CDs or have an input for MP3 players) my childhood monster alarm clock (whose hands dont turn naymore) my best friends jumper (which doesnt smell of him anymore) jars of unidentified translucent goo...and PAPER!! that ive never read the contents of and never will. CLOTHES, enough to seed a small boutique...
I will still be myself, Gemma, without all of these things.

Swing by and help yourself to our wealth. Burrell Road, opposite St Mary church.

We got our certificate of structural integrity! Which means the subsidence remediation is almost complete, and we can progress with exchanging contracts (because we've also been offered an insurance policy). Woo hoo! Hoping to move in end August. Chimneys swept, damp proof course injected. Bought lots of reclaimed floorboards. Strimmed the allotment, harvested 'chokes and strawb's. Bicycle ball happened and was successful.

Front right room shutters to hold up concrete

The underpinning continues, and becomes another of our sagas, punctuated by restrainedly weary sighs. It will take 3 more weeks from now. Ughhhh....to wait for the concrete to dry and be waterproofed. Why didnt they tell us this 3 weeks ago, when they told us it would only take TWO weeks?!

We have visitors, they have BOOMboxes!

A few days later, shutters in and metal framework awaiting concrete

Constable's masterpiece looks on the scene with interest

In the cellar, lurk metal scaf poles...with intent.

More visitors to our garden full of discarded building materials

Our lovely view over the 'waterfront'...

Shocked to hear of progress

Doing our accounts is fun!

Yes it's the cellar...there is no ground floor anymore

'Cause these guys dug it up!

The room next door fares little better

Houseplants wait anxiously for the work to be complete

That heap was a partition wall

A mini-giant yellow machine squats in the garden

Meanwhile, members of the co-op organise a wicked pro-biking event 23rd June at the Brewery Tap http://www.bicycleball.com/

Flowers! They're not edible...

But they ain't half pretty

Down on our allotment...

Where the vegetables grow themselves! Wherever they want!

You may have guessed from the photos that the subsidence remediation work started on time, and Week 2 commences in 6 hours. We're scampering around hiring 'leccies, chimney sweeps and insulation experts, notifying insurers, solicitors and lenders, and reeling from the speed of progress!

Progress! Publicity! de-Plastering!

Lookie here; we got ourselves in the local press. Because things are moving! We're having workdays to remove plaster in the houses we've been in the process of buying for TWO YEARS, the subsidence remediation work will be commencing shortly, and exchange of contracts will follow thereafter. Phew - wow! We welcome our new member Adam, bringing our number of adults up to 8 with 2 part-time children. Drop us an email if you want an invite to our moving in party!

We've finally found a house!

Join us in living in it or invest in the project!

Hey! We're getting in touch about the possibility of you being involved in a co-operative housing project in Ipswich. And to ask you to spread this message amongst your contacts, news bulletins and put us in the Forming Groups section of D&D. Thanks.

Incredible news; Random Camel Housing Co-op of Ipswich, Suffolk, have had an offer accepted on a house! No.s 23-27 Foundation St.
It's actually 3 terraced 2-up 2-down properties next to one another, 2 of which have been knocked through, 1 remaining as a self contained entity.
I attach photos for your delectation. In all, it can house up to 9 tenants.

We are only able to actually buy it if there are at least 7 of us living there, and there are currently only 4 of us on the books; myself, John and Helen who i currently rent a house with, and Frankie, a recent new member who's just come back from touring housing co-ops in Canada.

We would like you to join us! (Investing info below)

The house is versatile, spacious - big rooms and lots of storage spaces - rather worn in terms of decoration (flowery and geometric wallpapers and carpets of multiple generations!!), structurally sound and a prime opportunity for a group of people to create a base of community action and live as an intentional community. It's the most appropriate building we've come across because the end house that stands alone would suit 2 or 3 people who wanted to be involved in the co-op but would need a little more privacy from the main area.

The family who are selling it told us all about the history of the place - all 7 siblings grew up there, their mother lived there for 75 years, until this January! The house has a calm, cheery, homey atmosphere, which we'd be proud to inherit.

There are 3 separate kitchens which is a godsend, because there can be vegan, veggie and omnivore kitchens! Also 3 bathrooms.
It's in the middle of town but standing in the rose and honeysuckle back gardens it feels like a secluded oasis. The other buildings on that street are offices which don't generate traffic after 5pm and some almshouses for the elderly. There is no reason for anybody driving into town at night to use the road, its not a shortcut to anywhere. So no excessive noise.

Our aims for the 'Transition Terrace':

• We want to live sustainably, in as low impact fashion as possible in an urban environment.
  
• We'd like to link up with the Energy Co-op that the Transition Town group is starting, which can mean them bulk buying solar panels and installing them on our roof so we use the electricity generated, but they sell the surplus back to the grid using the new Feed In Tariff scheme.

• We'd like to build a compost loo or modify the existing toilet facilities to be compost loo-able.

• The humongous 29' by 7' garage could be used to permanently house the Ripple Food Co-op, enabling it to be open weekly, if not twice weekly - evenings and weekends - and expand into offering local fresh fruit n veg. It can also be used for workshops, classes, training courses on the eco-renovations that we'll do to the building as well as old skills like preserving and brewing.

• The 2 cellars can be used as band practice spaces and there are enough drummers involved in the project to ensure they are well used! You can stand up fully in one of the cellars and they both have electricity.

• A room within the house can be turned into a community resource centre and info hub, putting to good use all the experience we've had in voluntary projects in our town. This could be used as meeting space for local groups.

• We'd like to demonstrate what can be done with a small urban garden to turn it into a permacultural food unit And recreational space!

And lastly, we'd like to paint beautiful murals describing co-operative projects on the garage door :-)

If any of that floats your boat, please call me asap and we can talk about options, we can go view the place with you.

Investing
We need to raise around 50,000 pounds of finance ourselves, so we're looking for investments of anything between 500 and several thousand pounds from friends, family, organisations and the wider community. We have already got 18,000 pledged to us which is over a third of our target.
If you have money that you're looking to invest in an ethical entreprise please consider us; we can offer up to 4% interest on sums invested for 5, 10, 15 20 or 25 years. Investments are made as repayable loans, not donations, but those are gratefully received also!
Investing in this project will mean supporting the provision of affordable, tenant controlled co-operative housing in Ipswich. The building itself will be bought by the legal entity that is the co-op and cannot be sold on, so members can move in and out without being tied financially to the project - all they have to do is pay rent. It will develop into a hub of community activities and a haven for co-operative learning accessible to the entire population, not just it's tenants.

We can send you our business plan to peruse

Speak soon, wish us luck and get in touch! We want you!

Gemma

Random Camel Housing Co-operative
An Industrial & Provident Society
Reg'd Feb 2007 No. IP030185

165 Burrell Road,
Ipswich
IP28AA

Upcoming Event at UCS

As a follow up to the evening we hosted in November last autumn at the Spinney (which has now been listed Grade 2!) Random Camel Housing Co-op has organised another evening of information and discussion:.
Room W115, Waterfront Building, University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich.
7pm ending no later than 9:30pm

We'll be talking about creating a communal, environmentally-sound living space for those in and around Ipswich, using a tried and tested financial model: buying a property without any need for personal wealth, as a housing co-operative.

So what would be your ideal home? (best Lloyd Grossman voices now)

Possibilities include: a roomy house with shared facilities, an urban transition terrace, a peri-urban or completely rural land project, eco-village, eco-forest-dwellings, yurt community, barges at Pin Mill...?

Please come and proffer your dream!
Random Camel Housing Co-op needs more members for our own plan to work, but if the plan isn't appealing then we want to know what would be! We want to know how you all want to live. So we'll introduce ourselves, there'll be an interactive ideal-home-mapping activity, sharing of ideas, and information from the Radical Routes network on how to make our dreams happen in the real world.

And cake.

If you can, forward and print and display the attached poster. Thanks.