In a quest to slow down the pace of our lives and live more sustainably, we were lucky to find and purchase a dilapidated, 100-year-old, Karoo cottage in Merweville, Western Cape in February 2022. Here, our dream to live off the grid and produce our own vegetables, in an aquaponics system, became a reality.
In July 2022, the restoration of the house and the caretaker’s cottage began and lasted 11 months.

The old main brick structure with doors and windows was retained and reinforced to support the new roof structure. The roof pitch and height were kept the same, as were the original veranda columns and ogee veranda roofing sheets.

A new loft was created in the old roof space. The roof pitch and height were retained. The original yellowwood roof support pole was kept and forms part of the loft décor today.

The old garage doors have been retained and are now a feature of the front entrance of the caretaker’s cottage. The old window openings of the garage have been reinstated, and the original footprint of the toilet / kitchen has also been retained. The original slate floors inside the cottage have also been kept.

The water for the house and cottage comes from a borehole on the property. The quality of the water is compliant with SABS for drinking water, however due to the high calcium content we have installed a water softener which removes the excess calcium and ensures longevity of our electrical appliances. No water is wasted and all water is recycled. Our wastewater and grey water goes through a calcamite bio process after which the water is compliant for agricultural use and we use it in our garden. This means that we are completely off the municipal water and sewer system and do not use one drop of municipal water, at all, on our property.
Our electricity is also 100% off the municipal grid. During the house and caretaker’s cottage renovations, we installed 20 460W solar panels and 2 14.8KVA batteries on the house and cottage roofs.
We have since installed an additional 20 solar panels and a 22KVA generator to accommodate the electricity usage in our aquaponics system, which has now grown from a small household system into a commercial system, due to the demand for fresh produce in the heart of the Karoo.

Budget – Materials & Contractors
Retaining as much of the original building as possible was a time-consuming and costly exercise. Old wall sections were removed up to a certain level and then prepared; because it is an old structure, very few things were square! This complicated the process and added to the cost.

Where possible, we have used the original Oregon pine that we found in the house. We made our office desks and bedroom cupboards from this wood and therefore did not need to purchase these when we moved into the house.

The flooring in the house and cottage is made from local slate stone that we collected from the communal areas around the town, giving work to local, unemployed people during this time.
We made use of our own labour during the restoration. The cost was in excess of R350 000 and excluded the solar system which was installed by All Solar Beaufort West.