Family ditch rat race to live off-grid in 'Earthship' after mum's dying wish
When Lisa Stewart's mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had just months to live, she told her daughter to 'make the most of life' and 'do what makes you happy'.
Lisa had a high-flying career in financial services and so did her husband Robert, but they barely had time to spend as a family with their two boys, Orran, now 13, and Blair, now 10 - even having to work on weekends.
The 43-year-old, who had held down jobs since the age of 12, found her career was everything she had worked so hard for, but once her mum died following Christmas 2016, she decided to quit.
While the family lived mainly off Rob's wage, Lisa set up her own candle business for extra money.
However, amid the cost of living crisis with expensive food prices and crippling energy bills, Rob, 45, found himself out of work last November.
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They decided that instead of him getting another job to make ends meet, or simply downsizing, they'd try something completely different.
Lisa and Rob are aiming to build their own Earthship eco-home, like this one (Getty Images/iStockphoto)They've put their house up for sale in Bonnyrigg, just outside of Edinburgh in Scotland, and once it is sold, plan to buy a plot of land somewhere rural in Midlothian.
The couple, who met at university, are hoping to build their own fully self-sufficient Earthship eco-home - which will produce its own electricity and the surrounding land can be used to grow their own food, while they wish to rent out one or two glamping pods with hot tubs to make money on the side.
Although the internet is still a necessity for their children's schoolwork and businesses, they want to be living a 'back to basics' lifestyle, where they can have quality time together without worrying about the stresses of the rat race.
And on top of this, after upfront costs, Lisa reckons they'll be saving £2,000 a month on bills.
"We just want a simple life - with sustainable food and more time as a family," says Lisa, longingly describing what she hopes for in their new life.
"We won't be earning as much but we won't have the same outgoings.
"It will be night and day.
"In lockdown I spent so much time with the kids, homeschooling them, they're such a joy.
"Being able to spend proper time with them without the stresses, worrying about what we need to do for work, where we're getting money to get through the week's shopping, it'll be night and day."
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Lisa can't wait to spend more time with Blair and Orran (Lisa Stewart)Previously, the pair both worked in Edinburgh, with Rob working 10am-6pm so he could do the morning school run, with Lisa working 7am-3pm so she could do the afternoon pick up.
As full-time working parents, it was the only way they could manage their hours alongside the children's schedule, however Lisa received comments from bosses that she 'wasn't committed enough' when she clocked off mid-afternoon.
Lisa, who also sometimes had to go to work on weekends, explains: "It was a really hard environment. I was stressed out and not really enjoying it.
"We barely saw the children when they were young, especially if they had a busy day in nursery and they'd fall asleep by 7pm, we'd only get an hour or two together."
But six years ago, when Lisa's mum was dying, she reevaluated her life.
Her mum was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in September 2016 which had metastasized by the time it was found.
Just five months later, she died.
Lisa on her wedding day with her mum by her side (Lisa Stewart)"I spent a lot of time speaking to mom before she passed away, and she was saying 'just make the most of life, do what makes you happy,'" Lisa recalls.
"So, after mom passed away, I just quit".
Laughing, she adds: "And then had a moment of 'Oh my god, what have I done?'
"For me, to not be tied to anything, was a big change. It was giving up everything I'd worked for and I was always on the go.
"I did a lot with my time off so it was busy busy busy all the time to suddenly nothing."
The family lived off Rob's wage after a short while, Lisa set up a vegan candle business, The Snowdrop Candle Company, with her sister.
For weeks she couldn't decide on a name, but then a sign from what she believes may have been her late mum gave her the answer.
"I said to my mum when she was alive, 'show me there's an afterlife, but do not scare me - she had a wicked sense of humour'", Lisa says.
Lisa quit her job in financial services five years ago when her mum passed away (Lisa Stewart)
Now Rob has left his job, they wanted to try something different amid crippling energy bills (Lisa Stewart)"One morning in March, by my rockery outside the house, there was a single snowdrop and snowdrops have always been my favourite flower. My mum tried to give me some in the past but I never watered them and killed them off.
"They're a bulb flower that can't come from birds spreading seeds and we'd never had one grow there before that moment, so it had to be the name."
To pick up extra cash, Lisa also worked in a special needs school as she loves working with children, however when the pandemic struck, she had to give this up following health complications.
So from March 2020, the family was living off the candle business and Rob's salary. However last November, he lost his job.
At this point, he could have found another, but they craved change.
"We're now 43 and 45 - the way the world is at the minute… we've always been quite eco-friendly people anyway so at this point we just wanted to get out of the rat race and live the good life," Lisa continues.
"With the rising cost of electricity and food, we were going to have to move out of our home anyway.
"It was really hard. Our electricity costs had increased threefold over the past two years. Who can afford that?"
Lisa, who says they would have had to move homes anyway, hopes to grow their own fruit and veg while Blair is excited to have chickens (Lisa Stewart)
The two children will still go to school, therefore the family can't live too far out in the sticks (Lisa Stewart)Lisa and Rob's plan is to now build a new sustainable life for themselves, starting off with selling their family home.
The three-bed house is on the market for £325,000, and Lisa says they completely renovated it over the years, and have built up a lot of equity.
Meanwhile, when they first married, they purchased a small property, which has negative equity, and so they have been renting it out.
The tenants have now gone and while they await the sale of their main property, they're living in the smaller house, worth around £180,000 - which Lisa says they will get around £20,000 from when they come to sell that too.
Now searching for land, the couple is hoping to bag a 20-acre plot for around £100,000 in the Midlothian countryside, but not too far out in the sticks that would make it difficult for their children to get to school.
They're currently in contact with various experts but say through their pension schemes from their old jobs, they may be able to buy things such as the glamping pods.
All in all, Lisa says she thinks the project will cost around £400,000. In an ideal world, the Earthship would be mortgage-free, but Lisa isn't sure if that's possible yet.
But they will save thousands in the long run, which she expects to be around £2,000 a month with not having to fork out for gas and electricity suppliers, along with expensive supermarket shops.
They have seen an Earthship home - a style developed by architect Michael Reynolds - on Channel 4's Grand Designs, and were drawn to them because they act as passive solar earth shelters made of both natural and upcycled materials, such as earth-packed tyres.
"This all depends on the planning permission," Lisa asserts, "but it will be a net-zero home where the rainwater is used for showers and then to water plants.
Another Earthsip house like the one they would look to build, which will be net-zero (Getty Images/iStockphoto)"The materials used will be from the earth - kitchen surfaces will be made from wood for example and clay.
"We'd like it to have four bedrooms - one for us, each of the boys, and one for visitors."
While her excited children have talked about wanting secret underground tunnels and climbing walls, more realistically, Blair has expressed a wish to have chickens so they can supply their own eggs.
"We have to have the internet as our child is 13 and we will run our businesses online," Lisa adds.
"But we want to run it from renewable sources of electricity.
"We'll be shopping locally and what we can grow, we will grow - it'll be more farm to table than from Tesco or Asda.
"These past three weeks in the rental house we own, we've had no internet.
"I thought we'd be bouncing off the walls but we've had such a good time playing board games and cards instead."
And if their new simple life doesn't go to plan, they'll just return home. But either way, she knows her mum will be proud.
"We'll sell the land for a deposit for a new house and come back to reality," Lisa reassures.
"There are lots of what ifs but if it all goes wrong, we just come home.
"My mum would be extremely proud of what we're managing.
"Family was everything to her. If we manage this and we get away from the rat race as it is and we get to spend real quality time together, that would make her overjoyed."
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