When is an Eco house not an Eco house?

I had big dreams when we got this place.

Actually, I had big dreams before we got this place.  I wanted to live gently on this planet of ours, in a Zero waste, carbon neutral bubble of happiness.  It would be a house made from recycled everything and we would be pioneers in this buynowpaywithtearslater world that we currently live in.

But I am coming round to Kermits way of thinking.  It is most certainly not easy being green.

Put aside that most everyone thinks we are bonkers for giving up a normal life to live in a field, and so therefore greet everything with a certain amount of prejudice/ trepidation, there is also that delightful inner voice to contend with.

Take grey water for instance.  You would think that wanting to dispose of waste water in an environmentally sound manner would be welcomed but the architect we are working with explained to me - very patiently - that, actually, councils like expensive chemical treatment solutions that nearly clean your waste completely and then pump it into a nearby water source.  It was the "chemical" and "nearly" that put me off.  

When I - equally as patiently - explained that we will have an indoor composting loo, I was asked to provide design details.  Apparently saying the shit goes down the back and the pee section is at the front is not good enough.  I need to draw a diagram.  I kid you not. 

Now, I like our architect.  I didn't actually want an architect but the council pushed us and so we had to seek advice.  They are on good terms with the authorities and know their stuff in terms of legalities, so in this respect I feel we are in good hands. They are also experienced in offgrid houses, although I suspect they apply this term to houses supplying their own electrics and water, not to the extremes that we are trying to do.

We spent an evening designing the house we would like.  It isn't a grand design by any stretch, but it is practical, sympathetic with the landscape and ecologically sound, but it might be out of our budget and experience comfort zone.

So we are at a crossroads, where budgets bad ethics meet.

I realise that this is my second moany post in a row, so I better sort myself out.