The Plan in Brief.

The real challenge is to find exemptions in the regulations you can exploit so you don't have to pay apply and pay for hundreds of building consents. Even though Oamaru and it's surrounds are governed by the Otago Regional Council, it is the Waitaki District Council that sets the bylaws for building.

Effectively, you can only build a 3m x 3m "shed or sleepout" that is more than it's own height from any boundary AND the 'associated residential dwelling' (does this mean you can only build a "sleepout" under the exemptions if you already have a 'permament dwelling' on site?), and does not contain any cooking or sanitary facilities or a potable water supply.

This means we have can put these things into consideration: A separate toilet/laundry amenities block from the main living quarters. This is fine - our plan is to build a compostable toilet system and avoid the massive haemmoragging of potable water into the water treatment system, so we were going to have a seperate W/C.

As for our amenities, we are currently investigating the option of building a hand-agitated washing machine (or perhaps a solar or wind powered mechanical washer) that can be kept in a sheltered outside area, sort of like a carport, for washing, drying etc and be gravity-fed from a rain water storage tank.