Straw Bale House

(This is my house blog from my Myspace page which I have been writing for some time now.)

I've decided to keep a record of the progress of our straw bale house. Over the Summer this is some of what we've done.
We (Sarah, Mom, and I) laid drain pipe in the foundation trench (sounds easy, but it was hot, labor intensive work that took a couple of days) then we shoveled gravel into the trench which is about three feet deep, 20 some inches wide and makes up the perimeter of the house. This was the most terrible thing ever (worse then building a cob wall in the heat). We did three sides, but by the time that was done it was time to go back to Albs to do some stuff so people from church helped out. Thank goodness!
Then the foundation was poured. Then what felt like an eternity passed and our carpenter finally got started on framing the floor. (This framing began middle of last week.)
Today Sarah and I began filling garbage bags with scrap sheep's wool. This is for insulation underneath part of the floor boards. It's fairly fun, but slow, like everything that happens with this house. We got four very large bags of wool for free from a local factory here that makes sheep's wool dusters and such. (So handy for us!) We fill the bags around half full and then try to squeeze out most if not all the air possible. Due to high wind (as usual, can't wait to start harvesting that with our wind mill) we filled the bags in our newly built carport. Once we had a goodly number of bags filled we would the few yards to to the house site and put the bags on top of the foundation between boards that will eventually support the floor. However, Sarah felt that we were doing something wrong so we came home to eat dinner and contact our carpenter for more details. We are yet to go back, and the sun should set soon, so we will probably have to go out there early in the morning tomorrow, hope I sleep well tonight!
Also today our windows were delivered! Sarah and helped the delivery guy unload them, some were around 300 lbs, but most of the boxes were light. Sarah and have also overseen the delivery of our batteries for our power system and parts of our wind-turbine (I like to call it our windmill, feels more Dutch).
I will be updating this regularly now for those of you who are interested. I'm doing this partly for myself and family so we have a good record; something I should have began a long time ago, but I've always been poor at keeping journal, so hopefully this will help. I will also put up pictures once we have some (never been a good one for the picture taking).

Sept. 27th
Much progress has been made on the house lately. All the window bucks have been put in place. The Kitchen wall (the North East corner) has been framed. This is the only part of the exterior wall that will not be built of straw bales. This was done to give more space to the kitchen. Friday we went to St. Joe and ordered our bathtub. Most exciting. So that should arrive soon and will be placed in the bathroom before the straw bales go up. We have taken some pictures of this point of progression, but it will be awhile before they get developed.

Oct. 1st
The Roof Trusses have been put into place! This was finished on Friday afternoon. Now we can see our roof as we crest the western hill and come out of the woods on our road. It is so exciting! On Saturday we had our straw bales delivered. An Amish man and his many sons picked them up and then delivered them to us. They did this with the help of their driver and his trailer, because they of course do not drive. Anyway we three watched them stack our bales in our carport. Sarah and I were afraid that there wouldn't be enough room for all 360 bales, but they all just fit inside. Thank goodness because if they had to sit outside they would be harder to keep dry and would then start to rot, and you can't build a sturdy house with rotten straw bales. So that is where we are as of now.

October 29th, 2007
Not a lot has happened this month due to rain and our construction guy working on his own place. But over the month some things did get done. Holes were dug all along side the house where the porch will end (our porch will be a wrap around). Those holes were then filled with concrete and posts set on them that attach to the roof for support.(The porch will have roof cover all around.) Inside, all the interior walls have been framed so now we have a good idea of the space inside. Also, our bathtub is now in the bathroom, which is quite spacious.
When we went to the property on Saturday I was pleasantly surprised with a drive-way! I hadn't realized we were getting it so soon, I knew we had the pipe to go in the ditch for drainage, but I didn't know we had ordered gravel and all that. It looks so nice, so final. I can't wait to plant trees and flowers on either side. We should be getting the tin roof put on in the next few weeks and then the windows and doors...I can't wait till all is done and we can move in, I don't like living on the square.
Side note, there were four ducks in our pond while we were there Saturday, I love it when water fowl comes to visit. I love it here!

November 10th
The roof is well underway! The wooden layer has been laid and is now covered with the black tar paper. By end of next week the tin/metal should be in place! So the house is making progress, however slowly.
Every time we go to the property lately there are ducks on our pond! Usually 3 or four.

November 15
We have gutters! Mother and I drove out to the property this morning. We were just going to drive by and not stop when I noticed something green along the edge of the roof. The sun was shinning brightly making it difficult to make it out so we drove up our driveway (!!) and got out and investigated. They had the green gutters on and some of the white steel that goes on the "ceiling" of the porch.
So, the roof is being put on! Who knew you would start a roof from the gutters and work from there? Once the roof is done we can stack straw bales (ahhh!) I can't wait!

December 9th 2007
Roof done, windows and doors in. Glad that part is over. Cold (15 degrees outside) and snowy, not a lot will happen now till spring. Happy I wont have to live through winter for the next few years, seeing as how I will most likely be going to school in Hawai'i!

Friday March 7th 2008
On Saturday March 1st Sarah and I went out to the homestead to do some work. It was a lovely day with temperatures up in to the low 60s! (Don't get your hopes up, by Sunday we had more snow, north winds and freezing temperatures.) Sarah and I spent several hours during the afternoon there moving bales and sweeping snow out of the house and exploring the frozen pond.
We already had some bales in the house (master-bedroom and kitchen). These were stacked in corners (not along the walls). So Sarah and I took the ones in Mom's bedroom and hauled them across the hall into the second or north/west bedroom. There we began to place bales in experimental ways and places to what best worked. We placed one row of bales in the north wall from the NW corner to the N window. A space about 6 feet long. We were only placing and seeing how things looked and worked, what we placed is not permanent, as we still need to notch/re-size many bales. Notching is cutting out a corner or cutting a gap in part of the bale so that fits nicely around a post/beam that goes from floor to ceiling. So we looked and discussed where we should notch and re-size the bales (cutting off and retying the whole bale, not just a small portion like in notching). Then we placed a second row to see how that would need to have notching and resizing done. (You lay straw bales like bricks, with on brick laying over where two bricks meet below it...you know Erin, like how we built with Legos.) Then I drew this and made a little diagram of how it looks for future reference while Sarah moved more bales into the bedroom. I really enjoyed drawing this diagram. Then Sarah and I did some calculations (which was the hardest work we did, neither of us being the very number savvy). Then we rigged up the bales until we had as many as we could get until we came to the rafter/ceiling/window buck boards.
Before we began laying the bales out though we swept out all the snow that had blown into the house and then we banged at the ice that had frozen to the floor until it broke into wee chunks that we could shovel out. Then we scattered the straw bits on the floor where it was still kinda wet to help soak up the moisture and dry out the floor in order to prevent warping. It was most satisfying.
On the south side of the house there is a lot of puddling around the post that are holding up the roof. We do not like this and it cant be good for the house. So later that night when I couldn't sleep I came up with a great plan to drain the water away from the house and to the pond. And now if the ground would only unfreeze long enough so that I could dig my trench and do that...I am very excited about it as it is my own little project to work with and experiment with.
After we were done with our work we went to check out the pond which has been frozen most of this winter. We walked on part of it earlier this winter and on Saturday it was still frozen but with a layer of slushiness on top. We braved it and walked out over some of the deepest parts of the pond. Such a thrill! I love that pond. Well, that's all for now.

Wednesday March 19, 2008
Today all three of us went out to homestead and worked on the living room walls. Over the past few weeks we have purchased a saw which we have been having some trouble starting, but that should get worked out soon. Last week we placed our first permanent bale in the Northwest bedroom. However, we have not gotten any further there as we ran into some problems. Instead we began concentrating on the the living room walls. Today we successfully retied many bales. I proved to be the best at this; I am faster and tie tighter, and get the string tied correctly almost always on my first try! We were there for several hours and it was just lovely. The pond is thawing out and the ice that still covers most of the pond is a brilliant blue color, especially when the sun hits it just right. Today we saw a muskrat swimming on the edge of the pond where there is no ice, our first muskrat of the year. That is all for today.

Thursday March 20th, 2008
Today Sarah and I went to the homestead. There we completed one section of the southern living room wall. Then we worked some on the north wall of the bathroom until a few road blocks popped up. Then we went onto build up the long southern wall in Mother's room. All this work leaves me very tired when I get home, I can barely keep my eyes open! The pond is quickly thawing (today's temperature reached 61 degrees). Almost the whole east end of the pond had thawed out by the time we left. It is so beautiful, co clear!

Thursday May 8th
Bad weather has put a hold on our house building for the month of April. But this past week we were able to get some work done. We built up the living room walls on Monday with Mom and then on Tuesday Sarah and I went out and did some work on the bathroom walls. Now all that is left is the area around the window in that room. We are having trouble with the south wall in Mom's bedroom. It keeps falling over in the wind. That's not quite what we want from our wall, so we are working on some different ideas to correct that. Our kitten that we got near the end of April has proven his worth by catching four (possibly five) baby mice that were living in the future kitchen in some piles of loose straw. Little devils. It was fascinating watching him catch and kill them. He ate them whole! I had no idea cats did that. It was really awesome. A little sad too because we could hear the baby mice squeaking while being tortured. But I don't want mice in my house, so they had to go.