Tool Building

When you need a tool to build a straw bale house... you can just build one out of near by trees!



Dan, my cousin Ben and Matt were working hard on Saturday and finished the walls on the house. Good job guys!!

Our straw bale cabin is growing!

After a wonderful "Bales, Beef & Beverages" work party on Saturday we are glad to report that our home is well under way!

Thank you to all the hard workers that came out and made the day a success. We couldn't have done it without you.

Dan has been working on the house all week. Our last convo had his parents, his sister and Matt involved Tues & Wednesday respectively.

Hoping to get the walls done ASAP as the trusses have arrived and are just waiting on the walls and top-plate to go up. I have to say I'm super eager to have the roof on as the tarp, even from this distance, is making me nervous :P

I've created a facebook page for people to chat about the project and keep up on work weekends. Sure hope the weather report for this weekend changes - rain is not our friend!

Quick Update

Sorry for the lag - we've been up to quite a lot since I last posted. Our tight budget is being stretched to the limits with van repairs, no official word from the service team yet, but the estimate was for $1,600 - about 30% of our drive way budget. So, we're scrambling to find the money to pay for the repairs. Luckily we have a couple of income streams we haven't allocated to a particular part of the project yet.

Budget so far:

Driveway - 4-5k
Foundation - 4-5k
Windows/Doors - $300
Bales - $1,500
Roof - 2k
Wiring and Plumbing supplies - $500
Well - $?

Total - $14,300

Let's just hope it sticks!

Another Strawbale House

http://exprzit.com/showcase/green-performance-home/

Tire Foundations.. Whaaa?!

We've been exploring a tire foundation, given my perception of the cost of a traditional foundation - the ecological benefits and the stablity benefits.

But how do they work?
So of course I googled it to find out what the deal is... :)

I found an article that was very interesting... this is what the article said -

Rubber-tyre footings
We have conservatively estimated that Australians consume some 18 million-rubber tyres per year (four million cars using 4.5 tyres per year). What happens to them? We are all aware that the disposal of tyres is a major environmental problem in the world.
Tyres have an estimated half-life of 30,000 years so they are around for a long time.

Once they are filled with dirt and compacted, tyres make the most earth-friendly and strongest foundations that I have seen. They will outlive any cement foundations by thousands of years. They will not outgas once they are buried because tyres only outgas when they are exposed to direct sunlight. They are termite proof and, once buried, are fireproof as well.

I noticed in my search a number of "Tire Foundation Structure" patent related materials, I wonder what that's all about? http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6705803/description.html

Tire Foundation Book

I'm gearing up to buy this booklet - not 100% convinced that it's what we can do, but I know it's what we want to do.

Rammed earth tire foundation

http://www.bluerockstation.com/tirefoundation.html

Interesting Reading...

http://www.balewatch.com/technique.html

I'm still reading it , so I figure you might like to read it too :D


Also - for the question askers out there... you know who you are!

http://www.strawbale.com/strawbale-faqs

Our Floor Plan

I think we've settled on a floor plan for our cabin!

We'll have to make some modifications, but it's exactly what we were looking for - has room for all of the key appliances and just lacks the loft area we're going to include as a 3rd bedroom.

What do you think?!

I'm dreaming of a nice front porch/deck/ earth patio type thing to expand the living space into the outdoors. I have been looking at plans for an outdoor (bread) oven made from adobe or something... can't remember where I put the link, but I'll find it and post it here as soon as I find it.

Watching other people buid strawbale houses!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33504169@N08/3193720073/in/set-72157612275855261/

http://www.people4earth.net/video/videoDetail/videoId/68.html


House of Straw.com

So looking forward to being in our own little house :D

Catching up

So we've been back to the normal grind for a little bit now. Found some fun stuff last night - considering attending this workshop - The Complete Straw Bale Workshop in Ohio and reading and digesting information from Building Green TV, wish that was a station we actually got - I'd watch it 24/7.

Reconsidering our foundation materials - would earth rammed tires work in a northern NH climate?

Encouraging Find!

While looking around at constructions methods - since determining that a straight cob house wouldn't be good for the winters up here (R rating way too low) - we found the following site http://www.solarhaven.org/StarterStrawBale.htm

All very good news about the pricing of our forth coming adventure. We need to find out more about the building codes and permits for our town!