A Plaster Extravaganza
The Setup Over the past 3 1/2 months we have worked diligently to put together a fine strawbale house. As of the beginning of last week, we had cleared, formed, poured, nailed, screwed, and plastered our way to a pretty clean looking building. But, we were still pretty brown on the inside. So what did … Read more
A Practical Lesson On The Lime Cycle
The first exterior lime coat went up at the beginning of this week. It definitely feels like a milestone to be using a new material, not to mention completely transforming the exterior of the building. I remember learning about the lime cycle at school, and specifically remember being told that it was used “in industry”. … Read more
Walls Make Rooms
Yesterday we returned to work after a week-long Spring break and picked up right where we left off – defining the interior spaces of our house. The week before break we were busy surfacing our interior walls. We primarily used drywall since we were able to salvage a lot from the trash pile at another … Read more
The First Coat of Plaster
It is amazing how many things you can do with a bit of mud and straw. Sturdy, sculptured cob, well insulated light clay straw walls, tough earthen plasters, and beautiful finishes. Different ratios of materials, different applications, but the same basic ingredients. It’s hardly alchemy, either, being only slightly more highly evolved than the mud … Read more
Permaculture Workshop
After finishing installing the straw bales last Friday, it seemed like perfect timing to take a few days away from the build site this week for the permaculture workshop. It not only gave us a chance to finally get all of the straw out of our hair, but it was also a good point to … Read more
An earthen floor
On Thursday we made a significant step in the process of building our home. Over the course of 8 hours we laid 4 inches of mud into the footprint of our building to serve as our floor. It was our first “material” departure from conventional building into the realm of natural and earthen building (though … Read more
Building Materials as Food (for Thought)
This week has been all about the details: gable siding, fascia, soffit, flashing. In some ways it has been quite satisfying, like putting sprinkles on a cupcake. Except these sprinkles need to be beveled at exactly 45 degrees, and weigh significantly more than objects that I normally like to hold above my head with one … Read more
What’s in a frame?
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. This week we will be discussing framing – no, not picture framing – good old fashioned house framing. Last week, in a 3-day work week shortened by an informative “Solar Photovoltaic” (read: solar panel) workshop and a day spent doing touch-up work on last semester’s strawbale house, we framed our … Read more
A Solid Foundation
On Friday afternoon we poured the concrete for the final section of the foundations. It was incredible to see the site transform over the course of the week; gradually shifting from an amorphous trench, to somewhere that looks like a house might want to sit someday. Eric’s original schedule had us finishing the foundations next … Read more
