Will Build for Food

Finally -- we found a natural building project to work on!  Last spring, I posted on a straw bale listserv that we’d be willing to help on any natural building projects in exchange for a spot to set up our camper and food.  It’s been almost 6 months since we’ve really gotten our hands dirty and we’ve been completely absorbed in building rather than, say, blogging.

Welcome to Meg & Steve’s straw bale hybrid home.  What the heck does that mean?  The middle section of the house with the redwood siding is built using conventional construction methods that you might find in any average house.  The two wings of the house have a timber frame for the structure and straw bale walls that are in the process of being plastered by yours truly.

Here’s me doing some interior patching of the base coat of plaster.  In straw bale walls, the actual bales are coated with a fairly rough coat of earth plaster (clay, sand, straw, water) about 2” thick.

The bedroom already has the finish plaster applied.  Finish plaster uses the same ingredients, but the clay, sand, and straw have been sieved or chopped to be much smaller particles.  Pigments can be added to achieve a wide variety of finish colors.

This is the basic view of the main living space (the bed is just in there temporarily).  They have technically moved in, but they haven’t received their occupancy permit yet and will have to move all their stuff out before the final inspection.  The whole house is about 1200 square feet with 2 bed/2 bath, but with this open room, it feels bigger to me.

Steve really did a beautiful job on the Japanese inspired wood work.  This is just one of many pleasing details.

Here, Tom is patching some exterior base coat plaster that cracked at the window.  I think he’s actually filling some of the void with some long straw that is dipped in slip, twisted up, and packed real tight into the wall.  Slip is water with a little bit of clay mixed in.  When it dries, it helps give those wads of straw a little bit of strength and they’ll maintain their shape.

The solar array on their shop is more than enough to supply all of their power.  Their home is in the Capay Valley in northern California, about 90 minutes from Sacramento.  We’re really loving being here right now as Meg & Steve are great people and they’re letting us just cut loose with any part of the construction that we’re willing to learn.  We’ve experimented with some lime plaster, learned how to tile a shower, and tomorrow we’re going to start the finish plaster on the exterior.  

We get to learn some new stuff – they give us a place to camp and feed us yummy food with lots of fresh fruits and veggies from the nearby organic farms.  This is exactly what we need right now, so we’ll be staying for a few more weeks to help them finish up before their permit expires.

-Jessie