or What you get if the Three Little Pigs had built one house all together.
Last post I talked to you about the Pawpaw festival I went to recently. Besides doing all things Pawpaw, we got to explore the grounds and see the sustainable farming methods being practiced on the farm where the festival was held. We also saw the farm house that I'll show you today.
The circular, round-timber framed, strawbale house was built using local resources and was finished about a year ago. Mike, the farmer, his wife, and son are living there now. Fortunately, we were able to go on a tour of the house. Well, sort of. There were so many people who showed up for the tour, that moving around the house was difficult. So Mike gave us an overview and let us walk around on our own. Sometimes it was difficult to get a good picture because of the crowd, but I think below you can get an idea of what the house was like.
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| The house has a main level and a loft. It also has a green/living roof that helps with absorbing the summer sun and insulating during the winter. It was quite a hot day when we were there and even with all of the people inside, it was pleasant. |
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| It was a busy day for Mike, so he ate his lunch as he told us about the house. The kitchen is behind him with concrete counter tops. |
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| The house was framed with tulip poplar timbers harvested from the farm. On the right you can see a bit of the balcony that they used as a reading area. Also, you can see the high windows which help with climate control. |
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| The walls are all straw covered with plaster. This porthole gives a peak into them. The plaster was made of clay, sand, wheat paste, fine straw, and the secret ingredient to make it white-Charmin toilet paper. Apparently Charmin has fine microfibers in it that makes it a good match for the plaster. |
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| The earthen floors were made of clay, sand, and straw and were hand troweled on. After the floors set, they were coated with linseed oil and finally wax. |
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| The bathtub and shower. |
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| The fireplace has a soapstone stove insert that keeps the house warm all night with one armful of firewood. In the summer, Ward found it a good place to sit. |
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| There were two bedrooms, this one for his son, and one for his parents. |
You can go to
Mike's website if you want to see more details or see pictures of the house being built.
This is a very nice post! Thanks for sharing it. I am intrigued so I am clicking on the link and hopping down the rabbit hole.
ReplyDeleteI had house envy, as did most other people, during the tour of this house. The strawbale house was not only very practical it was beautiful in a rustic, very natural way. I think what I like the best of the beautiful woodwork everywhere.
DeleteFascinating! I saw such a house being built on an HGTV show several years ago and it was intriguing back then too.
ReplyDeleteI hope he used coupons to buy all that Charmin toilet paper though that stuff is expensive, lol.
I will visit his site as well. Thanks for sharing and I think your pictures are great!
Charmin is expensive, isn't it? Even though he used local materials, I don't think this was an inexpensive house to build. However, he may be considering it a business expensive because one of the things he does is give lectures on this way of living.
DeleteWondering where he sleeps if the two bedrooms are already taken. I have a practical turn of mind. :) Were the bedrooms upstairs or downstairs? It is a beautiful home. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think I had a few pronoun problems. Mike, his wife, and his young son live in the house so two bedrooms work out fine. The bedrooms are downstairs. The second story is really just a loft over the kitchen. There is a couch, coffee table and shelves around the outside containing books there with not much room for much else.
DeleteThat's ok. :) I just got your 3 Little Pigs joke. I'm slow on the uptake (I seem to be that way a lot lately!).
DeleteI don't know about you, but the more tired I get the denser I get.
DeleteI LOVE it! I have a bit of a fantasy about building an off-grid straw bale house. It's probably one of those things that will stay in the realm of fantasy, but I just love the look and feel of them, as well as the efficiency.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to move right then and there when we toured it even though I have a perfectly lovely house. Besides the efficiency, it was beautiful inside--sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright feel with all of the earth elements.
DeleteThank you for sharing this post. I enjoyed reading it. I have read about straw bale houses, but haven't really seen one. I will check out the link to its construction. Straw is supposed to be a good insulator, so I would assume the house would remain cool in summer and warm in winter.
ReplyDeleteHe said it was warm in the winter and cool in the summer just as you said. He also said the heat radiating from the fire place was especially nice.
DeleteI liked this but noted that for me, such a dwelling would need to be accessible, and sadly this does not appear to be...Glsd you are enjoying the Fall.
ReplyDeleteActually the main part of the house wasn't too bad or could have been easily modified to work pretty well for easy access. However, the loft wasn't and I don't know how they got those very high windows open.
DeleteGreat photos.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteThis was so interesting, especially the Charmin toilet paper detail. I've loved strawbale buildings since I lived for a time in Phoenix in a house that had a strawbale addition. It was always so much cooler in there even though no air conditioning was run into that part of the house. If you can stay cool in 110 degree days without AC you got me.
ReplyDeleteIf I had all of the time and money in the world, I think I would build a house like this. In the meantime, I'll enjoy where I am.
DeleteIt's a beautiful house but sounds like a lot of work to build.
ReplyDeleteI think it was a lot of work, but he had volunteers helping him. On his website, he also mentioned his wife peeling the bark off most of the beams while she was pregnant.
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