If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Back in October, I was asked to give some input and support to people who want to build their own house. The main question is “how to get started.” There is a lot to consider and a lot more to actually do, so often the jumping in point becomes the freeze point. In other words, right when you should jump, you freeze and question whether or not you are crazy to even consider building your own place. This may not be a bad question to ponder. Let’s start there.
(more…)

photo from www.howthingswork.com

I heard on NPR yesterday that Exxon/Mobil posted the highest second quarter profit of any corporation in history. ANY corporation EVER! Somehow this seems crazy when the cost of fuel keeps rising and the average consumer is struggling in a failing economy. They posted nearly a $12 BILLION profit in the second quarter alone.
(more…)

Thanks for your patience everyone. I have been swamped and unable to make another entry in my blog for some time. Today I want to talk about what it is like to work with your local building department while acting as your own general contractor. You might think that in the progression of events the next piece of the puzzle would be working with your bank, not the building department. After all, you won’t be working with your building department until you are actually ready to build and you won’t be ready until you have the bank funding. Actually, although a common theory, this is totally wrong in my opinion.
(more…)

You’re not the only one. I have a poster on my wall that I want to share with you all. It helps me remember that when my first efforts fall short, I don’t give up. It gives examples of influential men who started out as less than influential! I have always been someone who pushes through to the end and strives to accomplish what I believe is possible, no matter how hard it seems in the moment. Building a straw bale house in an area where no bale homes exist can be an uphill battle. Building inspectors, plan checkers, permitting departments, insurance companies, and more can stand in the way of your dream; but only if you let them.
(more…)

Here is a quick primer on the subject sparked by the following email I recently received. Thanks Josh for the question. This may be obvious to some, but I am no longer surprised by how many people have this very same question. I often hear people use the wrong name for this technology. I hear them talk about hay bale construction or strawbail. The misspelling I can deal with, but the inclusion of hay in the idea of home construction is a problem. In fact, I even heard a builder, claiming to be a straw bale builder, describe his model “hay bale house” when I spoke to him at his booth at the Green Building Expo in San Francisco last year! YIKES!!! I hope that the builders out there know the difference and understand the importance of working with straw. For those many others who have the same question, here’s the breakdown. Actually, here’s the original email question first, then the breakdown.
(more…)

Below is an email I recently received. I love to hear from different parts of the World and see that natural building is growing all over the World. I have hope when I see emails like this that change really can happen and it will happen from the ground up. Thanks for writing Ion!
===============================================

HELLO ANDREW!

I am an architect from Timisoara, Romania and I am interested in building with ecological and traditional materials. I considered straw bales first as a building material that is cheep and fast for the rebuilding of the flooded areas near Timisoara in 2005.

In 2006, together with my family and a group of architecture students, I helped build an experimental cob house, a project of a friend, Ileana Mavrodin, also an architect, who lived 12 years in Canada and came back to Romania with this initiative (www.casa-verde.ro). Among the participants there were two architects from Bucharest which are members of a group, Arhiterra, concerned with traditional and ecological building materials and techniques.

As you can see there are people interested in this way of building, theoretically, but there are not many examples, the movement being at its beginnings, other people are skeptical about it and the building codes don’t mention these materials and techniques.

I would like to thank you for your course and hope that I would soon share my experience in straw bale building with you.

Ion Trif

For all of you who are looking for workshop opportunities or natural building conferences, this is the blog post for you! It is long, but that is because there is a lot of detail and a lot of workshops listed. You can find out more by clicking the link in the name of this blog post. Thanks to the folks at Natural Building Network for this information.
(more…)

Here is a response to a student doing a case study of straw bale homes in North Carolina. He had a good question about how the bales of an existing structure in Alabama might be connected to the foundation. I think the details of the connection are worth mentioning here as well.
(more…)

Did you know that in the United States construction accounts for 36% of total energy use? That is a huge number when you stop and think about it. Perhaps if the products we used were biproducts of another industry (like, hmmmm……STRAW) we could lower that number a bit.
(more…)

I received an email today from a curriculum writer for a fourth grade class in Kansas. The idea is to write a curriculum that introduces the class to straw bale construction as an economic and environmental asset. I have attached the email below because I think it is so cool that fourth graders will be exposed to this! She also asked a series of questions which I have attached with the email along with my answers to them.

=======================================================================

I am developing a unit on shelter for 4th grade students in Kansas. I need some information on straw bale building and don’t want to create errors as a result of my lack of knowledge. I am hoping you have time to respond to a few questions. A very brief background history: The purpose of my unit is to teach archeology so that students will have a passion for protecting archaeological resources. My first priority in design is to make sure my unit meets state curriculum standards. I found my entry point through the economics standards.

So, in short, students will examine the archeology of the Wichita grass house and the archeology of the African American dugout, look at the use of natural materials to build energy efficient houses and then bring that knowledge forward in to the present, and examine houses we could build today using local resources.

Students will use their economic standards to create a business that promotes energy efficient homes. I thought since Kansas is an agriculture state, that access to affordable and abundant straw would allow students to think about promoting straw bale houses. The enduring understanding that I want students to have at the end of this is: Building shelters using local resources protects the environment and saves money. Here are my questions so far:
(more…)