I received this message today and want to see how we, as a community, can help. I have asked Sumer what stage the building is currently in so that we can formulate a plan of action. If you are able to help, please comment here and let Sumer know that her Grandma Hope can still live in the dream her husband’s sudden death left behind. Surely there is no coincidence that her name is “Hope.”
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So this is my intention for posting.I need to find a person and/or persons to help me to complete my recently deceased Grandpa’s dream of building a home and office space for my Grandma Hope. He was the greater financial source in their relationship (she’s a naturopathic doctor who charges very little so that all persons may have access to her care) and without his construction experience and financial backing the possibility of completion seems dire.
My Grandpa Bobby’s greatest concern in this life was always the security and care for my Grandma Hope, and with the tragedy of his sudden death (he was only 55) while doing tree work she has been left feeling very confused and vulnerable. I really need to try to find some help for her. People who are as passionate, and charitable as they were/are. Persons who can work out blue prints, persons who are able to dialogue and compromise to create a realistic size space yet still an thoughtful beautiful home, persons who are savvy about affordable resources for materials and of course labor.
We are Sundance and Native American Church peoples and to the best of our abilities we would like to make this as equal an exchange and keep this balanced and good.
We live on Whidbey Island, here in the Puget Sound of the Pacific Northwest, Washington state. Please email me if feel you have any way to contribute.
Good days, and songs in your hearts.
Sumer Ma’hale
About the Author
Andrew Morison is a specialist in straw bale and green construction. He has shown thousands of people how to build their own straw bale projects through his comprehensive series of instructional straw bale, concrete foundation, and plastering DVDs. You can check these out at www.LearnStrawBale.com..
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April 1st, 2010 at 8:33 am
Being A Grandmother myself this tweet caught my attention. I am so sorry for your loss. I would be in the same condition because I am dependent upon my husband as well- he is 7 years younger and much better at installing roof shingles than I am at the moment. It always seems that the we who can relate to a similar journey’s experience will be the one’s with the emotional affinity to want to respond. I hope there are others as well.
My suggestion is to do a community fundraiser at Kickstarter.com. I especially take note of your wish to have balance with the giving and receiving and Kickstarter is the perfect medium for that intention’s fulfillment.
I would be glad to help you with that forum.
April 1st, 2010 at 9:20 am
Hi Dorothy. Thank you for your quick response and compassionate words. I am a farely low tech person so I would like to take you up on your offer of help working with the kickstarter.com forum. It’s sounds like a good start. Thank you so much.
April 1st, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Hi Sumer,
So sorry to hear of your loss. Your Grandmother sounds like an amazing person to offer her skills to her community. I am an aspiring natural builder with a need for hands-on skill building opportunities. If a group building project comes together in the next few months, I would love to contribute my time to help. So, please keep me in the loop.
Blessings,
Karen Taylor
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:07 am
Hi Sumer-
I’m sorry for your loss and know from experience that it takes a community to come together when tragedy hits. I live in Seattle & fall in the same category as Karen above. Its my dream to (someday) build my own natural home and would be willing to provide labor in exchange for the experience. I am in the area for the summer and most of the fall.
good luck & look forward to hearing back.
kim
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:24 am
I’m 56 and I also have a dream of building a home. You might try reaching out to House Alive, to see if they could help you in any way. They’re in southern Oregon.
E-mail: welcome@housealive.org. Also, if you do set up something with kickstarter.com, I’d like to know about it.
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:25 am
I can’t be there to help, but I’ll contribute funds if you do set up a fundraiser. It sounds like your grandmother offers so much to her community. It would be my pleasure to help her in return.
Donna Kruse
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:47 am
Hello Sumer,
I just got the heads up from Andrew about your project. we would be happy to help. Are the straw bales stacked? What stage is the project in? Would our stucco sprayer be helpful at this point?
Best regards,
Nolan Scheid
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:37 am
I have lived in Washington state most of my life. I was living in the Seattle area but have recently moved to the Pullman area. I don’t have any monetary help to offer as I have been out of work for over a year and a half. However I have been in the trades for most of my 47 years. I can offer to help when your ready to start the building part of the project. Not only with the labor but with general building knowledge. I have been studying strawbale building practices for the past five years and would love the opportunity to add more pictures to my portfolio. Thanks and please e-mail me with any questions and to let me know when to show up. -Lance
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:57 am
House Alive is a great group of people. Coenraad, the founder and principle, is a great friend of mine.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Greetings Sumer,
My father died and left my mother to fend for herself, however, God has been a great sourse of our comfort in this time. We pray for you and Hope. http://www.griefshare.com has helped us regain our Joy. Our hearts go out to you and will help however possible. Keep us in the loop.
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Sumer, You could try “extreme makeover home edition” Other then that, you need to post more information on the state of the project so people like me can determine what we could help you do to realize the completion of your Grandpa’s dream. Look at Andrew’s Workshops (a possible video on who you are and what you want to accomplish) Other then that I could volunteer my time for a month if there was room for a RV I could use more “hands on” experience as I work on my SB dream Jon Virgina City, NV
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:47 pm
The video could be posted on “YouTube.com
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:53 am
Indeed, if the project is in the right place, perhaps we can do a workshop. Timing is everything, so we’ll need more information.
April 3rd, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I can help with drawings and maybe some SIPs for the roof
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Wow. I’m overwhelmed with such gratitude. Sorry I haven’t gotten back to anyone yet. Due to windstorms and such we were without internet. I’ll try and respond more thoroughly tomorrow and email and research the persons that have been recommended. This is amazing.
How do i go about exchanging email addresses and contact info. with other persons?
Blessings to all. Wow*
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Also, the home is in it’s absolute beginning stages. they had only recently cleared the lot space. All the paperwork(intended permits), blueprinting, financial planning and detail discussions were in the works when he died. He intended to be involved in every aspect of building the home from start to finish just so it would truly feel fulfilling to him to know it was truly they’re home in that way. Unfortunately with him went all that he had been teaching himself and learned from another home he helped build.
The plan was to start this springo, but due to costs and need of space the entire design needs to be refigured. This is a project that would be starting from scratch. Since my Grandpa was an aborist he managed to acquire some really amazing beautiful logs,and had a decent amount milled by local indipendant millers. How much i’m uncertain of right of the top of my head.
Two other nice persons have been talking with my Grandma who wanted to help build her home but one has a slight biased against straw bale and managed to slightly talk her out of it (she was overwhelmed, and looking to anyone who would help) but it turns out he isn’t as able as he thought to help. Presently she’s talking with another man who’s trying to help her with blueprint plans but he knows nothing about straw bale either and can’t help her. I’ve talked with her on numerous occasions and a straw bale home is truly what she wants. She just began to lose faith that it could happen since neither persons who have offered her help were able to support her in that original vision nor offer any direction other then their own construction experience in their own fields of expertise.
Aside from the property space, and the available wood the project would need to start from scratch.
Once again,thank you for the wonderful response.
I showed my Grandma the Blog responses,and she’s very
excited and touched that this just might happen.
Thank you for caring.
Warm hearts and blessings,
Sumer Ma’hale
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:35 pm
hi everyone, i am grateful for the heart felt responses sent to my grand daughter sumer. bobby and i had wanted to build our home and an office for me out of straw bale and he was doing all the research. i personally am clueless about how to make it happen. he had also done exchanges with folks to take down trees so we could have framing materials. we currently just got our septic permit and will be moving ahead on that. our dear friend peter who helped us build the first home we ever had together which we sold in ’05′ because we wanted to simplify, is a timber framer and offered as a gift to help me design my house and now office. so we are working on that. because i did now have anyone to help me with how to manifest the straw bale and peter was willing i have been going with the idea well we will do timber house. but i look at the numbers and they do not add up and i am unsure how i will afford to complete the building project. so, my heart was into straw bale but did not know how to make it happen and have been going with what is available. i am coming up with a design, the house and office will be small. i do have wood. i imagine it is possible to combine what we have started and the wood we have and still do straw bale but i need people who know what they are doing to make that happen. there are many in my community that have offered to help if the building starts. i thought of trying to find someone to run a workshop for straw bale but then again, one of my concerns was the weather here and all happening in a timely manner. it is crucial that i get into my home this year as i don’t see how i can support myself otherwise. my community has been very supportive and did a benefit that was great. i have some money saved. i am pretty much debt free at this time. but if i have to pay $100/sq ft for a home/ office i don’t have that kind of money. i am open to ideas. grandma hope
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Hi Summer, I offer my condolences, and whatever help I may be. I am a retired builder living in Canada. Lethbridge, Alberta. I am 68, and still have most of my construction tools. I would need to know what is needed, what state of construction or planning you are in at present.
Do you have a set of plans? What tools and experienced help do you have available? What stage of construction have you reached? What materials do you have now, or are available? Do you have pictures of the site?
I am at a loss to know how I can help without a better idea of the project.
April 4th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Yes, I have carpentry and straw bale, and earthen plaster skills. I am willing to contribute two weeks of my time this spring or summer. Just let me know what phase the project is in. I could plan a trip up to help some.
April 5th, 2010 at 10:01 am
I can help with labor. I have helped build 5 strawbale homes, and attended Andrew’s plastering workshop, and helped with two other structure plasterings. I live in Spokane, WA, so getting there is no problem. I’m planning to build my own place next year.
I may even be able to round up more volunteers.
Where are you in the building process?
Another Grandma, Anne
April 5th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Hi Grandma Hope. It sounds like you have some potential with making this dream a reality. We could do a workshop up there for sure. There are other straw bale house on Whidbey Island and I know that they can handle the weather if designed properly. I suggest you contact Chris Keefe at Chris@OrganicformsDesign.com and see if he can help with the design process as well. He is very busy, but he may be able to give some tips, and direct you in the right way to get what you need.
If the timing works out, I can add a workshop to my schedule and make it work. We would be looking at the end of the summer as the job will take a while to get to that point. If you think you can get to that point in time, based on what you hear from those willing to help you locally, then let me know and we can set something up.
April 5th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I’m only now reading through the comments here and see that others have offered help with the design. I don’t mean to offend anyone by my last post of suggesting Chris over anyone else. I simply work with Chris a lot and he is a good friend of mine, thus the recommendation. i support the others who may want to share of themselves as well and thank you all for your giveaway.
April 5th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Thanks for asking for help Sumer. Sometimes that’s the hardest part for people to do. Again, SB is very possible in Hope’s area, so she should not feel pressured to move away from the building technique. Let’s keep the conversation going and see how we can all help this happen.
April 6th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
I’d love to start making contact and planning,but to get started I will need those of you who offered you’re kind services to please let Andrew Morrison know that you give him permission to give me and/or my Grandma Hope your contact information. That would be of great help to get things in motion,and making it all the more real and tangible.
Blessings,
Sumer Ma’hale
April 12th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Straw Bale House made by Single Mom for $50,000 on Utube
Use existing house plan. I am asking owners if they will give me or sell me plans (they might need local changes)
April 12th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Balewatch.com has plans or use the internet just type in strawbale and search How did you get a septic permit with out plans? Septics come in different sizes versus use, I thought. Watch the $$$s from the ground up. What is the house orientation? Where is the house site on the property to where the septic is going? $$$ per foot wasted as distance increases.How many SF do u need/want? jondhuy@gmail.com