It has begun

Well, here we are 25 days into our build and things are finally starting to take shape. The first few weeks were filled with site-work and rain, which is not a combination we would recommend. And finally after 9 days of straight rain, our slab was able to be poured and framing work could begin.

To back up a bit, Andre and I never considered building a house. We had been poking around looking for something to buy and relocate to for our retirement years, but never found what we were looking for. Then we found this interesting piece of land. 4 acres of mixed forest and Canadian Shield on a paved road that had never been developed. Guess no-one else was crazy enough to consider the location. My dream was always for an alternative house, away from the road and I guess after several years I wore him down. So now we are building a straw-bale house. There will be no basement, as we are building on a rock, and did not want to have to blast.

This will be the first house built - that we are aware of - using the method we are. Our builder is Deirdre McGahern of Straworks. http://straworks.ca/ With her guidance and support, and using her method, I designed our house to be south facing for maximum solar gain, with smaller windows on the north face, and the doors and windows are oriented to be across from each other for cross-breeze ventilation in the summer. I then drafted all of the blue-prints in order for us to receive building permits for both the house and the garage. The roof will be steel with 30"+ overhangs to shade us in the summer and allow the sun to reach the concrete slab floor in the winter. Radiant in-floor heating will provide winter warmth. We still have not decided if we will have a wood-stove.

Bales provide about R35 in the walls. Interior and exterior walls are plastered. Partition walls will be typical drywall. We have a cathedral ceiling on the common area side of the house where the kitchen and living rooms are. We will require no air conditioning in summer due to the mass of the walls which will be about 20" thick and the house will be warm and snug in the winter.

The unique construction involves using "Larsen Trusses" as the structural support members. They are site-built to engineers specs. and spaced 36" apart and are 18" deep. The straw bales will sit between these members, so no stitching of the bales and mesh required.