Progress

All four walls are framed now! We picked up our recycled paper insulation. The lumber store said we had to rent a machine that blows in the insulation. I did not rent the machine. I broke off chunks into a plastic barrel and churned it up with a mixer blade on a half inch drill. This made the insulation expand to about four times its size. We filled the box beam and then capped it off with 3/4 inch plywood on top. This meant the house was ready for the roof, which was good timing because the next day the roof trusses were delivered. The following day some local builders volunteered their Sunday to help me put up the roof. We have a great community of people here that are interested in what I am doing and are willing to help out. To my amazement we got the roof trusses up in one day! What a difference one day can make. It is really starting to look like a house now and things are moving along pretty fast now. I have quite a bit more work to do on the roof, but the hard part is done. Putting up roof trusses by yourself would be next to impossible.

Walls!

We have four walls, two of which are finished! The door and window frames are in place and we built the box beam in place. Carrie's sister Regan and her boyfriend Trevor came down from Canada and helped us build for a ten days. I found building the box beam in place advantageous because I can do it myself when I have too instead of building it on the ground and having a team of people trying to lift it in place while standing on ladders. The plywood is nailed straight down into the bucks this way instead of toe nailed in afterwards. Then the 2x8's are screwed vertically into the plywood from below and from the top. Inside the box beam I put spacers every three feet. I will fill the box beam with cellulose, which is recycled paper insulation, then cap it with more plywood. Felt paper on top will finish it off for a bit more water protection. Fifteen inches of cellulose is well over R50 insulation which will match my bale walls nicely. The roof will then rest on top of the box beam. While two of the walls were still down, I moved dirt into the house with the tractor and spread by hand for the next floor layer. Once I compact this layer I lay the radiant floor tubes directly on top. With this layer in place I was able to put the bucks in for the other two walls. The other earth floor layers will not require the tractor. Now I can frame the rest of the windows and doors and tie the walls together with the last two box beams. When I finish those walls I am ready for the roof which should arrive any day now. I find the stick frame building goes very fast. Moving lots of dirt is very slow:) There are still several floor layers to go, but things should move along a little quicker now.

I used screws to frame the walls because I happened to have a ton of them recycled from the forms I built. Using screws was a Good thing it turns out since this is my first time building a house. For instance the first window I framed I had to take apart and move three times before I got it right. All I had to do was unscrew everything and move it instead of trying to bang and pry out nails. The next thing I framed was the door ( twice ). After that I got the hang of it and started getting them done in one go. Using recycled wood, you find odd lumbar sizes. I learned to measure everything no matter what you thought the wood sizes were supposed to be. I am framing everything with 2x8''s because I scored a very large stack of them for a very good price. I now have used lumbar, windows, and door sources that seem to be endless. If you ever try this, get to know some builders. They generally stockpile building materials that they pull out of old and even new houses. It can literally cut your materials costs in half or better.

More pictures....

Here are the pictures!

A lot has happened since the last post. After the concrete dried I took all the forms apart to use the wood once again for something else. With the footer done I could then bolt on the bottom plate. This is the only wood I have had to buy from a lumber yard so far because this piece needed to be treated wood. A layer of felt paper was placed on the footer first to form a vapor barrier between the concrete and the straw even though the straw will sit an inch and a half above the concrete anyway. My daughter Bethen helped me bolt on the bottom plate. She put the washers on, then started the nuts on the bolts and tightened them with a wrench. She really got into it. (Daddy went back and tightened them a little more later ) With the bottom plate on I could then measure out exactly where the bathroom walls would be. Then the digging started. I dug out all the trenches where I needed to place plumbing for drainage. This took a while with the rocky ground. Once the trenches were done, I put in all the plumbing and capped of the pipes coming out of the ground. Next I put in a layer of gravel, then a vapor barrier, then a layer of 2" rigid foam insulation on the ground and up the sides of the foundation. The foam is not very green and is very expensive. I think next time I build one of these I will find a cheaper more eco friendly solution for ground insulation. There are several layers of flooring to go before the walls go up. All of the groundwork is time consuming and I was dying to start building with wood. I have to keep the site clear so I can dump loads of dirt in with the tractor for the next floor layer. One night Carrie mention that since I can't get the tractor around the South facing wall, why not go ahead and put up that wall. I ran to the building site with a big grin on my face and had the south wall up in two hours! I am frantically trying to get the floor layers in so I can continue the other walls. When I begin, it will take me less than one day to finish the walls minus the window framing. It will go from a square on the ground to something that resembles a house very quickly. Getting that one wall up was very motivating. The next floor layer is 6" of compacted earth. (dirt) on top of my foam. I am installing an earthen floor. Yesterday I put in the first section of that earth layer. At first I thought, what am I doing putting dirt all over my nice looking insulation. Then as I leveled and compacted it, I thought what a great feeling having earth in the house. It fells great to stand on and I instantly fell in love with the idea. With the radiant heat under it, it will be very cozy. Any kind of wood flooring would someday eventually rot. The dirt I used for my floor has been around forever, and will continue to be around forever. It will take me at least seven more days to complete this floor layer. Tonight I am excited to put up the east wall. I will not need to access that side with the tractor anymore. I will post some new pictures of the earth going in and the walls so far. The next floor layers are the radiant tubing followed by two more inches of compacted earth. I have purchases all of my radiant tubing parts. Now I just have to figure out how to install it! After that I will put the last two walls up and the roof. I have ordered the roof trusses and the metal, which are coming soon! Once the roof is up protecting the floor I will then put in the adobe layer. 1 1/2" of adobe floor. This will dry out while the walls are open. Once dry I can stack bales! Then once the house is done I will put a half inch finish coat of adobe on the floor followed by seven coats of linseed oil. It should make for a nice floor finish.

Today I picked up three huge loads of recycled wood for a very good price. I am very excited about. That should about be all the wood I will need for the house and then some. All of my wood so far has been well under half price except for the bottom plate.

Stay tuned for more pictures...

concrete pouring...

The foundation is in!

We had a concrete inspector come in and (luckily) he said the forms looked great.  So, two cement trucks later, and lots of shoveling, smoothing and trowelling with the help of my friend John and Carrie, the footer is complete.  In total 14 yards of concrete was used.  This is the only concrete we will be using in the house.  Photos to come soon.

Above Ground

Here is a short progress report on the straw house. I have run city water and the septic system up to the house under the rubble trench. I am pretty pleased, because the plumbing was one thing I thought I would have to hire a professional to do. One of our local plumbing companies here was nice enough to talk my plan over with me at their shop. I bought the pieces I needed then went home and installed it all myself. The water line was easy enough as well. With that done, I filled in the last wall of the foundation with rocks. A friend loaned me a tamper to pack all the rock down. Now for the last two days I've been building above ground! I started building the forms to pour my footer. Once the footer is done, I can start building the walls and it will start taking the shape of a house. Originally I was going to lay down earth bags of rock with a six inch concrete slab on top of them for my footer. After having a play with the rock bags I don't fully trust them to hold up my house. I know they have been used before, but I think I will go with a concrete footer. I still won't be using much concrete as I am not pouring a slab, I am going with earth floors on the inside of the house. Also to save on concrete in my footer, I am thinking of laying a ground layer of football sized rocks for the length of the walls, then pour the concrete over them. If anybody has a better idea on this please contact me soon. I am trying to minimize the use of concrete, but still have the house stand up. It's all coming along now. I am very excited to move away from shoveling earth and rocks to working with wood. We now have all the doors and windows needed for the house. I found a building recycle center close by, and got some sweet deals - happened to catch the center on a day they were offering 50% off their usual low prices. Four large double paned windows (that will go across the front of the house facing south) were $17.00 each. I can't see anything wrong with them. I got beautiful heavy french doors for $60.00. We also bought several pieces of furniture right across the lake from my Mothers antique shop. Needless to say, she gave us some good deals. I look forward to seeing the final cost for this house.