I have not updated the blog in a while out of pure disappointment. We unfortunately had to come to the decision to not use the beautiful hand hewn oak beams for the structure for our home due to questionable structural integrity. Despite this we have carried on. We replaced the oak with Douglas Fir beams. The replacement process took a couple weeks out of our schedule and left us scrambling to make it to the straw bale workshop. This was a very long, arduous and frustrating process. The crew kept good spirits and completed the work safely.
We decided to have the new Fir beams hewn to make them look a bit more organic and get rid of the straight cut lines. We also wanted a bit darker of a look so we stained them with a soybean oil based stain call velvet oil. The color is called Mediterranean #217. It actually came out a lot darker than expected but we like the look. Here is a picture of me staining the beams 20ft in the air on some rigged up scaffolding left by the framers.
Other work we have taken on was cleaning up and painting the metal brackets hat will hold the framing together. These were cut from scraps of metal left over from prior projects. Our contractor hired a local church with a metal shop to do the work. We saved about $800 dollars by doing this. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't seem like much however each little bit of savings can add up. I will provide a picture of these when they are attached to the frame.
We have been scrambling to get items completed that have to be done for the straw bales to go up. Because of the delay in framing we will be working right up to the last minute to get this done. All window frames must be completed by framers to dry fit into the bales. All base plates must be in place on first and second floor to stack bales on. Also all of the metal brackets must be in place to safely have volunteers on-site working on the bales. These are all items that will be completed today, the day before the workshop...AHHHH
I should have an update next week regarding the straw bale workshop.
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