Straw Bale Workshop

Nothing but huge thanks to everyone who came out! We had family come from Dallas and Atlanta, lots of friends from our running group who showed up for several hours, and many other who have an interest in straw bale building. This was also our first hands on experience working with bales so it was an amazing experience to learn with everyone else. I would like to send out a huge thank you to our amazing instructors Ben and Sarah, without your help we would have been completely lost.

Bales delivered on-site, this is the small pile of them!

Another of the small pile

Friday night was a nice introduction to the weekend and an opportunity to get familiar with straw bale construction and the job site. Ben gave a good overview of the benefits of straw bale along with the longevity and beauty that it can provide.

Ben going over his slide show

Saturday morning before we got started

Saturday morning started with Rudy's breakfast tacos, coffee, and delicious doughnuts! Once the work actually started it didn't take long for the first bale to go into place. We started from the very beginning by placing the insulation and felt paper that the bales will sit on. This was probably the worst part of the  morning as the insulation was very fine and made a nice dust for everyone to breath in and irritate their lungs. Once we got past the coughing and laid the felt paper over the insulation it was time to lay the first bale.



The bales went up very quickly at this point. Everyone was excited and ready to work. It was fun to watch everyone break into their own work groups and just go for it. Although it wasn't long before things slowed back down a bit by placing the first window. The window frames are floating windows that sit on top of the bales and are set in place by dowel rods. This meant a quick learning session from Sarah and Ben on how to make custom bales. It didn't take long before multiple people were proficient in making these bales and the project moved on!

The Master suite taking shape

By the end of the day Saturday we had completed a large amount of the master suite and a pretty good amount of the back wall. Check out the pics below!

Everyone working hard!

Setting the floating window frames in place

End of the day Saturday

End of the day Saturday in the Great Room

Another master suite pic

Sunday morning started out a some muscle soreness and a nice rain shower. Luckily we arrived early enough to water proof what needed to be covered. There was a very little chance of rain that morning but luckily we were prepared. Also it was a nice chance to sit and relax in the garage and enjoy the breakfast tacos and coffee before the day got going. It was nice and humid once the sky stopped dumping rain and it was time to get started. The attendance was a little lower on Sunday however having a day of experience really sped up the pace. Again everyone broke up into separate groups and got to business. Before you knew it we were completing the gables on the master suite. This was the first room to have all of the bales up and it looked pretty amazing! Here are a couple pictures of the end of the day on Sunday.

Yasmin mixing up some special drink for Sunday!

Completed Master Suite on Sunday afternoon! See below for comparison once straightened and trimmed

Since the initial workshop weekend Yasmin and I have been working most days after work and just about every weekend to get the remainder of the bales up. We have enlisted the help of willing family and have even hired a few attendees of the workshop to help finish out the bales. The last bales went up  last Wednesday 6/26/13.

Finishing up the back wall

Working on the second floor...by myself....after work...exhausted!

The process now is what every straw bale builder needs to know. We have been working on straightening, stuffing, and trimming the walls. The plan is to work on this for the next week or two until completed. This gets us closer to placing the stucco netting and handing the job over to a professional stucco contractor to make our home look beautiful. The more time spent now making the walls straight the better our home will look later. Also, this is the time to shape corners, windows, and create niches in the walls. This is the time to be creative! So far we have straightened and trimmed the east, west, and south side of the first floor on the exterior. The goal for the week will be to finish the north side of the first floor exterior. I have been using a make shift hammer that Sarah built using scraps of wood on-site. This "tool" has been crucial into persuading the bales into place. It seems the easy part was getting all of the bales up. Now the real detail work begins.

Before straightening and trimming

After Straightening and trimming!

Another after picture of the east wall of the master suite after straightening and trimming, what a difference!

After picture of the master suite finished

All of the bales completed!

Using the Fred Flintstone hammer to help straighten the walls!

Inside of the great room after all bales up

Completed gable section in great room

Completed gable section in upstairs bathroom/bedroom area

I will be out working this July 4th weekend from Thursday thru Sunday. I am currently working on straightening and trimming walls, placing electrical boxes, and prepping for stucco. Anyone interested in coming out to learn what needs to be done after the bales go up feel free to email strawbaleaustin@gmail.com I can let you know what time I will be out working. This will be very informal so just bring an open mind and be ready to work!


Thanks for reading!

Bye, Bye Beams... :(

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.

A LOT OF PROGRESS!

Since the last post we have made a lot of progress. It has not been without its challenges, however here are some pictures to walk you through the progress. The first 6 pictures are all taken from the same relative location. We have also set a date for the straw bale workshop. June 8-9, 2013. Please email StrawBaleAustin@gmail.com for further details if you are interested in coming out and helping us raise our walls. Thanks again for taking a look!

The forms are completed and the fill has been brought in.

The plumbing almost near completion

Plumbing is complete! Ready to pour!

Concrete has been poured! Here some of the workers are smoothing out the concrete after its been poured.

Here it is after the forms have been removed. You can see the rebar sticking up around the edge in preparation to hold the straw bales in place.

Some of the framing has begun, you can see the interior rooms framed up with typical stick frame construction. You may also notice our beams going up for the actual structure. These are pre-civil war era hand hewn oak beams. They may look like junk but have yet to be cleaned up.

Here is a close up of what I mean by hand hewn. You can see all of the ax marks from the person who took this from an oak tree he cut down, to an actual beam...By Hand! blows my mind that the wood is still solid as a rock, 180 years later. They do not make stuff like this anymore.

Here is a picture of the beam that will span our kitchen.

You can see in this picture the beams that will go up to the second story. Lots of people have been walking up and driving by asking questions. Im sure its going to be even more crazy when we start the straw bales!

Garage forms up, pile of fill, one Yasmin and an Oprah...

Garage plumbing completed, ready for concrete!

Here is a shot of the back side of the garage

Right before they poured the concrete

Framing only took a couple hours

And here it is the very next day...These guys are quick!

Im ready for all the piles of junk to get off the property

Strong Foundations

So its been longer than we wanted but we are just a few days away from pouring the foundation. We have hit a few snags here and there but the project is moving along. We have had a couple small decisions to make over the past couple weeks mainly regarding the plumbing. Its hard to imagine but every little decision we make now will ultimately affect the functionality of the home later on.

One of the hardest decisions for us to make was the final location of the outdoor shower. This was a definite must have for us. After using one while on vacation in Costa Rica we decided we had to have one. After 2 weeks of debate and long discussions with the contractor we finally made a decision...(your just going to have to wait and see)

Unfortunately, the foundation process is not very exciting visually. It is actually kind of unappealing. There are lots of scraps of wood and piles of sand for fill. The only exciting part is seeing exactly where the house and garage will sit on the property. However it is still difficult to imagine that we are standing in our living room or kitchen while we are out there.

We are currently in the process of talking with local farmers to find out when the first harvest will be so we can secure our straw bales. It has been a decent spring here in Texas and with some recent rain they expect a good yield in early to mid may. The trees are starting to gain their spring leaves and it is looking a lot more green here in Austin. We cant wait to post up another update once the foundation is completed and we start the framing. Thanks for reading, enjoy the pics!

Street view of the garage forms

Garage forms completed, plumbing for garage completed! Ready to be poured

Side view next to garage where the stream flows when it rains!

This will be the view from our master bedroom, minus all the junk!

View within the grove of Live Oaks at the front of the property

House forms completed with all plumbing complete as well! bring on the concrete!

Side of the house

From ideas to reality

Let me start off by saying that Yasmin and I have not taken a very conventional path to owning our first home. Building a straw bale house is, by far, not the most common building method. It's difficult to explain to people who have never heard of it, uncommon to find people familiar with it, and even more difficult to find somebody with straw bale design and building experience. We have only been in one straw bale home, which was designed by our architect. We fell in love with the idea from browsing through several books and pictures on the internet. We have taken our simple idea and turned it into something that will soon be reality. This has given us the opportunity to take more of a hands-on approach to the design process and will give us the opportunity to be more involved during the building process. We plan on having a straw bale workshop to raise the bales for our home that will be run by our architect, Ben Obregon of the sustainabledesigncenter.com This will give family, friends, and any others who would like to lend a hand, an opportunity to learn about sustainable design and green building (similar to a barn raising).

It has been several months since the last post on our straw bale project. Over those months we have been working on clearing dead trees and brush from our property, finalizing house plans, and obtaining building permits. We  finally closed on our construction loan on January 29th, 2013 so the actual construction has begun! Here are some pictures to update you all on the progress.

Lynn and John helping cut down some trees! July 2012

July 2012

Same view as picture above only this is from mid-February 2013.

Some of the hand-hewn oak beams that will be used for the framing. These are from the 1830's!

The foundation guys dropped off everything needed for forming up foundation. Early February 2013

The area has finally been cleared for the house, see the picture below for comparison.

Foundation forms are going in. March 1st, 2013

Yasmin dancing in our future bedroom. March 2nd, 2013

Hopefully we will not have to wait 6 more months for the next update! Foundation should be poured within the next 2-3 weeks. Then we can start building upwards! We will do our best to keep you updated with any major progress made. Thanks for reading!