Strawbale Home Austin, TX: I didn't sign up for this...

View from the upstairs bedroom onto the awesome Live Oak Tree!

Its been a little over 2 months since our last post. Yasmin and I have been working non-stop almost everyday after work, on weekends, and holidays to complete the straw bale work. I did not sign up for this! That said, we have had some amazing people come out and help us with our home! Neighbors who saw the house and were interested in green building techniques, friends have saved our butts on many occasions, family who never cease to amaze us that they actually come back for another day to help, and complete strangers who just happen to stumble upon this site or people we run into while purchasing items for our home that we strike up conversation with! Thank you so much for everything, trust me, your all invited to the kick ass house warming party! Ive got a lot more pictures than I do words, so enjoy.

Interior straw walls before electrical started

A view from the street

Porch and front deck

How we shaped our windows, kind of the typical straw bale thing...But we like it!

Let me just say that taking on building a straw bale home is an unbelievable experience, however it is not without its frustrations. I would highly recommend attending a professional workshop with experienced straw bale builders before you do this. It will help with the learning curve if you don't have much experience with working with straw. Yasmin and I had never lifted a straw bale before we started this project, and had only been in one completed straw bale home. We have learned so many tips and tricks that if we had known at the beginning would have made life much, much easier. There are so many items you don't fully understand beyond just stacking the bales until you actually get to them, it is an understatement to say it is overwhelming. Items such as making sure all of the exposed wood framing is protected before you stucco as the lime will eat into the wood. There are many documented ways to complete this, but some are way easier and faster than others. Attaching stucco netting is another item that is extremely time consuming, dangerous, and all together pain in the ass! however it all depends on how you do it. If you've never done it before, Id recommend having someone with experience show you the best way to do it. Now that we know a better way, we could have saved several days of our own labor completing stucco netting. We even had to rebuild a couple walls due to water damage from a leaky roof...Who says it doesn't rain in Texas...

Windows installed, I love how these on the master open

Close up of the windows

Some of the electrical and plumbing vents

More plumbing

Mess of electrical wires...I would not even think of touching this

Interior walls after straightening and trimming just before spray foam

Ceiling after Spray foam

Concrete window sill forms

We added some pea pebbles to the window sills, just to create more work for myself!

Thanks to our neighbor for lending us his concrete mixer!

After they have been poured...still waiting to set up and polish

So what has happened since the last post? Well, all the walls are nice and straight...sort of, as good as you can get a straw bale house at least. All of the stucco netting is up. All of the windows have been shaped just how we want them (at least on the exterior). The electrical rough in is complete, as well as plumbing and HVAC rough in. The Spray foam insulation has also been completed! What an unbelievable difference in temperature and noise the spray foam makes, I would highly recommend getting this done while building your home. It sealed up every border where straw and framing met with 9 inches + of spray foam! We built the front deck frame and front porch. We also finally received our front door after waiting 9 weeks for it! Exterior stucco is starting this week as well! Most of the metal roof has been put on. And just this past weekend we made forms and poured our window sills in concrete. Hope you enjoyed the pics, sorry for the delay in any updates, we've just been too busy working on the house to do anything else!