The Plans Are Approved!!!

[jwv]

The plans are approved! We have a footer dug and the forms are up!! We are on our way!!! Again!!
See a simple version of the plans on the blog  http://strawbaleredux.blogspot.com/  We're planning an early March baleraising.

judy

[Daddymem]

Great news Judy!  Have fun!

[glenn-k]

Great, Judy.  Please keep us posted--and pictured.

[jwv]

Hi All,

I'm still around, just been very busy. We had our wallraising and it was a huge success-about 30 people acitively raising bales and many sight-seers!  It's great when people see that you can create your own shelter.



That's my husband Rick and our friend Cheryl putting in the last bale!

Judy

More pictures
//www.strawbaleredux.blogspot.com

[Sassy]

Looks like you have a great neighborhood!  Amazing how fast things can go with all that help...  
Enjoyed reading your blog-keep those pictures coming!

[glenn-k]

Looks good, Judy.  It appears you are doing load bearing bales?

[jwv]

Yes, Glenn, it's loadbearing.  That's the code in Pima Co but don't know that we'd do it differently if it weren't the code.  Got the roofbearing assembly finished today and the trusses were delivered so the roof goes on next week.

Judy

[jwv]

Short update:
http://strawbaleredux.blogspot.com

Judy

[Amanda_931]

Straw bale is so nice--I think.  

I see why there are sticks emerging from the decking.

A shame that once walls and roof are on it goes slowly.  At least the building I worked on (but then the forever nameless (not me!) person who was supposed to be our leader had a mid-life crisis in the middle and disappeard for a couple of weeks).

[Sassy]

You're moving right along!  Are you going to use earth plaster on the outside or regular stucco?  Looking good!

[glenn-k]

Talking to the local engineer last night, I found out that we are allowed to have load bearing straw bale construction here also.  He said out of about 6 he has engineered, 1 was load bearing.  Has to do with the architect designing it he said.  He seems to be a great guy and relatively cheap compared to valley engineer pricing.  I reviewed his plans for a friends house, and they looked to be well done.  He gave them several options on bracing to make it compatible with their  desired design.

[Daddymem]

Wow!  Taking shape.  Beautiful!

[jwv]

It'll be cement stucco from the bottom to about 3 feet since that is the splash area. Even though it is very dry (11 inches/yr) when we have rain it tends to come in torrents and doesn't soak into the ground.  We were just last night planning ways to keep most of the water that hits the postage stamp sized lot on the lot.  Above the cement stucco and inside we will have earthen plasters. Refer to this picture  http://www.buildingwithawareness.com/Picturetour1.html

Yeah Amanda, that's what I keep telling everyone who says how quickly it's going.  Details, details, details but just like any other building project.

Things are coming along,

Judy

Add: Pima Co Code only speaks to load bearing. Go figure.

[Amanda_931]

Some people on another list (Texas) got their cob house approved by codes not because it was a cob house but because it was a post-and-beam house with a lot of infill.

That might be true of straw bale in Pima County as well, that the straw-bale code doesn't apply, the building is covered under post and beam.

[jwv]

We could have built a post and beam but would have needed an engineers stamp ($$$) because if it isn't written in the code it doesn't exist and therefore needs to be "proven".  In NM (and probably other places) the code is written FOR post and beam construction.  We had done load bearing before, so not a big deal. Just a peculiarity in the code.

Judy

[Sassy]

People at work keep asking me "Are you finished with your house yet?  You've been working on it an awful long time, haven't you?"  I have to again repeat that we are doing everything ourselves, in our spare time.  It is also an "unusual" design...    When people actually come to visit & look around at all that has been done so far, they are amazed... At times, I get anxious to get more done--but then have to sit back & look at what we have & realize I'm pretty blessed!  

[jwv]

Blog Update Notice!!

Leave a comment, I'm feeling very lonely  [smiley=sad.gif]

Judy

[glenn-k]

Looking good, Judy.  To bad everyone is scattered across the US --and world --I'd really like to help on some of these projects.

[Texan_lost_in_cali]

I am always looking at strawbale. In fact I just learned that the area where I have my land has a owner builder clause that if it is under 1000 sq ft you do not need engineering. California has a strawbale code as a state but each county is different. I just have been thinking of selling here in the growth neighborhood and buying a RV to live in until I get the house built the way I want. Loadbearing Strawbale with some type of alternative foundation, mud floors, solar electric, grey water system, solar heating via floor tubes, I think the list goes on but I sure need to find someone that has the knowledge to tell me how to get along with the County people....

[jwv]

Hey Cali,

Try this group http://www.strawbuilding.org/.  I hear good things about their work and assistance. There is also a yahoo group that is pretty active and is visited by the folks who srite the books.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SB-r-us/.

Were you going to try to go to Canelo?  Did you make it?

Good Luck

Judy

I'm also posting info about a great indepth book on building with different alternative methods over in Referrals

[glenn-k]

Your roof looks great Judy.

You are an RN too ?  You probably mentioned it before -- I'm just lost--- maybe you and Sassy should start a little cobbing nurses club.  Something about nurses and mud that just makes building  exciting. :-/

[jwv]

Your roof looks great Judy.

You are an RN too ?  You probably mentioned it before -- I'm just lost--- maybe you and Sassy should start a little cobbing nurses club.  Something about nurses and mud that just makes building  exciting. :-/

Cobbing, thrift store shopping, healing the sick, lifting that barge, toting that bale...Sassy and I can do it all!

Judy

[pioneergal]

Looks great!
I read in one of my Farm and Ranch magazines about a family building a straw bale house somewhere in Nebraska.

Is this a more cost effective and energy efficent method of building?

[Dberry]

Looks great!
I read in one of my Farm and Ranch magazines about a family building a straw bale house somewhere in Nebraska.

Is this a more cost effective and energy efficent method of building?

Personally, I don't think the alternative methods to construction are going to save any money.  I've looked at cob, strawbale, adobe, tires filled with dirt...  most everything.  In the end I concluded that standard 2x6 walls where the best bang for the buck.  I think the potential is there with strawbale to save a tiny bit, but when you consider having to build a larger roof to cover the 2 foot thick walls for a given interior space, I'm betting it negates those savings.  Most of the alternative building methods are extremely labor intensive as well.

I'm not knocking the strawbale houses..  I think it's a great idea and some of the houses I've seen have looked great.  I just don't think the owners really saved any money and I suspect most of them end up spending substantially more.

Regards,
Dan

[Amanda_931]

Some do, some don't, save money by using various "alternative methods."  You may just shift where you spend money--on a local architect instead of framing and trim crews, for instance.

If you're a thermal mass freak, then 2x6 over a crawl space is pretty much useless.

Glenn's house has been quite inexpensive, and it apparently works beautifully--and it's an "all the comforts of home" place.  Mike Oehler's design strategy seems pretty wonderful.

Cob, foot mixed by two or three people, is slow beyond belief.  But you'll never get that sculptural look with standard stick framing.  People are using a tractor to mix their stuff--it goes a lot faster.

Straw bale was my introduction to alternative building--and I love it.  unless you screw up your foundations you will have very good insulation there--better than the 2x6 stick built.  John doesn't love it--the walls, until plastered, are pretty squishy, in-wall post and beam can get a bit complicated, and besides it sounds kind of redundant.

Earthships^tm tend to be expensive--but they come with water, power, and at least most of your waste water system.--you get to change out UV bulbs and clean filters in the incoming water system every so often, replace the first set of batteries quickly because everybody is reputed to ruin theirs, then only occasionally thereafter.  People who love them say that there is lots of daylighting and no glare problems.  I've never been in one.  But people tend to build theirs big.

Rammed tire ships can be quite inexpensive.  The systems are what you've put in.  You collect the tires, etc.

I don't really have the location, but AGS/PAHS won't be inexpensive to build, but the chances are pretty good that you really will end up with no heating and cooling bills--except maybe for the 90+ degrees we had for most of a week in April or an early cold snap in September, and those might not be too unpleasant to weather without added cooling or heat.

Your scrounging abilities, and even more how well you tolerate waiting for the perfect thing to come along, your ability to tolerate building either with friends or a workshop, or very slowly by yourself--all those will affect whether "a,,lternative building" makes sense for you.