Building a Natural Home

This weekend was quite hairy, though we came out OK.

There were some bigger items on the plate: we were to install all the windows we can, and also start on the straw clay wall. But after trying to make staw clay for 2-3 hours we decided not to do it. First, neither of us has done straw clay, nor taken lessons. My wife understood what it was and have seen it done, but since I was the one doing it, I failed to make up a batch of straw clay that worked. Plus it was going to be quite time-consuming.

So we ditched the idea, quickly re-drew the plans and decided to do conventional framing for the north wall, with insulation between the outer and the inner wall. I went to Home Depot to get the lumber, and off I go, framing a new wall.

In the mean time, my wife worked on finishing up tiling inside our cob house. This was a major project, too, and she made great progress. The tiling is now all done except for the few around the toilet. We are considering moving the toilet, so decided not to tackle that area.

On Saturday we had a tropical rain storm, which blew portions of the tar paper covering our strawbale house’s roof. There was some major leakage, and I was up on the roof in the middle of the storm trying to patch it up. Phew!

The good news is that a metal roof is finally ordered and will be here within a week. We know how to install a metal roof, so we’re hoping to put it up very soon. Leaking roof is never good for life.