[Candogirl]

Hi all. I'm a newbie to the forum. In my intro hello I mentioned our straw bale house and some expressed an interest in seeing some pics.

The first 2 show the house before and after the exterior was finished.

 

[Candogirl]

The next set of pics show the windows and some pargetting (sculpting/carving lime plaster) that I did on the walls.

 

[Candogirl]

We are living in the house now. Moved in as soon as possible. (we were almost camping for 2 years while we built and anxious to move into a heated/insulated space without critters living in close proximity). Have a lot of inside finishing work still to do.

 

[Candogirl]

With the exception of pouring the slab (we had 3 other people helping), my husband and I did all the work. We broke ground in July 2009. Moved in October 2011. The house is about 916 square feet. It's infill construction with a steel frame.

I'm happy to answer questions for those interested in this type of thing.

 

[copperhead46]

that's a very exciting project, it's looks wonderful ! I know you must be so proud to have built something like this on your own, good job

 

[Chief Cook]

Love It! You did a great job! I think the artistic things you did inside are wonderful.

 

[Candogirl]

Thanks. We are enjoying the fun parts of finishing the interior. This winter's project will be using wood we reclaimed from the old farm house that was here (and we were previously living in) to finish walls and trim.

 

[Forcast]

Very nice thanks for posting

 

[Candogirl]

I've been enjoying browsing some of the other threads under Homestead Construction. A great idea....creating a thread to showcase ALL the homestead creating efforts (not just the house). I'm going to create one to post about ours and will include more pictures of the straw bale house there.
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/country-living-forums/homestead-construction/526969-homestead-creation-texas-straw-bale-house-animals-garden-etc.html#post7261240

 

[LauraD]

Beautiful! Could you show us the basic floor plan?

 

[Candogirl]

Sure....I'll try to dig up our drawing. It's somewhere on this machine.....

 

[Candogirl]

Beautiful! Could you show us the basic floor plan?

Simple floor plan.
We're a two person band and this is a PLENTY BIG house for us. In fact we could definitely live smaller..... but the extra space comes in handy when we're butchering, preserving, making stuff, which we do a lot of.

Sorry nothing is labeled....I'll try to describe:

The Top left-hand corner is the bathroom. The skinny wall is 2x4 construction of the shower. We built it that way to segregate this wet area from the straw walls. The thicker area around the exterior represents the straw bales.
Moving directly down the left side....a large closet....then the bedroom. The bedroom is big enough for a king size bed and a small table on each side...with room to walk around the bed. Instead of having a lot of bedroom furnishings we have a large closet where we keep clothing and more.

On the Right side: The L shaped area is a washroom/utility room/pantry. The circle thing in there is the water heater...which is also hooked to in floor radiant heat. Turn the corner in that L room and we have shelves floor to ceiling for a pantry.
Next space down is the kitchen....which is open to the living room area.

The little square shape in the middle represents the cupola...which has windows at the top and a ceiling fan in the "tower". We have hatch door in the lower part of the cupola that we close in winter....so as not to heat that space. In summer it's open which helps with passive cooling.

L shaped area on the bottom represents an enclosed porch....that part we have not yet built.

When we created our floor plan we used the K.I.S.S. principle. ;-)

 

[Esterot]

It looks great, thanks for posting the pics! Now of only we would be comfy with five in 900 sf!

"And don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found" -Papa Bear

 

[Idahardy]

What an awesome project! We are also going to build with straw bale. This year we're building a timber house without straw bale just so we can get into it. We're going to build two more of the same size, but those will be straw bale. All three will be connected by covered walkways and share a common roof. Like the old shotgun style houses. We're also in Texas - near Bandera.
Ida

 

[Candogirl]

What an awesome project! We are also going to build with straw bale. This year we're building a timber house without straw bale just so we can get into it. We're going to build two more of the same size, but those will be straw bale. All three will be connected by covered walkways and share a common roof. Like the old shotgun style houses. We're also in Texas - near Bandera.
Ida

Cool. I always have liked the idea of several buildings, interconnected. Good luck with your build. Show us some pics when you get started with the bales.

 

[ErinP]

Yet another "we were going to build straw bale but didn't."

We ended up with post-and-beam. Not sure if it was any faster or not, but it was definitely easier.
We're planning on doing a small straw-bale for a guest house across the meadow one day, instead.

 

[LauraD]

Thanks for the floor plan! Very simple, but I like things that way.

 

[GoldenCityMuse]

Very well done. Thanks fo rthe good pix.