You might be wondering what would possess us to A) build our own home, and B) build it from STRAW. Well, gather closely children... it all began many years ago in a land far away....
John and I were wandering through the desert outside of Taos, not quite lost, when we saw an apparition in the distance that literally had the brakes screeching and the car u-turning. There were several structures that looked something like this. What the heck????
Double whattheheck?
We stumbled into the compound, took a tour and were completely SMITTEN. We probably spent three hours there, ending with a video binge in their library.
First of all, they look like something Dr. Seuss would design in collaboration with Anoni Guadi while they were dreaming of Hobbits. Just Google "earthship images" and you'll see the amazing organic shapes -- swoops, curves, and vaults -- and the stunning play of light, especially when the builders use cast-off bottles in the walls.
Additionally, it was the first time we had heard of a completely self-sufficient building, off-the-grid building -- they often have a water collection system that makes use of grey and black water, and they use the thermal mass of the walls and the passive solar energy of the sun for heat; in fact they can be designed in such a way that you can even grow bananas in them! One of the most interesting aspects was that they are primarily built with a cast-off material that has no other use and is literally polluting the planet -- used care tires -- and they are intended to be built by the occupant. Being cheapy-cheap-cheapsters who prefer the DIY approach to paying someone else, our ears instantly pricked up. We bought all four "how to" books they had at the time.
For several years we toyed with the idea of buying some land a few hours from San Francisco and building a little get-away for ourselves, but we eventually lost our interest in the Eathship concept. With every year we got a little older, and the idea of literally spending years of our lives manually pounding dirt into the tires to create walls was more work than even our cheap (um, "frugal") selves wanted to tackle. But we continued to investigate green building technologies, especially those that were sympathetic to the owner-builder process, and eventually stumbled upon the strawbale concept.
Once again we were struck by the uniqueness of the architecture -- 2-foot thick walls, deep window seats, and "truth" windows -- as well as the warmth and camaraderie of the community of strawbuilding enthusiasts who approach it much like a neighborhood barn raising. John and I tentatively attended our first strawbuilding conference about 4 years ago, and though I know it will shock many of you, we are indeed a bit shy and not really "joiners." We were ready to bolt if they looked at us for two-seconds too long. Instead, they handed us a glass of wine and before the night was out we realized we had me our people. Visit http://www.strawbuilding.org to see more!
And now we own a pasture in Petaluma. Better get growing that straw...
