Growing up we had a rule in our house: we had to open our windows at least once a day for at least five minutes, summer and winter, regardless of the outside temperature. This rule stuck with me and I’m starting to understand why when I look at my bathroom walls. Mould and mildew is […]
Building a house – brainstorming insulation
The temperature is dropping here in Australia, we’re heading into winter. And, as in previous years, I’m getting upset by the day. You know why? It’s cold!!! I have lived in countries that have much lower winter temperatures than Australia yet I feel much colder here. It’s not a perception issue, it’s an issue of […]
Straw bale workshop – recap
Four days have past without me working with straw, mud, or render. My clothes and shoes are clean again and I get my physical workout through my normal fitness routine. What has changed? I feel a different connection to buildings now. I walk past at least one construction side every day and I look at […]
Straw bale workshop – day 4
Day four, the last day of the straw bale workshop. I admit, I’m exhausted albeit it was an awesome experience. We did a lot of work on the house in a short amount of time. It’s amazing to see the progress from a timber frame to rendered walls. Today’s biggest job was to begin rendering […]
Straw bale workshop – day 3
Day three of building a straw bale house with natural materials and I’m starting to get comfortable with the process. I spend most of my day today on the interior mud walls, just like yesterday. We tried a different technique by forming mud-straw-sand-balls in our hands and ‘staging’ them into the timber frame. This technique […]
Straw bale workshop – day 2
Day two at the straw bale workshop meant I got to play with mud and I loved it. The morning began with a recap of the previous day and the plan for day two. There were two main tasks: finish of the outside straw walls and begin work on the interior mud walls. I was […]
Straw bale workshop – day 1
The first day at a straw bale workshop – it smelled (and looked) like a barn. My first impression of the building side when I arrived this morning was that of any other building side in Australia: the house-to-be has a wooden frame on a level surface with a roof of corrugated iron. However, in […]
Attending a building workshop – live blogging
As part of my collection of ideas and thoughts on a smaller and more fulfilling lifestyle I’ve been looking at alternatives to conventional housing designs. As a family we have started looking into ideas such as Earthships, mud brick houses, and straw bale buildings. This is all very exciting for me and also completely out […]