This little off grid home is getting the finish work treatment this year

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates about the off the grid straw bale home we’ve been helping our friends build here outside Berea, Kentucky. Here’s a look at how the octagonal straw bale house is shaping up these days. It now has most of the base coat clay plaster complete, and more recently the window trim has been installed.

This is the year for finish work with the goal of moving in for the winter!

Definitely still a construction site, but the finished product is almost in sight

Off The Grid Straw Bale Home Update

Our commitment to this project is more or less complete, though we’re still helping consult with our friends and do a few work trades here and there. Most recently, I spent a few days installing the interior window trim. We used some really beautiful ash from wood milled on the property. The sills for the big windows are particularly nice — they’re single pieces of wood over 14″ wide. You gotta love a deep window sill.

Something that isn’t visible is that the trim has a rabbet cut on the outside so that eventually the finish plaster will tuck in right behind the trim, creating a really clean transition without any nasty shrinkage gaps. This was a cue I took from The Natural Building Companion book.

Window trimmed with locally harvested ash

Big ol’ window sill from a single piece of ash

One of the other details I’m really pleased with are the lathe “baskets” we put in above the large south windows and the double door in our Straw Bale Workshop last summer. It was really easy to achieve a nice curve above these large openings with this method. (The baskets are made with lathe, which are then stuffed with loose straw and plastered over.) Here’s a look at one of those baskets with the base coat of clay plaster applied over it.

Note the lathe “basket” over this door, now covered over in base coat plaster

Very even and pleasing curve here

Moving to the exterior for a minute… here’s one of the windows with weatherproofing details on view. I have high hopes for this technique we came up with. The detailing includes ice & water shield (think tar paper on speed) around the window framing, installed above an initial layer of plaster. (The ice & water shield will get plastered over with more base coat before the finish clay plaster gets applied.)

There’s a few important details to note about this window installation

Each window has a custom made sill. First we attached a wood extension, cut so that it portrudes at a downward angle. Then we took a length of metal that we had custom bent, and wrapped the sill. This metal went in before the window and will help shed water away from the opening. The wood trim goes around the window (with the same rabbet detail seen inside.) I won’t ever float windows again in a straw bale wall, but I think this method of creating a weather seal and air barrier around each window and door opening is worth repeating.

Wood sill extension wrapped in metal to shed water

We are definitely in full spring bloom now, and it’s nice to see all of the oak trees finally leafing out around the house site. This little off the grid home is tucked in the middle of the woods, so it’s a beautiful and dramatic transition from winter to spring when everything finally greens up again.

We’re at that magical time now where things are green but there is still tons of light pouring through the trees.

Oak trees leaf out around the home site…

p.s. Oh, and by the way… please try to cover your wood surfaces before doing any plastering. It makes cleanup a lot easier. Heh.