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!
One of our big wood scores this weekend… great for riving shakes
This was definitely the weekend for big wood. Big scores of big wood. First we saved some massive red oak logs from a local establishment with an eye for turning these big beautiful lengths of wood into shakes for a roof. (If we manage to save enough of the logs, we may even use the shakes on the upcoming roof of our timber frame pizza oven shelter.) And then by surprise, we found a local fellow who was advertising massively wide slabs of cedar… perfect for the kitchen counter we want to build.
Both of these are the kind of thing we may only find once or twice in our lifetime…
Milk paint can be used on drywall, even previously painted drywall
If there’s one particularly insidious building product, it must be paint. Conventional paint has a surprisingly high level of embodied energy, and the ill health impacts of the VOCs found in conventional latex paint are well-documented. When we decided to repaint the walls of our house this winter, we knew very early on that we wanted to go the non-toxic paint route. The prospective product had to have zero VOCs, be safe to use and dispose of, and not contribute to decreased indoor air quality. Ideally, it would be from natural materials. Thankfully, we found something that fit the bill.
I take a lot of photos, and living at the new homestead provides even more opportunity to do so. I try not to flood this blog with too much non-natural building related stuff, as it can easily become a bit unfocused.
However, you can still get a little insight into our lives here in Kentucky — check out our new instagram feed to see more photos from around the homestead. Expect a lot of gardening, woodworking, mushroom and wild food, craft, and other current projects there. Be sure to connect with us to get regular updates!
[instagram-feed]
Our new baby boy
The day after I wrote the last blog entry, April went into labor. And on Saturday, March 5 April gave birth to our baby boy. (It was the actual due date, believe it or not). His name is Hazel Elliot and he’s a healthy 8 lbs., 2 oz. with a nice ol’ patch of dark hair. I fell immediately in love with this mushy little baby.
Changes are coming our way. April’s official due date is mere days away, the weather seems to be warming, and our focus on projects is (finally) slowly shifting away from remodeling stuff into other realms of life. Onion seedlings are sprouting away in the south window, and the garden is getting expanded and doused with manure bit by bit in preparation for a serious food growing year.
I’ve been up in the woods gathering firewood for next winter, and cutting logs for inoculating shiitake and golden oyster mushrooms this week. We’ve had a bunch of new woodworking tools show up from a grant we received last year, and the garage is slowly becoming filled with our collection of new equipment. The grass is barely but visibly growing. There is, in short, a lot happening right now.
This great little video has been making the rounds recently. It’s a mini feature about Jeremy Atkinson and apprentice JoJo Wood. Atkinson is the only living clog maker still practicing his craft in England, and he’s passing on his knowledge to apprentice JoJo Wood. (JoJo is a talented wood carver in her own right.)
Our finished bedroom remodel with some new natural elements
Ok, I finally have some remodeling photos to share. We had a surprise snowy day yesterday, and the light reflecting from the ground into the bedroom inspired me to tidy up and take a few photos. The difference from what we started with is not insignificant, I would say. In this post, you can see examples of milk paint applied over the original latex, our new oak hardwood floors, and a few other aesthetic touches and functional improvements in our bedroom remodel.
Check out the comparison below for ideas for your own remodeling projects!
We’re nearing the end… I think…
Life rule #327: everything always takes much longer than you think. Life rule #328: it’s terribly easy to forget how true rule #327 is every single time. Well, remodeling our house has been no exception. When we first acquired our new land (one of these days I’ll stop saying “new”), it was early summer, but we couldn’t relocate until September.
Once we showed up and moved in, we basically immediately starting remodeling the house, and we’ve been going at it more or less since then with the exception of a few diversions here and there. Yep, I thought we’d be completed much sooner than this. But finally… yes, I can see the light at the end of the hallway and we’re almost “done”. (Rule #2349: your house is never “done”.)
A new chapter for Gobcobatron…
For long-time readers of this blog, you probably know the story of building my first house, Gobcobatron. That experience was, after all, the inspiration for “The Year of Mud” to begin with. About a month ago, we sold Gobcobatron. It’s exciting, a relief, and an interesting stew of emotions to no longer own what was once so very close to me. Mostly, I’m really glad to be completely untethered from a building I can’t easily maintain living 8+ hours away. The experience of selling the house also causes me to feel old(er) in a way, and a bit nostalgic too. And it’s fascinating to think about the house having its own story and its own path now, separate from me.
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This blog is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. Since 2012, we’ve been hosting Natural Building Workshops so you can learn essential skills to build your own natural home.
