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Nov 10
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Essential Plaster Tools: Japanese Trowels

By Lime Plaster, Hand Tools, Clay Plaster, Straw Bale Building
Plaster Tools: Japanese Trowels

Japanese trowels are some of the most prized for natural plaster work (image source: JapaneseTrowels.com)

April thinks I have a compulsion for Japanese tools. I think she may be on to something, but I’ve got a pretty good excuse. Very generally speaking, Japanese tools are often well designed and manufactured, and the plaster tools are not unlike the acclaimed kitchen knives and woodworking tools. Japanese trowels are made with a careful level of attention in an incredible assortment of sizes and shapes, and different types of steel depending on the purpose.

Clay and lime plaster traditions go way back in Japanese architecture, so the craftspeople and blacksmiths there have had quite a bit of time to develop highly refined tools for the work of spreading and smoothing plaster. Today, Japanese trowels are quite popular amongst folks doing natural plaster work all over the globe.

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Nov 05
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The Art of Japanese Architecture: Book Giveaway

By Traditional Building, Book Reviews
Shinto Gate: Usa Jingu

A Shinto gate (torii), in front of another larger temple gate, remodeled in 1592

Tuttle Books has been kind enough to donate another fascinating book to The Year of Mud, and an extra copy will go to one lucky reader. Check out my review of The Art of Japanese Architecture, by David and Michiko Young, and comment below to enter the free giveaway to get your own copy of the book.

The Art of Japanese Architecture is a sweeping look at the evolution of building styles in Japan over thousands of years, from the earliest settled cultures through the modern era.

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Nov 02
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New Photos of Our Straw Bale House for Sale

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Straw Bale House for Sale

Our newly finish straw bale house interior

As you’ve likely already seen here, our straw bale house is for sale at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeast Missouri. We only recently returned from a six week trip that we took to wrap up all of the finish work on the home. I can happily say that the house is complete now, having received all of the nitty-gritty finish details.

To reflect the newly completed state of the house, I’ve updated the straw bale house sale page, including all of the new features. There’s plenty of new photos to view, too. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Oct 30
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The Joy of Finish Clay Plaster on Straw Bale Walls

By Clay Plaster, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Plastering Walls: Using Finish Clay Plaster

Troweling a finish clay plaster on the straw bale walls of our house

Having recently finished plastering the walls of our straw bale house, I have a renewed sense of enthusiasm for using clay plaster. Not that I ever felt ‘meh’ about it or anything — it’s more that I feel so inspired to go further with it than ever before and learn some of the deeper nuances to the craft. Clay plaster is just that – a seemingly simple craft, but full of subtleties, and the difference between an okay plaster and excellent plaster are profound. While I’m satisfied with the plaster work we just accomplished, I feel hungry to go further with it.

There’s a few tricks to plastering walls, including the quality of the base coat, your plaster recipe, and the alignment of the stars. Okay, maybe not that last part… but you get the idea. It’s a lot more than slapping some mud on the straw bales.

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Oct 26
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The Marathon is Over. Life is Good.

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Finished Straw Bale House

A sneak peak at our newly finished straw bale/timber frame house

Our six week building marathon has finally come to an end, and work on our straw bale/timber frame house is complete. We’ve returned to Kentucky, and Missouri is behind us (for now). We plastered the interior and exterior, finished the ceilings, wired the house, did a bunch of trim and baseboard, built railings, built shelves… and completed countless other tasks. The finale was a bittersweet feeling, one of deep satisfaction of completing what we started, but also one of sadness…. that this is not truly our house. It’s for sale, and we’ll never have the chance of truly living in it in its glorious completed state.

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Oct 22
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A Fun Wooden Stair Railing Project

By Carpentry, Strawtron
DIY Interior Wooden Stair Railing 00

Using scrap wood to build this interior stair railing was a fun finish carpentry project

As I write this, the finish work is painfully close to complete on our straw bale home. The last leg of any project is the hardest part for me, as I’m so fixated on the end that the final push often feels like an eternity. But I digress. I had a lot of fun building this small interior stair railing in the second storey of our house. It was a great chance to do some finish carpentry and use some very pretty pieces of wood, many of which were scraps from other aspects of the house. No one will fall down the stairwell now, thank goodness, and this little wooden railing somehow completes the space much more nicely than I would have guessed. Check it out…

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Oct 20
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Installing Sweet Shelves in Your Straw Bale Home

By Strawtron, Carpentry, Straw Bale Building
Decorative Shelves

Finished shelves installed in the straw bale walls of our house

Installing shelves in the straw bale walls of your home requires a bit of forethought. With some advance planning, you can design some pretty sweet decorative shelves that are quite sturdy and can be adjusted over time. Here’s a relatively simple plan we came up with to build strong, attractive shelving in our house.

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Oct 13
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Useful Tools: Trombone Pressure Sprayer

By Lime Plaster, Cob Building, Clay Plaster
Hudson Pressure Sprayrer

The Hudson pressure sprayer is a great tool for working with natural plaster and cob

A pressure sprayer is an undoubtedly useful tool in the natural building realm, especially when working with cob or plaster. Sometimes a hose is way overkill, or simply not possible to rig up. A portable sprayer fills the void, and can be especially good when you want a lot of control. When you need to wet your walls down to lay up plaster, for example, it’s useful to have something that you can work with a certain amount of finesse, only spraying what you need and not saturating everything else in the process.

Over the years, I’ve burned through any number of pump-style pressure sprayers. You know the ones — the tools with the plastic tank and plastic handle that you pump for a minute, and then try to eek enough water out of the plastic nozzle before you have to pump again… annoying, to say the least. And usually pretty cheaply made.

However, I’ve been using this Hudson trombone sprayer for a couple of years now, and can vouch for it. It’s come in quite handy during all of the plaster work we’ve been doing lately.

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Oct 07
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The Wooden Spiral Staircase: Redux

By Timber Framing, Strawtron
Round Wood Spiral Staircase Redux

Well, this is awkward…

One of the most exciting projects in our timber frame/straw bale home of 2013 was building the wooden spiral staircase. It was a real head scratcher, and physically challenging to build as well. But the results were intensely exciting. The staircase is now an awesome focal point in the house.

We built the stairs in the days leading up to our move to Kentucky, and so we never had much of a chance to actually use them. We knew, too, that over time the risers and treads would shift a bit as the wood dried, and the whole thing would likely need adjustments later.

Well, since coming back to work on the house again, we’ve had an opportunity to see how things have changed and correct as necessary. As you can see above, it was at times a bit of a contortionist affair.

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Sep 29
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Ideas for Installing Baseboard in a Straw Bale House

By Carpentry, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Installing Baseboard in Straw Bale House

Installing baseboard just prior to the finish plaster application

Baseboard is an excellent idea to consider for a straw bale house. It’s not just pretty and decorative, but perhaps more important, it’s functional too. The bottom of the plastered wall is delicate, and a bit of trim protects it from the inevitable sweeping, mopping, or chair leg careening towards the wall.

A couple of days ago, I just got finished installing baseboard in our straw bale house. Having gone through that experience, I have some new ideas for how to install baseboard trim in the future. Here’s what I did this time, and what I’m thinking might work in future projects, too.

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