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Strawtron

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

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Clay Plaster
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 Carpentry, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
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 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 Strawtron, Carpentry, Straw Bale Building
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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Sep 21
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Strawtron Enters the 21st Century

By Strawtron, Straw Bale Building
Electrical Wiring in a Straw Bale House

Electrical wiring gets installed in Strawtron

Over the past number of years, April and I have strived to live without electricity in our main living spaces. We certainly don’t live without it completely (this website certainly wouldn’t exist then), but we’ve enjoyed a candlelit lifestyle in Gobcobatron and planned the same for Strawtron. Now that our straw bale/timber frame is for sale, however, we’ve decided to go ahead and install electrical wiring in the house. It’s a bittersweet feeling — it’s not necessarily what we intended for the house, but I think it makes the home much more desirable for folks considering it as a possibility for themselves.

Strawtron is now firmly in the solar-powered 21st century, as it is now wired for Dancing Rabbit’s solar grid-tie cooperative.
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Sep 17
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Our Living Roof, One Year Later

By Living Sod Roof, Strawtron
Straw Bale House Living Roof

Our living roof starts to grow up

It’s been fun to come back to Dancing Rabbit and be able to see firsthand how our living roof  on Strawtron has changed since last year, when we completed building it. Unlike Gobcobatron, when I cut out sod squares and loaded them onto the roof surface, we used loose topsoil on this second living roof design. It was, in many ways, much more challenging but it was also what was available at the time. Thankfully, plants have started to take root in the soil and it’s no longer bare. I love the idea of an “evolving” living roof and seeing how the diversity of plants changes over time.

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Sep 11
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September is for Strawtron

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Strawtron: straw bale house

We’re back in Strawtron, ready to make some exciting improvements

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to make a return trip to Dancing Rabbit to do some more finish work on Strawtron, our timber frame/straw bale home that’s on the market. We’ve arrived now, and have big plans for the next few weeks, including finishing the interior earthen plaster, putting another coat of lime and lime wash outside, and… wiring it for electricity. I never thought I’d say that, but alas…. there you have it. Strawtron will be firmly moving into the solar-powered 21st century.

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Mar 31
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Visitor Season at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage Right Around the Corner

By Work Exchange, Strawtron
Visit Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

Experience sustainable living at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage this year

Well, that came up fast. It’s April 1 tomorrow, and that signals a special time of year. In a couple of weeks, the visitor season at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is about to begin. If you’ve been curious what life is like in an ecovillage or intentional community, now is the time to sign up and plan your trip for this summer.

There are a number of ways to visit Dancing Rabbit, but if you think you might be interested in living there one day, the visitor program is your best bet. Here’s how to go about setting that up.

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