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Strawtron

Dec 30
Love0

2013: The Year of Chairs, Stairs, Workshopping, & Moving

By Carpentry, Strawtron, Woodworking, Homesteading, Natural Building Workshops
Spreading Seed: Living Roof

High up in the sky, spreading seed on the living roof of Strawtron

Now is the typical time to think back on the past year, and to try my darnedest to remember everything that has transpired. 2013 was a particularly memorable year, not unlike the others, I suppose. But this year has been pretty different in several big ways, too. Most notably, this year we decided to move to Berea, Kentucky and sell our two homes at Dancing Rabbit. But that didn’t stop us from squeezing in a few more natural building workshops before we left. Oh, and we had to wrap up a lot of work on Strawtron before we could even sell it. Somehow, we found a way to cram it all in.

Here’s a look at how events and projects unfolded in 2013.

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Nov 26
Love0

A Heavy Duty Homemade Door

By Carpentry, Strawtron, Doors & Windows
Two Custom, Homemade Doors

Two custom doors in the second story of the timber frame house

The second story of our timber frame & straw bale house has shorter than standard wall heights. It is definitely standing height, but the beams (or top plates, more specifically) that support the rafters are at head height, and another curved tie beam is similarly placed. We have two door locations upstairs, one to access the north storage loft above the porch, and a second for the walk-out balcony on the west, so we were faced with having to size and build our own homemade doors from scratch. Since I have never built a DIY door before, I was fairly intimidated, but the process wasn’t that bad once I got started. What I came up with were some super heavy duty, insulated doors made with tongue and groove boards, complete with some burly strap hinges to support the weight.

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Nov 17
Love1
how to build a diy wooden spiral staircase

Our Work is Done: Building The Roundwood Spiral Staircase

By Carpentry, Timber Framing, Strawtron

how to build a diy wooden spiral staircase

At last, I’m here to report that April and I finished building our wooden spiral staircase.  Over the course of five days, literally up to the day before we left Dancing Rabbit, we installed the risers and treads. The spiral staircase design came from our dearest Tom Cundiff, who instructed us on the layout over the phone and in person during our last Timber Frame Workshop. It took us a while to fully grasp the layout and the flow of things, but once we understood the principles, it went fairly smoothly. Well, the actual building was extremely physically taxing, but I digress.

And so this is our attempt at a DIY wooden spiral staircase. Here’s how we built it.

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Nov 13
Love0

Nearly Completing the Spiral

By Carpentry, Timber Framing, Strawtron
Building a Sprial Staircase

Mortising into the dark of evening

The roundwood spiral staircase that we have been feverishly building for the last five days is about 98% complete. As we simultaneously pack for our trip to Berea, there are mounds of wood chips on the floor of the house, oiled slabs of elm causing the house to smell like a citrus grove, and aching backs howling for a good rubbing.

It’s been an intense project, but the results are stunning. I’ll reveal the full staircase soon, but for now, here’s another glimpse of what we’ve been doing. I can hardly believe it’s come together.

Nov 10
Love0

Our Last (and Greatest) Task

By Strawtron, Carpentry, Timber Framing
Roundwood Sprial Staircase - First 2 Steps

First two steps installed… starting from the top, and working down

We have decided to take on our last and greatest task literally days before we leave Dancing Rabbit for Berea, Kentucky. In these final few days before we move, we are building a spiral staircase in our timber frame house. It is a rather foolish thing to do, but important, too.

We have literally 3 or so days left to try to finish the beast. And it is a beast, let me tell you. Drilling and chiseling 11 mortises in a roundwood post, making an equal number of stair risers with tenons, sawing/planing/gouging/oiling the 3″ elm slab steps… not to mention, having the wrap our puny minds around the layout has been quite the ordeal, to say the least. We are finally in the swing of things now that we have the layout firmly established, but the physical side of the work is still very intense.

Here are a few photos of what we are doing up until the literal minute we leave. Sometimes I wonder about these decisions we make…

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Oct 23
Love0

It’s Alive (Or At Least, Will Be): Living Roof Installed and Seeded

By Living Sod Roof, Strawtron
New Green Living Roof: Straw Bale House

Newly built living roof, seeded and mulched… and one day, green!

Finally finally finally… after many months of waiting, we are on our way to a completely finished living roof on our straw bale house. Yowee. Just last week, we completed the lower roof over the east half of the house. After we designed and built our living roof edge detail, we heaved soil up there once and for all. Very exciting. I guess it won’t be truly “done” until it’s green, but I’m happy enough for now!

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Oct 18
Love0

How To Keep Soil on Your Roof: Living Roof Edge Detail

By Living Sod Roof, Strawtron
Living Roof Edge Board

Our living roof edge detail getting installed

The hardest part of building a living roof, other than figuring out how to get all that monstrously heavy soil or sod up there, is designing a good edge detail that will contain the soil at the eaves and gable ends. A good living roof edge detail should contain the soil on the roof, while simultaneously allowing the excess rainwater to drain off, all without puncturing your liner, and allowing for some kind of gutter system. And it should look decent. That’s a lot of design details to weigh, but I think we developed a good set of plans. Check it out.

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Oct 10
Love0

Live Edge Siding: “It Sings”

By Carpentry, Strawtron
Straw Bale House: Live Edge Siding

Our recent live edge siding job on the north porch… here’s the west view

I’ve been meaning to put up some images of our completed live edge siding job for a long, long time now… so here they are. Finally! An individual walking by the other day commented on the siding, saying “it sings”… a sweet compliment, I thought. I would agree. I just love the stuff. The grain, color, curves, and contrast with the plaster on the other parts of the house are very pleasing. I have no doubt we’ll feature more live edge siding in future building projects.

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Jul 28
Love0

There’s Beauty Under That Surface

By Carpentry, Strawtron

scrap-to-trim

For whatever reason, we have access to a lot of black walnut lumber around here. A lot of twisted, knotty, warped, split 1x black walnut, that is. Hell, at least it is cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for. The stuff is sort of a nuisance to sift through, and oftentimes, up to half of any given pile later becomes firewood.

But I have been using this stuff almost exclusively for making window trim, and baseboard, and other finish work. I’ve gotten a lot of practice picking through piles, and hopefully finding that one piece that will actually work. Under that sometimes ugly surface, there is some really gorgeous wood.

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Jul 17
Love0

Live Edge Siding Sneak Peak

By Strawtron
Live Edge Oak Wood Siding

Mmm….

I am feeling very fond of our new live edge oak siding. Very fond. The stuff looks great. The Amish sawyer did a fantastic job, and the material came out of the planer super clean, and super beautiful. We are finally installing it, and it’s a dream come true. These may be flowery words, but I’m just darn excited to finally see things coming together on the exterior of our porch.

We’ve got black walnut trim to accompany the siding, and the contrast looks rather nice, I’d say. I’ll put up more photos once our walls are done, and the scaffolding isn’t in the way of taking a good photo of the wood! More later…