Straw Bale House Update - Oct 2011

Just another quick video update of the house. Getting the final coat of stucco installed this week. I really love the colour and texture...old world.

straw bale house update August 2011

work on the house continues

We are indeed still working on the house. Little by little we are getting things done. Cindy took some time over the past couple of weeks to work out the paint colours that she thought would work and for the past couple days we have begun our interior painting.

Now, for the duration of this blog, I have always told everyone that we would share with them the good and the bad. This picture should confirm, without a doubt, the integrity of me and my blog. Yes, this is how I look at home on a Saturday afternoon, in the dead of winter, with a paint roller in my hand.

I tried to photoshop this picture. You know...thinner, without the plaid shorts and black socks. But, then I had a change of heart and decided that perhaps some humility would trigger an outpouring of sympathy for my wife and kids. I am indeed the poster boy for nerdy Dads everywhere. I realize now that there is nothing I can do to change that...for now.

Still haven't figured out quite what to do with where the stucco wall meets up with the drywall interior walls. Any suggestions?

At some point in time this spring, when I am out in the field busy seeding or doing spring cultivation I will stage some manly sort of picture. Me posing beside the might and strength of a large diesel powered tractor with the sunset in the background and a steady breeze tussling my hair. In the meantime, this is what we all have to put up with.

Still haven't figured out quite what to do with where the stucco wall meets up with the drywall interior walls. Any suggestions?

Have a great holiday weekend everyone.

straw bale house update

Here is what has occurred over the past couple weeks. The interior stucco final coat was applied. It did not turn out as we had hoped to be honest. We had always wanted a smooth final coat. When the stuccoer showed up he did not know how to apply a smooth final coat! We had not done our research...oh well. The colour turned out nice, but there is a rough finish that we will have to live with or fix one way or another. Delaying the stucco application was simply not an option that we wanted to entertain.

The next step in interior finishing also did not go as expected...bad week for things to go wrong. We wanted a polished concrete floor with stain. When the concrete guy showed up he informed us that the slab was too uneven for him to grind and polish. At least he did not have a concrete grinder that was big enough to do the job. Instead we simply applied a concrete stain to the existing slab and we will take our time figuring out exactly what we want to achieve with our floors. Tile? Move out and allow a company to come in and grind later? Options to consider this winter. The pictures show the floors that haven't been mopped or cleaned in any way. You are seeing water stains and drywall dust. They look pretty good actually.

The girl wanted a red floor so red is what she got! I like it. Now she wants purple walls...ok.

For the past two days the cabinet installers were on-site. Now, finally something that looks exactly as we had hoped. Kitchen FX out of Edmonton did a wonderful job making and installing our cabinets. A couple doors were not quite ready and the raised panel for the island are still left to complete. The granite slab counter top will be ready sometime in the early new year.

Still to come this week is drywall taping and mudding along with the electrical final switching and plugging and the plumbing final connections. 

rain and rainwater harvest

We have not had a sunny day yet this September. It has been just a little ridiculous actually. It will stop raining just long enough to get at least a little dry and then it showers again for a few hours. Day after day of gloomy, wet, damp misery. At least that is the way I am looking at things right now while the harvest waits to be started. I ended up buying another swather last week. It is an old Versatile 400 that is in nice shape. So, while we wait for things to dry up, the work on the house continues.

Late last week we installed our cistern behind the house. We purchased a large tank (4100 gallons) and we will use it for our domestic water needs. We will also use this tank as a catchment for rainwater from the steel roofs of the house, the garage and the shop. The rainwater will go through a filter and first-flush system before it enters the tank. From there the water will enter the house and go through our distiller for drinking and cooking. It will go through an ordinary filter element for the other household uses like laundry and bathing. From time to time we will likely need to fill the cistern with city water from the nearby filling station.

As you can see, the hole for the tank was huge! That is an 8' ladder leaning up against the wall of the trench. It was interesting to see the different layers of soil that extends that deep underground. That black patch to the left of the ladder is actually a very small deposit of coal. We also unearthed some big pieces of granite that are quite beautiful. We will use those for some landscaping accents here and there.

straw bale raising pending!

Well, it looks as though everything will be in place for us to be able to have our "strawbale raising" party this weekend. Work is still underway with the base building assembly and the top building assembly and the window and door bucks. That should be completed by Friday. The actual bales are scheduled to go up on Saturday and Sunday. We seem to have a good amount of help at the ready so it will be a lot of fun to have friends and family actually helping with the construction of our new home. We will be sure to take plenty of pictures and maybe some video of the event. It will look like a different place by this time next week! Stay tuned.