So now the roof is up

I choose to use W.T.Grace Triflex underlayment instead of regular roofing paper because it would be left exposed until after the walls are up and plastered.  It's much more durable in our windy conditions.

I used rigid foam insulation between the toe-ups; it's super easy to cut with just a knife.   I glued it down with some Liquid Nails.

Then it was time to bring on the bales!  Our bales had been stacked and covered in the barn for a few years.  So we found a few surprises inside- like a mummified cat.  But, hey, no rattlers!

This is where you have to watch for 'bale frenzy'.  Don't get in a hurry to get that first wall up!  You'll just end up doing it over.  Trust me.  Take your time and pack 'em in tight.  I had already marked where the outlets go and ran the wires up to the attic.  T made a tool for retying the bales.

The chainsaw was too heavy for me, so I got a battery operated Ryobi.  At this point, I'm using mostly Ryobi One+ tools. Love these!

We used bamboo on the north wall because that's where we get strong winds.  It's always windy here, but sometimes it's really windy.  We also left all the bracing up so the window bucks wouldn't get moved while we were banging the bales around.

The top rows are notched to fit the top beam, then stuffed with flakes. I try to keep the straw swept up-I stuff it in bags to use later when I need to fill in holes and spaces. I'll do that when I prep for plaster. We were closely supervised the whole time.

Now all the walls are up and we're ready to start prepping for plaster.  We're adding the window as we go and filling in where needed.

Been a while...

...dealing with life and family problems.  I'll do some catching up now, 'til something else happens.

We've been working on the house again, slowly but surely. We've started doing the plaster, but I'll post some pics of the 'before' process. Most of them are stored on a dead computer, of course.  If you're thinking of building your own straw bale house, the one thing I can tell you is that you must be creative!  I've watched and read everything published in the last 10 years-  they do not cover everything!  And you must think ahead- especially how the various parts connect.

Our house is modified post & beam, with three bale walls and one stud wall. I'm using a regular stud wall on the back because I changed the house size after we'd already built the floor beams.  We only need one bedroom now, so the last 20 feet will now be my screened porch.  I didn't want a heavy wall since there isn't a continuous beam running across there.

We had ordered all the lumber at once, but because I'd changed things (again), I needed a few more 4x4's.  So I just grabbed them at the closest place- Alamo Lumber. Simple right?  No.  Alamo's 4x4's were NOT the same dimensions as Home Depot or my local lumber store! It was 3 1/2x3 1/4. And no one else noticed until I got there. Sigh.

Other than that, no big problems with the wall beams, window bucks or top beam. The rafters were another story. In the middle of putting them up, we had another 'strong wind' day. Actually, it was a night. When I went out in the morning, they were all down.

Which turned out to be a good thing (not the part where my dear husband dropped a 2x4-on my nose!). When they reset them, this time they braced them like I told them to in the first place. Men. Hmph.