straw-bale mamas (or wannabes) - Page 2

[boatbaby]

Hey straw bale mamas

Here are some links to help you out!!

http://www.the-home-place.com

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/remodeling/...386585,00.html

http://www.dsaarch.com/

http://www.strawhomes.com/

http://www.civano.com/


For you Texas Mamas:

Straw Bale Association of Texas (SBAT)
PO Box 49381
Austin, TX 78765-9381
USA
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

HOPE THIS HELPS!

[A&A]

Well, we're in the planning stages for our straw bale house. (It's gonna take a year or two.) But.......I have no idea why this thread got moved to "Country Living/Off the Grid." Our SB house will be in the suburbs......not the country, and we'll still be hooked up to the grid, so we're not "off the grid," either! Seems to me that perhaps a mod around here doesn't understand the straw bale concept.

[2+twins]

I just came across this thread b/c dh & I are looking for anyone with experience building a small strawbale structure. We're planning to build our dd's a playhouse (like, as soon as humanly possible) and I'd love some help with the plans for it. I really don't want to poor a cement slab (we have no experience with cement and it just seems like a lot of work for a little playhouse) so I was wondering if we could use those concrete blocks as a base and then create a wood frame that we'd build the floor on top of (does that make sense?). We plan to do post & beam with strawbale infill. I'd also like to do a living roof on top. Am I crazy? I've wanted to build us a strawbale home for at least 10 years now. Thought this would be an excellent learning experience. I don't know if we'll ever actually build our dream home. Maybe in the very distant future. Anyway, if anyone could help me out with the plans for a playhouse (or where I could buy them) I'd really appreciate it. The space we're working with is small. I'm looking at an inside dimension of maybe only 6'x6' (max, I'd think due to the size of bales).

Oh, and a pp mentioned that a bale-only wall can't support a 2nd story. This isn't true - I just read about it a few places. But the planning to do this has to be superb b/c of the weight being distributed and the settling of the bales, etc. Not something *I'd* feel comfortable with doing w/o a very experienced builder doing it for me.