Introduction
The 57 acres that comprise Cedar Ridge Farm are located in the beautiful rolling hills of South Central Kentucky. My wife, our four children, and I are on a homesteading adventure as we work toward increased self-sufficiency. We grow much of our own food and enjoy being in touch with the agrarian roots of our lives.
One of the major projects we have undertaken is the building of our own home. The house we're building has three major distinguishing features: 1. we're building it without incurring any debt; 2. it is a timber frame structure; and 3. the exterior walls will be plastered straw bales. We live debt and mortgage free, and building our house with that approach makes perfect sense. Large timbers in a home possess a beauty and project a sense of strength, stability, and warmth that we want in our home. Straw bale walls provide insulation and make ecological sense. This blog is a record of our home-building project.
We were able to get back to plastering this last week. We spent the previous week getting the cisterns hooked up. The week before that was occupied with making hay while the weather was good for doing so.
We finished all of the straw bale walls in the downstairs by Friday, September 7, 2012. It took 28 batches to do them all. That’s nearly 3 tons more plaster on the walls once it’s all dry. So far, we’re up to 9 tons of plaster on the interior walls. That total will increase by another 3 tons by the time we’re done, I expect. I think of that as great thermal mass to help moderate the interior temperature during the year – warm in winter, cool in summer.
We hope to complete the second coat upstairs within the next two weeks.
4 comments:
HI
I wanted to leave a comment generally for the whole of your blog but the comments are only on each of your items. Great reading and watching. Congratulations on a job well done. I sincerely hope you'll continue to post until you have finished. I'm amazed that you have kept going for the 5 years. It's also be great watching the boys grow through the the time of the blog. IT's a great experience for them and no doubt they will do the same when they have their families.
Loved the trial and error aspects, the lessons learnt and the general tips. I've learnt a lot. Thanks very much. I'm looking forward to the finishing up of the interior carpentry and the rest of the furnishings.
Cemlyn
Cemich,
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad to have the opportunity to share our adventure in building our home. It is a long process, and we are looking forward to finishing it and moving in! I will post updates to the finish. There have been none recently because I've been occupied with many other things and haven't been able to work on the house. We have plans to get it finished to the point of being able to move in by next summer. I thought we would be at that point several times previously.
Thanks very much for providing great information here. I like your blog. Thanks very much and keep posting. I'm looking forward to your new posts.
Thanks very much for providing great information here. I like your blog. Thanks very much and keep posting. I'm looking forward to your new posts.
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