The Beginning...

Well, it's 2005. Blogs abound. Actually, it seems like this is a fantastic medium for us to share and document what we're doing with our home.

My wife and I currently live and work in Madison, Wisconsin. We used to live in Moscow, Idaho. Ever since we lived out west, we have had the dream of one day building our own home on a little piece of land. We have nurtured this dream, researched building techniques, read books. I had always envisioned this as some wild idea that wouldn't materialize until we were near retirement.

It happened rather suddenly. My wife began looking for land. We found some land that we could afford that we really liked. The bank loaned us the money. And now we get to build a house.

So, here we are. From a construction standpoint, this really is the beginning. The concrete contractor should be pouring the footings sometime within the next 10 days... so, we will be off.

Our goal is to build a home that is healthy and nurturing for our family while minimizing the home’s impact on the environment- both during construction and while operating over its lifetime. Our design targeted small size with optimal function. Materials were chosen based on environmental impact, performance, and affordability. The process of searching out salvaged and locally produced building materials has been fun and enlightening.

What are we building, and why is it worthy of a dedicated blog? Well, in a lot of ways it's really not that odd. We are building a timber frame house with straw-clay walls. This is a form of construction that has a lot of historical precedence - many of the centuries-old buildings in northern Europe share this construction. Straw-clay walls offer a number of benefits:

1. Local, lower-impact materials;
2. Good insulation; a 12" thick, light straw clay wall has an R-Value of around 24;
3. Good thermal mass for passive solar designs;
4. Provides a house envelope that can effectively manage water vapor and condensation, resulting in a healthy, comfortable home… a good “third skin” for its occupants.
5. Walls are fire and insect resistant.

Timber framing is a beautiful form of craftsmanship. We love the way timber framed structures look. If well cared for, a frame should last for centuries.

Outside of these two things, the house is pretty normal. It has electricity and running water. We plan to heat with a masonry heater (we have about 3 acres of woods on our land, and there is an abundance of wood nearby that can be easily salvaged). We plan to install a solar hot water heater.

To as great an extent possible, we are trying to plan for future "green" additions to the project. One day we would like to invest in some type of on-site renewable energy source - solar or wind being the most likely candidates right now. The initial budget did not allow us to incorporate these things up front, but we hope to be able to tackle those in a few years.

So, check back frequently. We will be posting entries as we go along, and adding photos. We welcome your comments and discussions!