November 1
Brent and I stacked bales.
Here's how the electrical outlets were handled:
So, the electrician, who has done at least one straw bale house in the past, was going to use just the upright stake that you see at the back end of this "contraption". What I had read about was using something like the piece of 2x4 you see in the pictures attached to the back of the outlet box. We talked and decided to combine the two methods. It is really solid and worked really well.
November 2
We continued to get our bales put up. We are left with just tricky stuff. Sometimes, you have to be creative to get the bales pushed into where they need to be!
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| Brent, lying on top of a window buck, using his legs to push a bale in to place. |
November 3
We finished putting up pretty much all of our bales, except for the spots in each bedroom's closet where the mini split heat pump drains need to go through. We have to wait until those are installed prior to putting the last few bales in.
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| Bags of loose straw - there's sooo much loose straw! |
You generate loads and loads of loose straw. Some will be used in our earthen plaster, but most of it is going to go to mulch or compost.
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| Finished: exterior of dining room wall. |
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| Finished: Exterior of kitchen. |
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| Almost done: Master bedroom and closet. |
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| Finished: bale wall around patio doors. |
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| Almost done: guest room. Utility room is done. |
This is the window buck Brent was laying on top of to push a bale in to place.
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| Interior side of north wall of great room. |
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| Finished: Interior of kitchen wall. |
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| Finished: Interior of Master bedroom. |
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| Almost done: master closet. |
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| Finished: Guest room (but closet has a few to stick in yet). |
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| View from the guest room. |
The opening in the closet here is for the mini split heat pump drain to run through.
The gap in the wall here is also for a mini split heat pump drain. Every wall mount needs a drain. Our great room has a ceiling mount and no drain is required.
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| 27.5 leftover bales!! |
So, we were very frugal and careful when we resized and notched our bales. We started with 210 when we should have had 250. We used 182.5 bales, so have 27.5 bales left. Now, we have some stuffing to do up high, once the sheet rock ceilings are in place - that will take some flakes. So, we'll get into a bale and a half most likely. But, phew! I'd been pretty stressed about it and we feel lucky.
We will use our leftovers to either create straw bale benches (which we've done at two different homes in the past) or create a portion of a courtyard fence in the front of the house.
So, we've got rain coming. The tarps were let back down and weighted. We headed out of state to celebrate my Dad's 80th birthday. Gone 11/4/19 to 11/11/19. We got lucky and met up with Brent's younger sister and her kids in Albuquerque on the 10th on our way home and celebrated her birthday with her!
November 5-6
The Pella doors and windows came while we were gone and Brian and Robin got them installed!
November 11
Got back home. Checked out the new doors and windows!! I went shopping and bought an air compressor (it was half off!!) and a pneumatic stapler (got it for cost!). These items are needed for installing the stucco mesh.
November 12-13
We installed all of the stucco mesh on the bale walls except for the two pieces that would go where the mini split heat pump drains would go. Those two pieces will have to wait. It went a lot faster than we expected. Brent had a Search and Rescue (SAR) call out in the afternoon and wasn't back until the afternoon of the 14th.
November 14
Brent did a bit of stucco mesh finish ups while I worked on doing more "discovery" plaster work inside (which I'd been doing all day).
November 16-17
We worked on stitching the stucco mesh to the straw bales. This involves using the bale needles again, from the outside. You need to do roughly each full bale in a couple of spots as well as any loose spots. The outside person determines where the needles need to go and sticks them in, threading each with an end of a piece of the same baling twine. The inside person then pulls the needles through, pulling tight and ties the ends tightly together.
The plan, originally was that I would finish the initial plaster work inside (seams and bale corners) and we'd stitch the stucco mesh at the same time as the required (per our engineer for our particular plans) poly mesh inside. Well, the earthen plaster work is taking a very long time and we really need to get the house stuccoed. So, we opted to get the exterior mesh on and we'll attempt to tie the interior mesh to the same ties that the exterior mesh used. We did have two walls in the utility room ready, though, and so we stitched both at the same time there. It will be interesting to compare each method and we'll let you know our thoughts.
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| Finished "discovery" - earthen plaster in the seams and bale corners |
This took two layers, and drying had to be allowed in between. It is taking a long time.
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| Doors and windows! |
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| Front doors. |
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| Master bedroom east window with stucco mesh on. |
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| Dining room window with stucco mesh on. |
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| French patio doors with stucco mesh installed. |
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| Master bedroom windows. |
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| Dining room window from inside. |
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| Great room windows on south wall. |
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| Interior side of French patio doors. |
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| Kitchen window. |
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| Guest room/office windows. |
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| Kitchen window and stucco mesh installed. |
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| Close up of stucco mesh around window. |
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| Close up of stucco mesh around window. |
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| Getting ready to stitch the mesh. |
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| Bale needles threaded and ready to push to the interior. |
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| Needles coming through to the inside. |
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| Brent pulling baling twine through to inside. |
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| Same knot set up as for resizing bales. |
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| Yellow baling twine, prepped to pull tight and tie. |
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| Stitch showing on interior wall. |
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| Stitch showing on exterior wall. |
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| We stitched the sink vent tight to the bales. |
I had finished the north wall of the utility room's "discovery" and so we were able to stitch both the interior and exterior mesh at the same time. It was hard to get the poly mesh pulled smooth and I think we'll have some places to figure that out before our initial coat of plaster goes on.
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| Close up. |
Needles coming through.
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| Prepping to tie the stitch. |
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| Beginning to pull tight. |
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| Robert Pin |
Robert pins are used to help pin the mesh snug to the bales when you aren't able to put a baling twine stitch in. We used these for the shower wall as we couldn't run needles through due to the vapor barrier backing the shower. We also used them here and there as needed. The curls on the end help to keep the pin from pulling back out. We bought a roll of 12 ga galvanized wire and made our own. We cut them in about 18" lengths, bent them in half and make the kinks on the end.
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| Pounding Robert Pin in. |
We used a rubber mallet to pound them in. Sometimes you had a little resistance, so you had to use your hand to help the pin maintain its shape as you pounded it in.
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| Positioning a Robert Pin. |
November 18
We did a walk through with our electrician and his crew got to work roughing in the rest of the house.
November 19
The electricians finished their rough in work today by noon. Our mini split heat pump installer, Ramon, was in with his crew and installed the ceiling unit in the great room (kitchen by beam actually) and also installed the drain lines for the wall units. Brent then put in the rest of the bales, closing in the two "holes" in the closets. He said it was a PITA. We got the last two panels of stucco mesh installed, but not yet stitched. Rain was coming, so tarps and plastic went back up on the bale walls.
November 20
We had the electrical inspection for the rough in. All was fine except the grounding needed to be changed. The guys were used to a foundation that had a piece of rebar sticking out and you tied your grounding wire to that. Ours wasn't done that way. So, they had to change out the grounding wire for a heavy twisted copper cable that will then be tied to a copper grounding rod buried in the same trench that brings our power from the solar system shed to our house. The electrician brought up that he thinks the patio light boxes are too far out from the house for the stucco. The one who did the work, said he did them all the same: for 1.5" stucco. Well, the earthen plaster is 1.5", but the stucco is only to be 7/8". Too late to fix the outlet boxes and light boxes, so we may have to be creative...
Brian and Robin worked on sealing the wood framing of the windows and patio doors.
November 21
Brian and Robin finished sealing the wood framing of the windows and patio doors. Brian installed the door hardware for the patio doors and the active side of the front doors (one piece is back ordered for the inactive side). Brent got another SAR call out late this afternoon.
November 22
C&L delivered T&G for the two bedroom ceilings. Forgot to mention that a while back we opted to go in this direction for the bedrooms. Easier on our bodies than trying to plaster ceilings. The sun came out, so we tented out the tarps and plastic to let the underside of them dry and the bales to breathe. (We'd gotten 2 inches of rain! Two small leaks in house, one at a vent pipe not yet booted.)
November 25
I did some plastering work (discovery) most of the day. The plumber came by and installed the shower valve and he re-routed the water supply for the shower as we moved where we wanted it to come out. The stucco guy came by to get an idea of the job. He said we'd done a great job on the stucco mesh and he told us how he liked our nice clean work site.
November 26
The tarps had to get dropped back down as more rain is coming. The stucco prep can happen any time the weather is decent enough to get the tarps out of the way. Then they have to have the prep work (mesh and lathe) inspected. After that, stuccoing can occur so long as the temp is 45* or warmer. Crossing fingers!
We have also been waiting for a mechanical inspection since sometime last week. Once that inspection happens, Brian calls in for another framing inspection. Once that happens, he can finish insulating the ceilings, put up the T&G and sheet rock.
November 27
No work and it rained and rained and rained.
November 28
Happy Thanksgiving! No work and it rained and snowed.
November 29
Predicting no work as it is supposed to rain and snow all day.
November 30
Predicting work!!! I think it will be nice enough I can do some plaster work inside the house.
