details

We are working details now. Here is the glass block window in the master bath.











Shower is framed in and ready for cement board then tile.













Last window is installed in the greenhouse.

Closing in

We continue to stack the straw walls. Here Ivan uses the persuader to coax a bale into place.











Ivy, Ivan and I spent most of this week squaring off and notching bales with the flesh eaters. We are on the last room just slightly ahead of a Winter storm watch.



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Here is the guest room /office wing. Bales are stacked and windows are in. Note the bottom bale is wrapped in a waterproof membrane. Tops of bales and under windows are covered with plastic.

Tool of the trade

Ivy uses a straw bale needle to re-string a bale into a smaller bale.












These are the tools we use, the straw needle on the left, the other tool is an angle grinder with a chain saw blade attached to it. We call it the flesh eater. The ragged scar on me left forefinger will attest to that.








We use bamboo sticks to pin the bales to each other. Here I get one started on the living room wall next to the picture window.

Million dollar view

Ivan and Eric help to install the picture window in the living room.












Here is the view of Taos mountain that you will see from our living room when you come to visit.












Bale walls are finished in the dining room and living room.

Windows arrive

Windows arrived today, Ivy sets the greenhouse windows.













Closeup of one of the double hung windows in the office/guest room wing.













From the dining room is the bale cutting table in the foreground, the mountains in the background with a fresh dusting of snow. They are calling out to all skiers, "skip work today, come up here"

Stackin bales

The first straw bales went in the dining room. Here Ivy stomps one down.












Here is our window frame or buck. We place it between the side bucks, level and screw it, fill it with insulation, cover it, repeat the process on the top and we are ready to install the window.








Here is part of the dining room wall. The bottom bale is wrapped in Tyvec to protect it from moisture. We also use Tyvec under the windows.

The straw man cometh

Part of our straw delivery arrived this afternoon. Adam Drake and his brother Matthew brought it from the San Luis Valley CO. We unloaded 250 bales into the garage.








Adam's daughter Emily reminds us how incredibly fun it is to unload a trailer full of straw.












We finished up late in the day. Another trailer is coming tomorrow morning.