How to Build a House of Straw

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Labor-intensive work went into creating the straw home foundation.
Labor-intensive work went into creating the straw home foundation.
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Volunteers raise the walls of the straw home.
Volunteers raise the walls of the straw home.
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Volunteers smooth over the earthen floors of the straw home.
Volunteers smooth over the earthen floors of the straw home.
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A mother and her sons learn how to build a house of straw.
A mother and her sons learn how to build a house of straw.
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A symbol on the west gable represents the house's harmony with the earth and the sun.
A symbol on the west gable represents the house's harmony with the earth and the sun.
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The front entrance of the straw home is inviting to visitors.
The front entrance of the straw home is inviting to visitors.
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A tribute to the volunteers who worked on the home is located in the main room.
A tribute to the volunteers who worked on the home is located in the main room.

A mother and her sons show you how to build a house of straw for about $50 a square foot.

I’ve always enjoyed making things more than buying them. I sewed many of my own clothes as a teenager, constructed wind chimes out of seashells and even attempted to make the Eiffel Tower out of toothpicks once, before the invention of fast-drying glue.

In the early 1990s, I saw a TV show about a family without exceptional building skills who were building their own house with low-cost, natural materials that harmonized with our planet’s ecosystem. My do-it-yourself genes jumped for joy. I became obsessed with the idea of building a house made of straw bales, an abundant byproduct of grain production, and finished with earthen plasters made from clay, sand and chopped straw. It couldn’t he all that hard to stack up some bales and cover them with mud, I figured. This would be the ultimate craft project, save money and give me a beautiful home at the same time.

How to Build a House of Straw

The cost of raising a family skyrocketed in Hawaii in the ’80s and I simply couldn’t afford to live there. My two boys and I eventually found ourselves in Long Island, New York, where my husband and I managed a photography franchise at a shopping mall. My days were filled with chaos, strain and more bills. Homes were less expensive than in Hawaii, but the cost to heat and cool them made up the difference. I also could see the haze in the air from the excessive burning of fossil fuels to heat and cool these increasingly large houses.

  • Published on Apr 1, 2003
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