Peter and Natasha’s Strawbale Home 2017

Peter and Natasha’s Strawbale Home

* This may be the last time our home is open for Sustainable House Day, as it is now up for sale – so if you have been planning to visit, this is the time to do it.

We like to think of our home as ‘the house that love built’. As complete novices, we started building our Strawbale home in October 2008, and with over 90 people helping us build (mainly family and friends) we obtained our Certificate of Occupancy in March 2010.

We have been finishing and improving the house ever since.

Our home features:
– North facing to maximise solar passive design
– Composting toilets
– Strawbale external walls with earthen render
– Straw-filled stud internal walls with earthen render
– Clerestory and louvre windows
– Solomit ceiling (strawboard)
– Grey water system from kitchen, laundry and showers
– Evacuated tube solar hot water
– Slow combustion wood heater with wet back to boost heat water
– Reclaimed timber for flooring and decking
– Second hand kitchen and other fittings
– 8 bed vegetable garden with drip watering system
– 30 fruit trees, watered with grey water

When we started building we had no idea how tricky it would be to build a house with so many unusual angles.  We have made A LOT of mistakes along the way, and there are many things we would do differently if we were to start over. Whilst the foundations and framing of the house is top notch, our internal fittings and walls are more organic…… we are not perfectionists!

As well as Peter and Natasha being available to answer questions and run tours, we will have several of our friends who were involved in helping us build the house running tours as well, so you will be hearing from people who have hands on experience in building.

We are also happy to talk about our frugal living: using cloth nappies, myo kombucha, worm farms, minimal waste, food bulk buying, green cleaning etc, and we will also have our solar oven in operation.

We absolutely love living in our home and we will look forward to sharing it with you.