Case in question – good friends of ours whom still live in the cluster complex that we used to live in recently went through to the plot for the first time . They knew that we were building out of unconventional materials and up until this point they had shown a distinct lack of interest. Which is fine by me as I can’t expect all my mates to be enamoured by our slightly eccentric ideas. Anyway I digress. So they popped in to drop something off – I happened not to be there at that moment so they took the initiative to have a look around. When I saw these friends a couple of days later they made the comment that the house was not what they had thought it would be. Upon questioning why I was told that they had thought that it would be a “low level rustic bungalow”.

A bungalow???? I asked them why they thought that and their response was that all cobb and straw houses looked like that. What a very peculiar notion. Why would a properly built straw-bale home look like Frodo Baggins’ house? We are not hobbits, hippies or homeless. We are merely two middle-class people who have decided to minimize our carbon footprint by building a home that incorporates as many green building principles as possible.  

That made me realise that if my own friends whom I thought knew us fairly well thought that we were embarking on hippie-hollow, then I certainly cannot expect a perfect stranger to have the slightest inkling of what our home represents. We are most certainly not so radical as to be burned at the stake for our heretic ways. We are just passionate about living our principles and what better way to do that than to start with your home? And that doesn’t mean that people with established homes must now go out and build an eco-home from scratch as that’s not practical. It’s about making small changes wherever you may live – from recycling your garbage to switching off your geyser. Those seemingly small insignificant acts can collectively make a massive difference to the environment.

We were in the fortunate position to start from scratch and we only hope that our journey may just inspire other’s to open their mind’s to new possibilities. And I promise not to look down on you for not wearing home-spun hemp dresses and I will not make you sit in a circle and sing Kumbaya! We have our feet firmly planted on our wonderful soil and yes we still enjoy eating a good steak every now and then. And as wonderful as Bilbo and friends are – I still like to wear my killer heels every so often.

Our project manager/architect justified her untimely exit predominantly based on her perception that the build was taking too long and that she was spending too much time on the project. Now I’m no mathematician, but considering that we started building in July and she left in October, that would make it four months.

All things considered, is four months too long ? I don’t know, I’ve never built a house before so I have nothing to compare it with. We have our North-East wing up, including the roof, we have baled most of the training room, the plumbing is in, the ground has been dug for the septic tank, the three steel i-beams have been erected, the Finbuilder walls are up at the entrance-way and the kitchen and the column on the stoep is almost up to full height.

We have found a company called Praxis who will be doing our in-situ slab for the upstairs bathroom, which should hopefully commence this week and according to them will only take 2 days, after which the roof guys can erect the remainder of the roof, which will still hopefully be this year.

So, call me naive, but I personally think that we’re making good head-way. And for those of little faith, not only are we surviving but we’re thriving. This all thanks to some very dedicated folk. Kobus, the gentleman who erected our i-beams, was a phenomenal inspiration! He has osteomyelitis in his leg, this is essentialy bone cancer and every year he has to endure 6 weeks in hospital whilst the infection in the bone is treated by flushing the area out with very strong antibiotics.

The other day he arrived on site carrying a machine which was attached to his leg via a tube which was in turn connected to a drip. The infection re-appeared after Kobus left the hospital and as a result he had to be connected to this machine which basically continues to flush out the area. He cannot go anywhere without this 13kg contraption and has to be connected to it 24 hours a day. And there he was, on site,as white as a sheet and sweating profusely. I asked him what he was doing there in such a condition and he replied that he’d made a commitment to be there on the day and he considers himself to be a man of his word.

Commitment – now there’s a big word for some folk. We can all take a page out of this courageous man’s book. How often have we not felt like doing our work because we were feeling a bit off-colour, or because we had a tiff with the builder?

Anyway, enough of that. Our beautiful front door was put in – and it looks even more magnificent than I had thought it would look. Our very own reclaimed and restored door with the most beautiful stained glass feature. And considering that this was found in the Drakensburg in the back end of Winteron in a funny little shop. Just goes to show that life’s gifts are often not found in obvious places. Sometimes you have to put in a bit of work to find something you love. It has become my Door of Perception, and every time I will walk through it I’ll set my intention to open myself up to new possibilities and opportunities. And no, that does not include building!

And so it is that we found an amazing brick-layer who was able to create these beautiful arches for us. So what you may ask? These are the very same arches that elicited the great debate between our builder and project manager that eventually led to her resignation.

Our home will have a strong Moroccan theme running through it. This is where the arches come in – Moroccan architecture incorporates many curves and arches and when the home was being designed we included as many arches as we thought would lend it that exotic feel. No-one really thought that they would create so many problems when it came to the practical aspect of building them! It would appear that this beautiful art is diminishing in this country as most people seem to prefer more severe masculine square shapes.

Our builder went through two teams of brick-layers before I eventually found Erik (our current brick-layer). The previous two looked visibly nervous when we mentioned the word “arch” – as if we had told them that there was a snake in their shoe! And it was at this point when things started going South. Our project manager started coming up with all kinds of alternative  solutions which would have involved a huge amount of effort to cut shapes out of plyboard which would then be affixed to the wall in order to create the impression of an arch. This is where I eventually put my foot down and said “no” - surely the royal ‘we’ who would be creating these shapes would have been a lot more scarce to find then a brick layer!!

And it was shortly after that that the project manager became apoplectic when the builder insisted that he did not have the correct detail for the design of the arches (which he later admitted to finding – just not on the page that he was looking on at the time).

For those of you with a psychological bent – you will probably recognize that a simple thing like that should surely not elicit such a violent response. Issues had most likely been festering under the surface for a long time until they reached the peak of erruption, thus creating the arch enemies that we have now. In my opinion the two of them should rather just bury the hatchet (just not in each-other) as the alternative building industry is so small that we need every like-minded person to pull together in order to create a force to be reckoned with.

Just a thought……………………….

Those ‘in the know’ will tell you that the stress of building is right up there with the death of a loved one and divorce. An exaggeration most would think – unless of course you have been down this perilous road before. However, what happens when you decide to build a home that defies convention – one that is built using different materials, one for which a template or blue-print does not really exist? Enter the Starflower project – a house built with straw bales, cobb, lime & dung plaster, rammed earth and Finnbuilder! If you just felt like you were being sworn at, I apologise. My point is that there was no template – it had to be created. Let me re-state that – it’s being created as the build unfolds.

Now for people who are admittedly ‘control freaks’ this unfolding can be highly unnerving. Only in the last week have we determined exactly how our windows will be fitted into the straw bales, how the wooden ladders need to be constructed, how the straw needs to be prepared before it can be stacked. You might begin to get the impression that in order to embark on such a journey, one needs to be open to change and to be able to respond to those said changes immediately. In a nut-shell it requires the flexibility of a circus contortionist (you know those people who literally dislocate all their limbs in order to squeeze themselves into a tiny suitcase).

Now here’s where the nightmare begins. Finnbuilder by nature is not an aesthetically pleasing form of building whilst in progress. It requires the use of metal shutters that are rammed full of a concrete mixture in order to create the form of a rectangular block. This process gets repeated over and over both horizontally and vertically until the wall is built. The cement mix whilst damp tends to crumble quite a bit (especially at the corners) and sometimes wads of the wet mixture plop off the sides, giving the structure a slighlty winky-wonky moth-eaten appearance. It is most certainly not as precise as when building with bricks. This led some folk on our team to believe that the method is highly unstable and as such will never achieve the required Mpa (strength level) required to hold a roof up.

This belief was further fuelled by the fact that all the test cubes that were submitted shattered before the required strength was ever achieved. Enter the Schmidt Hammer – a harpoon like device that shoots a bolt into the wall to measure the strength. Our diligent engineer went to site last week wielding this weapon of mass contruction and our walls passed with flying colours. Not only did they achieve the minimum strength required to support a double-storey dwelling, they exceeded the amount by multiples.

So where does this nightmare begin you might wonder? Well, here’s the thing- the Finnbuilder method (together with many other unknown variables) freaked our project manager out to such an extent that it errupted into a monumental argument between her and the builder (granted that the rage was not just because of the perceived unstable nature of the walls but also because of the perceived unstable nature of the said builder). Many unsavoury curses were exchanged to the point where things were said in anger that were personal and hurtful, which heralded the resignation of the project manager!

Many justifications were given regarding her untimely and premature exit (all of which held some merit), but ultimately it boils down to the fact that comfort zones had been sorely compromised. The erratic nature of the build(er) had finally gotten to her and she could no longer adapt to the unpredictability of the project. We are sad to lose her and her team of lovely lasses and are immensley greatful for all the effort that had thus far been invested.

Life has taught me that if we don’t complete and master the challenges that life throws at us, they have an uncanny way of resurrecting themselves in a completely new form which tends to be twice as difficult the second time round. And the challenge may have absolutely no relationship to the original problem – Karma has no discretion.

And so we are still standing together with our winky-wonky walls. I’ll just have to up my game and put some more effort into project management. I will continue to dedicate this project to a higher cause and will keep reminding myself that the results of my actions are ultimately not up to me.

And my closing words of wisdom are to please stay away from building anything alternative if you are a self-confessed control freak.

Namaste

The rats have chewed the binding string on a third of the bales that we have purchased for the house and we are looking for a baleing machine that will enable us to rebale these.

If you are in the Gauteng area and you are able to help us or know who could help us please let us know by calling +27 11 803 4407 or emailing peggy@shimwelldesigns.com

Problems with labour have delayed the project by two weeks, however the builder has replaced the missing staff and trained up additional resources on the Fin-builder system.

The rains of the last few days have stopped the back filling and compacting, every day’s delay to surface bed completion has a huge impact on timelines.

At this time the fin builder system shows saving on conventional brick and mortar however the delay in labour due to skill requirements and have taken up the savings that will have been found.

Join us for a professional week-end course with renowned architect Andy Horn (www.ecodesignarchitects.co.za) as we embark on a journey of reviewing the latest building regulations and green building philosophies coupled with practical demonstrations on how to build with STRAWBALES.

This comprehensive course will equip you to build a structure with natural materials whilst employing the most cutting-edge techniques which will include plastering, fitting doors/ windows, and running cables all the while ensuring that the home is 100% water-tight, insulated and aesthetically pleasing.

What you will learn: We will be raising straw bale walls on a double storey structure by using the straw bale dipping infill system. This system which involves dipping the bales in a clay slip (“cob bale building”), was developed by Eco Design and has been tried and tested on numerous projects. In the process we will also be mixing cob as this goes hand in hand with bale construction. Furthermore we will be plastering the walls using our Lime-Dung Plaster.

The Saturday mornings will begin with a lecture that covers the broader and technical aspects of this construction method and we will also have a presentation by the Starflower team on the energy efficiency aspects of the home. The remainder of the workshop will be hands-on learning with on-site instruction.

Where: The courses will be held on site in Farmall (behind Broadacres) on the following week-end:     December 1st & 2nd (NB This may change to the following week-end if there is heavy rain)

Time: Saturday  

• 09h00-10h00 Welcoming by the Starflower team – brief talk on the philosophy behind the project
• 10h00 – 12h30 Introduction and theory on strawbale buiding with Andy Horn
• 12h30 – 13h00 Lunch
• 13h00 – 15h00 Practical
• 15h00 – 15h30 Tea
• 15h30 – 18h00 Practical

Sunday       

• 09h00-10h00 Questions & Answers
• 10h00 – 12h00 Practical
• 12h00 – 12h30 Lunch
• 12h30 – 14h30 Practical
• 14h30 – 15h00 Tea
• 15h00 – 17h30 Practical

What to bring: Sunblock, hat, gumboots, long sleeved shirt, long leather gloves, pen & paper, scissors or cutter

Costs: To be advised

To book please e-mail andy@ecodesignarchitects.co.za or phone Andy on 021 462 1614

After a very long wait we are finally busy with construction. We have dug trenches for the foundations and the concrete slurry has been poured. Today Scott will be starting with the stem walls and finally we will be able to see something above ground as opposed to being relegated to the realm of hobbits and burrow-digging vermin.

We met with the roofing folk last week and one of them made a very interesting comment when we mentioned going off the grid. His words are “I am also a bit of a rebel and would love to go off the grid”. That got me thinking, I have never considered “being off the Eskom grid” to be rebellious. Perhaps a tad defiant maybe but not rebellious.

We are not embarking on this project to show redundant municipal departments the middle finger (allthough they most certainly deserve it). The motivation behind the project is to be self-sufficient and to rely purely on the sun for our energy. In a world where carbon emissions are not taxed, coal still remains one of the primary ways of generating electricity. It is also one of the main causes of greenhouse gases per watt than using oil or natural gas. So in my opinion using an abundant energy source the likes of the sun to generate electricity is not ‘rebellious’ but just common sense.

Our planet is going to hell in a handbasket faster than we can ever imagine. So minding your carbon footprint should not just be reserved for the likes of hippies, vegans and ex-politicians but for all 7 billion of us who happen to have the privilege of living in this beautiful world. What is wrong with our species that we cannot see or take responsibility for the devastation that we leave in our wake? Why only when we have 4000 rhino left do we all of a sudden start the “Save the Rhino” trusts and start wearing cheap beaded bracelets?

A construction friend called me last week horrified that building legislation is now changing to include insulation as a key factor when constructing a new dwelling. All he sees are dwindling profits due to the higher costs of installing energy-efficient ‘gadgets’. He still cannot see that an integrated holistic approach needs to be taken – literally starting at foundation level. Just adding a few solar panels retrospectively is like closing the proverbial stable door after the horse has bolted. So well done to our government who are starting to enforce these building regulations that will not only penalise the builders but the owners too! The responsibility lies with all of us to start making changes to the way that we live. And granted the government is not implementing these measures because they give a f*ck about the planet – but rather as a knee jerk reaction to the fact that we have run out of coal stations to meet the demand.

So no, my understanding of being a rebel i.e. defying convention for the sake of being different does not apply to us. We are merely doing our bit in making this world a better place to live in.

When building with the lowest carbon foot print it is best to use the material
that is on the site. Here you can see that we have gathered stones and sized
them to be used for the entrance walling on Project Starflower. We have stockpiled the soils that we took out from the earthworks and foundation cuts and are sifting to give us the rich colours of the feature rammed earth wall.

The next steps, before rushing into the building process, are to create test panels of the straw and rammed earth walls. With these we can set the standard of colours, MPA and quality that will be accepted on the build.

Now that nearly all the choices and finishes are made on the building
systems, for the Starflower Project, it’s time to do some sample walls of
the rammed earth so that we can choose colours, window and door detail and finalise termite barriers.

Building with as many natural products as possible, allows us to play with
completely different concepts of design and décor. I always find it amazing
how many manufacturers produce at such a high cost, items made from petro
chemical based polymers, trying so hard to mimic nature with that old worn
and weathered  appeal – what a waste of energy!

The pictures show sandstone caves of the Cape.

Written by Shimwell Designs