The frame of the floor on railroad ties sunk 4+ feet in the ground.
Used fence staples to secure chicken wire to frame, creating bays to hold straw-clay.
Mixing the straw-clay.
Filling bays with straw-clay. The mixture here was intentionally light on clay-perhaps too light. We'll let you know. ;)
The frame from the bottom with bays filled in.
We kept the straw-clay covered as well as we could. It still got wetter from rain than is ideal. We will watch for composting as we go.
Andy starts the pine tongue and groove flooring.
Much of this flooring had been sitting in rafters for 4 years--we got it for a good price. Spent a LOT of extra time installing and cutting warped boards and cleaning it up. Next time, we'll buy it newer...
South wall: Rafters will remain visible--no loft added up here. This gives a spacious feel to the front room and allows a lot of light to enter.
South wall, rafters, and ceiling. The ceiling is filled with cellulose insulation for R50 or so. The ceiling boards came from a 100 year old barn. Andy sanded each one of these with a hand-sander. Stunning.
We scraped the floor with putty knives to remove the clay chunks first. Then Andy, Quinn, and Alex sanded the floor clean and level for about ten hours. Take a good look at the floor in the foreground before you click ahead.
Floor is finished and woodstove is in! We contemplated the finish for a long time. Ended up using a product called NanoTech. Expensive, but easy to use, fairly low VOC, non-yellowing, and hard.
Voila!
East side of finished house. Flap of steel hanging from soffit is a temporary "gutter."
South view of house. We had an incredible time building this. Over 30 people put time, prayers, and effort in here. What a blessing.
