Greenhouse and Garden Cabin

This little building is located in a beautiful ridge top garden at Hillsborough Permaculture in Hillsborough, NC. The design includes a greenhouse for starting plants and storing tools, and a cabin to accommodate an overnight guest and serve as a studio for writing, painting, and refuge.

 

 This project has been an exciting opportunity to utilize many materials directly from the site, which really is my ideal natural building scenario. The foundation is built with beautiful stone gathered from outcroppings around the property. The very week I began building I was presented with the material for the timberframe, as a dozen pines fell in an ice storm. The walls are composed of light straw clay and cob infill, with clay soil coming from the site as well. (The walls were just being started in this photo). Lumber came from a sawmill 10 miles down the road.

This photo was taken in July, and I've been working on another project in New York since, but look forward to finishing this building when I return to NC next week, as well as sharing photos and info about the lovely Strawbale and lime plaster house in NY.

Finishing Dani's house

A few photos of Dani's house, plastered and nearing completion. We're working inside; finishing the floors, hanging doors, trim-out, cabs, counters, fixtures.

Dani's House

It's been a busy season and I haven't taken a picture in months, so here's what the great room looked like this summer. We used fans and a blower-door to hasten the drying the straw-clay mixture, and are currently finishing up the final interior plaster. I guess I have to take some new photos to share, things are really coming together over here on blackwood mountain!

Straw clay and Lime plaster

My focus this summer has been on leading the construction of the straw/clay walls and natural finishes for a new house in rural chapel hill. It's been an exciting project to work on, the house is unique in many ways.  I'll write more about the process and technical details later when I have a little more time, lime plastering is underway!

Paul's Cabin

Here is the little cabin we worked on during my straw bale workshop last week in Schoharie County, NY. The building is perched near the edge of a ravine in the woods behind my friend Paul's house. He will use it as a retreat cabin, for writing/painting, and a guest cottage.

The building is not completely finished in this photo, and it likely still isn't. We did this in one week and Paul will spend time this fall on the finishing details.

The walls are framed entirely with salvaged lumber and timbers. The north wall is a post and beam frame made from old barn timbers and the other walls stud framed or something in between. We worked with what we had and improvised the layout to fit the materials on hand. We did buy new lumber to frame the floor and roof though.

The north, east, and west walls are strawbale and plaster and the south wall is a straw-clay infill. The floor and roof are not insulated but can easily be finished in the future.

I managed to not get any pictures of the south/porch side, (probably due to the steep drop-off) but there is a glass door to the porch and two big windows, which admit a lot of light.