Peter and Natasha

1. Question about the Loo & Thanks
(Comments)

...d ask what make/model of compost loo you went for? We are investigating at the moment for our own straw bale house to be built in the next couple of years. Also wanted to say as a long time reader,...

2. Thank you
(Comments)

... much for your encouraging words, we look forward to meeting you and having a good ol chin wag re straw bale building....

3. Thank you
(Comments)

... Thank you for your wonderful generosity in giving us the opportunity to be part of your amazing strawbale home build. We enjoyed every bucket full of mud and spoon full of soup you guys served up t...

4. Congratulations
(Comments)

... Well done. Thankyou for sharing your journey online. As someone contemplating building their own strawbale home, it has been a really valuable resource for me....

5. Straw Bale Heaven and Haven
(Comments)

People talk about "any port in a storm". Your straw bale house was indeed a haven and heaven in the recent storm. It is a credit to you both that you have achieved so much and we felt very privilege

6. Straw Bale Heaven and Haven
(Comments)

Some people talk about "Any port in a storm". Your house has proved to be an exceptional port in a spectacular storm. It is a huge credit to you both that you have achieved so much and made your dre

7. getting plastered
(Comments)

Love seeing the plastered bathroom wall, makes it look like the inside of a nearly-finished house!! The bale on the floor in front of the plaster adds to the incongruous charm too. Keep the blog posts

8. Poem the first
(Comments)

Receiving Arranging Stacking Compressing Blowing Balefully so.

9. Thar She Blows.
(Comments)

... Bacchus Marsh is worse It makes the new fixed roofing go Next door - it's such a curse. The straw bales tumble to the floor The ladder can't be used And Peter grumbles more and more It's not ...

10. brief comments
(Comments)

The walls look fantastic, the bales are beautiful, great work Tarsh & Nicole! I LOVE seeing the progress online every day, yours has become my favourite blog by far. The roof is going to be amazing

11. Fascia-ing facts
(Comments)

...mate. Cement sheeting is not terribly nice to work with but it sounds like a good solution. How's the bale hammer working out?...

12. Boxing, Bales and Gales
(Comments)

... is at a critical stage and we can't make the trip. We're looking forward to seeing photos of the straw bale installation over the next few days. Happy building!...

13. straw
(Comments)

forecast is good for the weekend, can't wait to see the strawbales!

14. extreme veranda posts
(Comments)

great progress guys! I have been reading about Xavier Rudd's strawbale house recently - so beautiful and womderfully liveable. Yours will be the same, great for one's wellbeing - and that of any visit

15. waste slope
(Comments)

...have overflow drains built in, our waste is more for the shower, but also the bath. With internal strawbale walls we have to take extra precautions not to have standing water get into the walls, as t...

16. Merrimu dreaming
(Comments)

Trine, 2010 summer in Merrimu Straw Bale House FOR SURE!

17. Cool Straw Bale houses
(Comments)

We got an email from friends (Peter and Rosie Margrie) in Woodend yesterday, and their Straw Bale house is a cool 22 degrees inside - in this heat. I keep telling myself that this is the LAST hot summ

18. Moving along
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

... found us via our website) come and help us render. It's always great to meet new people on their straw bale journey, and this was no exception. So Saturday saw us up bright and early getting our trus...

19. It's all relative
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...bulous partner Dean, and a gorgeous daughter Issy (born a few days after our Dylan). They have a straw bale house in Malmsbury (just past Kyneton on the way to Bendigo from Melbourne) that they are...

20. Building Community
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...jects. We had a visit from Hans and Cath yesterday who are just hitting the accelerator with their strawbale house build. They also have a blog and a very cool website (see link below). They also brou...

21. The Hilux
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

... a ute. Apparently. I think blokes dig a chick in a ute too. I reckon it’s got a few more straw bale builds left in it yet. ...

22. Nice Dream
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...f to our block of land. We’d drive past wishing we were going that way, going home to our straw bale house. It’s worth remembering that we’re living our dream now, especially when...

23. No Experience Necessary
(Straw Bale House/Straw Bale House)

If you think that this 'owner builder' or 'straw bale' thing is only for experienced or 'handy' type people, you would be mistaken.  We had very little experience when we started on this journe

24. How we built/compressed our external staw bale walls
(Straw Bale House/Straw Bale House)

Over the years a few different methods of building straw bale walls have developed. Some use steel rods, some use wire netting/chicken wire over all the walls, and there are some other tried and tru

25. Brewing
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...some resources for others who are curious, considering or in the midst of owner-building a house, straw bale or otherwise. We are thinking that some of these resources will be free, and some we will c...

26. Website and progress
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

... date on our building adventures. It has introduced us to many wonderful people, all interested in strawbale building and all keen to learn. Of course the way to learn has been to help us build so as ...

27. Front and south
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...after a day of mud, trowels and chatter we feel like we've known him a good while. Leon is another strawbale enthusiast with plans of his own so got a tour and lots of background, since he missed seei...

28. Opening our doors
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...so got to meet some fantastic people, and hopefully we will be able to assist quite a few budding straw balers in the building of their homes, woohooo! All in all we had 83 people through the h...

29. New opportunities
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...faces, Steve and Caroline, who found us via this website. They were very enthusiastic and as keen straw balers, had a lot to offer and many questions for us! They were very satisfied (as were we) by t...

30. Winter is here
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

... so we are pretty excited that they have printed our story for all to see - they operate out of a straw bale office in Trentham which is not far from here.  It's amazing how much hot water...

31. Rendering Bliss
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...le washed sand, 2 parts lime and water. There seems to be as many recipes for render as there are straw bale houses, and it took some trial and error, but we are  happy with our finished product....

32. At last, a tidy up!
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...me had come to do something about the unholy mess in front of our house - timber off-cuts, scrap metal, bales of straw, polythene, and all kinds of other stuff. So a trip to the tip was in order, a wi...

33. A big list and a special visit
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...sha's house", so he must have the impression that we are a continuous practical workshop for straw bale building. I guess we are! ...

34. Taking a breath
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...e serious R & R and are looking forward to holding a workshop there for any one interested in straw bale building, as we are keen to keep sharing our knowledge. We are also having friends stay at ...

35. On the path to completion
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...ots of visitors to the house, including Paul and Jenny who are in the midst of building their own straw bale house not that far from us down Ballarat way. It was fantastic to hear of their journey and...

36. Patience is a virtue
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...cool weather to keep us sane, and mum is here working like a maniac helping me pack, cleaning the straw bale house and generally being an absolute legend of ideas and problem-solving. On a positive fr...

37. It's a long way to the top if you wanna straw bale
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

It's hard to believe that we really are on the home stretch now. Since Dylan was born, time seems to have taken on a new dimension, and although we are very close to being able to move in, our priorit

38. Appreciation
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...s up and lifts our spirits. They are in the midst of getting their planning permit to build their straw bale house in Selby and we love hearing about their progress and aspirations.  Yest...

39. New Year's Eaves
(Blog/Walls and Render)

We have tried to do everything ourselves that we are legally allowed to do on our build. But we've got to a stage where it really helps to pay some professionals to accelerate our progress (Natasha is

40. Questions
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...e build progresses. For a while the questions were usually something like "have you done the straw bales yet". Now the most common question is absolutely "when do you expect to be in?&q...

41. Dirty work
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...cond coat on the outside. I think it's fair to say that we now know people from every part of the straw bale building spectrum. Some are reaping the rewards of their toil, some are in the midst of the...

42. Nesting
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... We are having a home birth, and have had our eyes (and hearts) firmly set on being in our straw bale house to birth our baby - til now!. We have set ourselves targets and dates to finish so o...

43. Revealing Walls
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...for until we did it and had a look. He was right (of course!). I remember looking at other straw bale houses and photos and wondering how our walls would look in comparison, and I must confes...

44. Good mud
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...mpromise fire safety or insulation.  More about that later. Today I managed to sell our surplus of bales to the local farm supplies shop and clear some space in the house. At last! We had a few b...

45. Unfinished business
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...ow to reconcile that with the ridge beam, or the strange north facing window in the studio and it's non-bale exterior wall. I've been resolving these things successfully. Very satisfying. With so...

46. Catch up
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...eciate his skills, attitude and Kiwiness! As with all people who help us build and have their own straw bale aspirations, I hope that experience gained with us will contribute to his own project. I ha...

47. Countdown
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... or come and help. Amazing stuff. We are very thankful to have been able to spread the word about straw bale. So after more planning and thinking tonight, we are ready for 3 big days, and very e...

48. When too many layers are not enough
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...re preparing the shape of the areas above windows and doors, to get that lovely rounded feel that straw bale houses can give. We are keeping a close eye on our master plan and how we are trackin...

49. Exstrawdinary
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...hink that we've been able to offer some valuable experience, impetus and inspiration to our fellow strawbale owner builders. We also have friends who have just come because they want to help and spend...

50. Let the stuffing begin!
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...iness. Alan and his wife to be Lucy (good luck with the wedding next weekend guys) who are fellow straw bale builders in Halls Gap are building a similar type straw bale house to ours, and it has been...