Owner(s): Hank and Anita Carr
Region: Greater Ottawa Area
Municipality: Spencerville
Email: hank@dna.ca
Web site: http://www.dna.ca

Number of bedrooms: 3
Number of bathrooms: 4
Usable floor area, square feet (interior): 2,861 sq ft
Number of stories: 2
Occupancy date: September 2003
Cost per square foot and what that includes: $70 per square foot (projected) includes land, permits, engineering, septic, electrical, etc. All costs.

Builder arrangement: Owner
Plaster subcontractor name: Ben Polley, Harvest Homes
Designer's name: Anita Carr
Structural engineer's name: Kris Dick
Structural engineer's firm: Building Alternatives
Length of time to build (start to occupancy): 16 months We took 6 months off during the winter of 2002-2003
Volunteer participation: More than 50 friends, family, and complete strangers helped us build our house. Diana Barnes and Eric Maw were amazing.
Ease of obtaining a building permit: Very easy

Other foundation info: Styrofoam insulation under concrete slab on grade.

Other roof system info: Half scissor trusses and half double scissor trusses from Almonte Truss


Other insulation materials used: Our ceiling steps from single scissor trusses over the great room and Lily's room to double scissor trusses over the guest room and master bedroom. Lily's ceiling is framed down from a shed ceiling to a cathedral ceiling and her bathroom is framed down to a lower cathedral from there. This required rock wool on the vertical transitions from one ceiling profile to another then cellulose was blown into the sloped areas.

Other bale wall style info: The first floor is welded wire. The second floor is tenax.
Straw type: Oat
Other straw bale type: We're mostly oat with some wheat and barley in the second floor walls. We used whatever was available close by when we needed it.


Other plasters used: StructoLite for interior third/finish coat.

Paints used on bale wall plaster: Clay interior & Silicate on exterior.

Other information about windows: The windows over the great room are fixed (because they're 14' up from the floor) and the master and guest bathrooms feature 8 foot tall by 3 foot wide gothic windows over the claw foot bathtubs. Oran is the manufacturer
Mechanical systems info: LPG tankless water heater. Output (BTUs): PTG-74PVP 19,000 to 199,000 moderated - manufacturer = Paloma Wood cook stove (Flame View)- manufacturer = Mealtime Stoves Ceiling Fans Waterloo sewage collection/disposal system - manufacturer = Ridea Valley Sanitation
Electrical systems info: Grid tied
Anything else you'd like to share?: Butler's pantry and scullery are combined in one large pantry. We're planning a library/sitting area on the mezzanine above the great room and outside the master and guest bedrooms. Possibly the largest two storey load bearing straw bale home in the world. We bought two Goldenrod fence pullers [to compress the strawbales]. They failed the first day. We switched to using cargo straps which worked better but the buckles occasionally still broke. Very good quality, heavy cargo straps are an excellent investment for general pulling tasks and work great for doing compression of load bearing walls. We used 9 ga galvanized fence wire to tie down our top plates. Now we use polypropylene pallet strapping. Concrete ground floor and wood deck second floor. Multi-coloured natural slate tiles in the showers, water closets, and under the tubs. Bamboo in the bathrooms and bedrooms. End grain hard wood (coming) on the mezzanine and landings. Splash Well Drilling ( through 1 ' loam, 1' red clay, 30' gray clay, 30' limestone )