And now presenting..... The bedroom!

Arms aching from pounding straw and clay into wall cavities?  Check.
Skin and clothes covered in a fine dusting of clay?  Check.
Arms, face and hair greasy from four applications of mosquito repellent?  Check.
Bedroom walls totally finished?  Check!

Take a look for yourself!

Rick, Arthur, me and Mary stuffing the final bedroom wall.

Form moving up....

Even though he is a skeptic about our choice of insulation, Bentley showed up to help stuff.  (We checked his pockets for foam and fiberglass before he began).  :)

Moving up....

We are so close to the top!

Matt stuffing the tippy top.

A view from inside the finished bedroom. 

Inside the finished bedroom looking straight out towards the road.  How sweet is this room?!

A view from the road.

Since Wisconsin

Since returning from Wisconsin we have been working our guts out, and the house is taking shape.  In the two weeks since we have been home we finished the south wall, the east dining room window and two big walls in the kitchen. 

Living room picture window

Living room windows

Dining room and kitchen walls

 

Work Party #2!

To celebrate Jason's 30th birthday on July 27, we had another work party!  Over 20 of our friends came over to help us infill the west side of our house.  Jeremy, Chris, Richard, Amanda, Ryan, Kate, Katrina, Ricky, Kaitlyn, Cory, Jim, Melissa, Xander, Beatrice, Ashley, Emily, Luke and more!  We worked our guts out, but had some fun, too.  By the end of the night, in the dark, we had a huge section of wall done!

The west wall filling up.

Mixing up straw and clay.

Working on the west  living room wall.

Helping to dry out the clay....

And then some food....  We deserved it after working all day!

Finally, in the dark, around 8pm the wall was finished. 

Jason I returned to our apartment around 9:30 that night and the next morning we woke up at 4am and headed to Wisconsin for my mom's surprise birthday party!  We felt so good about getting so much work done on the house before leaving, and we couldn't have done all of that work without our friends' help.  Thank you!

Straw-Clay Infill Work Party #1!

It has finally started!  Yesterday, with the help of our wonderful friends, we worked our guts out and infilled a wall and a half!  We can no longer see through the wall in our one-day entry way!  It looks great and I can just imagine how toasty warm it will be in the winter time.

Bill has helped us on almost every stage of this process.  He was there the day we poured the footing and now he is here mixing clay slip.  Thank you, Bill!  You have been such a huge help all along and especially these last few days. 

Here is 55 gallons of clay slip Bill and I made the day before the work party.  Bill rocks!

Brendan in front mixing clay slip and Mariah in the back tossing the clay and the straw.  These folks worked their guts out all day long!  Thank you so much!

This little guy supervised our progress throughout the day.  When he wasn't pretending the big bathtub on the side of the house was his boat, he was helping with whatever he could or talking our ears off.  He entertained himself all day long.  What a cutie! 

Finally, the infill!  Bill, Sonja and I are tamping the very first layers of straw-clay into the walls.

Moving right along, it's time to slide the form up! 

Mariah and Bill posing with the new wall.  We can't see outside anymore!

Katrina, very serious with her fork and clay mustache.  Thank you for coming by and tamping straw-clay with me, Katrina!

The inside of the wall with the forms still up. 

The outside of the wall.

Chris making more straw clay.  He tossed that mixture all day long and kept the pile of ready-to use infill high!  Thank you so much!

Adorable.

The inside of the wall without the forms.

The one-day bathroom wall up to the window.  Will we get this one done today?  Keep your fingers crossed!

I cannot say thank you enough to everyone who was able to help yesterday.  Bill, Sonja, Finn, Mariah, Chris, Matt, Brendan, Katrina and Kate--we couldn't have done it without you.  The amount of energy we put forth was impressive. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

A Boat Ride with My Folks

After forcing my parents to help us with the house for most of their vacation, we gave them a break and went for a boat ride last night.  It was a wonderful night!

The Bedroom Framing!

Finally, we have begun working on the house again! While my parents were here visiting these last 10 days, we put up the bedroom framing (yay!), my dad did the rough-in plumbing and my mom and I worked on raking rocks and evening out the ground around the house.  After all of that was done, my mom helped to clean up the first floor and my dad and I worked on putting up the chicken wire that will help to hold the straw-clay infill.  It looks awesome!  Good news:  the straw is arriving on Monday!  I can't wait to start working on the infill!

The house with the bedroom framing.  Now isn't that a sweet little house?