Jay sent us this tip. The Dunne Family house is progressing nicely. The roof is on and straw bales are up. Plus, they now have a blog. We profiled their project one year ago: Dunne’s Hardware Store …NOT!
Dunne Family Strawbale blog (lots of photos)
Note: This is the building system I’ve been recommending for years. It’s especially suitable in cold climates where local wood can be obtained for the post and beam frame.
In the photo of the house in December, I see that the house is without plaster yet. This is not wise. I know of some folks who ended up with a weasel digging tunnels through their walls before they could get to the plastering. Then there are mice…
Yes, you want to plaster as soon as possible. I imagine the cold weather set in before they could finish the plaster. That’s another reason to start small and add on later. If a mouse dies in the wall then it’s quite difficult to get rid of the smell.
Hundreds of years ago, the Gaelic name used by the Dunne family in Ireland was O Duinn or O Doinn. Both Gaelic names are derived from the Gaelic word donn, which means brown. O Doinn is the genitive case of donn.
Hey Owen,
I’ve got another heads-up for you. This looked like as good of a place as any to drop the links.
This is a whole series of videos put out nearly 20 years ago by the U.S. Forest Service. I remember seeing them back in the day, but this is the first time I’ve discovered them online. They all hold up well because they are all about using old school techniques (that still work great today.)
Each one is long…45-50 minutes or so, but very well produced and filled with a lot of detailed how-to information. I think many blog readers would find them invaluable.
I have no clue how you might want to handle these videos. Perhaps you’re not interested? (I find that option extremely doubtful). Perhaps you want to make one blog post about all of them? Perhaps you want to blog post about each one separately over time?
Each video is a small treasure in itself regardless of whether you choose to blog post about each one separately.
Do with them as you see fit, like you always seem to do a great job of doing on this blog.
Here are the ones I have found so far. I’m pretty sure there are more in the series that I have not discovered online (yet.) If I find more of them, I’ll let you know.
The first one I’m listing is a short video that gives some background, but isn’t really one of the full length features. This one is unique in that it doesn’t give any of the great how-to information like the full length videos do. This video does do a great job of providing some of the very fascinating history of the old Forest Service Cabins that are the focus of the entire series.
“These Old Cabins”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMcsXIBD_DQ
This next video is all about the construction, care, and maintenance of log cabins. It contains a lot more instructional information and is typical of the series.
“These Old Cabin Logs”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWDTq7AuCWc
“This Old Cabin Masonry”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEs2jo6LjN4
“These Old Cabin Roofs”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udsE8qZoJZg
“These Old Cabin Windows”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG8Phb_skLg
Enjoy. :-)
Good find, Jay.
Actually, that profile on this blog was just 2 months ago.
The only reason I point this out is to draw attention to the impressive progress the Dunne family has made in 2 months… IN WINTER!!
It has not taken them a year to get the roof on and the bales up.
That’s an excellent pace of construction. Especially since it appears that they haven’t used much in the way of outside help either from contractors or from volunteers. It appears to have been mostly a family effort.
I admire that.
This goes to show how quickly this type of construction can go. Note this is a good sized home. That’s why I keep talking about it and recommending it.