Tiny House Blog

by Andrew Morrison of Strawbale.com

http://strawbale.com/store/

EVERYTHING on our site is on sale for 1 week including:

• “A MODERN LOOK AT STRAW BALE CONSTRUCTION”, our new book. Get it as an instant download or bound book on sale this week. And since so many of you have asked, yes, I can autograph them for you if you’d like (just write in the Comments Section at checkout “autograph”).
• Check out our 2013 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE we’ve just released. We are excited to say that we are offering a workshop in pretty much every major geographic area in the US so that you don’t (hopefully) have to travel so far to take a workshop (at least for our US folks). Our workshops are also all on sale.
• Sale pricing on our 3 CONSULTING PACKAGES (Plans Review, Crew Training, and Total Package). If you are serious about wanting to have a successful straw bale build, make sure to check out these consulting options to see which works for you.
• Sale on all of our DVDs, including our best seller “Combo Package” which includes ALL of our straw bale DVDs, plus a Free set of the Mountain View Cabin Plans for a killer price.
• Sale on our beloved Applegate and Sunset Cottages. These plans are perfect for those wanting to downsize into something they can build themselves that is energy efficient and beautiful.

The sale will go on until Friday, Nov. 30, 9am EST.

The link to the sale again is:

http://strawbale.com/store/

Happy Baling!

Andrew Morrison
Straw Bale Innovations, LLC
PO Box 3145
Ashland, OR 97520, USA

by Gabriella Morrison

Grab your favorite mug, fill it with delicious tea or coffee and enjoy this interview with Andrew Morrison (from StrawBale.com) about “Living SMALL In A big World”. Andrew covers everything from how he converted his closet into a master bedroom, to living in a 125 sqft pop up tent trailer in Baja with his 12 year old daughter and wife, to designing your home to reflect your personal connection and love with nature, to living small with a teenager, to the role of straw bale construction in the tiny house movement, and how to create your own off-grid forever home with your own two hands.

Living SMALL In A big World from Gabriella Morrison on Vimeo.

Andrew is set to launch his new book, “A Modern Look at Straw Bale Construction” on November 23, 2012. If you’d like a free chapter from his book, please click here. You’ll also have the chance to enter your name to be one of the 25 people that receives the book for free.

by Kent Griswold

A couple of days ago I offered you a free report from Andrew Morrison from Strawbale.com. Today is the beginning of a week long sale and launch of a new DVD and plans. I wanted you to have a chance to grab this great information at sale prices. I’m going to let both Andrew and his wife Gabriella tell you a little more about their new DVD.

Hey everyone! This is Gabriella, Andrew’s wife writing. I wanted to share a preview of our brand new video, The How To Guide To Framing For Straw Bale Construction. The video is nearly 3 hours long and will be contained in a 2 DVD set.

We genuinely had fun filming this production and we were graced by nearly perfect weather as well as a backdrop of a gorgeous snow capped mountain peak. The footage looks excellent and I have just completed editing it. All that’s left to do is to encode it, burn the master DVDs and send them off for replication. So, I think we will have them in hand in about 4 weeks!

Here’s the 8 minute preview which contains snippets of the footage. Click Here for the Framing DVD Launch Sale

Hello Everyone, this is Andrew Morrison. The Framing DVD is a 2 DVD set, with 2hrs 53min worth of detailed instruction on how to frame your own straw bale structure. In it, you will find a step-by-step teaching style that will walk you through the entire framing process from start to finish. We have done everything in our power to provide this information in a manner that will be easy to understand to even those with no previous framing experience. We even have a bonus section dedicated to breaking down each framing term so that you don’t get lost by
the technical terms while watching the DVD.

The sale will run for 7 days and ends July 12th at 6am PST. Click Here for the Framing DVD Launch Sale. Sale Over click here to purchase the DVD.

Guest Post by Andrew Morrison

As you may know, my wife, 12 year old daughter, and I recently sold more than half of our worldly belongings to fund our adventure, let go of our large rental house, and spent the next 6 months in a quest to reconnect with each other and with what really matters in life. Most of that time was spent in a 150 sq ft pop up tent trailer in Baja, Mexico where we were able to live off grid and to essentially unplug ourselves from our “normal” day-to-day lives. What we learned was that in living with the least, we gained the most and that in finding the stillness that comes in not busying ourselves, we reclaimed our joy and inner calm (to read more about this journey, please visit www.SmallHouseRevolution.com).

One of our favorite topics of conversation since embarking on this adventure has become housing. What defines a home, what are the things that are essential in making a home a wonderful space, what do we want in our own dream house, etc… Being that the professional focus for most of our adult lives has been straw bale construction and green housing, we naturally have been exploring the merits of this mode of building as a solution for those of us that are wanting to build affordably, to tread lightly on the planet, and to be involved with our own home’s creation. We now see, more than ever, that straw bale construction is an amazing building technology fully able to fill those needs.

The idea of stacking straw bales to create a super insulated and natural shelter first appeared on the Nebraska plains over 100 years ago and some of these original homes are still in use. The technology has advanced significantly since those early builds and today, two major styles of straw bale construction have been developed: Load Bearing and Post and Beam. Load bearing construction uses no structural frame (such as framed 2×6 walls) to support the roof. Instead, the bales carry the load. Post and beam construction, on the other hand, uses a structural frame to support the roof while the bales act as insulation within that frame. Whichever system is implemented, the benefits of building with bales include: 3 times the insulation value of a conventional wall; 3 times more fire proof than a conventional home (yes, you read that right!); lessens pollution by using a waste material that normally contributes significantly to the pollution cycle; ideal building system for the owner builder; incredibly sound proof; able to withstand natural disasters (earthquakes, high wind/tornado) significantly better than a conventional home; aesthetically beautiful. Continue Reading »

I am excited to introduce a brand new small house straw bale plan. I have been involved with Gabriella Morrison wife of Andrew Morrison of Strawbale.com to design a straw bale home for the Tiny House Blog readership. The new home has been named The Applegate Residence. These plans are fresh and hot off the drawing board and I have had the privilege of looking at them first hand and they are excellent. The home has not been built yet but the Morrison’s are hoping to have one built sometime in the next six months. The plan is to build one through their workshops. If you buy the plans and would like to have it built please let me know and I will get the word to them.

The Applegate Residence was meticulously designed by Chris Keefe of OrganicFormsDesign.com and every nook and cranny has a function and purpose. There is 770 sqft of living area which includes a great loft space and a downstairs bedroom and can comfortably house a couple and perhaps even a small family. All of the comforts we are accustomed to in the western world are included so it’s really not about lowering the quality of living but rather, adjusting the size to be more in line with what is really necessary and sustainable not only for the planet but also for the pocketbook.

The Applegate Residence has been designed to be affordable to build so that you can live debt free in as short amount of time as possible. The $20,000 estimate to build the Applegate includes the cost of the foundation, walls, bales, mesh, plaster, roof, interior walls, so everything that makes up the structure. It also includes $2,000 as an initial budget for finish flooring, cabinetry, appliances, wiring, plumbing, fixtures, and finish materials. In our experience, it is possible to find these items at very low cost or salvaged, depending on how motivated you are to find the best deals on those items.

This beautiful bungalow style home is perfect for those looking to get out of the rat race by downsizing into something that is super efficient and cost effective. This is a perfect example of space-smart design in which every space has a use and is essential to the overall flow of the home.

The plans are available in two different designs. The 770 square foot with the downstairs bedroom or the 570 square foot without the downstairs bedroom. You decide what is best for you.

Included with the plans are three free DVD’s which include the following:

• Post and Beam Straw Bale Instructional Double DVD set (nearly 3 hrs of step-by-step instruction)
• How To Plaster With Natural Hydraulic Lime
• How To Pour A Monolithic Concrete Slab Foundation

Strawbale.com is offering the Tiny House Blog readers an introductory discount for four days starting at 7:00 A.M. PST Friday and ending on Tuesday July 12th at 7:00 A.M. PST. So I would like to invite you to jump in and purchase these plans right away by clicking this link Here!

(Note all strawbale.com plans and DVD’s bought through the Tiny House Blogs links and ads help keep this site running.)

I have been working with Gabriella Morrison wife of Andrew Morrison of Strawbale.com to put together a special package for tiny house enthusiasts. The Morrison’s have put together a package that includes the Sunset Cottage Plans, the How-To Guide To Building With Straw Bales (Post and Beam) 2 DVD set, the How-To Guide To Plastering with Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL), and the How-To Guide To Pouring a Monolithic Concrete Slab Foundation. Five and a half hours of Andrew’s video training. The usual retail price of this package is $375 and for a short time they are giving readers of the Tiny House Blog a discount price of $99.

Andrew Morrison is an easy to understand instructor and you get a little feel of his teaching ability in this video below. He has produced a number of hot selling videos and I will be reviewing his latest How-To Guide To Building With Straw Bales (Post and Beam) next week.

This charming cottage is perfect for the Tiny House enthusiast! Straw Bale construction lends itself very well to space-conscious builders because the thickness of the bales allows for all types of carved-in wall niches to be created, allowing for storage/shelving right in the walls. Straw bale window sills are also wonderful for creating window seats, eliminating the need for chairs.

The Sunset Cottage has room for a full sized fold-down couch, a large set of wall shelves, a large work desk with file cabinets on the side, a substantial window seat, a small set of shelves, and plenty of floor space to walk around the room in. And with a little modification, you can create space for a tiny bathroom and kitchen as well.

So if you have been thinking of building your first straw bale structure purchase the Sunset Cottage Plans Today by click here.

Your purchase helps support this blog. As an affiliate of StrawBale.com a percentage of the purchase goes to the Tiny House Blog.