As we begin the journey toward settling down here in South Dakota, I realize that if I am to make my online ventures a reality and if I am be able to carve out the time to write regularly, I am going to need to find a better space to work.

Two years of working from cafes and from the IKEA cafeteria near our kids’ school in Istanbul have taught me to put distraction out of mind, but since I’ll have the space and since two kids and four cousins are a bit more distracting than the regular customers stopping through for a bite to eat or a cup of tea, I’d like to take some time to construct a home office.

As is fitting to this time and place in life, I’ll work to cobble together this structure from second-hand and natural materials that I can find around the surrounding countryside.  My desire is to build a small straw-bale structure that will be an energy-efficient, extremely low cost, creative and environmentally friendly.  Much of this depends on where we settle of course, but we hope to figure that out in the next few weeks.

Strawbale is something I have been reading about for a long time now and so building this will be a great little project to explore this building medium.  It is a fantastic idea and if you’d like to read a bit more about it be sure and visit Building With Strawbales, Straw Bale, or House of Straw.   I’ll also try and document each step of the building process.

What does this mean?

• Strawbale Insulated Walls
• Earthen Floor
• Recycled windows and doors
• Living roof
• Low impact foundation
• Minimal use of concrete
• Natural plaster finish
• Recycled wood or trees from the surrounding countryside

A Few Pictures

In all of this, I really have a loose dream of what I want to build.  Hobbit House is the description that I most quickly gravitate toward, but in reality, the materials that I am able or unable to procure will probably impact building decisions more than any other factor.  In the end, I’ll leave it to “We’ll see how it goes,” get started and adjust as I go.

Here are a few pictures I’ve found online, along with the picture at the top of the post, that have inspired me in this pursuit.