Thursday, October 8, 2009

manifest my dream please


Here is a "houseplan doodle" I did years ago. I have been sketching various versions of my possibilities for the shape and feel of the shelter/sanctuary/studio that I wish to build for some years now. If you know a benevolent soul with an acre of land to spare/rent to me to manifest this dream...please contact me at annie.siemer@gmail.com

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Bill and Athena Steen

The first books that taught me THOROUGHLY what it is to
build a sustainable Strawbale Structure that I found more than
10 years ago were written by Bill and Athena Steen.

They head the "Canelo Project" and have done the most( in my opinion) to dispel myths (fire, climate etc) about Strawbale Structures and spread the idea that anyone can build their own house up from the ground. They also finish what they start and do most of the work needed to complete their structures themselves.

Check out their books :
The Straw Bale House
The Beauty of Straw Bale HomesBuilt by Hand:Vernacular Buildings Around the World
Small Strawbale: Natural Homes, Projects & Designs
The HandCrafted Life of Don Juan Morales
and their website is also very inspiring: http://www.caneloproject.com/

Friday, July 24, 2009

More Inspiration from Lloyd Kahn's Blog

Click on this for some cool pictures of a Dome Building Company in Vancouver, B.C. http://www.cwdg.ca

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

If you wanna build it, I will come.....

Some much appreciated positive reinforcement in the form of the Blue Rock Station
e-newsletter came through this week from Annie Warmke of BRS:
"Annie B., our June intern, returned to Columbus last week – a paying job is calling to her, she just hasn’t found it yet. She surely did an amazing job of earth plastering. We’ve never had anyone that had such a gift for it, except maybe a couple of early students. She left her mark everywhere with art and nature. We really appreciate her contributions".
WIth this experience combined with 15 years of hardcore research about Strawbale Buildings of all shapes and sizes and years of experiences building a plethora of decks, walls, fences and other assorted structures with my Carpenter Father, I am fairly certain I can design and build your shed, garage or small house. Send me an email and I'll grab my mud clothes.

Friday, July 10, 2009

www.earthsongpeace.com

Yesterday was the first time that (after reading his book for over 6 months) I finally went online to search and learn more about Joseph Rael. This morning I started clicking on some of the pictures of the Peace Chambers and I just about fell off my chair to see my version of my strawbale Octagon dream house in this one in Michigan.http://www.earthsongpeace.com/
This man (Joseph Rael) has been building these all over the world. Pretty inspiring.
It's just the right size for me too.