Humel home, Fallbrook, CA – current project

One of our current projects is a 2800 sq ft straw bale home in Fallbrook, the future home of Paul & Barbara Humel. This four bedroom, two bathroom home features a central great room with kiva fireplace. It has high-efficiency windows and fixtures throughout.

All of the exterior walls (except for the garage walls) are straw bale infill. Some of the interior partition walls are “skinny straw walls”: the space between the studs is infilled with packed light-straw-clay. This takes the place of the insulation and the drywall and creates a surface that is easy to coat with the same clay plaster used on the straw bale walls.

The interior and exterior of the building will be clay plastered, with a clay-lime finish coat on the exterior to help with weathering.

You can also check out the homeowners’ website chronicling their adventures. Though it takes awhile to load, their “construction video” is an entertaining slideshow of the progress.