The road from dream to reality..

I started a site called the “Strawbale House Project in Frogn, Norway" a site dedicated to describe the progress from dream to reality of my dream house. On my website I will try to explain as well as I can what a strawbale house is all about and the reason that lies behind my decision of building this kind of house. And in by doing so I hope it will promote an interest in environmental friendly solutions, which do not need to be too expensive or too unconventional.

There is not one reason but many for why I have chosen to build my future house with strawbale and loam as building materials. Mostly I wanted a home with a good healthy living environment. But it also helps that they are renewable materials with a lot of good properties and on top of that they are also very cheap. The more I read about it the more incomprehensible it gets for me that so very few people know about this and even worse that even fewer use it. Although in Denmark it seems to be very popular among builders here in Norway as far as know there has only been built about 50 houses, in last 20-10 years, made of strawbale and clay. This maybe due to that timber frame construction building is still very popular and cheap here in Norway and it is renewable, but that might change due to new regulations for energy efficiency for the houses as the government is starting to set up new policies. Timber frame houses score pretty low in energy efficiency without the use of some heavy insulation measures which are of course quite expensive and not so environmentally friendly in most cases.
But finally what really made my mind up was the combination of hydronic radiant floor heating and breathable construction materials. It is almost a must do combination due to its unbeatenable healthy living environment that it creates. Unfortunately the price here in Norway for hydronic radiant floor heating is still quite expensive, but there is no other alternative for me here, this is just something I can't pass by without trying.
Anyway I would love have to get back some comments about what you have to say, take a look at my website at http://folk.uio.no/rickyh/strawbalehouse/ .

Cheers.
R.H