Thanks again to all who helped stack straw bales in November.  Since then, the Camel's Back Construction crew has spent many hours on the site getting the bale wall prepped and plastered.  Here are some pictures from the past 6 weeks.

We had to put tarps all around the house to keep the weather off the straw until the plaster was installed.  Also, the plaster had to be kept warm until it cured, so we heated the space under the tarp.  Not very efficient (lots of heat escaped through the tarps), but it had to be done.

Details of how the Camel's Back crew rounded the inside of the windows.

Here's Frank installing blue foam insulation over the upper stud wall.  After plastering, the transition from straw bale (shown here covered with Typar) and stud wall will be invisible.

I'm going to install data wiring all over the house.  A couple of those wires are in already.  The blue wire here is a bundled data wire containing two RG6U-Quad and two Cat5E.  The white wire in my hand is a standard 14/3 NMD90 wire for comparison.

The whole outside and inside of the straw bale wall is covered with this Tenax Cintoflex-D fencing mesh.  Wherever two strips of mesh meet, they have to be stitched together with orange baling twine.

Electrical boxes are installed mounted to the lumber columns in the straw bale walls.

Here's a triple column to support a timber above.  Before being prepped by the straw bale crew...

... and here's a similar column after being prepped.  They covered it with Typar, then with 2.5 pound metal masonry lath.

Each window will get a wooden sill.  The 2x4 on edge here is to support the inner edge of the sill, so that it's strong enough to hold a person.

Sunsets from my backyard are beautiful!  I've taken many pictures of them already.

All the stick framed areas in the house are insulated with spray foam rather than batts.

I took a few days off to have a baby!

On the interior, all beams are masked so that plaster doesn't damage them.

Details of the flashing between the foundation and the straw bale wall system.  It prevents moisture from wicking up into the straw bales.

Here's the crew plastering the exterior.

Another beautiful sunset.

Here's the outside done and some tarps removed.  We'll paint it a moss green when the weather warms up.

Here's the frame that will hold the truth window.

More timber masking details.

Here you can see the brushed texture we asked the crew to apply to the exterior plaster.  It looks really good.

The loft floor is mostly installed here.

Interior plastering is complete, and we're now putting in the interior wall frame.