Monday, February 12, 2007










Of Clay Paint and Chocolate Pudding

Another busy weekend with much accomplished, there's just never enough time! Rick finished the bamboo floors in the boys' bedrooms and they are beautiful. We bought this spur of the moment at the evil empire-Home Depot. Spur of the moment except we stood in the isle of HD and discussed it for about 30 minutes. It was a close-out, it was beautiful and seemed easy enough to install (although not as easy as we thought) so we went for it. So far we are very happy with the purchase. A bit dusty but so worth the effort. We then got started on clay paint for the walls we want to remain the original clay color. So tell me, doesn't this look good enough to eat? Finely sifted clay and sand (sifted by me through a kitchen strainer) with wheat paste, a bit of powdered milk and some straw-Yummo!! I think all food groups are represented and talk about your fiber... Me selecting only the finest straw sort of like a Brewmaster selecting only the finest hops. And we're off! The west wall drying-looks like it has some type of dermatitis. And the hearth with it's coat of paint, not quite dry and looking a little one dimensional. When dry I think there will be more variation and depth. We also finished the final plaster coat in our bedroom and what a relief. I thought it would never dry. All in all a very productive 4 days. Of course dilemmas did arise over the weekend. I had decided to clay paint the rest of the drywall-the drywall that I had requested be hung brown side out and not taped. That would have been great for my original plan to plaster (back when I was full of energy) but for clay paint maybe not so good. So now I have to decide if I want to plaster or come up with a solution for the taping and use clay paint. I have a feeling it will be plaster but you never know. Sometimes you just have to step away and let the answer come to you. But not much can compete with surfaces like this.

3 comments:

Tumbleweed said...

what a great project, the Straw bale homes are a labor of love. I was able to build a couple of these homes, there is a lot more to it that people might think. Great job on a project full of personality

StrawBoss said...

Thanks tumbleweed,

It's really coming into its own now. As you know, building small allows you to do more interesting (read labor intensive) finishes. Right now I'm thinking small should have been 200 sq ft :) Judy

Kara said...

Judy

This is amazing and beautiful! I'm so envious of your progress (we've slowed down significantly), but it's encouraging to see. I look forward to more pics.

Kara
stonehousestrawhouse.blogspot.com