Wayne, our architect, wanted us to experience the feel of strawbale houses. He had built his own near Driggs, Idaho, but a trip there wouldn't be possible until the snow cleared. In the meantime, Wayne arranged a field trip to strawbale structures in our neighborhood. We visited a newly-completed home in Tremonton, the greenhouse at Wasatch Community Gardens in Salt Lake City and an artist's studio under construction in the Avenues. Since we hoped to have a very energy-efficient home, the last stop of the day was Envirotherm, where we talked with Larry Wilkins about Tempcast masonry heaters as well as radiant heat flooring.
After lunch, we spent time reviewing the scrapbook of ideas and bookmarked pictures we had prepared. This helped Wayne (and us) begin to understand what we hoped to build. The conversation included tangible and intangible details: the curve of walls, the direction of natural light in a bedroom, the shape of windows, the use of space, the sound of quite, where a cat would sleep and more.
At the end of the day, we felt we were off to a good start.
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