A Cordwood Home

A few weeks ago, Louise mentioned the house being built by her cousin, Diane, and her partner, Sean.  We saw it while staying in Wakefield, Quebec at Elaine's cottage (ah, the cottage-life - I miss it so....)  Anyway, when we initially heard their housing plan a few years ago (cordwood house, sustainable land, re-using old timber, recycled glass bottles, sawdust insulation), we didn't know what to think.  I sorta expected to see a some-what ramshackle collection of weathered wood, tacked together with rope and iron spikes.   But after walking up a windy path to the construction site, we were quite surprised at what we saw:

As you can see, its BIG.  16-sides, 2 stories, plus the roof will be grass to aid in cooling and insulation (this is becoming popular in cities; I think Chicago has quite a few buildings with gardens & grass rooftops being fitted).  After some jokes about where the goat who trims the grass roof is going to live, we went "inside" for a tour (the ramp for climbing onto the 1st floor was a big hit w/ Kai).

The dominating feature is the large tree in the center of the house.  It weighed a couple tons and was lowered by crane onto a foundation underneath.  The beams that spread out are fitted very closely together and are re-used timber, as are the sets of 16 columns that support the outer walls.  Most of the interior walls are still made up of standard 2x4's, but the floors, windows and most of the doors are also re-used.  I think they got a sweet deal on the windows, which were practically new.  The window bay below is wider on the inside than the outside to allow a greater angle of light to get in (it also allows a wider angle for archers to defend their castle!)

Diane and Sean are doing most of the cordwood wall construction themselves (Diane's parents, Peter and Jeannette, were helping the week we were there).  As you can probably tell from the pictures above and below, its a pretty time-consuming affair!  Each piece of wood is cedar, I recall, which was cut about a year ago and allowed to dry.  Cement is mixed and is laid down on the inside and outside to hold the cedar blocks, which are about 16" long on average.   Sawdust is poured in-between the cement to complete the insulation and solidify the wall.  As you can also imagine, this creates a VERY solid and well-insulated wall (considering we moved from a condo in Hawaii that had like 2" thick walls, we felt we were in a castle now).

    The construction technique also allows them to add nifty features like glass bottles to allow light to filter in without lots of windows on the northern side of the house (the southern side will have more windows to take advantage of the sunshine) and add an artistic flair elsewhere.  

Above you can see the Big Dipper and Little Dipper have been placed into the wall.  The red glass in the upper left represents the star that was registered for Scott, Elaine's husband who passed away about a year ago.  (In other words, the actual position of the star in the sky is the same in relation to the Big Dipper as above).  Pretty moving.

The land itself is about 8 acres of heavy woods, which allows for them to sustainably use wood as their heating source.  They'll use natural gas or propane for some things, like the fridge I think, and solar power for some electricity, but otherwise they won't be 'on the grid'.  They grow their own veggies in their rather large garden down the road. 

Since they're doing this mostly themselves w/ some help (experts come in occasionally to do some of the technical work, like placing the center timber and beams above), the timeline for completion is next fall, I think.   Pretty long timetable, especially when you consider its already been ongoing for a couple years and that Diane and Sean are living in a yurt in the meantime. But Louise & I were very impressed - lots of thought & work have gone into it being an Earth-friendly yet still very livable home.  I don't think we could do it ourselves, not with our current lifestyle - you definitely have to decide where you're going to live for the rest of your life, and have the patience to see it through many years (and give up mountain biking while you're building walls - a show-stopper for Louise, for sure!).  But some of the ideas, such as re-using timbers & other portions of old homes, designing a home to take advantage of the natural elements, and maximizing efficiency can certainly be applied to just about any home.

(oh, and for your engineers - the R-value of the walls was estimated to be between 40 and 60).