Property Description
Location
Private, quiet area with a rural feeling, it’s only about 3.5 miles to Liberty Lake’s central shopping and restaurant area.
The house is surrounded by thousands of acres of beautiful, forested land. To the east is Liberty Lake
Regional Park. The park itself has 3,500 acres of forest, wetlands, and streams. For hikers, mountain
bikers, horseback riders, cross-country skiers, snowshoers, and nature lovers, the park offers miles of
back country trails, including the 8.3 mile Liberty Lake Loop Trail, which includes a cedar grove, a
waterfall, and many scenic viewpoints. A trail into the park starts just a few hundred feet down the road
from the house. The wide windows in the house’s sunspace afford a panoramic view of the park and the
Idaho hills beyond. To the west of the house are many more thousands of acres of private forest land
where the owners have allowed respectful use of its interweaving trails and beautiful meadows. The
area is abundant with wildlife, including deer, moose, rabbits, coyotes, otters, beavers, frogs,
salamanders, snakes, owls, turkeys, osprey, and bald eagles. Wildflowers and flowering trees and bushes
abound in the spring and summer, and it’s a great place to hunt for morels in the spring. Winter views
are amazing, and it is a wonderful place for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Custom Design
This one-of-a-kind house was custom designed to have minimal environmental impact, while also
ensuring durability and fire resistance. The house is built with locally sourced compressed strawbales.
The interior wall and ceiling covering uses no- or low-VOC material. The house has a very open feeling.
The space between the interior walls and the ceiling is designed to facilitate airflow while still affording privacy. The glass in the French doors and windows of the south bedroom can be left uncovered to
enhance the feeling of openness and space or covered with curtains for privacy. The sun tubes in the
main room along with the light from the sunspace provide bright warm lighting for the main living area,
while the windows in the bedroom are more shaded by the wide eaves to provide a softer, gentler light
in the bedrooms. Touches of Japanese design are seen in the use of natural wood, bamboo shelf
supports, and the smaller east-facing bedroom windows that frame the natural beauty of the
surrounding trees and hills.
Strawbale Construction
The house was constructed using compressed strawbales as the main component for building the
outside walls. Strawbale construction has been around for more than 120 years.
There are two basic types of strawbale construction. One method is to build a typical wood frame and
use the strawbales as insulation. The house is built using compressed strawbales as structural
elements (bearing the load of the roof) rather than as insulation within a structural frame made of wood
or steel. Stucco was applied as an exterior and interior finish. Stucco, a durable plaster made from cement, lime, and sand, provides a hard, weather-resistant coating that protects the strawbale core from
fire, environmental elements, and pests. The color is built into the stucco, so there is no need to paint it.
Using strawbales as structural elements in building a house, compared to using them merely as
insulation within a structural frame made of other materials like wood, offers several distinct advantages,
including enhanced thermal mass, reduced material use, simplified construction, aesthetic and design
flexibility, improved acoustic insulation, and enhanced durability and fire resistance. Structural strawbale
walls also lend themselves to unique aesthetic possibilities, such as the curved walls and deep window
reveals seen in the house that are not as easily achieved with conventional framing methods.
The very nature of compressed strawbales provides significant fire resistance. When straw is tightly
packed, the amount of oxygen within the bale is minimal, reducing the risk of combustion. Furthermore,
the outer layers tend to char in the presence of fire, creating a natural barrier that prevents further
oxygen from reaching the inner parts of the bale. Studies and fire tests have demonstrated that
condensed strawbales possess considerable resistance to fire. In some cases, these bales can withstand
flames for longer periods than many conventional building materials, making them a safe choice for
construction. Covering the walls with stucco further significantly reduces any risk of fire.
Energy Cost Breakdown
| Gas | 1000 |
| Electricity | 700 |
| Other | Value: Description: Passive Solar, Gas hot water radiant floor heating |
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