Strawbale House

G’day and Welcome to Huff’n'Puff Constructions Ganmain!

We look forward to assisting via this web site and via the other services that we offer straw bale builders, engineers and designers. The web site is constantly being updated so return as often as you want!

We are experiencing unprecedented demand for straw bale building information via email so please call Susan or John if you require an immediate and detailed answer to your enquiries.

Area Code 02 69276027

Email: jacksflat@gmail.com

Please include your phone number in your email.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

STOP THE PRESS NEWS:

HUFF ‘N’ PUFF WILL BE FEATURED ON CHANNEL 7′S BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS PROGRAMME TO BE AIRED ON FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17th AT 7.30pm.

JOHANNA GRIGGS IS THE PRESENTER.

Susan and Johanna in Ganmain

BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS WEB SITE

Johanna Griggs

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

18th AUGUST & DAY 5 OF WORKSHOP #117 @ REPTON.

“Hi John and Susan

We just wanted to thank you both for everything you taught us at the Repton strawbale workshop in August. We had a great time and learnt heaps of new skills. But probably the most important thing you taught us was that we can do it! We were pretty sure strawbale was for us before the course, and now after the course, we are confident, motivated and excited to get started on our new home.

Your teaching styles compliment each other perfectly, ensuring all learning styles are catered for. And it’s great to get a male and female perspective - your strength is in your differences! Even when you disagreed it was obvious both ways would work and it was a great example of how many options are available to do the same job! Thank you both so much for your time, and we look forward to sending you some photos of our strawbale journey!

Kind regards
Karen and Kevin”

Day 5 coming to the end of the workshop.

More photos below; just scroll down. The workshop started on Saturday 14th August 2010 and finished on Wednesday 18th August.

————————————————————————————

Join us at one of our workshops and here is what one young lady had to say about our recent course here in Ganmain:

” I drove from Hobart to Ganmain to learn from the best! This has been a fantastic course which has taught me that I can do anything. Thank you Susan and John for making this possible. I cannot wait to get started on my own build.”

Sandra from Hobart Tasmania.

————————————————————————————

UPCOMING CUSTOM WORKSHOP #118:

SNAKE VALLEY VICTORIA (Near Ballarat)

Straw Bale Workshop # 118

SEPTEMBER 18th - 22nd 2010

ALMOST FULLY BOOKED PLEASE CALL AREA CODE 02 69276027

VICTORIA

Snake Valley Floor Plans

————————————————————————————

New custom workshop for Bungendore in New South Wales near

Canberra to be held on November 20th - 24th 2010.

FULL LIST OF WORKSHOPS IN 2010 CAN BE FOUND HERE.

We will always welcome email but for a quicker response the phone is best. We are currently planning our workshops for 2010 and 2011 so if you want Huff ‘n’ Puff to conduct a custom workshop to help with your building on your land please call or email us:

In Australia call (02) 6927 6027

Email: jacksflat@gmail.com

ENROL for a WORKSHOP or make your ENQUIRY HERE!

Susan and John Glassford Huff 'n' Puff Constructions
22 Moore Street GANMAIN N.S.W. 2702 AUSTRALIA

We hold a contractors licence issued by the NSW Department of Fair Trading 80594C
{The licence is issued for the construction of straw bale walls and the only one issued in Australia so far.}

John Glassford is the Founder of AUSBALE* and it's Charter President.
*Ausbale - the Australasian Straw Bale Building Association

We also live in a beautiful straw bale home

Our Living Room

AND we look forward to helping those who need shelter most, in places like Kenya,

Uganda, The Ivory Coast, South Africa and Tanzania through our involvement with Rotary see:

THE Orphan Rescue Kit!

AIDS Orphans

Join us on an adventure of a lifetime to raise awareness and funds for the orphans of Africa now

12-15 million lost souls. We are going to climb the Mountains of the Moon see:

Mountains of the Moon Adventure 2011

Nalawala Documentary, Award Winning Straw Bale!

Straw Bale in Israel

Alex Cicelsky

Alex Cicelsky is a good mate of ours and writes every now and then. Alex is a wonderful straw bale builder and teacher. Alex lives at the Kibbutz Lotan - Center for Creative Ecology’s EcoCampus:

Kibbutz Lotan

Alex’s Blog

Here are three photos from his latest work in Israel:

: Center for Creative Ecology's EcoCampus

: Alex Cicelsky

See them all here:

END of Workshop # 117 in Repton

Good on you Martin!

Day 5 of the workshop and our last day in Repton. We achieved all our goals and managed to get two coats of lime render on 3 of the walls and plenty of earthen render on the internal walls. Electrical sockets installed as well as the start of the internal stud wall for the bathroom. As well Martin was working on the new design for the roof.

It was an excellent workshop with keen and hard working future straw balers. Thank you all for the effort. Also many thanks to Bill and Michelle for their hospitality and for the opportunity to help them with Michelle’s straw bale studio/pottery.

: End of Day 5 and still going

: Jessie ready to go home!

: The roof going on.

: Glorious earthen render

: Shadows

: Thank you Dick!

: Thanks for the mixer Alistair.

: Good on you Martin!

Workshop DAY 4 # 117 in Repton

Another very busy day with a lot of rendering, the best part of a workshop where our students get plenty of hands on and the ability to learn how to render in earth or lime mixes. In this studio we are teaching both methods as the internal walls will have earth and the external walls lime renders.

Workshop DAY 3 # 117 in Repton

It was a long hard day but we managed to get the walls fully compressed. The top plates are now within 5-10mm level all round and tomorrow we will tweak it up ready for the roof trusses.

We started rendering today both earthen and lime base coats. The concave and convex walls are looking good and I will let the photos tell the story of today in Repton.

Workshop DAY 2 # 117 in Repton

Good safe scaffold

Today we managed to achieve an enormous amount. The top plates are all now and I was not able to get any photos as we finished on dark. So here are a few up to lunch time on day 2 of this workshop.

: Going well and safely

: Good safe scaffold

: Round walls being built

: Excellent top plates

: Top plates going up

: Lunch Time Day 2

Workshop DAY 1 # 117 in Repton

Lesson 1 how to unload a semi

Today we started the workshop wioth some 15+ students. First lesson how ot unload a semi trailer!

An excellent team and we all worked well and hard as well as having two sessions of theory. Tomorrow we will have all 6 courses built and the top plates up as well.

: All hands on deck

: Moving bales

: Lesson 1 how to unload a semi

: Busy bees and this is day 1!

: Window sills special cut

: Round walls working well

Workshop # 117 Day 3 in Repton

Hard at work.

We made the door and window frames today all ready for the start of the workshop tomorrow morning. We have the straw bales arriving in the morning as well as the earth for the render. Should be a busy day and our goals are to have the walls ready for roofing by Tuesday morning. The weather is looking great for the next five days.

: Bottom plates and ant caps in place.

: Window frame braced.

: Hard at work.

: Looking good the frames go up

: Window frame detail

: Ready for the bales!

Workshop # 117 Day 2 in Repton

Second Coat of Earth on the Test Wall

Another day and plenty done. Top plates all made as well as bottom plates in place. It was a busy day.

: Second Coat of Earth

: Hard at Work

: Near the Water tank

: Top plates under construction

: Plywood bracing

: Top plate above door frame

Workshop # 117 Day 1 in Repton

Beautiful curves

All is going well for a very successful workshop coming up on Saturday. The footings are in and we started making bottom plates today. Other tasks included: Ant caps and testing earthen render. Mathew, sustainable carpenter and Nathan a hard working lad are helping with the building. It has been a good day.

: Footings and bond beam

: Ant caps

: Beautiful curves

: Testing the earth render

: NOT Ganmain chaff

: Coming together

: Our visitor

: Day over with Jessie on the beach

: Great place to stay Repton

Better Homes and Gardens in Ganmain

Better Homes and Gardens visited Ganmain last week and produced a story on Huff n Puff. Here are some photos of the shoot.

Johanna Griggs and the team led by Cassandra Felix were very professional and their attention to detail was impressive. We look forward to the segment in their upcoming show in a few weeks time:

BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS WEB SITE.

Susan and Johanna

: Susan and Johanna

: Paul, Johanna and Cassandra

: Peter and Paul at work.

: Much discussion!

: Cassandra the Producer

: Camera Lights Action!

: The Team in the Big House

: Ganmain Premium Hay Stack built by Brian Jones

The team from Better Homes and Gardens:

Cassandra Felix Producer

Peter Coleman Camera

Paul Knight Sound and lighting

Gary Siutz Make up

AND of course Johanna Griggs. What you see on TV is what you get with Johanna and Johanna has a wonderful sense of humour and just loves life. We had a lot of fun despite the cold winds. Thank you Better Homes and Gardens and to Artemis Kalyvas our grateful thanks for all the research.

News From Upper Brookfield Workshop #109 September 2009

LINDA’S COTTAGE A SIMPLY STUNNING RESULT

We heard back from Natasha and Greg our clients in Brisbane on the progress of their straw bale cottage for Natasha’s Mother. Here are some photos of the result and a letter form them which I am sure they will not mind sharing with you all. Great news from this hard working couple.

“Hi John & Susan

I hope this email finds you well. I have seen all the photos of your recent workshops on your website and it looks like you two are busy as always. Looks like you have worked on some really nice places too.

I am sorry it has taken us so long to get in touch again. I have to say the last 9 months were some of the hardest we have ever had and unfortunately the two of you were there for the worst of it. The good news is that last week Mum’s test results came back clear and she is now finally in remission. She still has a long way to go to regain her strength and health (approx 18 months the doctor says), but at least we know she has made it through.

Greg and I pushed on and finished the house. It was very hard to get motivated to work on it after everything that had happened, but we got there. The carpenters came back to help and we found some great local plasterers that were willing to give it a go and finish the rendering. Greg and I did as much rendering as we could until xmas time when I was hospitalised for a week with Meningitis and that just threw everything out after I lost all my strength.

We still have a lot of little things to finish, but Mum has been living in the house for about a month. She is cosy this winter and we have a great little gas heater for her. She absolutely loves her house and can’t believe how lucky she is. I have attached some pictures so you can see it now with all her homely things. (Ignore the blue tape on the windows - she is applying last coast of stain etc)

Looking back on the workshop Greg and I were suffering through what we can now say was the worst week of our lives (not due to the workshop of course) and we really appreciate that despite us both being very emotional and distracted you both held things together and pushed on through that difficult situation. I can honestly say I have never been more distressed than I was during that week and I am disappointed that a time we had looked forward to didn’t unfold with the excited and fun that we had planned. Thank you for your patience, hard work and persistence during that time because looking back I think we were too caught up in what was going on to really show you the appreciation you deserved.

The good news is, we have not been deterred by this journey and are still planning to build our home in straw. We just need a break to spend time with the family (we have been working on Mum’s house almost every weekend to try and get it finished).

Take Care”

Workshop #115 day 5 of the workshop

The team who created a minor miracle in 5 days

Today we achieved our goals for this workshop and passed them. In actual fact we managed to apply two coats of lime render to the exterior walls and meshed them. We also applied one coat to 80% of the interior walls as well. Congratulations to the whole team who worked so hard and so well to achieve this stunning result.

The pictures speak for themsleves.

: Zeb, Brenton and Garth applying mesh to the 2nd coat lime render.

: Zeb, Isaac and Craig fitting window bales.

: Henry a chain saw expert trimming windows

: Stan, young Ben, Kerry and Chris working on window bales.

: Garth and Zeb applying mesh

: The team who created a minor miracle in 5 days

: The South wall two coats render and mesh applied

: 80% of the interior walls with one coat of lime render applied

: Workshop ENDS Molly and Jessie make up!

Workshop #115 day 4 of the workshop

East wall with second coat of lime render and mesh applied

Well we put up around 150 square metres of first coat lime render today as well as starting the second coat and mesh. It has been an incredible day with a lot achieved. We are on track to pass our goal of one coat of lime render all round as well as having ALL the walls up and compressed.

: Day 4 ends very satisfying

: East wall with second coat of lime render and mesh applied

: End of Day 4 of the workshop time for a chat!

: South wall note the lintels above the french doors.

: Electrical box and conduit for two swithches

: South wall with one coat of lime render

Links

Archives

The FIFTH most asked question is: Will local councils approve them?