A straw bale home in Maryland with orphaned doors and windows ...

  
   
   
 
 
 

This is the living room in architect Bill Hutchins straw bale home in Takoma Park, Maryland, USA. The home has a lot of design features not often found including the raised bay window (below & right) and a first floor outdoor sleeping balcony (below). Many of the home's parts like door knobs and railings came from salvaged sources, including materials via the non-profit Community Forklift.

 
 
 
       

The home was originally a bungalow built about a century ago that Bill rebuilt maintaining the original facade to fit the city’s historic architecture. The finished home, now 2,100 sq.ft. (195 m2) with a 700 sq.ft. (65 m2) basement, has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two offices, a living room and a family room. The ceiling in the main bedroom is made of hemp fabric. The windows and doors were orphans (unwanted excess building stock) sent back to distributors, saving Bill about $12,000. The walls are plastered with a lime on the outside and a mixture of sand, clay and natural pigments inside. A corn stove provides 90% of the heat for the home. Outside the backyard includes a retention pond, a rain garden, native and woodland plants and a dry well. In the video above Bill gives a tour of his beautiful home where you can see some avant-garde elements of the building.