On Friday October 16th Tom Arth and I were invited to do a presentation on strawbale houses at the Thayer Rotary Club luncheon.

I gave a PowerPoint presentation on the five houses finished in the grant program funded by HUD and administrated by the Top of the Ozarks RC&D Inc. in a partnership with the University of Missouri Extension Center in Douglas County.

Afterward Tom showed a PowerPoint featuring slides about the strawbale house he built in the grant program. The group asked questions about the process, indicating considerable interest in strawbale construction as an alternative to conventional building.

The Rotary Club served us a real good meal at the Los Potrillos Mexican restaurant where the luncheon was held.

A little bit about Tom.

Tom has a degree in Psychology, a long way from construction, but he did not let that stop him.

He did his homework before starting. His research included strawbale construction and alternative energy resources that would work for his building situation.

He received $15,000, payable when the house was finished, from the grant program, which some of was used to pay for a little extra help framing. He did most of the actual work himself, but was helped by friends as were many of the other homes in the project. The result is a well designed and constructed, energy efficient, common sense house with four foot roof overhang on the sides and a porch on each end for maximum weather protection.

The home is approximately 1000sq.ft. on a crawl space, the only one in the program that was not on a concrete slab. The foundation is CIF blocks with drain pipe inside and out to keep the underside dry. The attic is foam insulated. Approximately 70% off the windows are facing south. When additional heat is needed Tom has a small air tight wood stove with an outside air duct to pull oxygen for combustion. A solar PV panel array is on the roof, charging a battery bank, that produces most of the electrical power. Any extra power goes to the grid through an Outback inverter.

Tom also catches the rain off the roof into an underground cistern for domestic use. At this time he is still waiting for the SunFrost, high energy efficient, A/C refrigerator that will top off a very efficient house.

Hats off to Tom for researching and putting the findings into action wherever he could.