What strikes me the most about this home is the thoughtfulness shown at each step. From design to material choices to the finishing touches done by the owner themself, this is a home designed to hit the mark of low environmental impact, comfort, and functional beauty.

May you find inspiration and perhaps your very own bale home in Liberty Lake, Washington State, with this article. - Dainella

Secluded in location and surrounded by forest and wildlife, this one-of-a-kind home was custom-designed to have minimal environmental impact while also ensuring durability, fire resistance, and a serene living experience in Nature.

Easy access to Liberty Lake Regional Park with all its hiking and bike trails extends and encourages time outdoors, yet provides a comfortable, energy-efficient retreat to rest.

““I got great pleasure from long hikes with my dog in the surrounding woods, exploring the many backcountry trails, and experiencing the particular beauty of each season.”

”I found peace and joy from the charm, serenity, and coziness of the house. The house has a very open feeling.””

— From the Owner

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.

“What had you chose to build with straw bale load-bearing techniques?

”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 a 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.”

— From the Owner

Thoughtfully Designed For Passive Solar:

The house was built with a large sand mass under the floor. The house is designed to heat the sand mass, not enough to be a principal source of heat, but enough that the floor is heated to, perhaps, 40°F, so that the heaters in the house have less work to do to raise the temperature to a comfortable level.Large tubes are placed under the sand mass, running from the south side of the house and venting on the outside of the north side. The warm air passing through the tubes is heated by three sources.

Solar collector on the south outside wall. A box on the south outside wall contains a set of long aluminum tubes enclosed by a special glazing material specifically designed for passive solar collectors. The heat from the sun-warmed tubes passes into a duct that goes down through the column just inside the south bedroom and through the tubes under the house.

Heat from the roof. Heat is collected from the metal roof. Warm air from the space between the plywood sub-roof and the metal roofing flows into the duct that goes down to the tubes under the house.

Sunspace. The sunspace on the east side of the house was designed to collect heat. On a summer day with the sliding doors closed, the room can reach high temperatures. The vents in the sunspace also allow warm air to flow into the space between the sub-roof and metal roofing material and subsequently into the duct and the tubes under the house.

Note from the Owner: "While the current system allows the air to flow naturally into the duct, it could be enhanced by installing a fan in the duct to draw in the air and a thermostat to only bring in air above a specific temperature."

The house's exterior was completed in 2004 by a contractor working with the designer Don Stevens. The bales are structural elements (bearing the roof load). The Owner did most of the inside finishing by themselves or with the help of friends.

The house is built with locally sourced compressed strawbales. The interior wall and ceiling covering uses no- or low-VOC material.

The walls and ceiling feature a textured finish created using specially mixed drywall mud combined with natural materials from different areas of the surrounding woods. The variations in color on the ceiling are intentional and reflect the use of natural pigments and texturing materials from different sources, creating a one-of-a-kind aesthetic and setting the home apart from the norm of painted white ceilings.

This technique, known as earthen plaster or natural fresco, adds depth and character to the space. The eco-friendly earthen plaster is made with all-natural VOC-free materials.

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.

“The wood walls are pine and cedar to connect with the natural beauty of the forest where both species abound. At the tops of the outer walls are finished wood boards for a touch of rustic charm, accentuated with sleek black hardware that ensures a secure and stylish connection to the roof structure.”

— From the Owner

Easy Access To The Great Out-of-Doors

The straw bale home 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 backcountry 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.”

— From the Owner

Only minutes away from the amenities of town, yet surrounded by nature.

Custom Finish & Home Details:

2 Bedroom, 2 Bath with a central living-dining area - 994 sq ft custom home completed in 2004.
Load-bearing straw bale wall construction with no additional framing on the exterior walls. Built with locally sourced, compressed bales.
Built to local building codes by a contractor. Finish work and touches completed with care by the current owner. Home design by Don Stevens.
Metal roof with rice hulls for insulation.

The sunspace is one of the house’s most loved guest feature. The wide picture windows present a spectacular panoramic view of the wetlands, woods, and hills to the east. 16-foot sliding glass doors lead to the sunspace, or greenhouse, with amazing views to the East.
The glass ceiling and wide glass panels bring in bright light that is ideal for succulents and other houseplants.
The rustic cedar window frames and ceiling, along with the textured floor surface, create a natural outdoor feeling in the room.
The beautiful blue stained-glass panels framing the sliding glass doors present a striking first impression when entering the house.
Interior walls are coated with no-VOC drywall mud mixed with grass and pine needles, which adds texture to complement the natural pigment coloring.
The ceiling is coated with a mixture of drywall mud, sand, and pigments. The sand was collected from different local areas to create interest with a patchwork look.
Get instant hot water with a gas-powered water heater. The hot water doesn’t run out even with a very long shower!
A water softener is attached to the heater to remove the heavy minerals common in the area.
The floor is acid-stained concrete, which provides rich, variegated, and translucent earth tones to complement the natural colors of the walls and ceilings.
The smooth concrete floors are also very easy to clean.
Built-in pine cabinets provide ample storage in the north bedroom for clothes and in the main room for items such as kitchen appliances, cookware, or non-perishable foods.
Shelves built into the main room and south bedroom provide a ready place for books, pottery, or other artware.
Additional display space is created by the bamboo shelf supports in the bedrooms.
Includes new stove, microwave, and refrigerator, plus dishwasher and stacked washer and dryer.
Inside is a Cedar-lined utility room and a large attached garage.
Sun tubes in the kitchen, utility room, and garage bring in great light and eliminate dark corners.
The smaller windows on the east walls of the bedrooms, built on Japanese design features, are intended to frame views of the trees and hills while blocking views of the road and houses below.
The closet inside the smaller bathroom was intended to create the option to install a sauna in the future. The room already features a sauna door and cedar-lined walls intended to complement the look and feel of a future sauna.
Item description

Energy Efficiency Features & Highlights:

HEATING

Radiant floor heat is the primary heat source for the home. It is energy efficient, quiet, safe for pets and young children, and provides uniform heating. Because there are no ducts, unlike forced air systems, it is also allergy-friendly. A dedicated electric-powered boiler provides the heat for the tubes embedded in the floor.
An attractive black iron natural gas stove is used as the sole source of heat for the house for most of the winter. Because the stove can also be operated with battery power, it provides a reliable backup source of heat in the event of a power outage. Batteries (stored outside of the stove to prevent erosion) can be inserted in the stove in the event of an outage to ensure a continued source of heat until power is restored.

COOLING

The natural insulation of the bale walls combined with a bedroom ceiling fan keeps the inside temperature comfortable on all but the hottest of days.
For those extreme days, a freestanding air conditioner is used.

Property Features Include:

1/8th acres zoned Residential.
Water and sewer are provided by Liberty Lake Sewer & Water District.
Electric and natural gas are provided by Avista.
The lot is treed with several large Ponderosa Pines (you can smell the vanilla scent from the bark!)
The property is surrounded by public and private forest land.
Dog doors between the utility room and garage, and between the garage and the outside, provide access to a fenced dog run, giving dogs the freedom to come and go as they wish.
The attached garage provides space for a shop as well as storage.