Quiet and sturdy: straw-bale homes are an attractive alternative

Larry and Susan Biehn moved to Carson Valley in 1998 with ambitions of building a log home.

While living in Grand Rapids, Mich., Susan Biehn about eight years ago, latched onto the idea of log home.

"We've always lived in something unique, different," Susan Biehn said. "In Michigan we lived in an Old English country home made of sandstone. I guess I just don't want to live like everyone else."

But a log home didn't seem practical in Northern Nevada, where winter sets the pace a good seven months of the year. A home tour with the Sunrise Sustainable Resource Group in Minden shifted their focus to straw-bale.

Contrary to the Goldilocks tale, no wolf will blow down the Biehns' or Constance Alexander's straw-bale houses in the Stephanie Way area of northern Douglas County.

The compacted straw encased in two layers of concrete gives their houses the strength of a fortress while retaining the adobe charm of New Mexico. Straw-bale stands up very well to wind, fire and earthquakes.

"You have an extreme factor of cutting out noise," Susan Biehn said. "The winds bother me so I like that."

Neighborhood children ride dirt bikes near Alexander's home but the near sound-proof quality of the straw-bale walls makes them seem far, far away, in Alexander's words.

"It's very quiet," said Alexander, a Douglas County librarian. "I don't hear the wind. I'm surrounded by contractors with big trucks but I can barely hear them."

The Biehns started building their spacious home tucked away in a hillside in October. They finished construction in mid-April but moved in already in March.

The exterior still has the unfinished look of concrete gray.

"I'm letting it cure," said Larry Biehn, who sets up electronic claims systems for doctors and dentists. "I let it sit to get all the cracking done."

Biehn will seal the cracks and give the house its reddish soil color when he applies colored acrylic stucco in July.

Larry and Susan Biehn built a house where they can revel in their personal pleasures. They have huge covered porches out front and in back. The back porch has a two-way fireplace that warms the porch and living room.

"We like to spend a lot of time outside," Larry Biehn said.

Susan Biehn kept indoor walls to a minimum.

"I'm into very simplistic," Susan Biehn said. "I wanted everything open."

The large living/gathering area and kitchen essentially are one space. The master bedroom and bathroom are one room - the toilet is recessed but the bathtub looks into the bedroom.

"I do mean open," she added.

The bedrooms at the Alexander and Biehn homes also feature the truth windows - a small alcove where straw-bale is visible. The Biehns decorate theirs with a Kachina doll from New Mexico.

Alexander has more traditionally partitioned rooms - living room with a framed copy of Rolling Stone with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover; kitchen with wood cabinets and counters; bedroom; and a solarium with an unused faucet that one day will hook to a fountain.

Alexander built windows that open and close into the interior walls between the rooms.

"That's for ventilation," Alexander said in describing her natural air conditioning system that consists of two-foot thick straw-bale walls and concrete floor.

The Biehns also have concrete floors. Susan Biehn found even more uses for concrete. She used black-dyed concrete for her kitchen counters.

"I like the severe look," she said. "It breaks up the, 'Oh, little homemaker,' appearance."

Alexander and the Biehns said the cost of building straw-bale homes is about the same as the standard wood-frame home, but they said they have far lower utility costs.

Developers of tract homes haven't swarmed toward alternate construction materials such as straw bales. These materials for now will remain with custom homes.

Carson City so far has no homes built of alternative materials, Building Official Phil Herrington said, but the capital city could become a center for such construction. The Carson City Building Department welcomes plans calling for alternative materials and some 25 percent of homes built here are custom homes.

Herrington became a convert to alternative construction about six years ago.

"Up until I saw my first straw-bale going up, I was one of those doubters," Herrington said. "I was one of those 'everything has to be wood frame.' When you see it constructed and what they can do with these buildings, it sold me on them. They stand up just as well as stick frame, sometimes even better."