I am looking at building a house in the next year, and would like, as much as possible to use natural products and construction. It seems to me that timber frame and straw bale construction are a perfect match. However, I can't find any adequate references on the web. Has anyone out there combined these two styles successfully? Would you like to share your comments on the building process?

I haven't found any "authoritatuve" resources on the web, but I can recommend "The Straw Bale House" by Bill Steen and David Bainbridge. It is a comprehensive reference with history, design considerations, case studies, etc. Another book that I have perused at the bookstore but unsure of the exact title and author is "Build it with Bales".

Have you found Out on Bale on the Web? http://www2.strawhomes.com/tls/

Good luck - if you find any other useful references, email them to me.

The Last Straw is a quarterly journal that is full of stuff about what you're looking for, according to a report in Joiners' Quarterly. Here are a couple of sites to visit and I'll find somemore. www.strawhomes.com www.networkearth.org Also to get books Chelsea Green Publishing at 800-639-4099, I don't have their web page address right now, but I believe they have one. Good luck and more to follow.

Build it with Bales is pretty much the definitive guide for the owner builder for SB construction. i am building a SB/TF house as well. Another excellent resource is to attend a Bale Raising seminar to see first hand all the latest techniques. Please let me know how things are going with your project.