[Cob] new to list -- hello!

[Amanda Peck]

Welcome to the list (from one of the notorious stompers on the newbies!).

If you could make a "sleeping porch" semi-outside for summer use, then a 
loft might make more sense.  I'm considering one anyway.  I don't like 
sitting around cold, but all other things being equal, I'd rather sleep 
where the air--not me--is pretty chilly.

For me a truly liberating idea is the sawdust toilet.  Need water for hand 
washing somewhere nearby, and a 5-gallon bucket with a seat on it, a supply 
of sawdust, a covered compost pile not too far away.  And if you can wait a 
year, the Humanure guy says his has always tested pathogen-free.  Some 
nearby people here use it in the orchard, not the kitchen garden, though, 
just to make sure.

Foundation will be one of your big expenses, even if you do go with the 
simplest possible foundation (rubble trench--Frank Lloyd Wright used them, 
they work, which more than one can say about his roofs), so the fewer linear 
feet you can make that, the better off you are as far as that cost goes.  On 
the other hand, solar gain in the winter may well be best engineered by a 
long narrow house.  That might be true for ventilation as well, which you 
may need at least as much.

Starting with a goat-shed is a good idea.

Roof overhang does two things. 1) it protects your cob from rain and wind. 
and 2) at least on the South side, it lets winter sun in, keeps summer sun 
out.  Well, it also gives you a place to sit under cover but outside.

So the answer is probably a resounding "it all depends."  I think modern cob 
builders are more concerned with it than the historic ones.  Oh, yes, and 
overhang tends to behave fairly badly in  serious wind--whether hurricane, 
typhoon or tornado.  So to some extent, you pays your money and takes your 
choice.  I'll go with a fair amount, I think.
......................
Diane W. wrote:

Ok, having read in the archives about over-excited newbies, I will try to 
contain my exuberance at what I am learning!  ;-)

We live in NorthEast Texas (codes?  We don't need no stinkin' codes...) on 
five acres and would like to build a home.  We currently live in a mobile 
home and small cabin.  Because of our lifestyle, we don't have lots of money 
and we don't want a 30 year mortgage to worry about.  Cob looks very 
promising!

I have designed a house that I'm sure would look expansive to most of you, 
but I think it's pretty small for a family of seven.  It's about 1000 sq ft, 
4 BR, 1.5 bath, kitchen/dining/laundry, and living room (single level).  
Actually, I could probably squeeze it down a little more by deducting a 
bedroom (our 15 yo daughter sleeps in a little cabin out back) and I'll 
probably consider doing that.   I thought about a plan that included a loft, 
but I hesitate since upstairs rooms are so blazing hot in the summertime 
here.

I'm not in any hurry to get started -- want to gather all the info I can and 
maybe attend a workshop or something.  At least we have a place to live in 
until we can build.

Idea:  How about using dry pine needles instead of straw in the cob?

The weather here doesn't get terribly cold in the winter ( maybe in the 
teens for a few nights out of three months) and I don't plan to use earth 
contact on the north side of the house (2 rooms).  Does cob conduct the cold 
that much?  Would it be better to use straw bales on that side, or some sort 
of out-sulation?

How much overhang is needed on the roof (minimum)?

I'll probably start out by building a small shed for hay/feed and goats, 
maybe next summer.

Looking forward to learning more...

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