Almost a hobbit hole

[watervole]

I've been playing with Stumble Upon (it's good distraction when you're not feeling too brilliant) and today, it gave me this page -   I think Bilbo would have felt right at home here.

It looks terribly pretty, though I do wonder (in spite of the straw bale walls) how warm it would be in winter.

Comments

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

It's almost certainly more efficient to heat than a standard new build. Just digging it into the ground gives them an advantage over an exposed surface dwelling, because the mass of the earth acts as a massive heatsink that slowly soaks up heat in the summer months and lets it out again over the winter. Add in the thick straw insulation all around and the compact open-plan layout built around a heavy stone woodburning stove designed to capture as much of the exhaust heat as possible, and it should take very little fuel to keep it warm.

I'd love to build and live in a house like this one day... Finding a suitable plot and getting planning permission for it is the difficult part.

[robthefish.livejournal.com]

The Lammas project have been working with Pembrokeshire county council on a low-impact planning policy (http://www.lammas.org.uk/lowimpact/index.htm#campaign). Lammas hope that this will allow the building of their own proposed development (http://www.lammas.org.uk/ecovillage/proposal.htm) and aid future planning applications for all.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. I want a house like that. A lot.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I looked for but couldn't find a single reference to the year that house was built. Why are people addicted to cutting information adrift from time like that? I can understand hoax spammers and chain letter writers doing it, because it fools the marks into thinking the information is current, but these writers don't appear to want to deceive anyone, it just didn't seem to occur to them to say "we built this in 2003" or whatever.

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

Near the end of http://www.simondale.net/house/family.htm : "So in December 2005, sixteen weeks on, we moved in without doors but with a huge sense of satisfaction."

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem to match

Since when do you live in an organic house?

3 1/2 years ago

(http://www.simondale.net/house/intview.htm)though, which is where I got the 2003 estimate from. Perhaps they mean living in a previous house.

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

Elsewhere he mentions building a similar house a couple of years earlier.

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

He said his only previous experience was building another such house two years earlier. Perhaps he was referring to that?

[emmzzi.livejournal.com]

I love it. Not sure if it's a 'forever' or a 'holiday' home though. Distinct lack of the Sci-fi channel...

dupuytren's

[(Anonymous)]

Hi - reminds me of something on Grand Designs...

My name is Richard and i have just returned from germany for my second of two, five day radiation sessions for Dupuytren's. I am based in Scotland but have family down south. I am very interested that you managed to receive treatment in the UK at Poole! Well done. I got a blank from all I talked to in the NHS, and even told by the specialist that he had never heard of it in a way that implied I was a bit crazy! Did you have to pay private fees or was it covered by the NHS? Germany costs approx £500 plus flights, accommodation and inconvenience......

Drop me a line if you can at richhill71@hotmail.com to tell me more. I don't know much about blogging so if there is an easier way, go for it!
All the best
Richard

[(Anonymous)]

So very pretty. I couldn't see any evidence of indoor plumbing, and I would love to know why they are already planning to move on. Like, is it already rotting or what? Plus it's always annoying when people claim to be saving the environment through subsistence farming, while we boring old tax-payers pay for health services, care for the disabled, pensions and income support, etc. Whereas if you just regard it as a lifestyle you would choose for fun, Boy Scout style, then yeah, why not?

[artw.livejournal.com]

So very pretty. I couldn't see any evidence of indoor plumbing, and I would love to know why they are already planning to move on. Like, is it already rotting or what? Plus it's always annoying when people claim to be saving the environment through subsistence farming, while we boring old tax-payers pay for health services, care for the disabled, pensions and income support, etc. Whereas if you just regard it as a lifestyle you would choose for fun, Boy Scout style, then yeah, why not?