BUILDING a house can mean many different things to different people.
For some it is about putting four walls and a roof over their heads as quickly as possible and for others it is about fitting into a budget.
For Katanning couple Ella Maesepp and David Potter, it was about setting themselves a challenge of creating a family home that would have as little impact on the environment as possible.
An environmental scientist working with Katanning Landcare, Ella saw it as an opportunity to practice what she preached, while for cattle, sheep and grain farmer David, the motivation was being able to actually grow and build his own home.
Undertaking a project worthy of an episode of television program Grand Designs, in 2011 they set about building their own off-the-grid solar passive straw bale house on their 2000 hectare property just out of the Great Southern town, 300 kilometres south-east of Perth.
Over an 18-month period, the couple worked to turn their dreams, with the help of architect Ken Wibberly of Solar Dwellings, into a reality.
They chose a non-weight bearing straw bale structure, which meant a gazebo-style timber framework and roof structure was built on top of a concrete pad, before the walls were filled in with around 600 ‘bricks’ of baled barley straw.
Barley straw was the variety of choice as it was more pliable and less brittle than using wheat straw, and was baled by David and his uncle following the 2009 harvest.
The external walls were then rendered with a lime-cement render, while internally the walls were clad in sheets of engineered compressed plywood rather than standard plaster sheeting.
While some may question the use of straw for construction in an environment at risk of bushfires, Ella said the material was more fire safe than double brick because of the high density and low oxygen nature of the bales.
When it came to fitting out the house with things like doors and windows, they were able to very cleverly source mostly recycled items, whether they were from the original 1904 farm homestead, salvage yards and building site leftovers – always with permission.
The location of the home played a big part in its orientation – being in the southern hemisphere, the sun tracks across the northern sky so the house was therefore built to take maximum advantage of that.
The house is long and skinny, only two rooms deep in most cases, and runs east to west, so the long side of the house is exposed to the north and the narrow ends face east and west.
Big windows on the northern side allow warming sunlight into those rooms including the kitchen/dining room, games room and main bedrooms during winter, but eaves prevent any direct sunlight entering the house in summer while still letting in plenty of natural light.
A major design element of the home are the thermal mass walls that help to stabilise the temperatures within the house and keep it cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
Two such walls made out of laterite stone, sourced from the farm, were incorporated into the building, running north to south.
Also helping to control the temperature within the home is the cooling tower, a small upstairs room with windows on all four sides which can be opened to let hot air rise and flow out in summer, cooling the house without the use of airconditioners, fans or electricity.
Power is still required by the family to run their standard appliances, including their fridge and freezer, computer, television and lights, all of which is generated by a combination of solar and wind.
Ella said had they wanted to connect to the grid from the location of their home it would have been extremely expensive.
They chose to invest in solar panels and had 50 per cent of the system covered under the Remote Area Power Supply scheme rebate.
Along with eighteen 175W solar panels on the north-facing roof, last year they added a 1kW wind turbine to provide additional electricity in winter to ensure enough power was generated to charge their recently acquired hybrid electric car.
They are also off-grid when it comes to water, with two big rainwater tanks plumbed to receive rainwater from the roofs of the house and shed, which is then pumped into the house by a standard electric pressure pump.
Ella said living in an environment where the average rainfall was 400 millimetres, there was plenty of rain for the house and garden.
Since then, the occupant numbers of the house have doubled, with Ella and David welcoming two children – sons Zavier and Quade.
Reflecting on the past few years, Ella said she was really happy with the resulting home, with only minor things she would change if she had her time over again.
“It was definitely a challenging thing to do, but with great challenges come great rewards,” she said.
While things are running pretty smoothly with the house, the family has recently been working to reduce its household waste and further reduce its impact on the environment.
Ella said it had been surprisingly easy to do this by making changes, including buying items in large quantities; using their own reusable containers when purchasing items such as at a butcher or deli counter, and using reusable green shopping bags; and eating less processed and packaged food and more fresh produce, and in turn putting food scraps in a worm farm or compost.
She will conduct a Low Waste Shopping Tour at Katanning Woolworths on October 7, where in a one hour walk-and-talk event, she plans to show people how they can cut the amount of waste they take into their home when shopping at a mainstream supermarket.
Ella also recently launched a 10 Week Bin Transformation project that was built in collaboration with Katanning Landcare, aimed at helping participants from all over Australia reduce their household rubbish output through weekly themed emails, a dedicated Facebook group and personal mentoring.
Ella has a comprehensive website which she updates regularly, and where she documented the step-by-step building process of her amazing family home.
As well as speaking regularly at the forums and other events around the Great Southern to share her personal experiences, she has very generously held Sustainable House Tours of her family home – all in the name of spreading her message as widely as possible – how to live lighter without compromising quality of life.
