County Seat Newspaper
of Clare County
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By MEGAN BARRON
Cleaver Guest Writer
HARRISON – On Saturday, Sept. 28 Mara Kalat-Brown and her husband Benjamin “Ben” Brown opened their home to tours for community members interested in their unique home building project. The roughly 3,000 square foot home being built in Harrison is drawing attention and interest as it is distinctively being constructed utilizing straw bales. More specifically, it is a non-loadbearing straw bale house – so essentially all the weight of the building is on a post and beam structure where the straw bales are utilized as the home’s insulation. The earthen home has been a dream of theirs for years, and they are excited to bring their passion for sustainability and self-reliance to life right here in Clare County.
Mara and Ben met out west in 2017 during their time working as wildland firefighters. They immediately connected about living off the land and homesteading and have wanted to do something like this ever since.
“Through that work we learned a lot about working hard, living remotely, and living off grid,” Kalat-Brown shared. “We have worked together over the years remodeling homes and Ben has done a lot of carpentry work with my dad, who has been a carpenter of fifty years. My dad, Mike, is also an integral part of the build. He brings a lot of experience to the team and is definitely our number one cheerleader! We have never built anything like this before but it’s just the kind of wild project Ben has always known he would take on.”
They broke ground on April 29 and are building the entire home themselves. A great deal of time, research, and planning went into the schematics for their home, and they looked at a wide variety of sustainable home options throughout the process. They sought out as many resources as possible, and ultimately settled on the straw bale model for their home after visiting friends in Washington and their own straw bale home. They took time and toured a few straw bale homes they were able to find in Michigan, and graciously took time to give me a tour of their home in progress, sharing their vision and plans for its completion.
“We have been dreaming of homesteading since the day we met,” Kalat-Brown shared of their journey leading up to this incredible project. “That dream turned into dreaming of living off grid and grew into dreaming of building our own earthen home. We began homesteading in April 2022 and have been planning the build since. We considered all types of builds each with their pros and cons, but our hearts were sold on a straw bale home as it is the most energy-efficient home that we can build. We love being warm in the winter! We don’t have an exact projected completion date and are humbled by doing the work ourselves and the learning curve that building alternative brings.”
The home will be constructed of approximately 1,000 compact straw bales, which were sourced locally from Nevill Supply in Clare. The straw bales are interlocked like brick, and each bale must be trimmed to fit the cavity, as they are staggered, not just laid out in rows. It is a post and beam structure, so they still have rafters, and everything is conventional as far as the loadbearing portion of the building. The lumber was also sourced locally from Flynn Lumber and Supply Co. in Gladwin.
“So it is an 18-inch wall of insulation and it’s great because the straw is porous and it allows air circulation, and with the walls being made out of clay it makes the walls breathe so it’s a really energy efficient way of doing it,” Brown explained, noting that the R-value (the value assigned to measure thermal variation, or how energy efficient it is) is R50 in comparison to standard homes typically rated at R13 or maybe R23.
The floors will be earthen with radiant heating, which means they will be constructed out of stucco and then oiled, ultimately resembling a polished concrete floor that can be swept and mopped. The home will have large windows and the early morning sun will heat the floors, which will radiate heat throughout the day. While this is much more cost effective than concrete, it is an extremely labor-intensive process.
The house will have traditional plumbing, and electrical will be wired typically as well, with plans to generate their own power via solar. There will be two big wall batteries that will charge via the solar panels. Brown explained that if they are unable to charge them in the winter, it’s a matter of running the generator for a couple hours, and that will power a couple freezers and a fridge. Most people they have talked to said they could go about four days without sun on the two-battery system with their solar panels. The heating will be in floor heating, which is still in the works on how they are going to run that. They are looking at solar propane furnaces and outdoor boilers, and they will have their wood burning stove.
Once complete, the exterior of the home will boast a southwest adobe style aesthetic.
“Maintenance on a straw bale home is minimized, like with any kind of house, by keeping water away,” Kalat-Brown said, then laid out the intricate process.
“In our case, we went with a three-foot roof overhang and made sure that all surrounding ground is sloped away from the house. With a straw bale home, you can most likely expect to repair plaster as it thins over the years. No painting or sealing, it is imperative the walls are able to breathe, which is why we decided to go with a clay-based plaster consisting of three different coats, each varying in thickness and finish work. The first layer is clay sand and fine straw, the second layer is sifted clay and sand, and the third is a ‘fine-tuned’ plaster application to ensure our walls look nice and smooth which will need to be reapplied every five years or so. For the most part these buildings are very resilient.”
Seeing the couple bringing their dream to life is nothing short of inspiring, and that is something they hope to give back to the community as well.
“Our hope is to provide resources for people who have never heard of an alternative way of building,” she said. “Our straw is from 15 miles away, our dirt is from the land. Just different ways that we can reduce the load on mother earth is one passion. The other is, it’s way warmer. We live in a cold climate; it is significantly warmer and more efficient in the winter. So, just educating people who are interested.
“Also, we do meet a lot of people who want to live off grid or talk about building earthen homes, and if you just never see it, it’s harder to dream it,” Kalat-Brown heartfully noted.
They plan on hosting future tours and workshops, tentatively hoping to host their next event sometime in the spring. For anyone interested in connecting or learning more, please reach out to Mara Kalat-Brown at mkalat7@gmail.com.
© Clare County Cleaver
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