Paudash Lake House
I returned last night from four days working with the gang from Camel’s Back on a house on Paudash Lake, just south of Bancroft. In addition to Pete and Tina, Stephen, Lesley, Ryan and new guy Paul were also out. It’s a neat house, most of the wood was cut from the property, and it’s built with hemp bales. It’s first time that I’ve worked on a house built with hemp bales. They’re a pain in the ass. The hemp doesn’t rip, it’s bleeding hard to pierce them and they dull any blade. I think I’ll stick with regular straw for my next project.
There’s a neat/strange story behind the house though. The house was designed to fit on a pre-existing foundation. Imagine that you own some land. An acreage even, and one day you head out for a walk on that land and find the very definate beginnings of a house being built, on your property. That is what happened to the people Regis bought her land from. It seems that several brothers owned the land next door, and one of them decided to build himself a house. So he put in a foundation, a well, and a septic system. Apparently the brother didn’t have an accurate survey (or perhaps any survey at all). When this geographical faux-pas was brought to his attention his reaction was ... litigation - even after the actual owners offered to sell him the land at a very good price, even though he had already sunk so much money and effort into the property. He lost and Regis bought a piece of land with a foundation, a well, and a septic system. It’s a very nice piece of land with towering spruce trees and a view of the land to the east. The house will be off-grid, but I didn’t manage to get the details of the system.
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- September, 19, 2004