The Stucco

Ohehtase makes one final inspection before giving us the go-ahead to start the stucco on his new house.


Deirdre is the the mixer master and Bin provides some muscle.








Buckets are hauled up, stucco is sprayed on and troweled.









The scratch coat on the south wall.


George & Dale take a well-deserved break.


Will admires OUR HOUSE! We still can't believe it!


The exterior is done. WE LOVE IT!


Justin starts spraying the stucco on the inside.





Sean & Dale doing the troweling.
















Survival School students Mike & Tekatsenhoken help with the finish in the kitchen.
















Deirdre & Justin work on some final touches.

















A finished window. Love the curvy organic feel!


Ahhhh perfection!



WE ARE DONE!! Here's our amazing stucco crew - Will, Dale, George, Deirdre (with her well-deserved halo), Lynn, Wishe, Sean & Justin.


Thanks also to all the other people who helped us out during the stucco: Survival School students, Will's brother Mitchell & his better half Heather, Will's cousin Aiden Deom, & Adam Beauvais.

Window Sills from Scratch

Will works at the Kahnawake Survival School workshop to make the window sills from rough pine.





Deirdre and Will cut and sand the sills on-site.
















Lynn works day & night at her parents place to stain and seal the window sills so we can install them before the stucco.



Here's one installed. We think it looks incredible!

Straworks to the rescue!

Deirdre & Justin arrive from Ontario to help us finish prepping the walls for the stucco. We move into Lynn's parents' house while they call the Kanata house home for the next three weeks.



Deirdre & Justin sculpt perfect rounded openings.

More help from family & friends

We got so much help from family and friends to get us through the rush to finish the straw work before the cold weather. We really couldn't have done it without all of you. Thanks people!!!

Dave & Lee biked over to help us out for a day. Will & Dave stuff the south wall.



Lynn & Lee tackle the south-east corner. This is going to be one warm & cozy house!



This is a totally posed shot! Spyro, Lynn, Izzy & Andrea joke around as they stuff the east wall.



Spyro stuffs around the bathroom window. He had all the tough spots but made the walls look so straight & perfect!



Andrea & Izzy finish the south wall.















Will & Wishe install the VERY LAST BALE!!!!



Robert strikes a seductive pose.



Thomas makes bale pins while Sue holds up the wall.



Will was SO grateful for Robert & Thomas' help to secure the tarps during the intense winds that day. Lynn thought for sure someone would fly off the scaffolding, but the guys got through it with humour & cold french fries!

A little help from our friends & family

The house is coming along, and we couldn't have gotten this far without the help of some amazing friends & family during the first two Saturdays in October. On October 3rd we installed bales and on October 10th we worked on stuffing air spaces with straw and straightening the walls.

We have two weekends left to complete all the bale work, and prep for the stucco scheduled for October 26th. Anyone else available to help? Look how much fun you can be having... plus we feed you!

Izzy and Lynn are now lean mean operators of power tools!

Will's twin sister Andrea tackles the wall in the storage room.

Lynn & Izzy play in the straw.

Will & Hayward develop a system to stuff the gap on top of the wall. Hayward, Elisha and their two little girls came all the way from near Ottawa to help out. Thanks so much guys!

Izzy's wall of perfection.

The ladies of the bales (Elisha, Andrea, Izzy & Lynn)

Lynn's brother Larry, and his better half Sherri, measure bales for the master bedroom.

Larry never misses an opportunity to torment his sister.

Lynn loves him anyway!

Larry, Sherri, Will, Lynn, Lionel (Lynn's Dad), and our son after a long day's work

Izzy and George are a great team.

...so are Andrea & Tibiriu.

Wishe - that's one wicked swing! You took on a crazy project.

Thanks for sticking with it!

We're almost done with the straw bale work.

Installing the first bales - learning as we go!

We install the very first bale in the playroom!

Wishe has taken over from Adam who went back to ironwork in New York. He will be working with Will on the bale installation, stucco, drywall & plastering. Welcome aboard Wishe. We look forward to trying out your innovative ideas!

Lynn beats the bales into place so they fit snug and straight. Grandma is watching the kids so we can have more hands on-site during this important process. Thanks Mom!!

Will made a "bale needle" out of wire and threads twine through the bales to create smaller ones needed for certain areas. It's a long process but we're starting to get a system going and hope to get more efficient as we learn.

Survival School students stop by for a tour and help out for a while.

Nia:wen Arenhoktha!

Here's the playroom with the walls almost complete. There's a 5-6 inch gap on the top of each bay because the farmer's bales are not exactly the same width as we had hoped. We need to find some wheat, oat or barley straw bales so we can fill those gaps. They hold together better than switch grass. Anyone know where we can get some dry bales?

Pretty amazing huh?! Well, we think it looks cool... but we still have a long way to go!

We're planning a baling-bee next Saturday October 3rd. Anyone want to come help?