A straw house: It's only natural

GUEMES ISLAND, Skagit County — People often doubt Jerry Frelix when he says his home is made of straw.

But then he takes them to the west side of his house where the stucco exterior gives way to a clear plastic, framed panel that reveals the home's interior insulation: tightly packed straw bales.

"A lot of people don't believe until they see the truth window," Frelix said.

Finished in 1997, the Guemes Island home of Jerry and Constance Frelix was the first code-approved straw-bale home in Skagit County. Since then, the county has approved about a half-dozen straw homes, said county building official Tim DeVries.

The Frelixes are among a small but growing group of Americans who are opting to buck the traditional construction methods of synthetic insulation and drywall. Instead, more people are building their shelters in a more environmentally friendly way by using the natural elements and resources directly around them such as clay, straw and mud.

More people may be building homes of natural materials today, but the idea is far from new. As an example, Jack Stephens, executive director of the Eugene, Ore.-based Natural Building Network, points to the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, an adobe-constructed village that the Taos Indians built nearly 1,000 years ago and that is still being lived in.

As recently as 100 years ago, most Americans lived in homes made primarily of local materials, instead of mass-produced items from another state or country, Stephens said.

Now, as oil prices rise, concerns about global warming grow and the cost of traditional construction materials increases, homeowners are taking a second look at the old practice.

"People generally are becoming more aware of what our current building behavior is doing to the planet," Stephens said.

Moreover, Stephens said, modern home construction could affect people's health. He cited a World Health Organization report that said 30 percent of all U.S. homes contain air toxic enough to create environmental illnesses, such as asthma, allergies and sinus problems.

Another local natural-home supporter is Rick Petrick, owner of the Anacortes construction company Wood Ducks Natural Home Builders, which built the Frelix home and three others in Skagit County.

Petrick is an energetic promoter of using building blocks made of mortar and recycled Styrofoam or wood fiber, making homes of rammed earth, and estuary sewage-treatment systems (where aquatic plant roots purify used water), among many other green building practices.

"There's going to be a resurgence coming in building techniques," Petrick said.

Frelix has met many doubters, but he said they often become intrigued by the concept once they see his home.

From the outside, it looks like any other house. Smooth stucco hides the straw underneath. Perhaps the only difference is that the 20-inch-wide straw bales create wide, recessed windowsills.

And best yet, Frelix said, the straw bales maintain comfortable indoor temperatures year-round.

"This house is so cool in the summertime and warm in the winter," Frelix said. "I wouldn't go back to a conventional house."