Where Are They Now? See What's New With Homes From Past Issues of Natural Home
Natural Home returns to past homes to ask natural homeowners what they’d change and if they’d build the same way again.
May/June 2003
By Carol Venolia
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Joy and George Matthews were intimately involved in creating and building their home in Charlottesville, Virginia. This window faces southeast, permits the entrance of cheery morning light, and is indicative of the importance of light and passive solar gain in this home.
Photos By Philip Beaurline
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Ever wonder what happens to the houses featured in Natural Home after the writers close their notebooks and the photographers pack up their gear? Are the dwellers still smiling? Did the earthen houses dissolve in the rain? What’s working—and what’s not? We’ve wondered, too. So to celebrate our fourth year of publishing Natural Home, we picked several homes from past issues and contacted the owners.
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Snug in the straw
Joy and George Matthews are still smiling in the Charlottesville, Virginia, straw bale home they built in 1999 (“Shelter and Serenity,” March/April 2001). “It’s peaceful, quiet,” says Joy. The ambient temperature is always pleasant. It’s a gentle house to live in.”
“The massive walls make me feel protected,” adds George.
In Charlottesville’s cold, snowy winters, the straw bale walls, well-insulated roof, and solar-assisted, hydronic radiant floor heat keep this home snug and warm. “There’s nothing more delightful than getting up in the morning when it’s ten degrees outside and putting your feet down on a warm tile floor,” says Joy. “Part of that’s the radiant heat, and part of it’s the lack of drafts.” In previous homes, forced air gave Joy sinus problems and wood heat triggered George’s asthma; neither has any unpleasant reactions to this heating system.
In the hot, muggy summers Joy and George can sometimes keep the house cool all day by opening it up at night and closing it in the morning. But on nights when the temperature and humidity stay unbearably high, they turn on the air conditioner—less often than their neighbors do, however.
Joy and George took great care to keep moisture from the bale walls while they were building, and they haven’t seen signs of trouble. In fact, the only change they’ve made was to fine-tune the controls on the solar water-heating system.
Joy is pleased at the wider impact their home has had. “Our house was on a sustainable home tour, and the Natural Home article brought people from all over the country. It’s really nice to share it with people; builders and ordinary people need to know it can be done.”
At peace with the earth
Jan Johnson loves her poured-earth house in Prescott, Arizona (“Cast and Character,” May/June 2001). “I’d build another one in a flash,” she says. “These thick walls feel safe and secure. The house looks beautiful, and it’s wonderfully quiet. Because it’s passive solar and has thick earthen walls, the temperature stays even. You never feel a draft.”
Since she moved four years ago, Jan has improved the house’s natural cooling abilities. Her bedroom overheated in summer because of a west-facing patio door, a south-facing Trombe wall (for passive solar gain), and the absence of operable windows. She installed a retractable awning on the west side and a transom over her front door for night ventilation. She plans to replace the upper fixed glass on the Trombe wall with operable windows to let in cooling night breezes.
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