Dirt, Manure, Wattle and Daub

Well spring is close and I am getting the itch to work on our "hut" out in the country side. Unfortunately, the surveyor got sick on the day he was supposed to come look at the land - so we still don't have any final papers - but a girl can dream right?

The picture at right is NOT our cottage - but amazingly - it is also made out of mud and manure! You can find out more about this house here.

We want to redo the Hut - make it nice but also make it as traditional as possible - so I've been researching and have found that our house is most likely called a "wattle and Daub" house - as in make a wooden "wattle"- frame - and daub on that manure :-). Currently there seems to be a big building craze for Cob houses. These are also made out of dirt and manure but don't seem to have the wooden frame inside.

Interestingly, the Pacific Northwest, esp. Oregon, is full of people building these houses and holding workshops (now why didn't we know about this before we left America??) Anyway - I've been reading up on it all and looking at all the really beautiful houses and hopefully someday our little mud hut will transform into one of the funky masterpieces found at cobcottage.com