We worked hard in the fall of 2004 getting ready for Mary Lou's family who were coming for the Christmas holidays. We spent our first night in the house on Dec 22. The last bit of work was completed by 10pm Christmas eve. Our family started arriving at 11pm -- just after we finished and just before Santa came down the chimney. We had 16 guests for dinner on the 25th in our new home -- we were happy, proud and exhausted!

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1 Our home from the outside. There is still lots of work to do!	2 The front door. That curve was a challenge to build.	3 The door from the inside. Soon we will install the window in the door.	4 Here you can see the arched ceiling in our vestibule (the vestibule still needs some finishing work). Also, on the left will be our truth window -- every straw home needs one!	5 Another shot of the curved ceiling as you enter the main living part of the home. On the left you can see our GFX waste water heat exchanger (spiral copper pipes).
6 In the vestibule is a cold box. This is my experiment to see if we could save some refrigeration energy during the winter months. Right now we have no door on it which makes for a cold vestibule!	7 As you enter the main part of our home you see the masonry heater. This is the backside of the heater. The stone bench is heated by the flue gases from the fire -- perfect for 'hot cross buns'! To the left is upstairs and to the right is the kitchen.	8 Here is our kitchen island. Our kitchen is temporarily built out of plywood. Sometime this year I will make something more permanent.	9 This is the view from the kitchen towards our eating alcove.	10 Another shot of the kitchen. The strawbale walls make for some sexy curves.
11 Our eating alcove/nook. Eventually we will build a built-in wrap-around bench.	12 Past the dining alcove is our living room.	13 Here is the front of the masonry heater. The heater has a bake oven and also a water loop for heating our wash water. The bake oven has been lots of fun -- we are using it a lot.	14 The stairs I built using reclaimed birch from the Ottawa river.	15 Some of the challenging parts of the stairs. As you can see I still need to grout around the bottom step!
16 Here are curved ends on the steps.	17 At the top of the stairs you can see our maple tree which spans both floors. The tree holds up part of the second floor. The railing is temporary -- yet another TODO item!	18 The hallway upstairs. We wanted to make it look like the house was built around the tree.	19 This is Mary Lou's office.	20 Our master bedroom. You can also see the quilt Mary Lou made. It was completed just before we moved into the house.
21 Our bathroom.	22 The tub surround. I did the workwork and a local artist and friend, Andie Haltrich, did the mosiac. The mosiac is made from tiles and also from broken pottery we have collected over the years from our potter friends Maureen Marcotte and David McKenzie.	23 Another shot of the tub surround.	24 My office. It has a jungle feel to it! And it is also messy (as usual).