Green building is practical and rewarding
By Michaela Kennedy

Bob and Wendy Crooks relax inside their straw-insulated home. The Crooks have set a benchmark for green home living with their modern design. Photo by Michaela Kennedy

Bob and Wendy Crooks from Hull Street have succeeded in showing that proper building design can eliminate the need for heating and cooling in the home. Their new addition, insulated with straw bales, has proven to them and others that "green building" is practical and surprisingly economical.

"It is straw that we used, not hay," Wendy corrects when she hears the term misused. "Hay is an animal food. Straw is hollow. No one eats it." Bob holds out a piece of straw, a natural insulating material, for display. No leftover artificial material to dispose of, either. "Straw is best. You can mulch the land with it," Wendy adds.

As the couple offers a tour of the eco-friendly addition, they point out the charm of the Tuscan finish plastered walls and the deep window sills. The straw bales add thickness to the walls, with another inch and a half to two inches of plaster on top of the insulation. A circle cut in one wall shows off the straw within. "It's a truth window, common in all straw-bale houses," Wendy explains.

A common question asked of the couple is whether they fear the bales will attract insects or mice. With no nutritive value in the straw and no entry point through sealed plaster, the house is clean of critters, Bob notes.

Bamboo floors and a cork kitchen floor add comfort and warmth to the homey atmosphere at the Crooks' house. A wood stove with baseboard hot water backup is the only heating they use. Between the savings in construction costs, as well as the fuel efficient technology, Bob and Wendy are happy to report theirs is an energy-compliant house that fits a limited budget.

Wendy and Bob show the original one-room cottage that stood on the lot before the straw bales arrived. "It was great when I first moved here in 1999," Bob recalls when he started work at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. In the last 10 years, Bob married Wendy, an artist, and more living space was needed.

Bob also recalls visiting a friend who built a home many years ago and introduced him to super insulation. A super-insulated house is intended to be heated mainly by intrinsic heat, according to standard definitions in the building industry. Waste heat generated by appliances and the body heat of the occupants are retained, without using passive solar building design techniques or large amounts of thermal mass, and with very small amounts of backup heat. "We did 18 months worth of research before even starting," the couple agrees.

The Crooks say their home is still a work in progress. A back closet reveals their test area where they have tried out colors on the wall. They create desired wall colors by mixing a lime wash with pigments, continuing the theme of using natural materials. Bob stresses that no typical paint should be used. "The only thing you can't do is seal them," Bob says. "The walls need to breathe."

Regular paint contains chemicals that would seal off the wall, cutting off the ability for moisture to escape. "People worry about the straw going moldy," Bob notes. "There's no need to worry if air moves through."

Wendy leads the way into an upstairs guest room used for meditation. "We call this the tree room," she says, pointing to a bay window that captures a view under the umbrella of a sprawling maple tree. The couple smile when they look at the thick plastered window sill, handcrafted by Wendy. She jumped in to experience every step of the project, from packing bales to molding walls. "I wanted to try everything," she laughs. "It was a lot of fun."

Wendy recalls a workman one day who came though the main room and sat down. He looked around and said how nice the room was. "But I kept waiting for him to get up and leave," Wendy laughs. Visitors agree with the couple that something about living green feels good.

The straw bale house has drawn such attention in the state that the Rhode Island Foundation asked the Crooks to speak on a panel about their construction. For more information about green living and their straw bale home, Wendy and Bob invite anyone interested to give them a call at 423-0993.