THE HOUSE THAT HEMP BUILT

Scarcity Of Straw Bales Leads Saltspring Couple To Use Tough Cannabis
Fibres To Fill Their Walls

Drew and Jaime Rokeby-Thomas had the property, builder, designer and
finances lined up for construction of their straw-bale home on
Saltspring Island.

They had everything they needed -- except straw.

Construction on the 1,760-square-foot house was to start in 2003, the
same year Alberta's drought made headlines across the country. The
couple found that Alberta farmers, unable to grow their own bedding
for their livestock, had gone shopping in B.C. That meant regular
straw-bale sources were sold out.

"We started calling family and friends in the Kootenays," says Drew,
an inventor, "looking everywhere and anywhere for straw."

They never found it, but they did find a rancher with 2,000 hemp bales
- -- and snapped them up.

Building an alternative-style house can be a large-scale experiment.
Each house built of alternative materials, such as earth and straw,
needs to be certified by an engineer to pass building inspection. The
last-minute switch made by the Rokeby-Thomases threw new variables
into their plans.

"Hemp was much harder to build with," says Drew. The difficulty was
due to hemp's tougher fibre, making it harder to cut the bales. "I
would never do a hemp house again."

But that minus has been compensated for by a big plus. While
straw-bale homes can sometimes run into trouble with moisture when not
properly designed, the in-wall moisture reader on the Rokeby-Thomas
house showed the hemp dropped its moisture content faster than
straw-bale homes.

Everest Reynolds of Elevation Design Studio provided the basic house
design. Builder Nick Langford, a building technology and design
graduate from B.C. Institute of Technology, worked with the couple to
fashion the two-level low-energy home.

Timber-frame construction bears the load of the house, while the hemp
bale walls on the main floor provide an insulating value of R30. Large
windows run along the south side of the house, helping it to gain
solar heat throughout the day.

The house is well-sealed, not only against the climate, but also
against sound. Jaime is a professional musician whose stage name is
jaime rt. Her music studio occupies the north side of the house.
There, the walls were built with double-offset studs and gasketed
doors so that Jaime's creative output wouldn't resonate through the
house and neighbourhood.

The exterior stucco is a porous mixture of sand, cement and lime --
porosity is a traditional element of natural homes, which are said to
"breathe," but here Drew drew the proverbial line in the sand, or, in
this case, in the stucco.

"Vapour barriers are controversial in natural-building circles,"
explains Drew. "But after some research, I decided I wanted a vapour
barrier. We're living in a fairly wet climate."

The interior stucco was mixed with an acrylic filler that seals the
interior wall. As added protection against the elements, the house
features three-foot-deep eaves and a large covered porch.

Jaime and Drew favour the rustic look, so they eliminated the
finishing polish on their acid-etched cement floors to preserve an
uneven texture that resembles the circular marks of old milled wood.

The kitchen cabinetry is simple, with open cupboards in a batten-board
style. Open, pull-out shelves accommodate woven baskets instead of
closed-in drawers.

Local art adorns the home, including some of Drew's wrought-iron work
from his blacksmithing days. A botanical weave of iron twists up the
staircase, depicting flower petals and seaweed in the same frame.

"I don't pay much attention to the rules when I'm creating something,"
Drew says of the seabed and garden mix. "I just decide on the form as
I go."

The artistry extends outside, with garden borders fashioned from bent
rebar. A spring-fed pond, rose vines and iris gardens surround the
house.

A bohemian atmosphere pervades the home in stained-glass frames, felt
tapestries and vivid wall colourings in contrasting purple and yellow
tones, chosen by Jaime.

"A lot of people are tired by the time they're finished building a
home, and they end up with beige or white walls," says Drew. "I told
Jaime to go wild, be daring."

Looking at the brilliant walls in his wife's studio, Drew laughs and
says, "Perhaps I shouldn't have said that."