Strawbale Tiny Home Build — A Long Overdue Update

Hi everyone — I’ve posted here before but then went very quiet once the reality of building, parenting, and off-grid life fully kicked in.

Just over three years ago, we completed a strawbale building course at the Brighton Earthship, which really cemented our desire to build with natural materials. Not long after, we made a big leap — moving from the UK to rural Bulgaria to live off grid and build a life that felt more intentional and values-led.

We’ve been documenting our strawbale tiny home build on YouTube, which has become our main way of tracking progress and sharing the reality — the good days, the messy days, and the “what have we taken on?” days.

Although there are a handful of strawbale builds in Bulgaria, it’s still a fairly new concept locally. Many of our neighbours are curious, supportive, baffled, and occasionally convinced we’re completely mad. There’s been a lot of interest from locals — but also a fair amount of explaining, translating, and gently defending our choices.

One ongoing challenge has been sourcing materials. Availability here can be unpredictable, certain natural or specialist materials are harder to find, and we’ve had to adapt plans based on what’s realistically accessible. Another big factor has been financing the build in stages — moving forward bit by bit as funds allow, rather than powering through in one continuous push. It’s made the timeline slower, but it’s also forced us to be resourceful, patient, and thoughtful.

We’re now just about to start the roof build, which feels like a huge milestone. Getting the structure dried-in is the next major psychological and practical step.

One area we’re still unsure about is our gable end. We’re hoping to create a strawbale infill gable, but we’re not fully confident we can pull it off well — structurally or practically — given our skills, time, and constraints. If anyone here has experience with strawbale gable infill, detailing, or lessons learned, we’d genuinely appreciate hearing your thoughts before we commit.

This build hasn’t been fast or perfect. It’s been hands-on, experimental, sometimes exhausting, and deeply rewarding. Building a natural home while raising a family and establishing an off-grid life has stretched us in ways we didn’t fully anticipate — but it’s also given us confidence, resilience, and a deep respect for this way of building.

If it’s useful, I’m happy to share more detail — technical choices, costs, timelines, mistakes, or what we’d do differently next time. For now, this is mostly a long-overdue hello, and a thank-you to this community for being a steady source of knowledge and reassurance.

Kayleigh
Off Grid With The Udens

Interesting project, I am pleased to see you having a go.
- Is the roof structure in place yet?
- Have you any books on the subject?
- looking ahead, will you collect rainfall for consumption? look at my signature
- will you be insulating the roof?
- Will you use wool or a modern insulation?
- what is the floor made from?

John C Daley wrote:Interesting project, I am pleased to see you having a go.
- Is the roof structure in place yet?
- Have you any books on the subject?
- looking ahead, will you collect rainfall for consumption? look at my signature
- will you be insulating the roof?
- Will you use wool or a modern insulation?
- what is the floor made from?

- Is the roof structure in place yet? Not yet. This is the next step.
- Have you any books on the subject? Yes. We've read a few but found Barbara Jones book particularly helpful and easy to read.
- looking ahead, will you collect rainfall for consumption? look at my signature. (There was no signature on your post to look at). Yes, we will collect as much rainfall as we can as we live off grid.
- will you be insulating the roof? Absolutely. We just need to get the finances together to afford the insulation.
- Will you use wool or a modern insulation? We will probably go for modern insulation.
- what is the floor made from?

https://permies.com/t/88043/benefits-rainfall-collection
The most important thing is to have a large 20,000L water tank, not a heap of 200L tanks.

Good to see all your progress,it looks sturdy and practical.  Will the walls be load bearing, or more of the in-fill method?

Rico Loma wrote:Good to see all your progress,it looks sturdy and practical.  Will the walls be load bearing, or more of the in-fill method?

The walls are all load bearing. The corner supports you can see here will be removed soon, they are just there to help us position the bales correctly. ❤️