Hello, want to say I apologize if this was covered elsewhere but I am in need of some help.
My family and I are in the process of starting our homestead in central Washington and will be moving and building starting in June this year. We plan on building a straw bale home and the county says ALL new buildings have to be stamped by an engineer. I seem to be having a hard time finding a licensed engineer in Washington state. I am hoping perhaps someone here will no one or is one.
We are on a pretty tight budget and hoping to build most of the house with $20,000. The house is going to be amazing when completed. It is a non-load bearing straw bale infill on a pole barn frame. We plan on incorporating passive solar design, earthen floors, earthen cooling tubes, rocket mass heater, solar water heater, gravity fed water, composting toilet and grey water system (I guess that system needs an engineer as well) and eventually a greenhouse along the southern side of the house for additional heating. The property is off-grid, several miles from electricity in a rural area. It is a lovely spot that will provide us with many challenges when it comes to growing food and raising animals.
