Sawdust, Straw, Clay, and a Whole Lot of Hope

Tim McGee
Jul 10
2 min read

When we first started dreaming about building our own home out of straw and clay, plenty of people offered some variation of this cheerful warning: “It’ll take longer than you think—and cost more than you expect.”

Well... they were right.

Front of house. White lime render with cedar trim and live edge cedar siding. — First rows of live edge siding that we were able to mill ourselves from trees on the land.

But when you're this far in, there's no turning back. So we keep going—one muddy footstep at a time—doing our best to stay present and even enjoy the process when we can.

On the days when it feels like too much, we try to zoom out and remember just how far we’ve come:

We've passed over 20 inspections from the county (who knew we’d get this cozy with inspectors?) and we are nearly done.
The bones and structural elements of the house are solid and sound
We’re officially warm and dried in
And now… we’re finally at the fun part—shaping the more artistic layers of the build

There’s more, of course. But you get the idea. The short version? We’re still standing. The house is still standing. And we're learning a lot—about construction, about ourselves, and about the strange, beautiful rhythm of building a dream from the dirt up.

Some of the lessons that keep surfacing as we go:

Self-reliance is good and all—but it has a dark side. It turns out that what we really crave (especially when everything’s covered in clay and sawdust) is connection. The help of friends, the kindness of neighbors, and those small moments of shared effort are what carry us through.
Overwhelm is sneaky. If you let it, it’ll take the wheel and drive you straight into burnout. We’re learning to notice when it creeps in—and not to let it stay too long at the wheel.
There will always be another problem. Always. But we’re also learning to trust ourselves—because we keep finding solutions. One by one, we get through it.

This project continues to be a marathon (with no clear finish line in sight), but we’re building a home—yes—but also a way of life that feels like our own.