The Laughing House

Lloyd Kahn’s book, Tiny Homes, featured Linda Smiley’s Laughing House, located in Oregon at the Cob Cottage Company. Linda is a director of Cob Cottage Company as well as a master cobber and therapist. She teaches Sculpting Sacred Spaces, Interior Design, and Natural Plasters and Finishes.

Description

Walls are of cob and straw bales, structurally bonded (“BaleCob”). Almost all materials are either from the site — the ground under our feet — recycled, or snatched from the commercial waste stream. The foundation is “urbanite” (recycled sidewalks), most wood is unmilled roundwood, or is reused.

Floor, plasters, and paints were compounded on site from natural components — sands, clay, straw, lime and casein, with simple mineral pigments. Both inside and out, we used traditional lime-sand plasters with lime-based paints.

The exterior kitchen window is a burnished lime fresco bas relief, a landscape with sunflower and calla lilies to match the Mexican kitchen sink.

The living room floor is her own creation: clay/straw with hydraulic lime. It is very durable, yet soft and warm feeling.

  

  

 

The Cob Cottage Company shares knowledge to teach practical skills to people who want to apply Natural Building to their lives. They are the senior resource on Natural Building in North America. Each day includes demonstrations and hands-on learning on real buildings with discussions, slides and lectures. Expect long days of hard work, wholesome food, peaceful scenery, and high satisfaction. They offer a wide variety of trainings in Natural Building.

For more information and schedule of classes, visit www.cobcottage.com

Cob Cottage Company
Monday/Wednesday/Friday: 10am to 2pm
541-396-1825
cob@cobcottage.com
PO Box 942
Coquille, OR 97423