Several people have asked me how I can claim that my listing at 99 Roble Road is the only straw bale house in Oakland. Here’s how: it started with my seller telling me so. He heard this from his Berkeley-based architect Dan Smith. He, along with another local professional and straw bale expert John Swearingen, seem to know about every straw bale house built in the greater Bay Area. These two are really the go-to guys for info about straw bale and anyone thinking about building in straw bale will likely come across either Dan or John’s name as a local resource.

Lastly, I made inquiries with the City of Oakland building and planning departments. It turns out to be pretty easy to track because a special dispensation/exemption in the building code is required to build with straw bale. John Ewigleben in the building department checked the records for any other instance of this dispensation being granted and the search came up negative except for 99 Roble.

Once I was satisfied that the information was reliable, I of course started using it in my promotional material—“the first and only straw bale house in Oakland.” But during the broker’s tour, two different agents challenged me on this, stating they were absolutely sure that an Oakland property on 37^th St sold a couple of years ago with a legal, built-with-permits straw bale rental cottage in the rear. They couldn’t remember the exact date or address, but I was determined to see if this bore out. However, with a few more inquires, I was able to find the property in question. But guess what? The cottage was not made of straw bale, but of rammed earth.  While I consider a rammed earth house good company as regards utilizing a sustainable natural resource as a building material, it ain’t straw bale.

So the claim still stands: 99 Roble Road is the 1^st and currently only straw bale house in Oakland.

During the course of spending 4 hours hosting the brokers tour today, I really came to appreciate the deep rooted appeal of this house. So many of the visiting agents commented on how earthly peaceful they felt inside, despite the freeway noise that you hear outside. Several agents went as far as to say this wasn’t just a house, but a one-of-a-kind piece of art. They are right: the walls are downright sculptural. Primal even.  Maybe it awakens some ancestral memory of when people lived in caves, or stone houses which also have very thick walls.

Brett Weinstein,May 1, 2009