Vermont Cob Home

by Carla Royal on January 27, 2010

IMG 5132 Vermont Cob HomeThis is where my little family and I lived for six months in the winter of 2008-2009.  The home is located in central Vermont, smack dab in the middle of the woods in the Green Mountains.  Buttercup is doing a fine job of guarding our home!

IMG 5095 300x193 Vermont Cob HomeLiving in this little home was one of the highlights of my life.  Off-grid and powered by solar, 700 square feet of living space, a loft, plus a 200  square foot studio, and wildlife all around, offered us a rich experience!  I will never forget it, and I feel deeply grateful to have had such a unique experience.  The cob home is truly a piece of art; inside and out.  And the woods surrounding the home are magical!  I wish you could have spent a few hours with me there.  This was the most peaceful place I’ve every lived, and it gave me a good, solid beginning for my meditation practice.

IMG 5559 150x150 Vermont Cob HomeIf you had spent a day with me, you would have likely seen a flock of turkey strut through the yard.  This fellow you see to the right was constantly strutting his stuff trying to attract the females.  For the most part, they would ignore him.  It was a hoot to watch him work so hard just to be spurned by the hens.  But on occasion, he’d get lucky, which did nothing to stop his posturing afterward.  He would eat a bit then fan out and strut a bit, then eat a bit, then fan out and strut a bit.  It was always quite the show.  And all this only a few feet from the house.  Turkey symbolize Blessing, and we do feel blessed.

CobAutumn 300x212 Vermont Cob HomeDo you know about cob homes?  It would be worth your time to do a google or bing search.  Insert the words “cob house” and you’ll be surprised by the information and images you’ll easily find.  Simply put, cob is made from mud and straw.  It uses sustainable building materials that can be formed into most any IMG 5100 300x200 Vermont Cob Homeartistic design, and they are remarkably well insulated, and mouse proof!  Evans, Smith, and Smiley put it this way, “A cob cottage is the ultimate expression of ecological design. Made of the oldest, most available materials imaginable, cob houses are not only compatible with their surroundings, they are their surroundings.”

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Tagged as: Birds, central vermont, cob cottage, Landscape, Meditation, meditation practice, practice

  • Jeff

    I love cob houses, but I’m not able to build one. I’m doing the next best thing – building out of a material called AuzBloc. But I’m very interested in looking at this house in more detail – can you supply more pictures? My house is going to be round, yurt-like – I love the unmilled logs next to the front door of this house!!

  • Jennifer

    I loved this piece. I too would love to build with cob… it is my dream to build my own home like the one you have pictured. I have done one workshop on Hornby Island and hope to connect with the community again. Beautiful image~ Vivienne Grace sent me the link. Thank you, Jennifer

  • Carla

    Thanks, Vivienne. It was such a wonderful experience living there. I hope your dream comes true and that you build your home one day!

  • Karen

    Hi Carla,

    I have been learning about cob building and one expert told me I couldn’t build one in the north because the nights are too cold and there is negative heat gain.

    Did you experience that? (love your blog)

  • http://www.small-scale.net/yearofmud ziggy

    How thick are the walls of your home? I’m located in northern MO, and going through the first winter in my cob house, but it’s been a challenge to keep it warm. (Problems with the rocket stove haven’t helped much, granted, but even with a decent wood stove I fear it will still be difficult to keep at a reasonable temperature.)

    If you can speak to the average indoor/outdoor winter temperatures, it would be great to read.

  • Carla

    Hi Ziggy,

    I don’t know how thick the walls are. I rented the home for 6 months in Vermont during the winter of 2008-2009. We had 115 inches of snow that year and lots of single digit days. We were almost always hot if we were running the wood stove and often cracked a window during the night.

    Sorry I can’t be of more help.

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  • Jennifer Piwnicki

    My husband and I are looking to relocate and build our cob home. Can you tell me what town this cob is near? Thanks so much!

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