A Jamestown couple chose straw, not wood or brick, when they set out to build an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly house.

Though bales of dried grain stalks are the major building blocks for the hilltop house on the west side of Conanicut Island, it will be able to withstand big winds and other bad weather that sweeps across Narragansett Bay each season.

The walls are 14 inches thick, more like an Irish cottage or California hacienda, not a Polynesian hut.

It's an unusual project for New England. The foundation was poured last fall and construction began this spring. When completed later this year, it is likely to be the first "strawbale" house built in Rhode Island, at least in modern times, according to the homeowners.

"This is something that everyone can do. It's not that wacky," Wendy Crooks said.

Crooks, 51, and her husband, Bob Crooks, 56, wanted to build a "super-insulated house," using natural materials and processes. They began their research shortly after their marriage in 2002. They were living in a very small house, on a small lot on Hull Street, off Helm Street in Jamestown. Bob Crooks bought it in 1999. The roughly 800-square-foot Cape-style house has one large first-floor room and a loft bedroom.

Using straw bales encased in more than an inch of plaster as a building material is not a foreign concept to Wendy Crooks, who is a native of England. Straw, the waste byproduct when grain, such as wheat, is separated from its chaff, is hypoallergenic, unlike hay, which is dried grass. When compacted, it is dense, providing a strong barrier against heat and cold. There is little air to aid combustion. When sealed in plaster, it is fire resistant, Crooks said.

Wendy, an artist, and Bob, who works at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, weren't just interested in saving energy and the environment, but "wanted a house that would fit in with the rest of the neighborhood," she said. S. Barzin and Associates, a Jamestown design firm, helped them create a two-story, post-and-beam contemporary, with Asian influences. It has long, low roofs covering first-floor porches. There are three upstairs bedrooms. Downstairs there is a kitchen and living and dining spaces. There is one full and one half-bath.

Technically, the structure is a 1,500-square-foot addition because it will be attached to the existing house that will become a studio for Wendy Crooks, who is an oil painter specializing in portraiture.

The exterior of the new space will be stucco and capped by a metal roof. Like the old house, it will face north. The south-facing back of the house has large windows, a deck and a small balcony off the master bedroom.

The Crooks incorporated several features that they expect will cut their utilities costs significantly, perhaps as much as 70 percent over time, and minimize impact on the environment. "We feel that as we get older, we should leave less of a footprint on the earth," Wendy Crooks said.

Strawbale insulation properties are rated at the R30 level, versus standard R19 materials such as fiberglass. Other cavities will be filled by a blown-in soy-based product. The window insulation is made from recycled denim. The windows are wood on the inside, with PVC exterior frames. The strawbales are first sprayed with a clay plaster, then receive a coat of natural lime plaster, laid by hand.

The tiles of the first-floor sunroom are part of a passive solar heating system, absorbing heat in winter when the sun sits lower in the sky. The porches will keep the sun out in summer and protect the exterior from harsh elements throughout the year, said Crooks. Solar panels on the back roof of the existing house will heat hot water and generate some electricity for the house. Propane will fuel the kitchen stove.

A central wood-burning stove with vents to all rooms will be the main heating system, with a first-floor baseboard system for backup. It is tied to the existing oil furnace in the basement of the old house. The Crooks' land has a high water table, so the new building had to be built on a slab.

Cisterns have been built in the basement to capture rain water off the metal roof. They will supplement the existing supply of well water and lessen impact on the new septic system. The cisterns will close automatically when full. Energy efficient appliances will also be installed throughout the house.

The costs for producing such a structure are in line with those of building a conventional three-bedroom house, Wendy Crooks said. They expect to spend about $350,000 by the time the house is finished, she said.

Most of the building materials were available locally or in the Northeast. However, the contractor and most of the subcontractors have never worked on strawbale construction, she said.

Ray Construction, of Jamestown, owned by brothers Stephen and William Ray, is the general contractor. The company took on the project partly because, "I love the challenge of doing something unique," Steve Ray said.

When the Crooks contacted him, "the first thing I did was read a book on it [strawbale construction], then talked to people who knew how to do it," he said. The placement and plastering of more than 200 bales of straw was actually done by a subcontractor, Andy Mueller, of the Arete Collaborative in Charlemont, Mass. The Crooks found him through the Greenspace Collaborative, based in Ashfield, Mass.

Ray said the rest of the construction is pretty straight-forward, with a few exceptions. While all the plumbing work is routine because it's within interior walls, the traditional process of attaching electrical materials to wall studs cannot be used in some places to wire a strawbale house. Instead, small notches are cut into the bales where needed. Electrical components are affixed to one end of long wooden sticks. The sticks are inserted straight into the notches, like giant toothpicks. The sticks hold fast in the straw, expecially once the interior plaster has been applied, Ray said.

While this is the first strawbale project he has ever scrutinized, Frederick Brown, Jamestown's building inspector, said he was familiar with the method. There are national building standards already in place for its use. The town's building code also requires that new buildings be able to withstand hurricanes and other substantial storms. Strawbale construction can accommodate precautions such as roof ties extending into foundations and additional supports. Because of the stringent code, the house can stand on its own, with the strawbales in this case serving more as insulation than anything else, Brown said.

Brown said he doesn't think strawbale construction will catch on quickly in Southern New England. "It's overkill for Rhode Island. The climate here is temperate. It's not too hot or cold." He views the Hull Street project as an "experiment," but one worth watching. With rising energy costs, some of its features will probably become more popular and more affordable over time, he said.

Though the strawbale house has been more than three years in the making, Crooks said she and her husband believe more than ever that they have made the right move. They want to share their knowledge and experience with others and have even created a Web site so that the public can monitor the house's progress.

"We feel it is really important to let people know that there are other options are out there. You can have an energy efficient house, and one made with materials that won't give off toxins or otherwise hurt the environment," she said.

The Crooks' house Web site: http:/mysite.verizon.net/strawbale1

Greenspace Collaborative, for more information about strawbale construction: www.strawbalecentral.com.

kyanity@projo.com / (401) 277-7330