The couple made an off-the-grid house using straw bales covered in cob on a 34×17-foot concrete slab. Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, straw, and water, and it's fireproof. The house features ...

The team also considered straw-bale building, but that wasn't feasible. One of the contractors, Gene Power, deserves the credit for suggesting cob in the first place. The Globe and Mail noted that ...