Here we'd like to give you a little background of how we got started and where we want to go.

It all started a few years back when Terri was browsing through a library and ran into a book about straw bale construction. She had always been interested in building, and this new information about how to build your own house really excited her. From there she did some more research and straw bale led to cob. Ari was skeptic at first. "What happens to a mud house if it rains?" he asked. But after a long process of explaning things and exploring, we decided that we really wanted to build our own cob home.

In May of 2000 we flew to Oregon to take a week-long workshop at the Cob Cottage Company. (Link to their web site coming soon) This confirmed our suspicion that building your home yourself with cob was "doable." In the fall and winter of 2000 we searched around Austin, Texas and found a great piece of land near Bastrop, which is 25 miles east of Austin. Not only is it a beautiful piece with no building already on it, but it also is in a great neighborhood, relatively close to town, and has very few restrictions. (Many acreages and lots have restrictions regarding the house's size and building material.) Plus, it is 8 acres, and has a nice big pond and many large trees.

Our vision also grew to incorporate other aspects of life as well. Ari, an aspiring musician, wants to make a recording studio out of cob, noting how well-suited cob is for music. Thanks to its thickness, it has excellent sound insulation. Inside, the relatively hard surface of cob walls create a very live room, although the room sounds less harsh and more musically pleasing than concrete. Plus, creating non-parallel wall surfaces -- a big no-no in any space intended for music, for acoustical reasons -- is very easy with cob.

Terri's vision includes organic vegetable and flower gardens, land restoration, solar power, rain water collection, and wildlife preservation. She hopes to do them all eventually on our land. One corner of the land is already designated as a "return to its original state" restoration area. One corner, where there are few trees, will eventually be a big garden. We plan to consult the Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept. soon to draw up a wildlife management plan.

Finally, our dream also includes inviting others to build their homes on our land. We want to create a small community of families who are interested in eco-friendly, natural living in houses made of cob, adobe, rammed earth, straw bale or any other sustainable material.

Sounds interesting? Please feel free to contact us at cob@hashimusic.com.



Terri is originally from Hudson, Wisconsin and is a tutor and ESL (English as Second Language) instructor. She currently teaches the 9th grade special education at Bastrop High School. She also tutors English to a Japanese family in Austin. She is passionate about all things nature-related and educational. In addition to what's mentioned above, her interests include Chinese medicine, gardening, and cooking. She also plays the trombone in the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble.

Ari was born in Japan and raised in Brazil. He met Terri while studying music at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He is a freelancing musician and a self-employed computer professional. He operates under the business name of Hashí Music and Hashi Computing (web site coming soon!). His areas of expertise are: music: film scoring and guitar performance, and computer: on-site troubleshooting, lessons/training and web design. If anybody reading this is interested in any of the above, please send him an e-mail. He realizes that this land web site does not reflect his skills as a web designer, and hopes to change that in 2003.

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All content and pictures: copyright 2001 Terri & Ari Finch-Koinuma.