What do you do at the moment?
I work as a handyman in Warwickshire. I volunteer a day a week with a carpenter to develop my skills further and spend a fair amount of time volunteering on natural builds. Earlier this year I started a very important job- I became a dad!
How did you discover straw bale building?
In 2013 I saw an advert for for a straw build in Leamington Spa run by Chug Tugby, and thought I’d give it a go. So idle curiosity more than anything else! Incidentally, Chug so impressed me with his vegetable oil powered van I now have one too!
What inspired you to become involved in Straw Works?
Having seen lots of different takes on how to build with straw bales, I wanted to learn from the best.
What is your strawbale building dream?
To find someone who will pay me to build one!
What have you done so far within the SNaB traineeship?
Design & Detail, Project Management and some carpentry. I was also in Leicestershire in May doing some wall raising, my very first experience of working on a two-storey strawbale building.
What would you consider to be the high (and low?!) point of your experience as a trainee so far?
High was doing the carpentry outside Jane’s place on the hill above Todmorden, when the sun came out to warm us up and illuminate the amazing landscape. Low was exactly the same location but in the wind and rain.
Where do you think the traineeship will take you?
Well, I was aiming for the lifestyle of a Russian oligarch, but have recently reined in my expectations. I would settle for having my own natural building company in the fullness of time.
Crowned Winner of Britain’s Top Tradesman 2014 in the West Midlands, you can find Guy online on his website.