Local homeowner talks benefits of straw bale home

A Temecula local wants other members of the community to know the benefits of a novel type of construction. Pavlina Kubicek, her husband and her daughter live in a home in Temecula Wine Country that they built using a construction material that most people probably haven’t heard of – straw bale. Utilizing bales of straw, which would ordinarily be discarded by farmers as a waste product, for insulation, is a relatively new practice in modern construction, although straw was commonly used in the United States during the 19th century, and straw bale has in fact been used in buildings for centuries. Kubicek said she and her husband decided to use the material in their Wine Country home, which was completed earlier this year, because of its “green” characteristics – it’s lo