Gregory Lehman graduated from Goshen College in 1993 as an art major with a focus in jewelry design. He has since then studied ecological building and traditional building craft. Lehman enjoys building, cooking, and landscaping. He has traveled to all 7 continents. For the last 12 years he has worked as an RN, currently spending 1/2 of his time as an RN and 1/2 of his time on building projects. Lehman lives in Goshen, Indiana with his wife Karen in the straw bale and cob house he designed and built.
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Gregory Lehman 
Happy new year Gregory! I am Idris a resident of Goshen. I have been researching natural building and have made some trips to Southern Indiana, a more likely environment to be rooted in Nature. I was driving around Goshen today when I saw your on-going project. It is beautiful! Do you do talks and workshop about your work? Do you offer courses/classes in natural building? Thanks!
Hi Idris, visitors are welcome. I’ll email you to find a good time. Greg
Hi,
Your home is beautiful.
Do you know of any cob homes fir sale in northern Indiana?
Are you a builder?
Any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Rita Garand
Thank you for your interest in my projects. I don’t know of any cob houses for sale in northern Indiana. There is very little natural building activity in this area that I am aware of. The house I am currently working on has turned into a long term project as I’m only working on it part-time. I do want to sell it at some point, but that will be at least 2-3 years away.
Hi Greg,
I am Mary Catherine from South Bend. I am currently looking into learning about building with cobb and straw and wanted to know more about your experience with it, in our climate. I normally would say that I would love to attend a workshop but given the reality of the pandemic, I would love to even just have a phone conversation. Please let me know if there is anyway to connect. Thank you!
Hi Greg, happy Christmas and happy New Year, I highly appreciate your work, especially the asian pagoda. Would there be any issue in sharing some detail related to the wooden roof structure? especially for what relates to roof corner. Gratefully.
Kamel
Thanks for your interest in my projects. The hip beam is 5×5″ which is the same as the posts. The smaller rafters are 2×2″. The roof strapping (purlins) are 1×3″. I attach the 1×3’s with deck screws and sometimes need a clamp where the bend is tighter. The book I used to get the proportions and layout of the frame and roof is Measure and Construction of the Japanese House by Heino Engel.
Thanks a lot Greg afor your reply, highly appreciated, I am expecting launching such (private) project and inquired about some inputs. If things fly on, I will definitely let you know.
Happy New Year.
Kamel
Hi Greg,
I came across your work and was excited to learn that a natural builder was in Indiana. The craftsmanship looks beautiful. Would you by any chance have time to provide a tour to a few local admirers?
Thank you,
Alice
Thank you for your interest in my projects. Yes, I’ll reply to your email so we can find a time.
Dear Mr Lehman,
Thanks for the brilliant YouTube cob house video.
I am in Australia, planning to emulate the cob/straw bale dwelling in a Permaculture garden concept.
Can you suggest your favoured North America training workshops, I plan a “cob house sabbatical” next year, a course to give me the necessary foundation to my own project a priority. Travel to North America as a bonus.
Thanks
Peter Heffernan
Mornington Peninsula
Australia
Hello Peter,
I took a workshop with Cob Cottage Company then hosted a workshop in 2001 taught by them when I started the first house. I haven’t kept up with developments in what workshops are being taught and by whom, however the Canelo Project appears to me to be doing very high level work and they offer workshops so that would be a place to check out.
Greg
Hi Greg!
Are you doing any workshops for upcoming builds? My husband and I are based in Cincinnati and dreaming of building a cob house. We’d love to come learn from you, especially the technical stuff about building within city limits.
Excited to hear from you!
Andie
The city of Goshen was good to work with. I had to hire a structural engineer to sign off on the frames of the houses. Anything which is not grade stamped construction lumber will run into this issue. The cob and straw bale are not counted as structural. One other thing is that exposed wood structures are to be covered in drywall for fire code, unless they are 8×8″ or larger (heavy timber construction). I was able to keep exposed smaller sized posts and beams by using a class A fire retardant which is supposed to be nontoxic. Also, a monolithic wall of cob is too dense to provide adequate insulation the climate in the midwest, so that issue has to be dealt with. I used cavity wall cob on the new house with mineral wool in the cavities. Some people use a lighter straw/clay mix. Or you can google “CobBauge” which is something I just heard about from someone commenting on the website. I’m not currently doing any building. I may build a post and beam workshop next year which may be around 800 sq ft. I hope to do some straw clay or light cob (with perlite) or other experiments in wall sections. I would welcome some volunteer help on that.
Thanks so much for this detailed response! All this makes a ton of sense. We will definitely keep in touch about coming to volunteer 🙂
Hello Gregory,
Not sure if this is the best way to contact you, but I found your site while researching natural building methods. I’m currently located in LaPorte and am curious to learn more about straw bale building in Indiana. Do you have any time to meet this month? I’d love to see your handy work in person!
Thanks and hope to hear from you soon,
Ryan Craven
craven.ryanm@gmail.com
Thanks, Ryan. I’m happy to have people visit. I’ll send you an email. Greg
Hi Greg
Truly enjoyed your video and so thankful for the inspiration. My wife and I are traveling these next few days in Indiana (for the eclipse) and wonder if we could pay you for a walk though of your work.? We only discovered cob these past few months and have never had the opportunity to see and touch such.
I’m out of town for a few days, but would be happy to show you my projects sometime if you are back in the area.