He also had her prepared when she brought her plans to the City of Norman for a building permit, toting the California Straw Bale Code in hand and providing examples from other places like Arizona, New Mexico and Austin, Texas.

"The City has been fantastic to work with," Fletcher says.

She's hired her own subcontractors and has looked for people who shared some of her vision.

"I haven't gone with the low bidder," she says. "That's got me people who've done an excellent job."

Fletcher's goals all along have been to build an energy-efficient house using local materials, avoiding shipping and with as much wood and concrete as possible.

And she made sure her house will be wheelchair accessible for friends with disabilities, making all doors wide enough to fit a chair through easily. That's also called Universal Design, although Fletcher didn't know it at the time.

She says she wanted to use straw because of its sustainability.

Fletcher was disappointed when she had to get the stunning red cedar tree trunks that stand majestically throughout her house, from ravines in western Oklahoma, where they grew a little bigger and a little straighter than those on her 30 acres.

She spent months in her barn power washing and sanding them, sealing them with seven coats of polyurethane. The ends were milled so the connectors would fit.

The cedar trunks provide a Southwestern flavor to the house, next to the red mud walls.

Fletcher says the first coat of mud mixture on the straw bales tends to crack, with the second coat making a solid base. The final coat will be of lime and sand to weather-proof the house.

For now, the floor is gravel-covered. It eventually will be brought to the bottom of the straw bales, mud will be applied along with river rock and it will be sealed.

Fletcher has been paying for her house as she goes and has about $160,000 in it to date. She figures she'll have to spend about another $40,000 to $50,000 to finish it.

"But I don't owe anybody a dime," she says.

Several of her children took some inheritance money to buy Fletcher something she wouldn't have afforded otherwise -- Solar Tubes that bring sunlight streaming into several parts of the house.