This is a 8,500sq ft home I built from April 2005-June 2007 while employed with Dreamland Development. The walls were made of a product called Rastra Blocks. This is a Green Building Material and a superior building material. I was fortunate enough to work with this material. Since it is Not a well-known material in many areas, it was interesting to work with this material.
The holes in each of the Rastra blocks have horizontal and vertical chambers (every 8″ on center) that have rebar in them. Once the walls are built to height, concrete is poured down from the top to fill the areas making the walls form a tight bond.
There are many reasons this is a superior product to build with and why it is a Green Building Material. For instance; it is insect proof, rot proof, fire proof, & sound proof. The R-Value for a standard home built today (with 2×6 exterior wall construction) has an R-Value of R-19. These Rastra walls have around a R-Value of R-50!! Which is a huge energy saving cost to home owners. You can read more, or view videos about this product on their website: Rastra Videos
This home has a 1,200sq ft basement. The basement has 5 window wells for natural light, and an escape ladder for a fire escape. The basement is also located underneath one of the garages.
In building this home I:
- operated all the heavy machinery to stack each one of the Rastra Blocks into place
- guided the pumping boom to fill the walls with concrete
- cut all curvatures for curved windows and door openings
- installed framework and trusses and interior walls
- helped to install Mr. Pex radiant floors
- installed all electrical (Low-Voltage, Network, Main, Communications, Control 4 System)
- installed all light fixtures (over 250 low-voltage can lights, ceiling fans, chandeliers, cabinet lighting)
- Installed home theaters, including speakers throughout the house
- installed security system
- installed circular staircase in turret
- Installed tile in 4 out of the 5 bathrooms (Tile Shower & Floor, Tile Shower, Master Bathroom Tile)
- Installed tile on the Master Bedroom fireplace
- used tractors to grade all exterior landscaping, driveways, and dug out pool & spa
- installed irrigation and landscape lighting
Here are some of the pictures I took throughout the project:
Rastra 
Basement Foundation 
Basement 
Basement 
Basement 
Basement 
Basement 
Exterior Walls 
Guest Room 
Garage 
Turret 
Turret 
Second Story 
Exterior Walls 
Concrete Pumping 
My Electrical Work 
Back Patio 
Basement 
Control Room 
Great Room Ceiling 
Kitchen 
Living Room 
Front Porch
Additional pictures of this home can be found here: 1st Bathroom, 2nd Bathroom, Master Bathroom.
Links & more info about the Rastra Blocks: Rastra Building Blocks
Hardhat13 
3 responses to “Dreamland Home”