"What brand?" is kind of an odd story.  In about 1998, I went to the Seattle Home Show and met Tom St. Louis, the Pacific NW Rastra dealer and a good guy.  I looked at the material and thought it had potential.  I then attended several Rastra seminars, sponsored by Tom.  The were essentially build parties where somebody was building with Rastra and wanted some people to show up and stack block.  Morning "lecture" and afternoon work.  A mixture of "normal" folk, contractors, honest-to-god hippies, greeners, etc.  Good fun.

Then, I saw on Tom's website that Habitat for Humanity was building a Rastra house in Olympia.  My wife and I went down on "seminar day."  Met a really nice architect that reviewed my house plans for free (I did them myself using Chief Architect, which is the software that he uses).  I had earlier retained an architect who charged me $7,000 for initial planning phase drawings that I can now do in 45 minutes on Chief Architect. 

I also learned that Habitat is like herding cats.  If you don't pay somebody, you get what you pay for.  If you can't fire somebody, it's even worse.  Mix in Jesus and you've got quite the combination.  Good fun.

Best part was I went back to  Olympia every Habitat work day while the Rastra was being stacked, poured, and stuccoed.  In fact, I became the stucco expert (which was easy, because the don't pay and can't fire, as noted above).  More good fun, but it's probably best that they didn't give me authority to fire people.  I would have reduced a crew of 25 to 3 (and gotten both more and better work).  But I digress.

I had run over my ICF materials list with Mr. St. Louis, gotten a firm quote, and was ready to order the block but then I got sidetracked building a shop garage with living quarters (took me two years).  When I tried to get back in touch with him, I had a little difficulty, so I sent out bid requests to a couple of competitors (knowing that there are several knock-off Rastra competitors, no disrespect meant).  I got a response from several, including Millenniumblok in Colorado (I still have difficulty finding them on the web).  I told the Millenniumblok rep that I already had an old quote from Tom for Rastra,  but I knew that the quote was no longer accurate.  Awkward pause.  He told me Tom had commited suicide.   WHAT?  The guy at Millenniumblok had been involved in Rastra and he knew it's tortured history.  He also knew Tom St. Louis (and that he was a good guy).  I got a bid from Millenniumblok was surprisingly close to my 2 year-old Rastra quote.

So, I ordered Millenniumblok.  The stated delivery time was 5-6 weeks.  I think finally  got the block at about 8 weeks and many phone calls.  Grrrrrrr.  Turns out, the product was shipped from Pima, AZ.  Whose in Pima?  Eterna block, the company that manufactured Rastra until a few years ago when Rastra and Eterna parted ways.  It seems like Rastra and everybody sooner or later parts ways.  So, who made my  blocks?  I guess it could be called Rastraternnium.  I just call it ICCF.  It's identical to the block I saw 10 years ago at the Seattle Home Show under the trade name of Rastra.  Same qualities (good for me, as I knew how to work with it).  Same problems (bad for me as this type of product could easily be improved). 

Time for dinner.

Mark Fleming