The Globe and Mail

In a house with an entire wall of windows reaching up 17 feet, it's the little 12- by 14-inch one in the foyer that's most intriguing. Appropriately called the "truth window," it offers a tantalizing peek at the guts of Glen Hunter and Joanne Sokolowski's house, which they built themselves in 2002: A golden tangle of straw, held tight with red binder and hemmed in by black plastic chicken wire. The window is there for many reasons. It's a great conversation piece for first-time visitors who know nothing about straw-bale houses. It also reminds the couple of the days spent with family and friends stacking and stitching the 400 bales that form three walls of their open-concept, 2,500-square-foot, post-and-beam home southeast of Peterborough. And, finally, it's an important reminder that things aren't always what they seem.