diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 34db373..ad81cce 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ nosetests.xml
 .project
 .pydevproject
 
+# IntelliJ 
+.idea/
+
 # Cpp files
 capnp/*.cpp
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e671520..125d7a0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -35,6 +35,18 @@ Note: for OSX, if using clang from Xcode 5, you will need to set `CFLAGS` like s
 
     CFLAGS='-stdlib=libc++' pip install pycapnp
 
+### Binary Packages
+
+In order to build binary packages from this source code, you must specify the `--disable-cython` option:
+
+Building a dumb binary distribution:
+
+    python setup.py bdist_dumb --disable-cython
+
+Building a Python wheel distributiion:
+
+    python setup.py bdist_wheel --disable-cython
+
 ## Python Versions
 
 Python 2.6/2.7 are supported as well as Python 3.2+. PyPy 2.1+ is also supported.
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ac46c13..84f2eb8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -85,6 +85,14 @@ if force_bundled_libcapnp:
 force_system_libcapnp = "--force-system-libcapnp" in sys.argv
 if force_system_libcapnp:
     sys.argv.remove("--force-system-libcapnp")
+disable_cython = "--disable-cython" in sys.argv
+if disable_cython:
+    sys.argv.remove("--disable-cython")
+    use_cython = False
+force_cython = "--force-cython" in sys.argv
+if force_cython:
+    sys.argv.remove("--force-cython")
+    use_cython = True
 
 
 class build_libcapnp_ext(build_ext_c):