The crew worked on “dry fitting” the timber-frame sections together in the comfort of a new barn that was on the property.
This vintage frame was salvaged from an old home by a professional salvager. He used the interior details of this salvaged home to build an exact replica for himself, but did not want to reuse the house’s frame.
Originally posted 2015-07-06 13:16:58.
All of this joinery, and the timbers themselves, were produced over two hundred years ago, from standing trees, by men using nothing more than their muscles and a few hand tools.
Originally posted 2015-07-05 19:30:12.
The old timber-framing pieces were the first to arrive on site. The logs wouldn’t arrive for another few weeks.
I’ve seen a lot of anxious homeowners at this stage. A good bit of money has been spent on what looks like a confusing pile of dirty lumber.
But for me, someone who has seen plenty of “piles” during my career, I can’t stop smiling when I see this sight before me.
It’s better than Disney World to a child.
Originally posted 2015-07-05 17:07:31.
I absolutely love this stage of construction.
At this point I had been working many months on this project, getting to know the site, working up the plans, acquiring various permits, and finding just the right materials.
The excavation is now done.
The concrete crew has come and gone.
We are back up out of the hole in the ground.
It’s time for the carpenters to do their magic. The site begins to smell of fresh sawn wood and the sounds of saws and hammers are heard across the property.
What has been envisioned in my mind and put on paper months ago is about to be revealed to the world. I can’t wait to see how it would turn out.
Life is good.
Originally posted 2015-07-05 15:08:03.
Once the hole was completed it was time to fill it back in with a basement.
I am a big fan of poured concrete basements… either solid concrete as you see here through the use of temporary concrete forms, or by using Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF’s) (which are large hollow foam blocks that are laid and then the completed walls are filled with concrete).
I once witnessed a cinder-block basement wall collapse as it was being back-filled. Although a rare event, it was enough to convince me not to use them for basement construction.
I admire cinder blocks… the ugly little devils that they are. Cinder blocks are a cost effective manufactured marvels. Just don’t use them were they will ever be seen, nor to build a wall where any horizontal pressure is ever applied, such as a basement wall.
Originally posted 2015-07-05 14:45:53.
Once the plans were drawn, it was time to start digging.
Beyond a doubt this was my most challenging basement to dig with so much rock to break loose and remove.
Who would have thought that a mountain would be made of stone? 😉
Originally posted 2015-07-05 14:18:40.
Here is the back of this log home.
The additions off of all three sides of the main house are “timber-framed”, using antique framing members from an extremely early 19th century home. (I’ll share some photos of that going up soon)
The addition off of the back serves as the home’s kitchen with a nearby porch on both sides… one being visible in this photo. Half of the kitchen offers a cathedral ceiling all the way to the peak of the roof, and the other half has a bedroom loft above it (you can see the shed dormer that brings lots of light into that sleeping space).
A lot of homes in this area feature exterior covered entrances to the basement and that is what we added to the end of this addition.
The little room seen around the chimney serves as office.
Originally posted 2015-07-04 14:34:52.
Let’s look even closer at this corner.
The merging point, where an addition attaches to a log cabin, is always a challenging place to build correctly. Here the rigid lines of the addition meet the multiple materials and curved surfaces of the cabin.
I’ve seen some pretty sloppy examples over my years where differing structures come together and thus created opportunities for rot or even small creatures to enter the home.
Originally posted 2015-07-03 15:49:15.
An old English carpenter once told me that people will rarely ever notice the details of something done correctly but are quick to spot something done poorly.
I’ve found that to often be true.
When a person builds a handmade home there are so many details that every inch of the home needs to be carefully crafted. All it takes is one lapse of craftsmanship and the entire home is degraded.
Every notch of the cabin needs to be tight. Every chink joint needs to be applied correctly. Even the often overlooked bead on the siding needs to be properly scaled.
Originally posted 2015-07-03 15:36:09.
And here is the view of this cabin from other end of the home.
Not bad huh? If I say so myself. 🙂
One of the faults I find with so many new house plans… and therefore, so many newly built houses… is that they always offer a view of the house straight-on from the front, but they never offer a corner perspective.
Think about it… how often do you stand perfectly centered in front of a house before you take a look at it? Or do you see a homeowner arrive home, park perfectly centered out front and walk straight to the front door?… never once peering even a bit around the side?
So, why are we presented… why do we pay attention only… to the front perspective of a home during the design phase? The answer is because all of the focus of most designers (and therefore future homeowners) is on the floor-plan. Once the room layout is completed the front elevation of the home is pimped-up with faux elements, and unfortunately the sides and back are given no consideration at all.
The end result? So many new homes are ghastly when viewed from the corners, or the other sides. The plans looked great… but the neighbors will forever view an eyesore.
OK… off of my soapbox… sorry about that…
There are a few details in this photo that I’d like you to notice…
The copper roof, the heart-pine beaded siding, and the hip roof on the front porch really add a lot of class to this home don’t they?… Like an evening gown on a fine lady… (almost all of my homes are she’s… sorry about that guys)
If you look closer, on the end where we were putting up siding you can see that we installed vertical strips of wood on the house before the siding went up so that a gap was created to allow the siding to equally breath on all sides. This siding will outlast us all, even if the owner chooses to do zero maintenance.
And, notice the copper flashing that we added above each window. Flashing should outlast a window, if flashing ever fails above a window, the window will soon fail as well. I’ve seen most modern flashing materials fail before their warranty ended, or shortly after, and thus resulting in the loss of those windows.
Originally posted 2015-07-03 14:50:59.
