This Valley stone house appears large, but she is basically just a three room home.
The top floor is a single bedroom with bath.
The main floor is a large family room.
And on the basement level… you will find the kitchen/dining area.
Originally posted 2015-03-07 18:51:43.
This home was as black as coal when it was first built.
I would have loved to have seen that.
It doesn’t take long for limestone to develop a grey patina on it’s surface once it is exposed to air.
Whenever I visit the Valley and see all the stone structures that were built there so long ago I try to imagine what they must have looked like when they were new. I’m not aware of any other stone that changes it’s color over time.
The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is full of stone houses, bridges, barns, and walls… all made out of huge blocks of limestone. If you have ever desired to live in stone home, this is the place where dreams come true.
I am told that the Valley was once a huge inland sea and that over many years a deep layer of limestone sediment was created. Visit the Valley and dig anywhere you want through it’s rich soil and within a few feet you will find a floor of limestone.
One thing incredible thing about limestone… it “shapes” wonderfully. With enough focused effort large sugar cubes will come to anyone willing to swing a hammer and hold a chisel.
This
naturally occurring,
virtually unlimited,
easily malleable,
infinitely durable,
environmentally friendly,
low maintenance,
cost effective,
product, became the building material of choice.
Our ancestors chose to build not only for themselves but for the generations to come. In the Valley they chose to use limestone.
And we are thankful for that.
Originally posted 2015-03-07 17:58:18.
There are few homes more alluring than a stone home. They draw us in with their overwhelming beauty. As I first caught a glimpse of this Strasburg home I was smitten.
This house is obviously perfect!
There can’t possibly be anything wrong with it!
Why would these new homeowners call this humble builder for help?
Oh, how beauty blinds us all.
Originally posted 2015-03-07 16:45:11.
The Coronavirus can’t stop us here at Handmade Houses! It has made things more difficult… and it has certainly slowed progress down though. But together we are going to make it through these challenging times… and create an amazing Timber Frame Academy course… and demonstrate the construction of small home for you soon!
If you dream of owning your own Handmade House you have found the right place!
If you want a handcrafted home… one made of log, timber, or stone… We can help you!
If you want a home that blends into the environment, one that compliments the landscape… oh yeah!
Here you will find a TON of free insights that you won’t find anywhere else… from our videos… to our FREE newsletter!
Originally posted 2019-06-26 19:42:04.
Here we have the three stages of the restoration of this antique log cabin…
The first image is of the cabin as it was first seen by me. She was covered in snow and showed the effects of having been abandoned for decades.
The second photo shows the cabin right after we have just finished the restoration work and have done our final sweeping.
The final image is of the cabin a few years later after our workmanship had aged and nature had once again returned to the cabin’s doorstep.
It’s all good.
One final note…
The following winter, months after we had completed the restoration of this special place, the family who owned the cabin held a gathering at the cabin to celebrate it’s rebirth. I was invited to attend.
I arrived at the cabin and noticed that it was very cold and snow once again covered the ground, just as it had been the first time I visited this site. But this time, a year later, things were different.
Smoke was coming out of the chimney. The house was alive again with human visitors.
There were the sounds of many conversations going on, and of laughter, lots of laughter. Upon entering I could see that there were sleeping bags scattered in every corner, a young woman was playing a guitar and singing, and blueberry pancakes were being cooked on a skillet over an open fire. I was greeted with smiles, thank you’s, pats on the back, sincere compliments, and multiple offers of pancakes… I cheerfully accepted them all.
I do love my job. 🙂
Noah
Originally posted 2015-03-06 20:22:05.
I’ll admit it…
I love having a piece of land.
Without a doubt, the acquisition of a small parcel of this planet has always been a great thrill for me.
And that new-found joy never seems to end.
No other possession comes even close… (while the thrill of a new car wears off for most of us in a matter of weeks and most other new possessions lose their thrill in even less time).
But… Land… it’s the purchase that keeps on giving!
It never wears out, it only improves with age, and often it increases in value.
It provides us with a location to place our homes… and even some of the materials to use in building that home.
It gives us the fuel to keep us warm, and a place to grow our own food.
It offers us security and sanctuary… a place to retreat to and restore our sanity in this modern world we live in.
The right piece land can even be our vacation spot… a place so wonderful that every day of our lives is a holiday.
The purchase of land often becomes a tipping point to a better life… this one act that we can take will carry us from simply dreaming of “one day” owning our own handmade home… to actually having one.
Welcome to Season Two of Handmade House TV… follow along as Noah… at the age of 60 slowly, part-time, turns a raw piece of land into his future home… as he encourages you to do the same… creating your own special place in this world.
Originally posted 2018-09-15 14:37:57.
We added two outbuildings to the mountainside cabin property. A shed for storage on the parking lot level. And an outhouse down below the cabin which was used for… well, you know what it was used for! 😉
Each building was sided in the same cedar as we used on the cabin and it’s addition.
Outbuildings anchor a home… they show that the property is evolving… growing… alive.
Originally posted 2015-03-06 18:11:00.
I think that the little lean-to kitchen addition turned out well. I’ve always been a fan of this style of addition onto a cabin. It’s commonly found, and aesthetically pleasing.
This added space is very handy to have on any cabin.
We built stone piers underneath it just like the original cabin has under her. Well… I guess ours are more “refined” and we did cheat some… we put footers under ours, and, there is cement hidden within the stonework. If this cabin comes down one day during an earthquake it will not be because of our addition. 🙂
This lean-to is sided with cedar which should hold up well for a long time with little needed maintenance, if any.
This type of addition… framed with siding, I find is very attractive. I think framed additions (or stone additions) add to the beauty of a cabin and save money. It’s one of the many reasons that log cabin kits fail so miserably.
Future log cabin owners are always presented with log cabin plans that feature nothing but logs, after all it’s what these manufacturers process and sell. “If it’s not all log, then it’s not a log home”.
But, that is not what was done for generations.
I have found that if I stick to proven historic aesthetics that I am always rewarded in the end.
Originally posted 2015-03-06 17:52:36.
Only those who visit the outhouse ever get around to seeing this perspective of the mountainside cabin.
And, that’s a shame.
Those visitors who fail to partake in the “Rural Ritual” just don’t know what they are missing.
Originally, the only window visible from this side of the cabin would have been the one centered in the end log wall, all the others were added during the restoration process.
Without the light that came from the cabin’s single fireplace this would have been one very dark home. It was a different world back in those days. A home was a shelter from the outside world when needed. Life then, was lived outdoors.
I like this profile of the cabin, maybe not as much as the other side, but still.. it’s nice. She appears much taller and more imposing when viewed from” the downside”. The height of a structure really alters our opinion of it, doesn’t it? Short is cute, tall is imposing. Which description do you want for your cabin?
Talk about being tall… the first course of logs on this side is a good four to five feet off of the ground versus that very same course of logs nearly touching mother earth on the opposite end.
As you can see this log cabin is perched on rock piers… irregular columns of stone placed in each corner. Each was crudely built, likely by the home-owner, using no mortar and many rough, jagged, pieces of granite which are commonly found laying on the ground here east of the Appalachian Mountains.
Every indication is that there was no footer installed under any of the piers. Likely, the first step in building this cabin was that a large stone was dropped on the ground and from there the cabin was built.
I like that visualization… Dad announces… “Here’s a good spot… I like it… Let’s build a house!”.
But… But… What about getting government permission, permits and such? What about hiring an architect? Is this land zoned for a cabin? lol None of that… pure freedom.
Most builders simply gasp when they view this primitive foundation. No way would it ever pass code today, maybe even for an barn, not to mention a house. I’ve heard of people abandoning their homes because of a crack in their foundation… heck, this support system is nothing but a crack, and yet it has stood for more than a century. Man up, people!
I built a house for myself many years ago using a stone pier system on it. It was an easy method of quickly moving forward in the building of the home. But in the long run, it was a mistake, and not just because of the fact that mice never give up on trying to get into a home built using this technique. It was the fact that no matter what I did afterwards I could never get the floors warm in the winter.
It’s a fact… if your floors are cold, you are cold. And, if you are cold, that means your wife is cold. And that my friends, is too much misery for any man to bear.
So… the lesson of the day… when the time comes to build your own cabin, make sure and put a solid stone foundation under her. You can use stone piers for your porch floor… they look good there and it gives the dog a cool place to go during the hotter months.
With the solid foundation everyone lives happily ever after, in the cabin with warm floors, and the happy wife.
The End.
Thank you, each and every one of you, for following along.
Noah
Originally posted 2015-03-06 17:08:24.
We added a stone stairway and retaining wall to improve foot access from the parking area to the cabin safer and more pleasant.
For over a hundred years the original inhabitants of this cabin made the climb between these two levels via a well-worn dirt path. A path that we found slick to traverse when wet or covered with snow.
We used local stone to build with and the masons did an amazingly good job on it… it added so much to the function and aesthetics of the cabin site.
My heart always goes out to craftsmen who build stairs, I’ve been in that position myself many times, whether they are masons or carpenters, they build something that is more complicated and challenging that it appears, while working on something that has more ongoing traffic than many country roads.
Constantly they are being asked to move aside as someone “needs” to come through. Apologies are always offered, and accepted, but every craftsmen is always greatly relieved when they are finished.
Originally posted 2015-03-05 17:07:20.
