After we had attached the stress skin panels to the frame to create the outside walls, and we had framed the front porch and the dormer windows, the vision of a “tavern-inspired” home began to emerge.
Notice the three large openings onto the porch… the center one is for the old door unit previously posted. And, the ones on either side are for french doors that could be opened up on nice days to bring the outside in.
Originally posted 2015-05-29 18:52:35.
Here’s my recipe for building a fine entrance to a new home.
Start with a nice view that will be outside your door.
Build a porch outside that door, one that will pull you outside to enjoy that view.
Build your home out of an old timber-frame, one that will give you the feeling of warmth and security.
Make sure and install old heart pine flooring, which is not only a pleasure to look at but to walk on also.
Then add an old entrance door unit to let you know that you are at home. (Make sure and paint it with some nice colors).
And then finally, get a good dog, one that will meander in and out at his leisure.
Originally posted 2015-05-29 13:33:26.
We had salvaged another old house that was originally built in the very late 1800’s or perhaps early 1900’s for replacement materials to use on this new home.
The framing on that house had no value, but the flooring, and doors were perfect for this new home. You can see the front door unit from that older home, laying here on it’s side, awaiting installation on this new home.
Originally posted 2015-05-29 13:20:38.
The old timber frame began to rise again!
We will soon lay brick for the chimney and to add a finishing touch to the poured concrete basement.
Brick is a great material, one that I don’t use very often. When I do I either choose recycled brick from old homes, or, as on this home, new hand-thrown brick. And, I like to go with a Flemish Bond pattern when laying.
Notice those wide corner posts… once again we experience the Virginia “hogtrough” post… and those corner braces which go to the floor, not the ceiling.
Once the frame is complete we will cover it in stress skin panels… but for now, if you look inside, we are applying painted wood paneling to create the entrance hallway. (I’ll pop up a photo of that finished space later this morning)
Originally posted 2015-05-29 13:11:03.
This house was under a great deal of stress from all the years of sagging and settling that she had experienced. As we removed the siding we would occasionally step back as sounds of snapping, popping, and groaning came from her.
Without a doubt she was the most vocal old home that I had ever experienced.
It was not until after we had finished building the clients home, nearly a year later, that I ever showed these photos to the them. I was afraid that they would think me mad to have used such a structure to build them a new home.
Originally posted 2015-05-28 14:27:28.
Every timber, every single piece of flooring, that you see in this photo, was created by men more than two hundred years ago, using nothing but hand tools to convert trees into what you see here. They harvested wood from forests that had never seen an axe, nor a saw, and from those primal woods these men chose the best of those trees to create this house.
Even the nails holding the flooring in place were handmade, by a blacksmith, one at a time.
All this wonderful material and craftsmanship… so abused and unappreciated… was about to live again, in all it’s deserved splendor.
Originally posted 2015-05-28 14:04:42.
But where many would see nothing but mess, I witnessed wonder when I walked into the remains of this house. I did my best to keep my excitement to myself, but I had found the timber frame that I wanted… one of the finest that I had ever seen.
Originally posted 2015-05-28 13:48:26.
It was not love at first sight.
My mission was to find a very nice antique house frame that I could use to build the addition off of the little log cabin.
Two-hundred year old house-frames are much, much harder to find that old log homes.
I had driven for two hours on a hot summer day, with no a/c in my truck, to find this “gem of a house”.
I debated for a moment or two on whether I should even bother getting out of the truck to look the house over… but, I wanted out of that truck, and there was something about this house that told me that there was.. “potential”.
* (Always remember… “potential” is the most dangerous word that there is in my profession).
The man who owned this house told me that this was half of the original home on this large farm, and that twenty years prior he had pulled the roof off of that large house and then he cut the house in half, and then he pulled the two severed sections to different parts of his farm to be used for hay storage.
He had put a flat metal roof over each section to keep them somewhat dry.
The other half of the house didn’t fair as well as this half, so he eventually dozed and burned it. And that’s what was eventually planned for this half too. Unless, I wanted to make him an offer.
BTW… this photo is not photo-shopped … the house really did sag that much.
Originally posted 2015-05-28 13:38:55.
Here’s a corner of the enlarged, upgraded, kitchen that adjoins the dining room within this “connector” area that is between the log cabin and the new/old timber framed addition.
We made the cabinets ourselves out of chestnut paneling that we salvaged from an old 1920’s vintage home. The countertop and farm sink is made of green slate.
Not too shabby huh? 🙂
Ok… that ought to keep everyone happy for a while that wants to see what this home looks like inside… now let me get back to construction photos and tell the story behind the building of the timber frame section of this home…
Originally posted 2015-05-27 21:37:05.
Here is the wainscoting that I used in the dining room, it was just laying there in that old dirty straw like a piece of discarded trash.
But, I could see from the backside that this was piece of fine woodwork, crafted from the best of materials, starting with an axe, then with adzes, and then on to hand planes, nearly two hundred years ago, by someone much more talented than I.
I didn’t need to roll it over to be impressed… I knew I was looking at a treasure. I was practically shaking with anticipation.
Originally posted 2015-05-27 21:16:32.
