Always build the chimney where it can be appreciated

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Here’s the side profile of the Middle River house… this is where you park your car and enter the home. The front section features a stone chimney placed so that you can enjoy it’s beauty every day when you arrive home. Solid stone chimneys, built well, are not inexpensive so when you design a home make sure you place the chimney in a location where you will see it when you approach the home and park. You don’t want to hide something like this from view.

The section to the right is built using standard framing techniques (fast and easy) and where you will find two bedroom/ two bathrooms, one stacked over the other.

The section of the house behind the chimney is timber-framed using wood that we harvested locally and then cut and assembled. (That’s about as green of a construction as you can get!) This area with a cathedral ceiling serves as a kitchen and living area and connects to the front porch… all offering tremendous views.

Originally posted 2015-02-03 13:56:20.

Always build the chimney where it can be appreciated2019-06-29T10:09:39+00:00

A house has four sides… and all should be attractive

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Years ago I had a wonderful couple get in touch with me and they strongly wanted me to design and build their house. They had an incredible piece of land that was steeply pitched and offered amazing views. Their concept drawings were just awful, not appropriate with the lay of the land at all, and on top of that they told me that they didn’t want to use any salvaged antique materials… which is what I am known for… that’s my specialty.

I did my best to dissuade them, telling them that I was clearly not their builder, but they were persistent, and for that I am ever so thankful. It was a pleasurable experience serving these kind people. I take pride in the finished home, and they have remained dear friends all these years.

The thing I want to point out to all my online friends today in looking at this photo, and the photos to follow in the next few days, is that this is the back of the house, on most homes the backside is the ugliest side of the house.

Most homes designed and built today have one attractive face and the other three sides are given little thought. I do my best to make sure a home has three great profiles… if I get four, I am tickled.

In this photo we are still “working away” on her. The chimney is going up. The redwood siding is nearly finished. And the copper roof will be completed once the stonework is done.

Originally posted 2015-02-02 19:45:21.

A house has four sides… and all should be attractive2019-06-29T10:09:38+00:00

A handmade house begins with dirty lumber

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It’s not very pretty… lots of dirty lumber and mud, but this is the reality of what a new/old structure looks like when you begin the process. Keep in mind that building a handmade house is sort of like having a newborn baby… you can’t let the poop scare you.

When building a home or a cabin the process often starts with the purchase of an antique structure. You want to buy the BEST there is out there on the market. You are going to spend a lot more money finishing the structure than this initial purchase, but this purchase is the core, is the heart, is the most visible piece. It’s what you are after most of all. DO NOT buy the cheapest, shop around, find someone with plenty of experience to help you determine if it’s the best, don’t rely on the guy selling it to you to tell you the truth. And with all that said, keep in mind that  the best antique structure out there is old, in need of repair, and it’s very dirty. Trust me, it can be scary when the material is delivered, but have faith, it’s going to be wonderful when finished.

I’d also like to point out in this picture my wonderful 1988 Ford truck. I bought her new for $9,000 and it took me a couple years to forgive myself for paying that much for a truck. Well, I still drive that same truck today, with 450,000 miles, and antique tags, on her. I no longer beat myself up about what I paid for it.

I saw a commercial during the 2015 Super Bowl that revealed that men look better standing next to a truck. It is so, so true. 😉

A man needs a truck. If you don’t have one, get one today.

Originally posted 2015-02-02 17:06:36.

A handmade house begins with dirty lumber2019-06-29T10:09:37+00:00

Old school craftsmanship

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Isn’t this the most incredible thing?

To me it is art in it’s purest form. (no, I’m not talking about my boots lol).

Here we have the very top of an eleven sided silo. This is what we found when we removed the metal roofing. I know… I’m a nut, but to me this is just amazing. Upon finding this I was suddenly transported back a hundred years when “farmer John”, who had been working hard to build this structure, found himself nearly 50 feet up in the air (one slip and there would be a funeral in the family that week). So here he is, way up in the air, fearing death, proud of his accomplishment, nearly finished, glancing occasionally at a view he’d never seen, and carving out this eleven sided cone with a handsaw and a hatchet.

I have no doubt a carpenter today, wearing a safety harness, given enough time, could make something like this out of plywood, but it would never equal this masterpiece.

Originally posted 2015-02-01 11:23:43.

Old school craftsmanship2019-06-29T10:09:36+00:00

Why build an eleven sided silo?

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One of the greatest tales I have to share is of the time we disassembled an eleven sided silo made entirely of chestnut lumber and reassembled it on top of a mountain in Madison County.
The first time I saw the structure I was stricken with its beauty and uniqueness. It was in weathered condition and I inquired with the owner about their plans for the building. They responded that they were going to burn it. The client I had at the time negotiated a contract for its acquisition and I began the process of designing and constructing a new foundation for this silo on his property.
The new foundation would be a full eight foot tall stone structure that one would enter into before ascending the remaining 34 feet of the wooden silo. We built the walls two feet thick out of sandstone salvaged from an old barn and we incorporated an arched doorway and two arched windows.
The greatest challenge was laying out the eleven sided floor system that would act as a guide for the masons in building the structure. I urge you to give a try… it makes laying out an octagon easy in comparison… my secret weapon at the time was that one of my sister-in-laws just happened to be a high school geometry teacher. It was from a close friend that I found out that an eleven sided object is known as an undecagon.
The question of why would someone build an eleven sided structure really puzzled me and everyone that would view the structure. The people that owned the silo had no idea; it was built before their time. I found other eleven sided silos in the area and talked with those farmers too. All were at a loss as to why they were built with eleven sides, and they also had pondered it over for many years. It appeared that the reason was lost and only the builders knew the secret and had carried it to their grave. Each silo was built a bit different from the other indicating that each was built by the individual farmers… which was only more maddening in that it was formerly common knowledge, and was now lost.
I spent a good bit of time searching for the answer, at the library, on line, and in speaking with many farmers and extension agents, none knew the answer, but from each I gained a clue. One by one the clues all came together and gave me the answer. In a nutshell it came down to human scale and proportion.
If you go to a sawmill you will find that most of the lumber that is produces is sixteen feet long. Of course the reason they cut it that length is because that is what is demanded. And the reason that length is demanded is because most walls are eight feet tall (half of sixteen), which gives us humans plenty of headspace in our homes so as not to bump our heads on the lighting fixtures and such.
Now if a man wants to build a round object like a silo by laying one course of lumber on top of another and nailing it down he is faced with the decision of how long of a piece of wood does he want to work with? The shorter the piece the smoother the exterior roundness of the structure, but that also means more more labor… more boards need be cut and nail down. So the farmer goes to the lumber yard and brings home sixteen foot pieces of lumber, which would be way too long to use, and he cuts them in two… still too long, so he cuts once more giving him four foot lengths, an easy length to work with. And that is exactly how long the individual pieces on this silo were.
But why use eleven of them per course… why not ten or twelve?
Well it turns out that the most efficient diameter of a silo on a small farm is ten feet. This allows for a man to get inside the silo when it is full of grain and allow him to stand in the middle and shovel all the grain out with the least amount of effort on his part. Ahhhh.
So the farmer begins building his silo by drawing on the ground a ten foot circle in order to build the ideal size silo. He goes to his stack of four foot pieces of lumber and one by one lays them around the perimeter of his circle and then finds out that it takes exactly eleven pieces to complete the circle!
Not ten pieces, not sixteen pieces… but eleven pieces. So there was no mysticism to the number eleven, no hidden secret. Just good old country boy practicality… “this is what I have and this is what I want, one step at a time and I’ll get what I need”… and… “this will confuse everyone in the future!”

Originally posted 2015-01-31 14:41:00.

Why build an eleven sided silo?2019-06-29T10:09:35+00:00

Wood and stone… oh my

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It looks like it it’s going to be tomorrow before I can get to posting a photo of the finished project and writing out the story of why these silos were built with eleven sides. Thank you all so much for your support and kind words. It’s a real pleasure to share with you all the unique projects I’ve built over the years!

Originally posted 2015-01-30 17:00:29.

Wood and stone… oh my2019-06-29T10:09:34+00:00

Choosing a different path

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Not your typical office job. 🙂

Building something different than the standard norm is to be highly commended. I encourage everyone to apply as much artistic influence in their work as they can. And when they are not working, choose to support those do something out of the ordinary.

Originally posted 2015-01-30 16:35:18.

Choosing a different path2019-06-29T10:09:33+00:00

Handmade… with chestnut

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The stone “undecagon” served as a base that we would re-erect an eleven sided silo upon.

The silo was made out of 2by4 chestnut laid flat, one upon another, and then nailed down. Notice the ring of hundreds of pieces ringing around the site waiting to go up. This baby is going to be tall!

We anchored the first few courses down by bolting them to the stone base. Each course had five large nails driven into each board and before nailing we would apply a layer of construction adhesive and silicon caulk to strengthen and to stop water infiltration. Each board was a slightly different size in length, width, and thickness thus it required a great deal of sorting and measuring throughout the construction to keep things tight, plumb, and level.

So, we built an eleven sided stone base to accommodate an eleven sided silo… but, why did the silo have eleven sides?

Originally posted 2015-01-30 16:02:48.

Handmade… with chestnut2019-06-29T10:09:32+00:00

A stone arch window

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One of the stone arched window openings in the “undecagon”. In my eyes, it’s as good as it gets… elegant, wonderfully made, with a great deal of physical effort, and it will be there for all to enjoy… for centuries, if not millennia to come.

I encourage everyone to leave behind a legacy when they work or build, whether that is a quilt, a table, or a home.

Originally posted 2015-01-30 15:32:53.

A stone arch window2019-06-29T10:09:31+00:00

An “Undecagon”

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It’s an “Undecagon”… an eleven sided object. Built of solid stone, near the top of a mountain, and under construction in this photo. Notice the arched doorway, and there are two arched windows. I think the most impressive detail are all the cornerstones, each cut by hand and chisel to create a 127 degree angle corner (inside and out).

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Originally posted 2015-01-29 15:40:38.

An “Undecagon”2019-06-29T10:09:30+00:00
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