Blog - Page 87 of 123 - Handmade Houses with Noah Bradley

The back of a house

Here is the back of the Middle River house.. the far side… the neglected face… the one never to be seen by the public… here she is. Who cares what the back of a house looks like? Well I do, and I think you should to.

It is my opinion that the most important aspect of creating an attractive home is that it must be attractive from all sides. At least three of them… I admit… it’s hard to design a home with four great faces.

I urge everyone to start looking at houses and pay attention to the sides and backs of homes… are they as attractive from the side and back as they are from the front?

I have found that old houses always pass the test, but new homes, those built in the last thirty years, have dressed up the front to make an ugly box appear to be a glamor queen. The result is more like a drag queen… not quite what I would want.

Houses are three dimensional objects and are rarely viewed straight-on from the front, except when they are in plan books, or sales brochures, or listings to sell, (that should be a hint to the fact you are being sold something… “here’s what the home looks like, don’t look at the other sides”) .

I’m often told by people that they really like the way my homes look, but they don’t know why… this little secret is one of the twelve key factors. And it’s easy to do, if you just stick with time-tested designs of the older houses in your area.

Ok… back down off my soapbox. Thanks for listening.

Originally posted 2015-02-05 15:47:12.

The back of a houseNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:48+00:00

A blend of timber frame and stick built construction

One thing I stress to new clients, those who walk in the door for their first meeting, is to consider all you options. Some at first think they want a log cabin and that means to them that all of the home should be made out of log, or some want timber frame and think that it must all be timbered. Very few come to me, because I’m an alternative builder, considering using standard building techniques… but each method has it’s pros and cons and a blend should be seriously considered. I’ll get into all those in future articles.

Originally posted 2015-02-05 15:04:09.

A blend of timber frame and stick built constructionNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:47+00:00

Rafters

If you are going to build a timber frame home from scratch, or if you choose to use timbered roof framing for your cabin or home, make sure and dovetail the collar ties into the rafters… not only is the result aesthetically pleasing, but the strength of roof is well beyond anything that could ever come against it.

Originally posted 2015-02-05 14:57:05.

RaftersNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:46+00:00

Screen porches

Screen porches used to be standard on most homes in the south, but are often overlooked today… they are wonderful places to spend the evenings. Though certainly free of charge, they are obviously much cheaper to build than interior rooms and I found that they get just as much use and enjoyment as any living space… and if notice in this photo, they can actually improve the aesthetics of the exterior of a home.

Originally posted 2015-02-05 14:51:21.

Screen porchesNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:45+00:00

Details of a Virginia timber frame

Overall the most striking aspect of a replicated Virginia house frame is the abundance in the size and number of timbers.

I designed this frame based upon historic standards of houses built 200 years ago in Virginia. The building inspections office still insisted upon having an engineers stamp on the plans, so I brought one in. His report stated that this frame was somewhere between 5 to 10 times stronger than needed. And that is one of the main reasons houses built this way still stand centuries later.

Some of the details that I’d like to point out in this photo is the number and size of the rafters (Virginians don’t scrimp) (no Yankee purlins to be found). And, notice some of the joinery, like the beam the rafters are setting on has a scarf joint in it to create a beam long enough to span the length of the house. And finally, how all the horizontal members are “shouldered” into the posts.

I could look at this photo all day, but then, I’m just wood junkie.

Ted Benson, noted author, has put together an attractive book on timber frames but, he is a New Englander, as most timber framers are. There is no regional author/expert from the Virginia/Carolina area to rise up and bring our work to public awareness. It’s a shame, Virginia is loaded with historic timber framed homes from the 1700’s and early 1800’s. New England frames are mostly built with a “bent” method and Benson writes as if that is the only way to build a timber frame but I’ve never seen a bent built Virginia frame.

All the frames I’ve encountered in Va, whether they are two stories tall or one, have been laid out such that there is a center hall and a room on each side. Sometimes the home is larger such as a four over four, but you will have the same center hall, and sometimes one of the center walls is eliminated to make for a large room and small room with eliminating the center hall, but all of the above are framed the same way. This results in having eight main supporting posts for the house, the four outside corners and the four corner posts of the central hall… these are key posts. Next in importance would be the posts on each side of the doors, windows and chimneys, while not holding up the house they are important for added strength. After these any further framing is entirely to add nailers to hold up plaster.

Originally posted 2015-02-04 15:49:18.

Details of a Virginia timber frameNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:44+00:00

The corner of a Virginia Timber Frame

The most prominent feature of a Virginia timber-frame is the corners where you will find huge “hog trough” posts with angle bracings going down instead of the much more common version of them going up.

We created these corner posts by extracting 10″by10″ posts out of the corners of 14″by14″ beams. Pretty slick huh? No waste at all, and we ended up with very strong, very stable, very attractive, historically accurate, corner posts.

With regard to the corner bracing going down instead of up… I have stood on both types of frames on multiple occasions and I can tell you that the Virginia method is more stable, with noticeably less movement.

Originally posted 2015-02-04 15:15:17.

The corner of a Virginia Timber FrameNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:43+00:00

Virginia frames are unique

This is the only newly built timber frame that I am aware of (other than museums) that is based upon historic Virginia timber-frame standards. Most of the timber frames that are manufactured today are overly engineered for stresses and loads and then aesthetics are added back in, sort of like how MSG goes into Chinese food. There are some folks up in New England that reproduce their style framing (it’s pretty nice)… but I’m not aware of anyone that produces our historic style. And yes we do have a style, and yes it is wonderful (better than those Yankees, thank you very much).

Notice the tree branch on top for luck… gotta have that. Look for other articles here that illustrate what makes a Virginia frame unique.

Originally posted 2015-02-04 14:27:16.

Virginia frames are uniqueNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:42+00:00

Locally cut, crafted, and assembled on site

Here’s your humble host, standing out front of the timber frame that we put together for the front section of the Middle River house. It’s all made from locally cut timber, purchased at a nearby sawmill for a bargain price. I realllly like this frame, it’s doable, it’s friendly, it’s not some elaborate showpiece of huge scale. It’s down to earth, something each of the men who played a part in building it could imagine one day doing for themselves.

Originally posted 2015-02-03 14:37:09.

Locally cut, crafted, and assembled on siteNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:41+00:00

A house needs to fit the land

Here’s the front of this house. Opposite of the norm today, this house shows the smallest profile to those going down the road.These clients had come to me after seeing a typical Virginia farmhouse style home that I had just built and they wanted something similar on their land. But, a “Walton’s style” home would not be appropriate for a wooded hillside any more than a brick rancher, an adobe, or heaven forbid, a brick McMansion.

In my mind what would look best would be a rustic log cabin, but these folks didn’t like cabins, nor old wood. So, I came up with a design using the proportions of an old cabin and then we incorporated natural wood siding. I think it worked. What do you think?

Originally posted 2015-02-03 14:17:38.

A house needs to fit the landNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:40+00:00

Always build the chimney where it can be appreciated

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 appreciatedNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:09:39+00:00