Here’s a photo taken of the other end of the first floor of this timber frame section of the house. This room will become the master bedroom of the house.

I do love a first floor master bedroom. Those stairs get tiresome after a few hundred climbs up and down. lol

Notice the new framing off to the left, this is the area that will become the master bath.

One of the little tricks I do to lower costs on these “over the top quality homes” is make sure and use modern building techniques whenever I can… there is no need to make every room timber-frame or log… especially closets, baths, laundry rooms, etc.

It’s funny, but I never see log cabin kit manufacturers or timber frame suppliers offer, or even mention, this idea of combining various building forms into one house… I wonder why?… is it because they are trying to make as much money as possible by selling more product? hmmmm

Originally posted 2015-05-30 11:31:08.

Originally posted 2015-05-30 11:18:17.

Here’s the family room, all framed out.

The wall to the left is paneled in 1by6 new yellow pine… it being an interior wall, separating this room from the entry hall, it works great and is very attractive.

I love painted wood, it brightens a room, it showcases the antique wood better, and it’s a bit showy… as in… “I’ve got so much wood in my house that I can paint some of it”.

The ceiling above is made of tongue and groove 2by6’s, also new yellow pine, which makes for a real solid floor… and it too is painted for the reasons mentioned before.

The end wall is an exterior wall which is the drywall side of stress skin panels, which are large pre-made sandwiches of foam insulation with drywall on one side and plywood on the outside. They provide the home with a quick, solid, sturdy exterior to the timber frame. We then will plaster the interior wall surface and paint.

Originally posted 2015-05-30 11:05:23.

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.

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.

Originally posted 2015-05-23 13:33:01.

Originally posted 2015-05-22 14:55:33.