Building the garage at Western View… was a blast.

I had the time of my life.

There is nothing like building a small structure out of huge timbers. The opportunity to do something like this doesn’t come around that often, so I did my best to savor every moment of it. I often reminded the crew that “these are the good old days”. And I was right, they were indeed.

We made use of not only the old timbers from the Franklin home, but also the dental moldings, siding, and windows. The garage is a work of art… I swear it.

We enjoyed also the view of the Western View frame going up… the only time in my career where two different framed buildings were going up at the same time!

One last comment. Having a finished garage on site all during the construction of the house was a tremendous asset. It was our workshop, our dry storage, and our refuge when storms sprung upon us.

Originally posted 2015-02-26 15:32:16.

So, I needed a lot of interior salvaged materials to finish up Western View.

And as fate would have it, I received a call from a farmer down near Franklin who had an old house on his property that he was planning on removing, and he wandered if I might be interested in doing any salvage work on the neglected home.

The house was just what I needed… lot’s of really nice interior woodwork. And when I crawled under the house, it was plain to see that the first floor system had a lot of rot and termite damage, which likely was spread throughout the frame… good, I didn’t need another frame anyway. We struck up a deal.

Originally posted 2015-02-25 15:23:43.

Here is Western View… from frame to finish in just three photos…

The first photo shows the nearly finished reassembly of the vintage timber frame that we salvaged from a neighboring county.

Once we had it all together we gave her a good bath using soap and water from a power washer.

Our next step in finishing a typical timber frame home would normally be the application of “stress skin panels” on the exterior, which are basically huge panels that are spiked into place. They create insulation and an interior wall surface of drywall that is found in most homes today.

We didn’t do that here. The homeowner wanted painted wood paneled walls instead of drywall, which is a more attractive, more durable finish to have on the interior.

So, after erecting the frame of the house, we applied paneling to the outside of the timber frame and then… we built a stick-built house outside of that, and then insulated it.

This home, is a house, that is within a house.

Talk about strength… this is THE place to be when disaster looms.

The final photo shows the finished details.

Originally posted 2015-02-24 16:00:15.

Have you ever heard the tale of the prodigal smoke house?

After my clients first rejected the offer to use the old Western View house for their new home, I had someone come through my door that really wanted a vintage outbuilding. I sold him the smokehouse that stood behind Western View and delivered it to him the following week, ready to be assembled.

Months later I went on to rebuild Western View, after protracted debate on whether it was the right structure for them. As we were finishing the house up the following year, my clients asked if I knew of any old outbuildings available, that they wanted one to use for garden tools. That very week the fellow that had bought Western View’s smokehouse called me up and informed me that he had never put the building up, that his plans had changed, and, that if I ever wanted to buy it back to let him know.

So, the two buildings were reunited.

And, they lived happily ever after.

Originally posted 2015-02-23 16:17:29.

I’d like to share with you all today a couple of “before and after” photographs of one of my favorite design/build projects. (I trust you can tell which is the “before” and which is the “after”) lol

This house is “Western View”, which acquired her name from the green derelict house pictured. This severely neglected historic house was salvaged by us and used to create the main part of this new home. All told, materials were brought in from nearly a dozen vintage structures in order to create a home “like no other”.

Originally posted 2015-02-22 22:32:16.

Originally posted 2015-02-14 21:13:28.

These are the stone cottages of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, England a market town founded by King Alfred the Great in 880. The homes date from the mid-15th Century. They are built from local greenstone, a pale yellow sandstone that turns green when it is freshly exposed to the air. The floors are supported on oak beams and the roofs are either slate or thatched.

Originally posted 2015-02-14 21:09:18.

These homes, built entirely from natural materials, are over 600 years old. William Morris called Bibury, “The most beautiful village in England”. The picturesque stone cottages of Arlington Row were built in 1380 originally as a monastic wool store but later converted into a row of cottages for weavers in the 17th century.

Originally posted 2015-02-14 21:04:17.

Notice the detail of how the roof angle posts are supported by the stone work… I’m right proud of that.

Originally posted 2015-02-13 15:30:29.

Here’s a photo showing some of the details on the front door unit out of the “catalog house”… at least I’m guessing it was a catalog house… I found no actual proof or record.

I’ve read that Sears, Montgomery Ward, and other firms sold homes through their mail order departments. And, that part of those package offerings were highly-machined intricate pieces of woodwork.

It’s a fascinating concept, that for a period in time in American history, very elaborate trim details were the thing to have. It was fun to dip my toe into this period, just once.

Originally posted 2015-02-12 14:00:18.