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.

This house was unique with it’s combination of good and bad materials… located just feet from a railroad track and decaying rapidly… the railroad company and the land owner decided the house had to go.

What made the house unique was that the house was framed as poorly as it could have been with minimally sized lumber that was spaced as far apart as what would hold the house up, and no more… you know… like most homes built today.

But, the house was filled with elaborate trim that I was allowed to extract before the house came down.

I wondered if it might not have been one of those “mail order homes” of the past, where the future homeowner would buy the plans and woodwork of the home from a catalog and then the homeowner would by the framing lumber from a local sawmill… there was that much of a contrast between the quality of the framing and finish materials.

Originally posted 2015-02-12 13:13:31.

A chimney coming down!

This photo series was taken with my old Canon camera with a manual advice.

A chimney comes down no faster than a tree… but it’s a lot scarier… a tree doesn’t throw rocks (or bricks in this case) every where when it hits the ground. 🙂

It is always a sad, yet fascinating thing, to watch a chimney come down. Some chimneys can stand like monuments for centuries to come, but old brick chimneys are often a danger to leave standing… the inner bricks and those facing the house are often not cured, and thus are soft and will decompose quickly when exposed to the rain.

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

Here’s a photo of the completed heart pine barn/home frame. It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to design and build this beauty. In a fiction world where money doesn’t exist I would gladly keep on building homes like this one.

Notice the back addition. On most of the homes I build I incorporate a standard stick built addition, whether it’s a log or a timber frame home. It’s a money saving feature… the fact is that there are rooms in a house that don’t need the pizazz of glorious wood exposure…. such as the laundry room, a bathroom, the utility room, closets, etc.

And, another bonus is that we like to put these modern additions up first, they give us, and our tools, and our materials protection from the weather. When a quick shower shows up we just quickly retreat and wait it out.

Originally posted 2015-02-11 16:20:57.