How would you like to work with me? To give me a hand? To become an apprentice? Or, to join my crew?
I get multiple requests or offers every week to do just that. Sometimes, I get several per day. I’m humbled, flattered, and a bit overwhelmed by it all.
Over the years I’ve had several hundred young people work beside me… as well as a few who were young at heart, if not quite so with regard to the calendar.
My response to the current requests is…
Thank you for your interest and your offer!…
I’m currently taking a sabbatical from hands-on building… a time-out of sorts, after doing it nonstop for quite a few years. A time to share with a broader audience what I’ve learned through several decades of building unique homes, houses where owner involvement has been of key importance. I’ll be putting the tool-belt back on in the near future with plans to build my next home which I hope to share the process with everyone. Maybe… the timing of that project will be right for you to lend a hand? I urge you to sign up on my email list here on this site if you want to keep better posted on my dreams, plans, and ideas. And please, consider taking the Handmade House Academy when it becomes available in a couple of weeks… those who take the class will be given first options at future offerings. Notification of the release of the Academy will be sent out to those on the email list! Noah
Originally posted 2016-04-30 16:08:54.
I still am wondering why you have to have a Fireplace, all the heat goes up the chimney? Rather have a wood stove in a simply single story cabin. Basically off the grid.
I am interested in the hands on knowledge, problem is location.
Hi Vicki,
You will never get an argument from me with regard to having a woodstove. I love them and have had them in every home I’ve ever lived in with the exception of my early childhood home (which was a brick rancher located in suburbia). I love the ability to be able to heat ones own home comfortably with locally gathered and often free fuel.
The last two homes that I’ve built for myself have had both… a woodstove and an open fireplace. They can both be built into the same chimney (with separate flues) and be in located in opposing separate rooms. It’s tough to choose between the two, sort of like having to pick owning a car, or a truck, both are handy at what they do. I think having one of each is worth the effort and expense.
If a person is building their own home and has to choose one or the other I recommend a fireplace. A woodstove can be added to a fireplace (and later removed if desired). A fireplace cannot be added to a woodstove location. When it comes time to sell a home many people want a fireplace, not nearly as many with a woodstove.
Yes indeed, a lot of the heat of a fireplace goes up the chimney. But certainly not all. I have an in-law who believed (through his reading) that fireplaces actually removed heat from a home, so upon one of his visits to my home I cut all the heat off and demonstrated that I can easily heat a couple of rooms in my house with my fireplace and afterwards the warmed masonry continues to give off heat many hours after the fire dies down and the damper has been closed.
But the main reason to have a fireplace in a home isn’t about the heat that it provides. It’s about the experience. I rank sitting by an open fire right up there with watching a sunset, a rainbow, the first snowfall, or a summer lighting storm… maybe even more so. This old world we live in can often be harsh so I gather much needed comfort in watching those flames, stirring those embers, and warming a pot of Brunswick stew. It’s something humans have been doing for a very long time, and something so many are unfortunately missing out on today.
My husband and I have longed to build a cabin for yearsssssss!!!! We are in our 60s and need to do so soon! We lived in NC for a year, but are from the midwest so we came back. We love Door County Wisconsin or Branson to build cabin no more than 1,200-1,500 sq ft. What is the Academy you speak of? You mentioned the cabins in Silver Dollar City built by builders there. Do you know of reliable sources?
Your homes on Youtube and also other posts are awesome ……as you well know! I will keep in touch maybe for those blue prints you draw up!?
Thanks for all that you do!
Hi Deborah, thanks for your note and kind words.
North Carolina is beautiful, much like Virginia here where I live.
I fully understand about “coming back to where you are from”. We lived in Tenn. for several years, and loved it, but it never fully felt like home to us.
It sounds like you’ve got cabin fever! Ain’t it great? The only thing that comes close to the enjoyment of a cabin is the anticipation and process of getting there.
I built a couple of homes for myself before I realized that I loved it so much that I made a career out of it.
The first home I built for myself was 1,200 square feet and it was a really good size home, the only thing that would be lacking from that size home for me to today would be office space, and maybe an exercise room… which your extra 300 ft would easily cover.
Throughout my several decades in building homes I have experimented with every form of alternative construction as well as new modern stick framing. I’ve designed almost all of the homes that I have built even though I’m not an architect. My greatest skill has been my obsessive drive of paying attention to the big picture and to the details in a quest to build dramatically beautiful homes. I’m no artist, but there are plenty of homes out there that are pieces of art (and many, many more that are not). I pick the best of what has been built, and the best forms of construction (in my humble opinion) and wrap it all into pretty packages.
I’m months away from turning 60 and I’ve altered course a bit, slowed down on building for others, and thought I’d share what I’ve learned to anyone that cared to hear (which appears to be lot, in just a little over a year I’ve now gone from 0 to 120,000 new friends). I’ve created a class, well it’s more like a community, one that is small now, but will likely grow large, I put together an eight part, eight hour long video series where I share all my best tips in designing and building a home, how to get it right, how to pull folks from where I was 30 years ago to where I am now. From how I draw plans (and how anyone else can) and through the process of building a home… all sort of a time capsule that I would love to send back to my younger self… or forward to my grandchildren for when they build their house. I called this course the Handmade House Academy and there is a link to it at the top of this website. It is not just a stagnant place either… I plan on continuing to add to it over the years, improving it all the while, like right now on there (and coming down any day is a free set of plans I drew to a small log cabin, perhaps my favorite of all time, smaller than you have in mind, but a great starter cabin that can be added onto.. it’s the Madison Cabin of which there is a youtube video on it. Well, that’s it for now… I’m currently writing my first book so I better start putting words down there and not here. lol…. thanks for checking in. Noah
Hi Noah, my name is Alex and im 19. I’m currently working for my dad on his farm and for an architect who is building a modern timber frame house to retire into. When the house is completed I would love to learn how to build a log cabin so i can build one for myself to live in (I’m currently living in a static caravan In a field surrounded by woods, which I could build a log cabin in). Im willing to work in exchange for being taught if your ever looking for a hard worker please let me know.