Hi there - can't believe I haven't been to this forum before! I recognize some familiar usernames from my semi-regular haunt - the Timber Famer's Guild. (I can hear them now, oh crap, he's found this forum too!) ;D
I'm building a timberframe house in Kentucky, using timber that fell in an ice storm about 3 years ago. About 6 months ago, I started to track the progress with my blog http://www.massiehouse.blogspot.com The frame has about 14 species of wood in it (that I know of!), and we milled all of the timbers on my Woodmizer HD40. There are about 500 timbers in the frame (not counting the braces) and we notched all of those here on site over the past 18 months. Right now, we're working on the roof (built-up with poly-iso insulation and covered with slate) and waiting on the SIPs to arrive.
My original goal was to have every piece of wood in the house come from our farm, and for the timber frame, I stuck to that goal - even the white oak and locust pegs are from the farm. But I must admit to a recent addiction to store-bought 2x's for framing the interior walls and the built up roof. I also broke down and bought plywood for the third floor, as it was just too unsafe walking around on floor joists up there. All of the tongue and groove ceilings are from the flat sawn boards that came off of the timbers. I stockpiled most of my white oak butt logs and plan to quarter saw them for flooring. (if I can just find someone to convert them to tongue and groove - our process for the t&g ceilings was not accurate enough for flooring. Also contemplating the logosol 261). I'm cutting the 1x4 oak lath for the slates, and the 3x3 oak sub-floor-joists on an as-we-go basis.
I'm a timberframer by necessity, not by profession, so I'm still learning and I hope to learn more from this forum (I've already learned a lot in the past 24hours by browsing the rich archives!). Maybe I can also contribute now and then by sharing my experiences of building this house.
-Thomas
Wow...you've been busy. Nice work!
It looks like your about 2 years ahead of me, as I just attended a scribe rule timberframing workshop at Heartwood (which I highly recommend to anyone).
Yup, every time I look at Thomas' work I feel like a lazy no talent bum. ;)
Welcome to the FF Thomas.
Thomas ...
Welcome aboard!!! Fantastic work! Your blog is very well put together and the workmanship on your home is an absolute inspiration. Can't say enough. Looking forward to having you share how-to's with us. I'm just curious ...what do you do for a day job? :)
LOGDOG
Thanks for the kind comments. I think I'm going to like this forum! :)
Building this house has been my full-time day job for the past two years. On the side, I raise hay, sell a little lumber (but that's on hold), and run about 30 cow/calves (beef) on our farm. My previous life was in high-tech, and that is what has financed my jump to low-tech and the building of this house. I was teetering on the edge (had already bought the farm from my father-in-law), but believe it or not, it was an icestorm that wrecked our forests that caused me to take the plunge, buy a sawmill, and start this house.
If it looks like a lot of work, it has been, but please keep in mind that on average I've had two people (not the same two people - its been a revolving door of in-laws and out-laws) helping me part time for the past two years. I certainly don't want to give the false impression that I've done all of the work by myself... or that it hasn't cost a dime. But I have worked 6 days (and several nights) a week on the house for the past two years, and I'd estimate the cost so far (not counting my labor!) is about 1/3rd of what it would have cost to pay someone to do something similar. So far, I really enjoy building a house for my family instead of staying in the rat race and paying someone else to build one for us.
-Thomas
welcome aboard. what part of kentucky is that i am from middlesboro in bell county, that sure reminds me of home.
Hey Thomas and Welcome, Where bouts in KY.
Wow!
Welcome aboard Thomas. That is an awesome job, scenery ain't too shabby either 8)
Thanks again for the warm welcome. We're in Lewis County. These hills and hollers are pretty quaint... that is until you have to drag a curly frayed winch cable with 3 or 4 chokers up a snakey hillside too steep to even walk on. ;)
Welcome to the Forum, Thomas.
That is a massive undertaking :o
Your cupola is really great . ;D
Welcome to the FF. one very impressive project.
Hey Thomas,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for the info on rigid insulation. I'll try to call the guy in WVa.
We're in Lewis County also...Lewis County, WVa that is. I looked at your blog...Wow!
Quinton
Wow indeed!!!
That's a fair sized whack of lumber arranged in a rather attractive fashion...
Welcome!
Thomas,
That is one heck of a house. What do you do when you are not TF'in ???
Your work looks nice and your blog is very nice too. I hope you enjoy the FF we will all appreciate your advice and your experiences ;)
max
Copper work looks gooooood....
Just had to bump this thread so I don't lose it...
Ditto Scott. That slate and copper make for a nice combination. I'd love to see that place firsthand. :) Thomas ... where are you???? (Roofing by the looks of it.) Check in when you can. ;)
LOGDOG
Yes, been roofing... and chasing materials. I was spoiled when all I had to do was go to the woods and get materials. Getting building materials from elsewhere has been a hassle (and expensive). But things are looking up. SIPs are supposed to ship today. The hardest part of getting the SIPs here might turn out to be the last half mile. It's raining here in KY and my dirt road is going to turn to mush if the sun doesn't show up soon. Real walls for my timberframe - that will be exciting. I will post pictures of the SIP installation when that gets underway. I bought SIPs that are precut for windows and doors, so I'm hoping this house project will get a progress boost from these panels... but we're installing the panels ourselves, so who knows how long it will take.
Yesterday, my standing-seam metal arrived (yes I have at least 3 different roof types on my house now and we're not even half way done with the roof!) The south plane of my roof will be covered with solar electric panels, and it didn't make much sense to put slate under solar panels. Found a really neat product (clamps from Unirac) that let you attach solar panels directly to standing seam roof without drilling any holes in your roof. nifty clamps from Unirac (http://www.unirac.com/s5.htm) Tried to order gray colored metal so the little bit of metal that will show from beneath the solar panels will match the slate... I hope. I'll post some pictures of that too when I have something to show.
-Thomas
Thanks for the Unirac link, that's one that I'd found then lost.
Are you planning on running your PV through an inverter and into your AC circuitry or just run DC?
I keep flip flopping on that, the town has no codes written for PV so hooking to the AC circuitry will involve a lot of input from an electrical engineer and negotiation w/ the power company... Essentially the town wants the first person through the door to help them write the codes and of course foot the bill. ::)
sorry to drift off topic - I promise we'll get back on wtih timberframes....
yes, I plan on using 2 "Outback brand" inverters. Solar panels --> max power point trackers --> batteries --> inverters --> 120 and 240 AC. Would be nice to find DC items to run directly from the batteries (and avoid the inverters completely), but most of what I need (or already own and can't give up) is available only as 120Vac appliances. My battery set will be 48 volts. I am not connecting to the grid, so I will eventually have a backup generator too. I have heard that CT (is that where you live?) has some of the best state-funded solar incentives in the country. check out http://www.dsireusa.org/ and click on CT.
-Thomas
I had a client up here who wanted to construct a shed with a steep pitched roof for holding solar panels for making electricity.
He did and got into finding cost sharing programs where he got $30,000 worth of solar panels for $17,000.
He says it's fun to go out front and watch his electric meter turn backwards on sunny days......
Jim Rogers
bump!
SIPing right along....
Thanks Scott - Yep... getting the SIPs on the house now. Just updated the blog (http://massiehouse.blogspot.com) with a few more posts and pictures. Below is a picture that's not on the blog. "Forestry Forum Exclusive" if you will. :) I like this picture because it shows the dog house dormer we just finished, and the slate that we've put down around the non-existent chimney. Could be years until I get around to properly plugging that big hole in the roof!!! This picture also shows that my infill insulation has blown out of the walls here and there. Whooops. Better get those walls finished too.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P9080103.JPG)
I like the exposed timbers and braces on the one section. Nice exterior architectural detail! Too many frames are being covered up. Wear it proud!!
What did you do for the roof insulation system? Method? R-value? do you have a cross section drawing?
Have you considered supplementing your solar power with wind power?
Has anyone seen a large, operating timber-frame and lattice windmill or wind mill house similar to the old dutch windmills? Might make a neat project. Would be helpful on those dark and cloudy but windy days as well.
When building a Solar power system build a de-sulfating system into your budget. I work with UPS/Battery bank systems everyday and without a highly regulated float/equalize charge and desulfating system you may be replacing batteries every 3-4 years. With good deep cycle batteries in the $100.00+ range you can spend most of what you are saving on power real quick.
http://www.shaka.com/~kalepa/desulf.htm
THW - do you have any experience with the Battery Minder pulse charger/desulphinators that northern tool
Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company sells? I use a number of them on my farm, and am curious if you have any recommendations - pro or con - regarding them.
Thx.
Scott
Can't tell you anything about that particular brand. Has it seemed to make a difference? Batteries can be fickle. You are probably aware that all batteries are not created equal. Even well made batteries can often be trash by the time you purchase them and place them in use. Some battery suppliers store and ship the battery cases dry and the sulphuric acid is installed separate to insure that batteries are fresh and the plates do not begin to sulfate during storage. Long term storage without regular charging is a batteries worst enemy.
For best results with de-sulfating the circuit should match the resonant frequency of the particular battery it is the resonance that breaks up the sulphur crystals on the plates.
I bet a battery for that excavator you have costs a pretty penny!
THW,
here's a roof cross section:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/roof%20cross%20section-2.jpg)
R value is like R-50, R-45 if you consider the thermal breaks cased by 2x10's that are 48" apart.
Beneath the cross section that I have drawn is a vapor barrier, then 7/8" oak tongue and groove ceilings, supported by purlins on 36 to 48" centers. The system seems to work fine and supports slate (and standing seam metal) without a problem, but if I had things to do over again, I think I'd dispense with the cathedral ceilings for most of my house and go with a regular "attic space" instead. I'm not so much worried about condensation or vapor issues. The problem that I see with a built up cathedral ceiling like I have implemented (and even more so with a SIP based cathedral ceiling) would be if your roof ever leaks - how would you find the leak? Something to think about.
Yes, I'm considering hydro and wind later, but for now I am starting with solar. It seems to be the most maintenance free method of producing one's own power. Far on the other end of the spectrum (no pun intended) would be steam!
Quote from: Thomas-in-Kentucky on September 09, 2006, 06:46:26 AM
This picture also shows that my infill insulation has blown out of the walls here and there.
Thomas-in-Kentucky, I'm also really liking the infill. Can you give details or point to a resource for the method you used to do this?
Thanks, Mischa
As for the infilled walls on my house - I'm making that up as I go along :), trying to think about vapor barriers, moisture escape, timber shrinkage, etc. and looking at some similar approaches people have used. A good book is "The Timber-Frame Home" by Ted Benson. He has written three books, but this book has a lot of little details about how to enclose and wire a timber frame house. (although the infill method I arrived at is not particularly like the infill method he describes in his book) It will take a few years of living with my house to know if I got it right. I am a little more confident in the roof system that I am using - it is very similar to a friend's house, and his has worked for 10 years.
The foam that I'm using for my walls is the same as my roof. 4'x8' slabs of PolyIso insulation, available in thicknesses up to 4" (I'm using 3" in the wall) from Firestone. On the inside of the house, I'm covering the braces (and polyiso) with 1" of foam, to reduce the number of thermal breaks. Then drywall. On the outside of the house, you will see braces and posts and beams, on the inside of the house, you'll see only posts and beams. Also on the outside of the house, I intend to cover the polyiso with stucco - either the real stuff or dryvit, depending on who I can find to put the stuff on. I assume that I'll need some kind of concrete board or thin eps foam as a substrate for the stucco. All of the timbers that are exposed to the elements are whiteoak. I hope to post more, including a cross section, when I finish that part of the house. It is quite possible that I am building a very bad design. This "infill" is an experiment that constitutes only about 20% of the walls of my house. The rest are typical SIPs, if SIPs can be called typical. If my infill experiment doesn't work, I can sippify it 5 years down the road. Whiteoak will take a _lot_ of abuse.
-Thomas
bump...
Slate is lookin' mighty fine!
bump...
lookin good... If your getting the same rains we are, it can't be easy to deal with
Between the wet weather, we're slowly gettin the roof on! And, we've almost finished applying (installing, hanging, screwing? what is it that you do to SIPs?) all of the sips. Here's a pic from the 3rd floor loft, looking down into a 2nd floor loft that overlooks the great room. The windows that you see in this picture are all south facing, with plenty of roof overhang, to get the benefits of passive solar heating without baking in the summer time. (that's the plan - I hope it works to some degree!)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/PB090142-1.JPG)
http:/massiehouse.blogspot.com
lookin' good!! 8)
Thomas,
Nice looking details. Keep the pics coming.
max
That's a really nice hammer beam.
We saw several nice shots of your frame at the Eastern Conference slideshow.
The infilled entry got a very positive response.
Wish I could have made the conference.. had to work on the roof of the house though. :(
My timber frame workshop instructor said he might show pictures of my frame at the conference. Guess he made good on his threat. :) Glad to hear the folks liked the infill. If I had it to do over, I might have built the entire house that way. To me the house is one big experiment... that I'll have to live with.
-Thomas
Bump...
I like the copper...
Look out... it's in the 30's and raining buckets...
congrats on the solar power!!!
Better get back to roofing though... Last night, a big ol' rain cloud
went by here headed your way.
Yep, rained here last night. There are a few holes in my felt paper, so I took on a pudddle of water on the third floor. Need to get back on the roof, but been plagued by the flu bug and a cold! That's unfortunate, because it looks like we have some really nice weather headed our way - great roofing weather - but no good for getting over a cold/bug. :(
TRying to pick out an outdoor wood furnace so we can get some heat/dryness in the house. Started another thread on that topic over in the General board - if anyone has any advice or stories to relate about their outdoor wood furnaces, I'd really appreciate it.
Running all of our power tools on solar is a nice feeling. My bro-in-law took his Honda generator back home! :)
Thanks,
Thomas
Thanks for keeping this bumped up to remind me Scott. :)
I keep hollering at Patty to show her details of your home Thomas, I know the roof must be a pain to install but what a beautiful look. The eyebrow dormer is one of my favorite details but the whole design is awesome, keep up the good work.
Thomas,
I must ask, was this your first TF project? If so, were you a craftsman by trade, prior to undertaking this project?
Sorry,
Just curious since it is quite an amazing accomplishment for the "home builder"
max
Max,
I am an engineer (electrical/mechanical) by training, not a craftsman by any stretch of the imagination. Until 3 years ago, I didn't even own a chisel or circular saw. Bought my sawmill and first chainsaw in the past 5 years. Sawed about 150 cross ties, two deer blinds patterns, three barn patterns, and then started sawing for my house.
I have had some help along the way. "Neighborhood loggers" have helped me learn enough about the "logging and skidding" thing to keep me from getting killed. (On the other hand, one neighbor "stuck it to me" by selling me a bulldozer "with lots of issues" when I should have known better.) The fellow that taught the one week timberframing course that I took has been here on three occasions to help. I've also had some skilled stick framers helping out now and then, although (with one exception) none of them has ever seen a timberframe other than this one. The exception is the stick framer that went to the timberframe class in TN with me. Other than the workshop I took, where we built a 12x16 cabin frame, this is my first real timberframe project. (warm-up projects include buildign the timberframe saw horses and a bent to reinforce one of the sheds we were cutting in one winter).
I laid out all of the timbers (about 600 of them, not counting braces) on AutoCAD LT, which is a 2D package. The file is ridulous to look at now - it is so dense. I would estimate that I spent over 1,000 hours on the drawings (and checking the drawings). If I were doing it over, I would have bought and learned a 3D cad package (or simplified the design! or bought a design to start from.).
I tried to stack the timbers in the barns so that we wouldn't have to dig them all out just to get to the first one, but even so, we spent countless hours extracting the timbers and restacking them during the raising "months". I wasn't sure what order I would raise the timbers (the foundation wasn't even excavated, I didn't know what size crane we would have, etc.), so it was hard to plan ahead. Also, instead of "drawing","logging","sawing" and "notching" in a linear order, I had everything in a mixed up order. Hard to know how many logs (and what size) to drag out when you haven't even finished the design/engineering for the house. Hard to design a timberframe and pick the right joinery until you've cut some different kinds of joinery. (chicken and the egg problem) With 50 timbers left to notch, I had to go back in the woods and get more logs. (in fact, I'm 3 floor joists and a few porch posts short - so I'll be back in the woods looking for white oak logs that fell in an icestorm 4 years ago!).
Being extremely naive was a prerequisite to starting this project. If I had it to do over, I would have built it half as large, and would have divided that project into two "finishable" phases. I really had no clue how much over my head I was going. We are going through and sanding the frame now... this is the third time! First time was after notching the timbers before stowing in the barns, second time was right before raising the bents (touch-up to remove rat poop, pidgeon crap, greasy finger prints, and mud), this time is to try and undo the effects of weathering (tan lines left from the ratchet straps, faded and mildewed timbers, and more mud!) but now it is real fun because the timbers have linseed oil on them that clogs up the sanding paper every 60 seconds or so! Everytime we have sanded the timbers, we thought it would be the last time.
It has cost a lot more than I thought too - not necessarily the frame itself, but all of the labor and materials in finishing the house after we raised the frame. Going to Lowes and spending $1,000 never happened while we were working on the frame.... now it is a weekly occurence, with no definite end in sight.
I try to stay positive on my blog, but since there are a lot of people on this forum who are likely to tackle a project like this, I thought I'd better share some of the downsides. The reality is that I have really enjoyed almost all aspects of the project. Better than working a real job and paying someone else to build something, since I love building things. Even though the process/path I've followed has not been ideal, the results are so far exceding my expectations. Another way to say it: "if someone had hired me, I would have been fired long ago, but I haven't managed to fire myself." :)
-Thomas
Thanks for sharing the "blood and gore" of your project. The old saying "hindsight is 20/20" sure rings true ;)
What separates the intelligent from the not so intelligent is the ability to learn from mistakes. (Just takes ones like me a little longer ::))
I appreciate your point on the amount of money pouring out to finish the house. (It is easy to say "hey the frame if free, right off the land" ;D) BUT, SIPS, windows, plumbing, electrical, stain on and on and on add up >:(
Hence the reason I have not started on the same endeavor YET...
Thanks for the insight.
max
It is easy to be overly optimistic about what it'll take to finish. Or it's hard to get and keep a good budget ???. We're getting ready to shut down at work for a few months again as soon as we can get heat enough to keep plumbing safe through the winter. After the glory is done you really start blowing through the money.
I of course never had this problem building our stick framed house, we were broke from day 1 :D.
Quote from: Thomas-in-Kentucky on December 17, 2006, 12:10:28 PM
I try to stay positive on my blog, but since there are a lot of people on this forum who are likely to tackle a project like this, I thought I'd better share some of the downsides. The reality is that I have really enjoyed almost all aspects of the project. Better than working a real job and paying someone else to build something, since I love building things. Even though the process/path I've followed has not been ideal, the results are so far exceding my expectations. Another way to say it: "if someone had hired me, I would have been fired long ago, but I haven't managed to fire myself." :)
I'd say we've all (owner builders) got that in common, the ability to focus on the progress not the setbacks. I'm happy with what's been accomplished here as long as I don't look at the budget or the lack of a workshop (I really wanted to start with a barn). Starting a project of this magnitude is always a leap of faith. I knew I was in trouble (financially) the day we signed the construction loan. I knew I was well beyond being in trouble the day we refinanced it. With a little luck I'll be out of debt (again) and ready to start saving for retirement at age 74, and by age 104 I should be set for life. :D
I've had the same pat phrases I picked up from business mentors (and other sources) going over and over in my head. Things like, 'To succeed you don't have to be a big shot just a little shot that keeps shooting'.
FIDO - Forget It and Drive On, is a favorite although I've adopted the "Finding Nemo" wording, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."
'The man who says it cannot be done should not interefere with the man who is doing it.' OR as long as I keep doing it I won't have time to say it can't be done. Although I've often been the guy who goes out and does something simply because 'they' say it can't be done.
The parts I've enjoyed the most have come from the unexpected problems along the way. I really enjoy the process of working out a solution to a challenge I wasn't prepared to deal with, the more unique the challenge and solution the better I like it. I think that attitude is a must for the owner builder.
The saying I heard recently; " If your going through h*ll, keep going."
Quote from: ScottAR on December 19, 2006, 01:45:58 AM
The saying I heard recently; " If your going through h*ll, keep going."
On "Miami Ink"?
Reminds me of another one I saw recently, not quite the same idea but...
"Stop, Drop, and Roll doesn't work in h*ll".
One of the extreme engineering shows on Discovery about Katrina repairs...
The workers were extracting a fishing trawler out of a *wad* of other
boats while the goofy host was asking these fishermen what they
were gonna do. That was the fishermen's reply.
That's it... I knew it was on TLC or Discovery.
That was a whole lot of crane they were using to fetch those boats, there would be no problem lifting an entire frame with that. Trawlers are pretty rugged craft, I was impressed that they were able to sail the second one home that evening.
I watched episode also, Pretty impressive crane and pole barge.
Great blog!
I'm going to start my Owner Builder project in Feb if all goes according to plan. First I need to locate the perfect site then start dozing.
Looking real hard at ICF's
The next house above where I'm working is ICF. He's a retired owner/builder and has been doing most of the work solo, it's probably not impossible to form conventionally alone, but it sure wouldn't be fun. We'll be putting the roof framing up for him if he gets far enough along before the real cold hits. He's gone up 2 floors with ICF and pocketed 8x10 joists in at floor level. I had some concern there, he didn't do it the way conventional solid masonry buildings are done with pockets that allow a burn out but he was following company supplied details.
The ICF system I am looking at [reddiform] says that you use J hooks and 2x12's into your horizantal rebar at the height you want the floor joists and have them in place before you pour the walls. Once the mud hardens you tighten the J hooks down, Attach your simpson hangers and set the joists. Same goes for your headers except you have them ready so when the pour is done you set them while the mud id still wet.
After the holidays I am going over to Orlando and work with a ICF contractor for a day to learn how to build with these things.
Still trying to kick this cold, so not working today. Instead, I updated my blog with examples of lighting a timberframe and hanging drywall. Oh joy! :) Here's a picture of the "not-very-glamorous-sanding" activity that we are undertaking at present...
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/PC210062.JPG)
(http://massiehouse.blogspot.com%20never-ending%20timberframe%20house%20project[/url)
Nice job so far... I hate drywall...
Progress progress progress... looking good so far...
Neat fixes for timbering problems... I like the JD. I'd tractor everyday if
my JD had a cab... ;D
Ah the cab.... With each toy, er I mean equipment, purchase there is the rationalization sales pitch to the wife. "It's an investment," "It'll save money," "We can build a house with the wood," "we'll only need to buy one in our life times" - you know the lines, you've all used them before I'm sure! For the cab on the tractor, it was an easy sell "Honey, we have kids, and kids on a farm are going to ride the tractor - you just can't expect them not to. It wouldn't be safe without a cab." And, unlike all the other lines I try to sell her, this one worked out like I said - I can keep two young boys out of her hair for hours while cutting hay, etc. They bring snacks and pillows (to keep from banging their heads against the windows - its still a bumpy ride) and they usually fall asleep in the cab.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P3140156.JPG)
Of course, I don't mind the lack of dust and noise.... if only the air conditioner could keep up a little better on those 105 degree days. move_it
Is it much of a chore to go from AutoCAD LT files to pdf files?
Does anyone have this capability?
The reason I'm asking is that I was thinking about posting the full timber drawings for my tower assembly on this board or somewhere on the internet - for free. It was a pain to calculate all of those angles, and maybe someone else could use my drawings and avoid the angle/dimension calculations. I'm not in this for profit, and there is such a scarcity of timber frame plans out there. I do know that the pieces fit together... if cut according to the drawings! ;) I realize an 8 sided tower is not the frame everyone wants to cut, but it sure would make a heck of a deer stand/blind! :D
with some booster engines, it would make a nice rocket...
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P5150084.JPG)
-Thomas
It's actually relatively simple and there are a number of approaches.
The simplest approach is just print the file to Acrobat Distiller and edit the resulting .pdf as needed.
Or
Export the .dwg(s) as a bitmapped image (images) or EPS. Acrobat can open text, image, and html documents as .pdf, then edit/combine (as needed) and save the resulting .pdf file. Recent versions of Illustrator, Photoshop and probably most of the other Adobe products can also save as .pdf. I'll have to check Pagemaker.
Currently I've got an OEM copy of AutoCAD 2000 (I'm not good with it and the lack of support or a manual hasn't helped ::)) plus Acrobat 5.0, Photoshop 6.0, Illustrator 9.0 and Pagemaker 7.0 installed. So I've got the tools, just need to knock the rust off what's left of my desktop publishing skills. ;)
How large is(are) the file(s)?
Thomas,
There are quite a few free programs that use the print comand to change a .dwg to a .pdf file. Download.com has some of them as I recall. I am a civil engineer by trade and used different programs until I finally got a full version of acrobat. It does the best job, but then again it actually costs $.
Quote from: Thomas-in-Kentucky on March 01, 2007, 10:16:59 AM
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P5150084.JPG)
-Thomas
Now that is a cool photo 8)
Once you start to think in Octagons it is hard to stop. :o 22.5, 45,90, ::)
max
any updates?
Sorry, been building stairs (and fence for my cattle)- I'll post some progress soon! :)
Those are some mighty fine looking stairs... That's somthing I've never
done is build a full set of stairs. I've built some 1-2 step affairs but I
don't think that counts. ::)
Thanks Scott - I would like to have done "full on timber frame stairs" but that just was not in the time and monetary budget at this point. I did put one timber in there though. :) We put up temporary 2x4 railings around the stairs - me knowing full well that I'll be living in that house for some time before those 2x4 hand rails get changed out for something more refined.
Cattle are in the new fence/pasture and behaving nicely, so house progress (and possibly blog updates?) can continue once again. Plus I won't have to mow hay in that field this year.
Hoping to meet (this weekend) with the dude who is going to mud and tape our drywall. Also looking for a plumber. Those are the next big steps - and I'm not going to try and do those myself. After we get that out of the way, I'll be back on the roof, or putting down hardwood floors. Nothing happens too fast here though. :)
Hey guys,
anyone here had any drywall finished recently? We hung all of the drywall ourselves. I was just quoted 40 cents a square foot by a really good drywall guy to finish it. Everyone raves about him - including a local timber frame owner. For this price he will supply all of the materials. Some of the walls are over 20 feet tall and require scaffolding (I supply the scaffolding), and there are a lot of edges to tape and mud where dry-wall butts the timber. No ceilings to do. This is my first quote. Does this seem high to you all?
Thanks,
Thomas
Thomas - is his price per square foot of floor space or per square foot of drywall?
How many coats of mud is he planning on?
Scott
Scott,
That's per square foot of drywall. I don't know how many coats he is planning on. Someone told me he did their house and they went and bought the paint to paint their walls. Just as they were starting to paint the walls, he showed up and told them he wasn't done yet - the whole house was to get another go around of mud. When we did the walk around I told him he wouldn't have to be as particular in the closets, and he said he treats all of the walls the same, regardless. Sounds like he takes pride in his work.
BTW, he figures the square footage based on # of sheets of drywall. So it is even somewhat higher than the actual square footage of the wall. I asked him about that, and he said that's the way he figures it because there's another joint to tape, whether we hung 6 feet of the sheet or the whole sheet. Maybe I should have kept all the little scraps and sheeted a whole wall with them. :)
-Thomas
Thomas, on new consstruction around Raleigh, the going price to hang, mud and sand drywall is $19 - 21 per sheet. This prices holds true for either 4 x 8 or 4 x 12 sheets.
Regards,
Scott
Thomas,
Here the going rate is about $1.00 per square foot of sheetrock. I do my own when I have a project because I'm super picky. One thing I would do before you prime over his joints is go in at night and shadow cast with a treble light (corded work lamp). Stand back from the joint with the light very close to the wall casting light across the joint from left to right say. Any low spots or high spots will be made apparent and you can deal with them before you prime or texture. Pay particular attention to the butt joints. To me there's nothing worse on a wall than a butt joint sticking out. Your place is looking awesome by the way. :)
LOGDOG
We just paid $32 sheet here. We furnished and stocked the rock they took care of it from there. It is a remote jobsite and cut up TF work, they sent their best. Zip bead@11/stick, corners were $7/stick.
OK, guys, this is just what I needed - thanks a bunch Scott, LOGDOG, and Don P!!!
I hung the sheet rock already, so if he finishes it for 40 cents per square foot of sheet rock(and he supplies the corner beads, mud and tape), then I'm getting a fair price it seems. 4x8 sheet is 32 square feet. Times $.40 is $12.80 cents a sheet. Like I said, his price is by the # of sheets I bought, not the square footage of the actual wall, so I'm probably paying more like .50 or .60 per square foot of actual wall space. (There's a lot of scrap drywall laying in my basement waiting for me to haul it off!)
I have seen his work in two different houses (actually more houses than that, but I never paid attention to the drywall when I was in the other houses - maybe that's a good sign), and it is excellent. He is one man and works alone. I really just wanted the justification to have him do it without getting more quotes from drywallers I wouldn't be nearly as comfortable with.
-Thomas
Quote from: Thomas-in-Kentucky on March 26, 2007, 10:27:24 AM
(There's a lot of scrap drywall laying in my basement waiting for me to haul it off!)
Grind it up and use it as a soil ammendmant. Lot's of good nutrients in there.
I've heard that before Raphael - is there really any truth to that? What about the moisture resistant drywall - maybe I shouldn't grind that up in the soil? it has some sort of fiberglass backing and a treated core (borates I presume).
-Thomas
I just asked the green thumb here. Gypsum is also know as land plaster. In alkaline soils it helps replace sodium with calcium and acidifies some. It stabilizes nitrogen loss (like when you put green sawdust in the garden). Around the barn it neutralizes ammonia.
We hauled two truckloads to the landfill, it would be nice to have a better use.
The backing is pretty inert (at least it is by the time it's made it to market) so it'd amount to the same thing as adding a little sand to promote drainage. I honestly don't know what all they are using in the blue board I've been stripping off our scrap SSPs but it doesn't appear to be causing any problems here. It sure hasn't supressed the weeds. ;)
I'm guessing it's far to dilute once combined with the soil to have an adverse effect, I'll be mixing a load with peat moss, manure, wood ash, bone meal and wild flower seeds this coming month. If the seed fails to germinate I'll let you know.
One drywaller told me silicone is the water repellant.
It's feeding time at the zoo again... :)
Updating the blog tonight - going to take a couple of hours. Hope to spew about wood pizza oven, Rumford fireplace, and/or slating the 21:12 pitch tower roof. Been trying my hand at some masonry, and finding it very satisfying. Who knows what I'll actually get posted though!!! :)
-Thomas
here's what I've been working on this week...
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P4160251.JPG)
looks a lot different and it weighs a lot more since that picture of the clown riding it on the end of a crane! It has gained about 1200lbs of oak t&g ceiling, 200? pounds of insulation, 2500lbs of yellow pine 2x sheeting, and will eventually have 4000 lbs of slate. (I'd say we have about 600 lbs of the slate on there so far!)
Thomas
Lightening rods do work! That is if their installed right. NFPA 780 explains it, very thoroughly. If you would like a copy of what you will need, PM me and I will e-mail you a copy.
Nice weathervane there... 8)
Glad you like it Scott. Actually from half a mile away, it looks pretty good on the house. :)
other updates not on my blog:
*Recently, my wife has been going through and staining the pine window jambs with "golden oak" to match the natural color of the hardwood timbers. ("she don't like pine", and the window trim is going to be oak) She is also going through and covering everything (timbers, poplar ceilings, and window trim) with polyurethane. I've been happy to watch our 4 kids while she works on the house for a change!
*My thinking on linseed oil has morphed. In other words, if I had it to do over again, I don't know if I would have ever put linseed oil on the timbers. I think it did protect our frame while it was in the weather so long (esp. the non-rot-resistant timbers like maple, poplar, and hickory), but now its main purpose is to gum up sand paper and to magnify dirty handprints/fingerprints. I want to be a proponent of simple, time honored solutions, but I think polyurethane is one of those new things that are worth adopting (unlike cell phones - I'll buy one of those when they can get them to work!). With the linseed finish removed, the timbers look awesome with two coats of clear poly on them, and they are no longer dirt magnets! It's something that probably can't be conveyed with pictures (the greasy fingerprints never showed up in the pictures anyway), but I'll try to post a few at some point.
*Our drywall finishing dude has been delayed on other projects, but that's OK - he's not holding up the project... yet.
*Slate roof is done now (with the exception of the future porch and entry)! Before I decided to do it myself, I was quoted $89,000 by a slate company. Materials and labor (not counting my own) ran me somewhere between one third to one half of that number, and I even added a few features (like the eyebrow dormer and closed valleys with stainless step flashing) that weren't in the company's quote. Time will tell, but so far, it looks like a timber-frame can support a 40,000 pound roof without sagging. :)
*DIY books in hand, I'm still staring down the plumbing, wondering if I'm going to try this myself. I really shouldn't, but I get his feeling that I'm going to. :)
*With the exception of my welder, every tool, light, and computer on the house project has been operating off of solar power w/o generator backup since December, 2006.
*I think I have found a stone mason who is able and willing to start laying stone on the outside of the house. Since I've already started on the fireplace, I'm still thinking about laying-up the fireplace myself. I have about 10 pallets (15 ton?) of stone already dug up/collected and split into block-like shapes, but I'm going to have to start "quarrying" more stone to keep up with him once he gets started.
*taking today off !!! The instructor of the Grand Oaks Timber Framing workshop is stopping by this evening (on his way back from a timber frame raising in Virginia) to see how things are going. Can't wait to show my "teacher" the house! :)
-Thomas
Found a stone mason!
first stone on the back of the house...
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P5200071-1.JPG)
view of front yard...
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P5200068-2.JPG)
that's a home brew hydraulic stone splitter we built, on the 3-pt hitch of the Massey-Ferguson. 4 log splitting wedges and two hydraulic cylinders. broke versions 1 and 2. this is version 3. some of the welds are cracked but it's still splitting stone like a champ. all stone is from the farm - just like the timbers.
Nice progress!! That view of the great room is awesome!
Looking really nice, Mr. Thomas!
:)
Anyone have tips on sanding and finishing hardwood floors? I have just installed about 200 square feet of 2 1/4" hickory flooring. (with a few thousands of feet to go before the house is finished.) My uncle loaned me his Clark drum sander as well as an edger-sander. I tried both (and my DA sander) in a closet this evening, but I'm looking for some advice before I come out of the closet... to sand the main room I mean. :) What's the secret to getting a smooth floor?
FWIW, I started the project with my father-in-law's manual floor nailer. Yikes - I had to swing the mallet with both hands in order to drive the 2" cleats through hickory flooring, plywood, and oak floor joists. Even then it was necessary to set a lot of the nails with a nail set. My wife held the nailer while I swung the mallet. I feared for her shins. We said, forget this, and ordered a Porter Cable air powered flooring nailer from Amazon last week. It showed up in two days even though I didn't opt for priority shipping. This thing is awesome compared to the manual nailer. A one-handed swing is all that is needed to seat the nails and pull the board decently tight.
Anyone got suggestions for sanding hardwood floors? I promise to post pictures of the final result.
-Thomas
I had severely to only slightly damaged red oak floor. Lots of cupped strips and needed to remove all the existing stain. I started going 45 degrees across the floor with 65 grit. then went parallel with 65. Then kept going parallel with 3 progressively finer grits (i dont remember what they were), and kinda forgot what i finished with. I did about 1000 sq ft. I got it knocked out in a day. So, finished result....well, i put on 3 coats of water based urethane and sanded with 220 grit with a way less powerful floor sander. So...ok, in certain light - yeah, you can see ridges left from the big drum sander. I've read about people on hands and knees with hand held belt sanders riding on rails/shoe/whatever to remove the ridges. I dunno, my current house is almost 100 years old - turned out great for this application..not sure how i'd feel about it in a shanty the likes of yours.
I'd give my floor a B-.
I found that you have to be smooth and confident with the big drum sander. you gotta be already in motion as your lower the drum carefully, slowly, and smoothly - otherwise you'll have a hole in the floor. I would love to see what the pro's use...I've read you cant not have evidence of ridges using the rental drum sanders. I experimented with going 45 degrees cross grain again with finer grits to see if i could get a totally glass surface - but didnt seem to do much.
Also, i wonder if all drums are created equal? the drum on mine consisted of hundreds of little rubber circles that covered the drum. Gotta be the pattern of hte circles that cause ridges.
with new flooring though...i cant imagine you would have to have an aggressive grit at all..the aggressive grit could be the root of the minor, yet existing ridges i ended up with.
Before, this was my least damaged area:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14035/before_tforum.jpg)
and a couple afters:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14035/done_bob.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14035/wally_cab_tforum.jpg)
Bigshow,
Those floors look great from here! That's exactly the kind of advice I was looking for. Especially, "what can I expect to achieve" - which you have set my expectations appropriately, I think. I read somewhere (on the internet) that the drum sander is tapered and to sand from right to left. Gee, I dunno if that is true or not, but I will try it. Some also suggest using a floor buffer... as a last step before finishing and/or between coats of polyurethane. Hmmmm, my uncle didn't loan me one of those floor buffers, so I might skip that step, or substitute my da sander with 220 grit. My borrowed floor sander came with 3 levels of sand paper. I'm skipping the really aggressive stuff, since it looks... well... too aggressive for new, uncoated floors. (heck, it looks like small gravel glued to paper!!!) What I'm starting with looks like about 60 or 80 grit paper, but it is cryptically labeled, so I'm not sure what grit it is.
We (me and a very competent 17 yr. old helper) nailed down about 150 square feet of parquet type floors today. Alternating white oak (rift and quartered) and walnut 12" squares (using four 12"x3" strips per square), with a 3" to 4" cherry border around the perimeter of the room. I got this stuff on a "cash-only, no returns, pick it up at the factory, clearance" for $1/square foot. So far I think it looks pretty good, and I really don't want to screw it up. I'll sand and finish the hickory strip floor before I move on to this floor. Pictures to follow - I promise. :)
Any more sanding "war stories" out there?
Thanks!
Thomas
BTW, Your dog's stature and pose reminds me of "Finally, I'll take the ceramic Dalmation for $200" Remember "Wheel of Fortune" when they had to spend their money on the show? :)
Those are some beautifull floors bigshow, and a mighty fine hound as well. Thomas, we need some pics of your parquet floors, they sound fine as well, yall keep up the good work. :)
If i'm not mistaken...parquet floors need to be hit from every angle like an asterisk *
I would NOT use a drum sander as final sanding. I used drum to i think about 120 or 150 grit. Then tried going crossways to remove ridges (can only be seen when laying on couch looking across floor at an angle in yellow sunlight). In order to achieve a perfect floor - you need to notice ridges and go 45 degrees across the floor again with the grit that caused the ridges (while sanding parallel to grain) - which are hard to detect if they are not glossy. My job was so aggressive that i began to expose the nails in the tongue and groove. So, my floors are done - they can take a few more buffs. I was thinking though...belt sanders with rail/shoe supposedly produce perfect results...man, if nails arnt an issue.....i'd be tempted to take my 6" makita plane, attach to broom handle and grin the day away pushing that guy around.
Oh back on topic. for last sanding before Urethane and between coats..i think the drum sander with the finest grit will be too aggressive. I used a buffer pre urethane, and in between coats. I really liked the water based too...
So, i still think not all drums are created equally and the 'pad' between the actual drum and sandpaper belt on the one i used was lots of rubber circles. If you had one continous rubber membrane around the drum...i dont think ridges would be an issue.
and a buffer i think will be key for a righteous final finish. yeah...my 'new' floors were pretty slick, But 140lbs of dual dog brutality is taking its toll.
Here is the worst floor i had...the kitchen was so bad, i chose spot and just did the best i could to see final results. The buffer is pictured here..hmm wonder if that was a rental:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14035/kitchen.jpg)
and the after, i never took an after directly of the kitchen, but you can see the difference - the door way to kitchen still has some stain from previous, just too cupped to get it all:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14035/kith_after.jpg)
yay! i finally answered a question on the forum!!!
Oh and thanks for the compliments on the floor, and most importantly the boys - who are NOT for sale.
Lastly...probably doesnt need to be said...but just make sure when the drum is contact with the floor...never stop, always be in motion. Since my floors were very damaged and needed alot taken off...i would slowly walk forward and when i got to a wall, i would either anticipate it and slowly lift lever to pickup the drum before i hit the wall...or i would simply approach the wall and transition very smoothly to walking backwards and going over a particularily nasty area. there are a couple spots in the kitchen where i stopped and or didnt smoothly lift the drum. and yup, you can see china.
And a good job you did too. :)
OK, here's a picture. I have more of this flooring done now, but this picture turned out better than the others... squares are alternating walnut and qtr./rift white oak, and the border is cherry (albeit faded somewhat). this is in one of my son's rooms... so he can play chess or checkers if he keeps his floor clean. just having fun... but working hard at it. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P1010172.JPG)
still looking for more finishing tips. big thanks bigshow!
-Thomas
Thomas, each time that I look at the enormity of your project and the amount of progress that you are making, I'm just amazed! The cabin that we are building represents just a fraction of the effort required for your house and I'm working 12/7 on this one and the progress seems so slow! I'm in awe of your abilities! But we're having fun and looking forward to enjoying our little mountain cabin.. :D
Quinton
Thomas,
I'm interested in some details on your home brew hydraulic stone splitter. I think I am going to need something like it. Your Parquet is awesome. How do you go about deciding which project to work on when you get up in the morning? Sounds like you are burning the candle on every end.
Thomas, been following your progress here and at your blog. I too am interested in fabing up a stone splitter, do you have any pics with more detail? Thanks, Andy
Thanks again for the encouragement guys. Just got back from a long overdue week-long vacation. Sadly, after day two, I was itching to get back and work on the house. :)
I'm bringing the stone splitter back in for repairs, so I'll take lots of pictures. It's not broken, just "out of alignment." I think we have split between 10 and 20 pallets of stone (each pallet weighs over 1 ton I would guess) since the last repair.
The real key to making it work... for our particular stone... was to "float" the bottom table with coil springs from a car. (careful, these things are deadly-dangerous to remove from a car, and represent a lot of dangerous energy when compressed even a little bit by the machine). The second key was to have wedges on the bottom, in line with the wedges that come down from above. This gives a much cleaner/consistent break. The bottom wedges are simply welded to the frame, and there are cut-outs in the floating table that let the wedges come up through the table. (I say "come up" but really the bottom wedges do not move, the table goes down and gives the illusion that the bottom wedges are coming up through it.)
The other key to making it work (and not destroy itself) is to build everything such that the hydraulic cylinders see no side loads or twisting loads on the clevis's. The main "biter" assembly is like a guilotine, and is built so that it takes up all of the loads, except the "pushing" load which is of course provided by the cylinders. It would be real tempting to weld a wedge to the end of a hydraulic cylinder and crush some rock with it. This will work, but not very consistently and not for very long!!!
If you have a particular rock on your property that you want to split, then beg or borrow a log splitter and see what it does to some of the rocks. (Please stand behind a shield and wear glasses!) If the results are encouraging, then go ahead and build the real deal. If the log splitter fails to do something interesting and useful to your rock, then a splitter like we have built probably will not work either. I used a borrowed $99 manual hand-pump-type log splitter on our sandstone (more properly called siltstone) and laughed so hard I almost pee-ed myself after I tried splitting a few rocks. That's when I decided it was time to build the stone splitter.
http://massiehouse.blogspot.com/2006/05/rubble-rousers.html
-Thomas
Somthing bad happen? Or, has nothing happened?
Inquiring minds ya know??? ;)
Thanks for askin ScottAR... actually no news in this case means: I've been busier than a chicken in a bucket full of worms.
My silence has been because my satellite internet connection has been spotty (real spotty).... and my digital camera has died... I left it in the rain, and found it a day later in the standing water of my tractor seat! :o The stone mason that I hired is a stone-laying animal and I have been too busy keeping him in rock to fix my blog hurdles! Enough lame excuses! :)
Brief progress report:
In addition to the tons of stone that I have quarried and the stone mason has laid in the past few weeks (literally, probably 30 tons), my wife and I put down some herringbone flooring and it turned out great. (took 60 amateur person hours to floor a 14x14 room). I put 3 coats of poly on the herringbone floor and I'm still trying to figure out the trick to sanding out the spots where I start and stop with the drum sander, before I poly another room. My wife's been going through and poly-urethaning the beams and painting the rooms. (very tedious - I'm glad she signed up for it.) We got brave and decided to paint one of the rooms something other than white... the master BR is now a light shade of green, and it looks better than I expected next to the oak beams and ash braces. That's about all that's worth saying until I can get a camera and post some pics!!!
-Thomas
man...we should get a pool going to get you a digicam ASAP. I have your blog set as an RSS feed and anxiously have been waiting for updates!!!
Hey, I'm alive and blogging again with a new 7 megapixel camera! 8) This is the quarter sawn white oak flooring that we laid in a herringbone pattern several weeks ago. Laid some more hickory flooring today too. Slow slow slow going. Might be in this house in another year or so. :-\
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/DSC00034-1.JPG)
Thomas,
Good to see you back and read your updates. The herringbone floor with that quarter-sawn oak looks great! I know how keeping up with your blog can take time, especially when you're busy with so much. It's been busy here, but I think we are pretty much ready for the raising this weekend!
dp
Good luck Mudburn. May the force be with you at your raising. Try to visualize every way that something can fail, and take precautions to prevent it. At my raising (which took months ::)), if I took a risk, I tried to make sure I was only risking timbers and equipment - not someone's health and well being. If you get in a bind, tie everything off and wait for the next day. If your raising takes more than a weekend, there's no shame, since the frame should last a few centuries! I'm sure you all will do fine. Wish I could be there. Got to cut hay (or what's left of it after the drought) this week end.
-Thomas
Neat tilework!
What's new?
Beautiful project!!
where in your blog are the pics of your stairs? I would like to see what you did.
anvil
Whew, nice to see that Jeff, our fine steward of the forestry forum, has recovered the pre-crash postings!
I've been working on ten things at once, but I thought some folks might be interested in the latest thing I've started... infilling between the timbers on our house. Turns out, we decided to go with "fake" stucco. But is stucco real to start with? Oh well, in any case, we found some HardiePanels that are cement based and decided they would be just the ticket for inflling between our timbers on the exterior of the house. You can patch nail heads and cracks, etc with regular cement patch. Neat. I've put some info about it on my blog.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P1020070.JPG)
Plus, I've been told I can have a timber frame barn - if I'll just remove it from the property. Torn on whether to keep it for myself or resell it. Finances and timing are pointing toward selling it. That's on my blog too.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P1010079.jpg)
-Thomas
Thanks Anvil, the stairs are under "March 2007" on my blog archives. I haven't done anything to them since March, but I plan to cover them with hardwood some day. I'm not even sure if I'll worry about that until we move in. Too many other things to get done right now. Move in date still too far away to predict. ::)
This fireplace business looks complicated... It's very neat though...
That fireplace is simply fantastic!!
Just checkin in to let you all know I'm still kickin.
We finally got the chimney up through the roof 8), and have built a fire in the Rumford fireplace.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P1010053.JPG)
Even with 3 more feet of chimney yet to build, it draws like crazy - maybe too good! The damper I bought is all-the-way-open or all-the-way-closed type, so I'll need to modify it. You can feel the negative pressure in the house when a fire is going and you open an exterior door. Plus it consumes wood at an alarming rate and the flame looks like a jet with the afterburners on (I'm afraid to even open the fresh-air make-up beneath the fire... I'll wait until I need to smelt iron ore or fix some horse shoes). :o I guess it's better to have too much draw than not enough. I joked to my wife that we could actually let people smoke in the house so long as they sit within 3 feet of the fireplace.
The best news though is that our brick oven works great too. In 10 days, we've cooked 7 meals in there. (even though we're not living in the house!) Frankly, it's a better (more practical) feature than the fireplace.
-Thomas
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13971/P1010079.JPG)
:o
Broken record time... WOW!!!
The floors are really a feature!
bump... Mods: delete this when the OP reappears...
I knew that rose would be awesome but :o WOW
Thomas,
My wife and I are planning to build a house in the spring and up until December it was going to be a stick built home. Then we had some high winds blow through this little island we live on and a bunch of trees fell down so, I started looking into sawing our own lumber for the project. I set out on the internet looking for information on sawing your own and that's where I came across your Blog. Well that night I read and read, got up the next morning and read some more. I was hooked and somewhere in there I decided that I wanted to be a part of this beautiful thing you call timber framing.
Around Christmas I picked up all the right books- Benson, Sobon, and Chapell. Next the Wife talked me into buying the sawmill; I couldn't say no and we began converting our designs to fit a timber frame. We are almost finished with our design and we will start cutting timbers soon.
We are both very excited about our project and I want to thank you for unknowingly guiding me in the right direction. -Jason Pickering
This forum has also been a great source for me. Jim Rogers and all the others, thanks for the educational info.
Jason:
Welcome and keep asking questions.....
Jim Rogers
PS. thanks for your kind words about the forum and this section....
Quote from: jpickering4468 on March 01, 2009, 08:33:23 PM
Next the Wife talked me into buying the sawmill; I couldn't say no and we began converting our designs to fit a timber frame.
You be careful telling this kind of story around here, she'll be getting other proposals on a daily basis :D
And keep us fully informed on the project, sounds exiting for you. Good luck with it.
bump... almost lost it...
Thomas, you are an inspiration to us all. Love that compasss rose!!! Ken
I'm ready to admit to some timberframing sacrilege as of late:
my handrails are attached with lag bolts hidden by wooden pegs...
I darn near cut my white oak sill plate in two to make a hole for my propane hot water heater vent...
I've been drilling holes for light fixtures in my timbers...
I used an electric chainsaw to notch timbers for ductwork.
And I've been screwing plumbing brackets to the timbers in the basement...
....all things I would have shot someone for doing to my frame 2 years ago. :)
But we've moved into our house! A deer hunter/outfitter asked to lease our double-wide, so we jumped out of it and into our house. We're lacking a few luxury items in the new house, like kitchen cabinets, baseboards, window trim, and doors, but we're enjoying living here nonetheless.
Since completing the frame, walls, and roof... things I planned for... I've had to bring on line the things that seemed too far off to think about way back when I was building the frame. I plumbed the house, installed a wood gasification boiler, dug the well, finished installing the solar panels, and about a billion other things it seems like. (with half a billion remaining)
I actually fired up the woodmizer this summer again and cut the timber for my handrails... as well as a few logs that came down in a windstorm (stockpiling the timbers for my next project... which is probably years away.)
If I had it to do over, I would do it again... just maybe a few things differently. In the beginning, the novel thing about our house was the timberframe. The challenge for us now is ironing out all of the details of our off-grid water and electric system. I don't remember ever putting "figure out how to eliminate iron from well water" on my list of to-do's 5 years ago, but here it is.
-Thomas
(Jason... how's it going?)
Just spent the last hour reading this thread. Can't wait to read your blog.
What an inspiration!
Thomas, you are one dedicated guy. Thanks for sharing your story.
This is Thomas Masse house build