tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-214026222012-01-27T06:55:18.776-05:00using timber and stone from our farm, and living off the grid.Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.comBlogger1851100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-62778705822266709562011-09-05T18:00:00.000-05:002011-09-04T18:01:04.790-05:00

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-83304435942841758092011-09-04T17:09:00.000-05:002011-09-04T17:09:25.614-05:00

This is my first house update in a while, and my first blog entry from the iPad... Since I have a day job now, there's very little time for working on the house. The stone mason has been laying up the stone on the retaining wall for the past few days. The family and I have been collecting the stones for him from the creek, woods, and the little quarry that I abandoned a couple of years ago.  

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-74067819428083386742011-05-02T18:44:00.001-05:002011-05-02T18:46:55.707-05:00

Ron Paul is going to run for President.  To show the world that you support restoring freedom, liberty, and common sense to our government/country, please consider donating to Ron Paul's May 5th, 2011 Moneybomb!!!  In a single day, on May 5th, we're trying to raise as much money as possible for Ron Paul's campaign.  Check out these links if you want to help: A link where you can pledge.The

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-47597034687616713362010-11-25T00:20:00.000-05:002010-11-25T00:20:08.288-05:00

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-24030334014632807472010-11-22T18:36:00.000-05:002010-11-22T18:36:26.864-05:00

About a year after we moved into our house, our drains quit draining properly.  I opened the cover to our septic tank and discovered that the floating sludge in the tank was blocking the inlet pipe.  I used a mattock and punched the floating sludge down into the septic tank and everything was fine... for about a month.  But the problem kept re-occurring at the most inopportune moments.  The

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-21368946398825640922010-10-04T10:11:00.000-05:002010-10-04T10:11:07.635-05:00

Paul says hi !  The ladder to the right is actually a track for the gasoline powered lift that raises the stones and "mud" up to the stonemason.  Without the lift, this project would be much more difficult.  It's powered by a 3.5hp Briggs-and-Stratton motor. In the picture above, you can see the raw stone that we're cutting and chiseling to make the pitch face stones for the tower.  Most of the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-89294240214965834502010-07-23T12:36:00.000-05:002010-07-23T12:36:27.869-05:00

There are nine arched windows in the tower on the front of our house.  Each of these arches will require eleven stones, so I have 99 stones to cut for the window arches.  Yes, that's my youngest daughter playing in the masonry sand near the front of the house.  Here's the step-by-step process of how I have been carving the stones for these windows... The first thing I do is to score (cut a

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-35530322294539456372010-07-08T16:23:00.002-05:002010-07-08T16:41:53.592-05:00

After a 6 month hiatus from house blogging, I'm back in the game.  The good news is that I defeated the incumbent County Judge Executive in a political race, and the candidate for US senate (Rand Paul) that I was promoting won his primary election against an establishment politician as well.  The bad news (for blog followers!) is that I'll be super busy starting this January, assuming I win the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-34711737164648766002010-05-16T23:44:00.001-05:002010-05-17T00:04:35.360-05:00

Why I love those fox body mustangs.  You can stuff 4x8 signs in the back, throw in some fence posts, and you're good to go! We drove to Florence this evening (200 miles round trip) to help work the GOTV effort on the phones for Rand Paul.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-57227966673946346182010-05-16T08:33:00.000-05:002010-05-16T08:33:13.791-05:00

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-42448906556105731502010-05-16T07:42:00.003-05:002010-05-16T08:25:03.706-05:00

The battle for the heart and soul of the national republican party is underway right now in Kentucky.  In three days, Rand Paul (Tea Party Republican favorite) will defeat Trey Grayson (Bailout Establishment Republican favorite) in the Kentucky primary for US Senate.  The only question now is... by how much?  A crushing (double digit) win will send shock waves across Kentucky and throughout the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-16428081802486240262009-12-23T18:04:00.001-05:002009-12-23T18:05:40.567-05:00

After digging our well, we had the water tested for over a hundred different possible problems; the good news is that it had only two deficiencies.  The beautiful stones in this county have iron deposits all over them, so we weren't surprised to learn that our ground water had iron in it too.  (about 4 grains per gallon)  The other problem with our water was that it had a low ph.  (roughly 6.2) 

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-6331217852245639462009-12-23T16:27:00.001-05:002009-12-23T16:30:27.815-05:00

We have curtains for interior doors, no kitchen cabinets, and no baseboard trim, but that hasn't kept us from moving in.  There are very few pine trees on our farm, so last week, after the kids got out of school, we went to farm about 15 miles west of here and cut our first Christmas tree for the new house. When we got back to the house, I took the spare tire out of the back of my truck and

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-25571285260730934562009-11-04T20:12:00.003-05:002010-01-22T13:25:53.128-05:00

Sorry, one more off topic post and then I'll go back to blogging about timber-framing, living off grid, and being more self-reliant.  I promise!  This week, I filed with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance to run as a Republican in our upcoming race for County Judge Executive.  One of the reason's we moved back to eastern Kentucky (apart from: perfect climate, great people, down-to-earth

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-6306551273079935072009-10-26T11:50:00.006-05:002009-10-26T12:25:04.989-05:00

Geek, hillbilly, and redneck are generally considered terms of derision. But I've been trying to teach my children that they are badges of honor. So eight years ago, when two fellow geeks called me up and asked if I wanted to go on TV as a self professed geek, I said sure why not?! We made an audition video and sent it to the The Learning Channel's popular T.V. show Junkyard Wars. Our team

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-79453490165942040352009-10-07T14:32:00.007-05:002009-10-07T14:55:40.347-05:00

In spite of wind, rain, and visiting friends, I finally finished our solar panel installation. We now have 36 panels on the roof. Each of them is rated for 208 watts, so the total production capacity of the array under ideal conditions is 7488 watts. Today, when the sun appeared between the clouds, I saw the system reach its theoretical maximum of 7.5Kw! The best number I could capture today

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-56556733968990116462009-10-03T10:51:00.007-05:002009-10-03T11:30:35.957-05:00

We've been operating with 5Kw of solar panels on the roof, while 2.5Kw sat in the basement... waiting for me to get up the gumption to put them on the roof. I used my 1974 Grove crane to put the first 5Kw of panels on the roof, but this time I thought I would try it w/o the crane... thereby freeing up the crane operator (my wife!) to do other tasks around the house.My panels are attached to the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-11222745486625112412009-09-12T23:57:00.011-05:002009-09-24T16:46:40.403-05:00

Other than an occasional rant against inane building codes, I've tried, with some success, to suppress my political leanings on this blog over the years. My mission for the house blog has been to provide some entertaining, if not sometimes informative, content about our quest to build an off-the-grid timber frame home. What started out as a means of keeping friends and family informed of our

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-57804978168234882002009-08-20T13:53:00.007-05:002009-08-20T16:09:52.476-05:00

What happens when an MIT engineer designs his own domestic hot water system for use off the grid? Read on...In our doublewide, hot water is simple... turn the knob and hot water pours out of the cheesy plastic shower head, thanks to grid electricity and a typical electric hot water tank. There are just three major problems as I see them: (1) after 15 minutes in the shower, I start thinking

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-51983296839568505112009-07-25T09:28:00.007-05:002009-07-25T09:51:00.706-05:00

Start with a 3 year old white oak log. Drag to sawmill with back hoe. Saw off the rotten sap wood. Mill a 24 foot 4x8 timber and a few 24 foot 3x6's timber on a 21 foot saw mill. (tricky) 4x8 too heavy. Use 3x6. Carry to house site with backhoe. Plane. Evict some interesting worms. Treat with boric acid. Drill 53 holes in rail. Lag and and bolt to existing timber frame and chimney. Hide anchor

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-60537078743294151982009-07-05T16:46:00.003-05:002009-07-05T17:07:23.237-05:00

Here are pictures of the finished 3rd floor timber frame hand rail. This first picture was taken from the stairwell, and the eyebrow dormer can be seen to the right.My wife applied three or four coats of oil based polyurethane before I installed the black iron balusters. I discovered this style of baluster at Lowes several months ago and bought enough of them to do the 2nd floor hand rail.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-60660215603636919722009-07-05T09:38:00.010-05:002009-07-05T11:13:11.562-05:00

On the list of "critical path items" before we move into our timber frame house is "finish the hand rails." I decided to use mortise and tenon joinery with pegged joints so that the handrails would match the timberframe aesthetic. My witty friend calls this "gothick architecture."I found a 3 year old white oak 6x6 and a 3 year old white oak 3x6 laying outside next to my sawmill. Although the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-8350442086770728552009-06-25T21:55:00.007-05:002009-06-26T00:05:15.846-05:00

Last weekend, our daughter's softball game was interrupted due to a tornado warning. Rather than book it back to our mobile home, we decided to weather this one out at our house site. Our brick pizza oven was still warm from the night before, so we heated up leftovers and listened to the radio for weather updates.In spite of strong winds and driving rain, things were calm and cozy inside our

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-69331216185874197902009-06-25T20:58:00.004-05:002009-08-27T00:16:06.796-05:00

It's brutally hot and humid here in Kentucky now, which makes it an odd time to be discussing radiant heat, but I'd like to describe the final details of our radiant floors as we implement them.I fired up the system this past winter and it worked great for heating the house and keeping our feet warm. In fact, the home-made aluminum transfer plates (10 to 15 cents apiece thank you!) were so

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-14569652035369659892009-03-19T11:09:00.005-05:002009-03-19T11:54:33.566-05:00

Most Geothermal heat pumps available today have the option of providing free hot water in the summer time. Although it sounds too good to be true, it really does work. Here's how: A geothermal heat pump cools your house in the summer by removing "heat" from the inside air and transferring that heat to the ground outside. Instead of transferring all of this excess heat to the ground, the heat

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-87303883502087320272009-02-23T16:09:00.005-05:002009-02-23T17:14:58.047-05:00

This is a continuation, more or less, of a much earlier entry entitled Compass Rose.Last week we rented the floor sanding equipment again and finished the rest of our hardwood floors. It was a marathon floor finishing session, during which we applied 13.5 gallons of oil based polyurethane. I've decided that oil based polyurethane smells like bad tequila, with a hangover to match, but I'm

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-43853563511048610912009-02-21T13:07:00.009-05:002009-02-21T14:52:15.075-05:00

Because we raise our own beef and grow a lot of our own vegetables, having a reliable, energy efficient freezer is a must. We make our own electricity and it's very reliable, so we don't have to worry about a grid power outage ruining a season's worth of food. This independence and reliability comes at a price though. Our solar panels make only so much electricity each month, and expanding the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-52033431567696424572009-02-15T15:03:00.004-05:002009-02-15T15:32:31.861-05:00

I usually post only original material on my blog, but I came across a video so incredible, I wanted to share it. (This man is incredible as well.) Like my house, this guy's house has geothermal and solar power. He has a utility line run to his house (it was his original power source and still functions as a backup), but for some reason, he's chosen not to sell power back to the grid.I'm not

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-37036737576274603282009-02-10T15:08:00.006-05:002009-02-10T18:12:47.007-05:00

Whew, for over a month, I've been immersed in the "theory and practice of modern hydronic heating." My task was to install our wood gasification boiler, build a heat distribution manifold (the circulatory system of our house), and get our radiant heat floors going. I'm happy to report that I have accomplished my mission - it's a balmy 66 degrees inside the house now!The heart of our hydronic

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-88138351398983497652009-01-01T13:08:00.010-05:002009-01-01T14:52:12.831-05:00

The day after Christmas, the geothermal installer called me (waking me up) and told me the well drillers were on the way. I began to protest, but then reconsidered since I had been waiting for months to get them on site. Actually I had feared that with the onset of mud season, our window of opportunity might have passed. The road was in terrible shape, but if the drillers were rarin' and

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-73985807669190143172008-12-10T11:51:00.002-05:002008-12-10T13:05:49.410-05:00

Several months ago, I wrote about our pilgrimage to Lehman's in Kidron, Ohio to pick up our wood cook stove. To know that it would fit, we wanted to have the woodstove on hand while building the masonry alcove where it will probably reside for many decades. This is one of those products that I wish was made in the USA, but alas, it's manufactured in Waterford, Ireland. Most of the few

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-62555146312006433532008-12-08T23:50:00.000-05:002008-12-09T13:57:27.093-05:00

For almost two years now, we've had a piece of marine plywood (with screen door hinges on it) serving as our back door. That poor piece of plywood took a beating as we carried rocks, mortar, timbers and whatever else we needed into the house through that opening. Now that most of the "rough" construction is finished on the inside of the house, we decided that it was time to hang our real back

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-16795231695948616122008-12-08T13:41:00.001-05:002008-12-08T16:00:48.996-05:00

This week marks the 2 year anniversary of our Off Grid electrical system. Two years ago I turned off the generator and commissioned the solar panels and we haven't looked back since. In fact, we haven't so much as run a backup generator at the house site in those two years. (In the interest of full disclosure: I did run my welder from a tractor PTO generator, independent of the house system.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-13438966869411141802008-12-03T18:39:00.002-05:002008-12-08T16:23:58.916-05:00

I just started another blog to share our experience of raising beef cattle on our farm. If you're strictly interested in home building or timber framing, then don't waste your time at my new blog. (For that matter, why are you wasting your time at this blog?!) Seriously, if you're into sustainable farming or if you like the taste of good beef, then you might want to check it out! The short

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-61997967723194204572008-11-12T08:54:00.001-05:002008-11-12T10:06:20.845-05:00

Designing a house is difficult. Four years ago when I began, I knew virtually nothing about fireplace design. I made accommodations for the fireplace within the timberframe and foundation, but I neglected to include provisions for the fireplace hearth. Ideally, if I could have known everything back then, I would have poured a cantilevered concrete ledge to support the hearth. As it were, I

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-11561720074580781872008-11-02T16:03:00.000-05:002008-11-02T17:43:45.869-05:00

In New Hampshire, we lived with a drilled well, but back here in Kentucky our mobile home is connected to "city water." Both sources have had their drawbacks. For our new house, I have resolved to provide our own "drinkable" water. Water for the toilets and water for laundry will come from a cistern that collects rainwater from our slate roof. Drinking, cooking, and bathing water will come

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-17612141624932965172008-10-18T12:42:00.003-05:002008-10-18T16:18:12.827-05:00

There's very little evidence that I'm doing anything but taking pictures at our house site. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few PVC drains sticking up through the floor, this first picture does nothing to dispel that myth. Here you can see the mason grouting the joints in our kitchen floor, with my wife in the background, cleaning off the sandstone before the grout stains become

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-43028785801402036012008-10-16T01:00:00.001-05:002008-10-17T08:50:10.933-05:00

My neighbor has been using my backhoe a few hours each day after work to collect rocks and pile them in our front yard. In the course of a week, he has used 15 gallons of diesel, but he has accumulated quite a pile of rocks! Some of these rocks weigh over a ton each. (you might find the 3 gallon bucket in the picture to get a sense of scale). These are rocks that were laying on top of the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-3226589077967877892008-10-14T08:27:00.001-05:002008-10-14T09:23:52.503-05:00

About a third of the way into the kitchen flooring project, I burned out on kitchen flooring. I made a deal with my wife "If you'll finish the kitchen floor, I'll do the plumbing." She cut and fit the remaining 2/3's of the stones for the floor, and mortared most of them down with thinset. Before she finished cutting and fitting all of the stones, we had to go on another expedition to find

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-53745763066928007532008-09-18T16:06:00.002-05:002008-09-18T18:06:05.794-05:00

This little turret feature on the outside of our house was not in the original design. It was just something I decided to do when I realized it could be done and it would look neat. The stonework has been done for a year, but I've been putting off building the flat roof (aka bath-tub roof) that must go inside of the balcony.I don't know how they waterproofed flat roofs on castles five hundred

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-63297067630810460332008-09-18T16:06:00.000-05:002008-09-18T16:16:51.500-05:00

I caught a swarm of bees on a nearby farm earlier this summer, when I should have been working on the house. Because I have hives elsewhere on our farm, I decided to park this new hive up at our house site. The other day, I went to check on them, and saw this little bee hanging on for all she was worth.With all the things left to do before the house is complete, I feel like this bee some times.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-26727687469165829832008-08-30T08:07:00.000-05:002008-08-30T09:07:18.704-05:00

When I set out to build our house, I wanted every stick of wood to come from our farm. Practicality reared its ugly head, and I've modified that goal to "every timber, some of the t&g ceilings, and most of the floor joists." My other pie-in-the-sky goal was to be completely off the grid. That's a goal I'm sticking to! The off grid solar power at the house site has been on line for 20 months,

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-24921656022132580842008-08-29T16:25:00.000-05:002008-08-29T16:34:13.590-05:00

At the end of one week, this is all we have completed. :( Some of the stones in this picture are bedded in mortar, while some of them are still loose. We have relaxed the tolerances on the grout joints a bit, so the grout will be more likely to flow into the joints (when we get to that part!). Because of the variations in stone thickness (3/8 to 1"), I'm finding it difficult (but not

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-52964730529585264282008-08-29T15:38:00.001-05:002008-08-29T16:24:53.644-05:00

One key element of passive solar design is to provide lots of roof overhang on south facing windows. Because the sun is higher in the sky in the summer, the overhang (if designed properly) prevents direct sunlight from impinging on the windows in the hottest months of the year. In the winter the sun is lower in the sky, so the overhang will not impede the sun from striking the windows and

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-56072046404475444852008-08-26T23:27:00.000-05:002008-08-28T08:06:01.609-05:00

Sunday, my wife, our four kids, and I went searching for flagstones in the creek that runs through our farm. Using a spud bar, even our youngest children were able to separate layers of thin silt stone that we then loaded in the back of our Polaris Ranger. (Tons of this stone gets busted up and washed down the creek with every heavy rainstorm, so our environmental impact was extremely low.)

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-78962607496375277042008-08-26T17:17:00.001-05:002008-08-26T21:42:43.032-05:00

A while back, I posted some pictures of us installing radiant heat tubing between the floor joists and the sub floor. For months, this tubing has been hanging beneath the floor. But now, because its time to put some real ceilings in our house, I've finally started properly securing the tubing to the bottom of the sub floor. From my internet research, it looks like the heat transfer to the floor

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-68130693847289405552008-07-12T01:17:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:10.309-05:00

We're at least 24 months behind our original schedule for completing this house, but at this point we've found a certain liberation in knowing that the schedule has been completely blown. As if we needed something else to slow us down, my wife and I decided to try inlaying a compass rose medallion in our third floor tower room. The conversation went something like this "You know a few days

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-62546688045478657442008-07-11T23:27:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:11.211-05:00

Well, it happened again... I learned why not to ignore the warning labels on chemical products! In a sort of marathon session, my wife and I finished the hardwood floors in 6 large rooms and 3 walk in closets in less than 4 days. In the process, we created a lot of dust. Dangerous dust it turns out.After nailing down the new flooring, I sanded the floors with an orbital floor sander rented

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-6689241980068437722008-06-01T10:29:00.001-05:002008-12-11T14:58:11.796-05:00

With all of the messy stonework, blockwork, and stucco work complete on the inside of the house, we've decided to start putting down more hardwood flooring. This first picture is of the cherry floor we put down in the loft. We bought this flooring, unfinished, from the warehouse for $1/square foot. It already had microbevels premilled on the edges, so it was destined to be sold as prefinished

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-17378693504233447262008-06-01T09:58:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:12.406-05:00

Working on the chimney is hard sometimes because of the heat and smoke coming from it! Seriously, the fact that the chimney is not complete has not kept us from cooking lots of yummy food in the pizza oven. The other night, I seared home-grown rib steaks directly on the bricks next to the fire, while this loaf of bread cooked further off to one side of the oven, and broccoli steamed in a cast

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-72632371035954913082008-06-01T08:50:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:13.367-05:00

Whew, I'm way behind on updating the blog! In fact, I just realized that we stucco'ed the entire chimney without taking a single picture of the process. Oh well, here's a so-so picture of the finished product.I used the Quickrete one-step Stucco product that comes in 80 lb bags - "just add water." I applied it directly to the cinder blocks (wetted down with water) with no mesh or lath and it

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-57145706034208730012008-04-12T07:49:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:15.213-05:00

Using end-cuts and culls from the hickory flooring that we laid several months ago, I started the first fire in our pizza oven. Per the recommendations, I started the fire near the entrance tunnel. The first thing I noticed is that this oven design does not let a single puff of smoke into the living area. Wonderful! In fact, the only way that you can cause even a wisp of smoke to spill out

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-56762997350466753692008-04-07T08:00:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:15.876-05:00

The combination of a pulled muscle and overly neglected farm chores conspired to bring construction at our house to a halt for a couple of weeks. But things finally went into high gear last week when the mason convinced one of his sons (also a mason) to visit for a week and help with the chimney. They worked on the chimney from the inside of the house without much help from me for a couple of

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-33251193204337837442008-03-05T17:02:00.001-05:002008-12-11T14:58:17.543-05:00

We're above the loft now and going a faster on the chimney than we did on the fireplace because we're using block instead of stone. Eventually, we will parge the outside of the block with stucco. I would have loved to have taken the stone all the way to the ceiling, but its just too much work.The man in the blue shirt is our "masonry consultant." Now that I'm done with the stonework, I've

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-1927029645891884172008-02-24T11:53:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:18.828-05:00

Completed: Six stone arches and approximately 250 square feet of dry-laid stone, using only rocks found here on our farm. It took way too long, but now that part is finished and my life can go on. In retrospect, I think it would have been cheaper and faster if I had taken a job frying burgers at McDonalds for 3 months and paid the stone mason to do all of this with artificial stone veneer. But

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-57654544392381626892008-02-13T17:39:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:19.534-05:00

Slow. There is no better word to describe the pace of dry laid stone work, using real stone and keeping tight joints. But I'm almost to the loft! Once I get to the loft, I've decided to build the rest of the chimney with cinder blocks and parge it with lime based stucco. Stone would be nice all the way up, but it is too much work and I need to get on with this house (and life)!In the first

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-87744298702946552632008-01-30T07:59:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:19.709-05:00

Joe Jenkins, author of "The Slate Roof Bible," publishes a nice magazine called "Traditional Roofing Magazine." His book is awesome, so when he asked me to write a short article for his magazine, I was honored to try. To my excitement, the latest issue of the magazine (with my article) arrived in the mail last week. (I can't help but to think of the scene in "The Jerk" when Steve Martin gets

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-22140327801561120702008-01-26T08:45:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:20.913-05:00

All of the stone for our house has come from our farm. Most of it was "free stone," which around here manifests itself as nice rectangular chunks. In other words, I picked it up from the ground, out of the creek, and from the hillsides where natural erosion and uprooted trees uncovered the layers that had been hidden for millions of years. One day late last summer, I decided to be more

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-16134746455699043762008-01-25T07:09:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:22.127-05:00

Yesterday, the mason started on the brick arch that will line the ceiling of the wood cook stove alcove. Other than a few of the firebrick in the firebox, I've left all of the brick laying up to him. I thought I would show his nifty secrets in this blog posting. First the form... it was his brainstorm to use masonite to line the arch. The 1/8th inch peg-board can be found at just about any

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-73987467335450189982008-01-24T17:03:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:23.136-05:00

Each day we plod forward on the fireplace project. I can get really fired up in the morning and think that I'm going to get a lot done that day, but it never seems to turn out like that. So, I just chip away every day and progress happens slowly. I'm excited to be done with 5 of the 6 stone arches that will be contained within this structure. I think I'm getting better at it, but it still

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-43493461591347792102007-12-31T17:12:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:24.063-05:00

We used firebrick to build the hearth of the wood fired pizza oven. First, we spread Heat Stop refractory cement (fireclay) to the base using a 1/4" notch trowel and then we placed the firebricks bricks on the cement as tight as we could. Three times, we pulled a brick back up and removed or added cement to the bottom of it in order to get them all to lay flat. A brick that's too high or too

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-18450497366198343082007-12-22T18:06:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:24.586-05:00

Recently, we poured the concrete slab that the pizza oven will sit upon. Beneath the pizza oven are two wood storage alcoves, so it was necessary to build wooden forms. The slab that supports the pizza oven also serves as the ceilings for the wood storage alcoves. For reinforcement, I threw in some left over woven wire (mesh) fence before we bucketed in the concrete. After placing 8" of

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-47814475049778427052007-12-19T09:06:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:24.777-05:00

We're working on the inside of the house most days, and the outside of the house is likely to look like this for several months, so I thought I'd post a picture. You can imagine what our finished house will look like if you... replace the road cone with a copper finial, take the plywood off the top of the small stone tower, add stone (yet to be quarried) all the way up to the top of the tall

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-12992424613291518802007-12-18T11:22:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:26.236-05:00

Here's a view of the wood cook stove alcove as viewed from the kitchen. Instead of using cinder blocks (parged with stucco) to build the alcove, I decided to use bricks with colors and textures that match our native sandstone. Visible in this picture is the 8.5"x8.5" flue liner for the flue that will be used to vent a possible furnace or hot water heater in our basement. The flue liner barely

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-30690637019360722112007-12-13T17:36:00.000-05:002007-12-18T10:43:24.460-05:00

Today I'm adding links to two new timber frame blogs. Although they're just getting started with their blogs, both of these guys have taken timber frame workshops, and have some combination of tools, timbers, and land. I'd say they're serious about timberframing. Good luck guys!The Nelson Timber Frame Blog and Brad's Timber Frame BlogWhoops... I can't believe I forgot aboutDarryl's excellent

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-67162050935695992812007-12-12T19:47:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:26.836-05:00

No I'm not referring to my culinary skills... whatever I put in the pan always turns into carbon. I'm blogging about our new wood cook stove! My mother-in-law and father-in-law are already laughing at us for buying a wood cook stove. They threw theirs out 50 years ago and haven't looked back once. I have romantic notions about being able to cook with fuel we can grow on our farm... and wood

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-15945265028999679132007-12-12T17:59:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:27.468-05:00

The weather outside has turned nasty, with alternating rain, snow, and sleet, so the stone mason and I have moved indoors to work on the fireplace.I had started on the fireplace months ago (link to that blog entry), but other projects called me away. Pausing the fireplace progress was serendipitous, because now I have a real stone mason to help me. He shows up on alternate days to advise and to

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-16663153712356143552007-11-17T15:37:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:28.569-05:00

A good neighbor recently told me of a timber frame barn that has been slated for removal. In fact, he said I could have the barn if I would take it down and remove it from the property. I've chased down similar leads from others before, and those all turned out to be duds. In spite of my skepticism, I drove over an hour on back roads to see if this barn was for real, and really worth saving.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-44039094832406496092007-11-16T17:34:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:28.979-05:00

The onset of winter has greatly elevated our desire to seal up the exterior of our house. Most of the house is covered with SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) - they are airtight and provide great insulation... no drafts there! But for one area of our house, we chose to try and replicate the older (European?) style of timberframing, by exposing timbers on both the inside and outside of the house.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-57257742942732397002007-11-03T10:14:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:29.131-05:00

Throughout the project, we've usually had one or two people helping us ("inlaws and outlaws"), but we've slowed down a bit and now it's just my wife and I working on the house most days. (plus the dry-wall finisher) My wife has been running the crane, with me on the end of it (talk about excitement!), in order for us to mount more of our solar panels. Since December '06, we had been operating

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-42945040799148393222007-11-03T09:57:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:29.431-05:00

...This is the actual color of blue that our oldest daughter chose for her room. Very bright! The highly-figured upright post in the center-left of the picture is hard maple.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-52564697896615718692007-09-30T15:45:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:29.740-05:00

Last year, I wrote a review of all of my timber frame books. But since then, I've acquired a new timber frame book worht mentioning. It's called "Discovering Timber-Framed Buildings" and was written by Richard Harris. The author is English, and it was actually one of his former students, Ken Hume, from across the pond that turned me on to this book.It's a small paperback, presumably meant to be

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-82818973379046989322007-09-02T17:43:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:32.078-05:00

In the process of roofing our house with slate, we generated a pile of scrap pieces of slate. Most of the scrap was the result of cutting the slate to form hips and valleys. A very small amount of the scrap was slate that had faults, pyrite, or other defects from the quarry that kept us from putting it on the roof. And yes, I'll admit, I missed a nail or two on the roof and generated a few

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-11054753085376901522007-08-28T21:02:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:32.461-05:00

This summer has been exceptionally hot and dry in Kentucky. To keep the heat down at the house site, we've been opening a few first floor windows at night and placing an exhaust fan in one of the windows on the third floor. If the outside temperature is in the high 90's in the day and mids 60's at night, I can keep the temperature in the house between 72 and 80 degrees with the fan alone.Even

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-77441601836790411862007-08-28T20:27:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:33.209-05:00

My wife is the designer, purchaser, and applier of paint in our new house. Her patience for painting right-up-to, but not onto the timbers far exceeds mine, so I'm glad she's taken up the challenge! The first rooms she painted were white and antique white, and it really made the timbers stand out. We were excited to see finished walls, and it really brightened up the rooms but frankly, they

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-58939560829409593302007-08-28T19:36:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:33.814-05:00

We decided to try our hand at herringbone floors, and it turned out to be extremely time consuming. Not counting sanding or finishing, it took myself and my wife 30 hours to nail down the flooring in this 14 x 14 foot room. Although you might think it would make sense to start in the middle of the room, the only way I could figure to lay this flooring (and still use a flooring nailer to nail

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-2394792360493970002007-08-18T07:56:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:34.412-05:00

The stone mason just keeps on going! I estimate that he has laid about 70,000 pounds of stone on our house so far. I had a huge pile of stone before he started and that disappeared quickly. Now we have been digging it out of the ground again in an effort to keep up with him. I shove the dirt/shale/clay off the top of the layers of stone and pull the layers up with a backhoe. At that point we

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-79421817872576994152007-08-12T10:00:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:36.376-05:00

This summer, my family and I attended the Slate Roofing Contractor's Association conference in Pennsylvania. It was an extraordinary event! The organizer and host, Joe Jenkins (author of the slate roof bible) noted that it was the first gathering of professional slate roofers, specifically for slate roofers, in over 50 years. I am not a member of the organization, so in order to attend as a

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-73680591913950972302007-06-15T11:20:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:36.424-05:00

While the stonework continues outside, we're laying hardwood floors on the inside. I'll have lots more to say when I get this figured out... but for now I have some progress to show. This is white-oak and walnut, laid out in a checkerboard pattern for one of my son's rooms. We have also nailed down some hickory strip flooring in one of the other rooms. I can't wait to sand some of this and

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-45663819503636766752007-06-14T23:35:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:36.571-05:00

That's my family locked in the tower. :)Seriously, some specs...*every stone is from our farm. 95% were found within 200 yards of the house. each one is pitch-faced by hand with a chisel. they are laid flat w.r.t. their geological bedding. I cut the three window sills from the same slab.*the stone walls are about 8" thick to the corbels above the corbels, the walls are 16" thick the crenelation

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-9784462230440817542007-06-14T11:12:00.001-05:002012-01-19T00:02:44.907-05:00

A day in the making, "turtles" are conceived when your mason mixes a fresh batch of mortar and goes to have "just one beer." They are born when he returns the next day with a hang-over and dumps out his wheel-barrow. The stonemasons told me about one of their peers who was notorious for his turtles. Legend has it, he left two dozen turtles on one brick job before the work was complete.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-5773511653636093292007-06-03T08:11:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:36.941-05:00

My brother stopped by a couple of weeks ago and snapped this picture of the great room ceiling (taken from the 2nd floor loft). His camera (a nice 8 megapixel kodak) has a much wider angle than mine.We are progressing with the stonework on the outside of the house... more pictures of that soon.

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-15553929771944817302007-05-26T12:57:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:37.528-05:00

lin·tel /ˈlɪntl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[lin-tl] -nounhorizontal architectural member supporting the weight above an opening, as a window or a door. Also, British, lintol. (from dictionary.com)There are several methods for spanning an opening in a masonry wall. Arches are the most elegant, but angle iron is probably the most common. Rather than employ either of

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-38861863979855626422007-05-23T19:37:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:38.093-05:00

Here's a view of our front yard from the third floor of the "big tower." I've been sorting our stones according to size in order to help the masons. This wasn't necessary, or even very helpful, when laying the random-type stonework on the back side of our house, but...A few years ago when I was in Germany, I noticed that old castles had different styles of stonework on the same structure. I

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-31780115670086072252007-05-20T23:32:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:38.377-05:00

Relatives stopped in to visit Saturday. My wife, my cousin, and my grandmother (Mam-maw) pulled a fast one and slipped off to do some antique shopping, leaving my aunt to watch 4 boys and 2 girls at our house site where I was trying to work. The girls were happy to stay in the sand box, but it wasn't long before the boys were in my hair. Just as I was about to get frustrated, I had what I

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-78219890513728036282007-05-20T21:17:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:39.917-05:00

My B-I-L and I were hanging from the end of a crane, fabricating the very last piece of copper ridge cap for the roof when a truck pulled up in the driveway. One of the guys stepped out and yelled up "found a stone mason yet?" "Uh no, not really, I started on the fireplace myself... have a look around... be down in 40 minutes... got to finish this roof!" This is how the stone age (aka the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-4887081469222732502007-05-11T08:34:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:40.244-05:00

We're done slating the tower, and have moved on to the last remaining bit of the main roof. The ladder in the picture allows us access from a 3rd floor window to the top of the main roof, without walking on the slate. It is much easier to cut the slates inside the house and carry them to the roof than it is to cut the slates on the roof.Due to head on collisions with endangered birds and hazards

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-69213354559418493162007-04-26T15:41:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:40.399-05:00

Just a quick picture update of our slate roof progress. We've worked about 15 man-days on the tower slate so far... It is not really as complete as the picture might lead you to believe.We have a lot more slate to put on the back side of the tower, but I like how it looks so far, so I guess we'll keep going! The fish scale slates are for my wife - she thinks I'm a slacker for not doing the whole

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-82484946933894607452007-04-17T16:31:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:41.007-05:00

Just as I was beginning to enjoy working indoors and building our stone fireplace, mother nature served a rude wake up call that our roof was not finished. During a rainstorm this past weekend, I went up to the top floor of our house and discovered not one, but two rapidly growing puddles of water inside the house. The water was coming in exactly where we quit roofing last fall when the weather

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-9472514137544986932007-04-17T01:06:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:41.872-05:00

I've finally started laying some stonework for our fireplace. It's slow but fun! My original thought was to have a professional mason lay up our fireplace and chimney with blockwork, and then as time permitted I would go back and face the blockwork with stone from our farm. But as I'm learning with this house, it really pays to think about your plans and to see if there isn't a simpler, cheaper

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-88289808420107421082007-04-16T23:38:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:43.393-05:00

Rumford fireplaces are differentiated from typical American fireplaces by their tall/shallow fireboxes, their streamlined throats, and most importantly... by their promise of actually producing more heat than they waste! They are designed to maximize the direct and reflected radiant heat from the fire in your fireplace. For everything you ever wanted to know about Rumford fireplaces, see http://

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-55407848548724394012007-04-16T21:47:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:44.552-05:00

Four years ago, we did a little project on this farm that required some concrete. To make a long story short, on that project, a concrete truck went "wheels up" with 10 yards of concrete in the drum and yes, the concrete set-up in the drum before we could get the truck upright. We've poured cubic 300 yards since then, but still, every time we pour concrete, my adrenalin gets pumping. I've noticed

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-18637171403142678172007-04-16T21:20:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:44.959-05:00

On the way to the house site the other day, I noticed a large black lump in the road. At first I thought it might be a feral black cat that often hunts mice in the field below our house. But as I approached the animal, it didn't jump away - instead it barely took notice of me.It was a huge snapping turtle. No, the irony was not lost upon me... surely this was a sign that I have been taking too

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-61581896583638230952007-03-24T00:22:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:46.319-05:00

Each of the previous two flights of stairs presented unique challenges to solve... and the final flight (shown here) was no exception. The challenge presented by this flight of stairs, was "how to support the landing?" Three of the four corners of the landing could be tied into the stud walls, but how to support the fourth corner? The answer, it turned out, was to "add another timber to the house

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-8922306985095082962007-03-23T23:38:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:46.880-05:00

There seemed to me 3 options for building stairs in our timber frame home. #1. fashion "airy and open" stairs solely from timbers and solid plank boards. #2. build "closed stairs" with typical building materials or #3. build partially open stairs with typical building materials, inserting timber supports and beefy timber-like handrails where appropriate. Given my limited experience at stair

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-37719789451292534892007-03-23T21:32:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:47.657-05:00

For several months, we've been using three bucks of rusty, rickety old stair-scaffolding to go between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors of the house. (and to get to the basement, we had to go outside and walk down the hill) I traded 8 round bales of hay to "borrow" the reject scaffolding, so I considered the use of the scaffolding a real blessing. But it was finally time to see it go.The metal stair

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-16989826001266752882007-03-22T20:10:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:49.254-05:00

This first picture is a sad one... we're ripping tongue and groove ceilings off of the sunroom. Lesson learned - 90lb roll roofing makes lousy temporary roofing. Water seeped through the holes caused by the roofing nails (someone told me they self seal - don't believe everything you hear!) and more water seeped beneath the roofing where it met the walls. A little water probably wouldn't have hurt

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-45305859281835077432007-02-20T19:56:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:50.320-05:00

Stacking and moving over 200,000lbs of timbers multiple times is no small task. The problem was how to fit the long timbers in the barns (they have relatively narrow doors), without hand stacking them? My solution was to beg, borrow, or steal every old farm wagon/trailer that I could find, stack the timbers on the wagons once (and only once!) as we finished notching them, pull them into the

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-79730906982001594202007-02-20T18:43:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:50.482-05:00

We notched and stacked hundreds of timbers for over one year before assembling our frame. Occasionally, self-doubt would creep in and I would wonder if we were ever going to get the frame to fit together. Just how many stinking timbers were sitting in the barns, with grievous errors in the joinery... waiting to rear their ugly heads when it came time to raise the frame? The stick-frame

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402622.post-88543713831571250662007-02-20T18:27:00.000-05:002008-12-11T14:58:50.837-05:00

Drawboring (aka as drawpinning) is the technique of intentionally offsetting the peg holes of a pair of mortise and tenons to be joined. When a tapered peg is driven into the hole, the peg will try to align the two holes and in the process, draw the joint together very tightly. As the wood seasons and shrinks with time (remember most imberframes are assembled with green lumber), the bowed

Thomas Massiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085378617349302703noreply@blogger.com3