traditional new home project - part deux

[phansford]

[cousinbirgco]

Well thank you kindly, phansford, just a side note, I wanted
to recognize and thank my cousineddie who has been my
constant companion and confidant for the past year during
this project. His experience and devotion has been a great
inspiration and comfort to me and eventhough he can be a
royal pain in the butt sometimes,
I could not have gotten this far without him.

and just for your information, I haven't been in touch with
my feminine side for quite a while, but come to think of it,
Sybil does have a nice ring to it.

[cousineddie]

cousinbirgco, please don't go tellin nobody about touchin yur
feminine side or whatever you calls it.
It's downright imbarassin.

[djswan]

[phansford]

[djswan]

Excellent information, thank you, I will use it as part of my information arsenal. Did the builders of that white piece en piece know that they were getting an R1 per inch of wood?

I've got the argument right here. The start of it all.

"The Towne itself by the care and providence of Sir Thomas Gates is reduce into handsome forme, and hath in it two faire rowes of howses, all of framed timber, two stories, and an upper Garret, or Corne loft high.

The town was Jamestown, the year 1615.

That certainly sets a tone of tradition. It reads like poetry to me.

[phansford]

The issue is one of semantics.

Yes, timber framing was the traditional method of framing buildings over 400 years ago.... And of course they used timbers at Jamestown.... they did not have the industry to create dimensional lumber. They would have actually used the european tradition of stone or brick as demonstrated by later houses of the colonial period - ie- Williamsburg, but they did not have the time or equipment to mine stone or the fabricate brick.

The point of the conversation is your desire to think that the current project that is the subject of this tread is not traditional because it does not use a timber frame, even though it has been clearly demonstrated that a "Gothic Revival" house would have traditional used dimensional lumber. Sort of the same if you were to ask why he isn't using a horse to pull his car since a horse, under your definition, a horse was a traditional method of travel.

[djswan]

The semantics would be the arrangement of the words timber and framed.

Today we say timber frames and I am a timberframer and howse is spelled house. I have yet to see anything that demostates that a stick framed gothic revival is traditional, not even the "old" stick framed gothic rivivals. What kind of a tradition is stick framed gothic revivals?

If it's that clear, I'm looking right through it.

Yes, traditional means timber framed.

Edited for typos, if you happen to catch any I miss, I could use a good editor.

[cousinbirgco]

This discussion reminds me of the dilemma that many
restorers find themselves struggling with when renovating
or "restoring" an old house. Do you use tongue & groove
diagonal sheathing or plywood, push button light switches
or levitron, old growth doug fir or fast growth pine for trim,
terne or a pvc roof membrane for the flat porch roof.
The answer is usually "well it depends". If you are a purist
and have deep pockets and a lot of time, you can build as
authetically as you like. Most folks will probably fall
somewhere in between with a lot of compromises along the way.
An American Gothic Revival house would have been ballon
framed as an original structure (as phansford noted) but to
build a new reproduction type structure and try to ballon frame
it would have been difficult for practical reasons such as
structural considerations and fire and building codes.
Discounting modern power tools and fasteners, and
western platform framing,
much of the house was constructed in the "traditional way"
using a lot of hand carpentry, traditional designs and materials
such as large overhangs, porches, built-in gutters, stone facing,
detailed trimwork and rusticated siding (and very little plastic)
I usually take it as the greatest compliment when a stranger
asks me how long have I been "renovating" the old place.

[djswan]

It's a good looking project. Just make a timberframe for the next one or not.

Somehow I turned this house "gothic."

http://brooksdesignbuild.com/portfolio/williams.htm

I have no idea why someone would decribe it a gothic, any help?

[cousinbirgco]

dj, that's some mighty fine 'n fancy timberin', a ways out of my
league, alas, I am only a humble carpenter with a
guardless circular saw and a devoted sidekick by
the name of cousineddie.
Now as to the gothic tag about the only thing I can come
up with are the pendant like timbers hung in the style of the
lower part of the gothic finial,
but I must confess I've never heard the term "western gothic".

I'm glad to see someone is carrying on the "tradition",
never be deterred from your mission and keep those
chisels sharp.

[djswan]

Thanks, it'a a loose fitting "tradition", real comfortable to wear.

the humble carpenters hang out in the TFG, sometimes the beer is free.

I'll throw a nugget back to phansford for his good info, as I get ready to fix a barn.

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief20.htm

[phansford]

The Preservation Briefs will provide you an solid overview of a subject. Some of them are detailed enough to guide preservation work, others are merely broad overviews. This is the case of the Brief #20, which you referenced - it is a broad overview. The most valuable information in Brief #20 is the footnotes and the selected readings, where someone can continue their research.

Someone interested in preserving or restoring a barn would be better served by contacting one of the non-profit foundations or their state historical preservation office.

One of the biggest issues in barn preservatoin/restoration is the foundations and the grading around the building. Direct burial of the columns is always problematic. Exterior siding coming into contact with the ground is also an issue. I know a little about the preservation of agricultural buildings . A "small" project from a few years ago. I documented all of the buildings and provided preservation recommendations for the Master Plan. Also developed the architectural program for the new education center and worked with a good friend on the design.

Every barn needs some bats and a few snakes - Nature's pest and vermin control. Most farmers I know like to have a black snake in the barn...... just don't bother them when they are shedding their skin. A good seven footer was in the main house when I was field measuring......

[djswan]

More good stuff.

http://www.ncptt.nps.gov/Product-Catalog/Product.aspx?ProductID=2004-09


Skunks are the worst, they'll blast you for no good reason. One of my brilliantly talented and yet surprisenly stupid timberframing friends decided to shoot a skunk that had been pestering us. He shot it in a very long culvert next to the jobsite. I have endured the smell of rotten dead skunk for months on end.

[cousineddie]

whoooweeee, I just loves me a good ole skunk story,
I got me one you got ta hear. Well, we was workin a
ways back at the job and we sees a skunk bumping around
the place, with of all things, a yogurt cup stuck on his head.
It was one of them tall skinny plastic cups stuck just as
tight as ya please on his
little head and he couldnt see, nor smell, nor here nuthin,
nosiree. Now me and the plummer, start to feelin sorry for
that little critter cause we knows he would slowly starve to
death without anyway ta git that cup off his head. Well sir,
I gets me an ole towel and covered the critter with it, and specilly
his little tail, and that plummer grabs him by the neck and starts
pullin on the plastik cup. Well sir, it ain't a budgin, it stuck on
there like glue. Finally, he twists it a bit to the right and then
a bit the left, and presto changjoe, it comes off just like that!
Well, I let that little feller go, and he just walks away just like that,
like nuthin even ever happened. I says to the plummer,
well ya didnt expect a thank you, did ja?
That was a knee slapper and I tells ya, every word of what I jist
toles ya is true, cross my heart. You jist cant make
somthin like that up.