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Timber Framing

Oct 16
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Summer of ’24

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing, Japanese Carpentry

 

This summer, we hosted four workshops — two Japanese Carpentry classes, Natural Building Essentials, and Timber Framing. This was the first summer we’ve been able to use the new timber frame pavilion, now that the floor is complete. It’s made a huge difference in how we host classes and the overall feeling during events.

The first proof of that was during our Japanese Carpentry Workshops — no one wanted to quit working on their joinery projects in the evenings. (We had workspaces filling up the entire pavilion.) The calm setting, lighting, and overall good feelings all helped. In fact, we had to set quiet hours so people could sleep because students kept chiseling until 10:30 or later at night – ha! I love people’s energy and enthusiasm.

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Mar 19
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Timber Frame Progress, Workshop Updates

By Japanese Carpentry, Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing

The end of winter is nigh. However, it can be hard to tell sometimes. 78 degree days in February, night-time lows in the teens this weekend — the weather is an increasingly less reliable marker during this time of year. I’m sure that’s true for many of us, wherever we live. Nevertheless, there’s a change in the air. I’m jonesing to get my spring cleaning going this month. There’s a lot to catch up on after a busy 2022 building season. Here’s where we stand with the timber frame pavilion build.

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Jan 03
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New Year, New Building

By Timber Framing

Happy New Year, dear readers.

It’s been an eventful year. Recently, we achieved a substantial amount of “visual progress” on our ongoing timber frame pavilion project — we raised the frame, finally moving pieces out of the big tent and into the field for assembly and lifting them up into their final resting place.

And it feels really, really good to be at this stage in the game.

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Oct 02
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charred yakisugi cedar roof decking 01

Charred Cedar Roof Decking

By Carpentry, Timber Framing

charred yakisugi cedar roof decking 01

Back in July, April and I debated about how the roof decking should complement the stained timber frame in our outdoor kitchen. At first, we considered some kind of white paint treatment on the roof deck, but I was never sold on the idea. Long story short, we decided to do a total 180 on the whitewash idea — I charred cedar instead, yakisugi style. Here’s how it looks.

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Aug 05
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Outdoor Kitchen Timber Frame Raising

By Timber Framing

timber frame wetting bush

The timing of our most recent Timber Frame Workshop worked out perfectly. We were able to spend the entire final day raising the small outdoor kitchen timber frame. Despite the intense heat of the day, we pulled it off without incident.

What a thrill to go from raw timber to a finished structure in a week — there’s really nothing better than standing back and seeing all of your hard work pay off. Especially with the help of a bunch of great people…

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Jul 12
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How-To: Scribing Wood Post to Stone Foundation

By Carpentry, Timber Framing, Foundation

scribing wood to stone plinth

Several years ago, I learned how to scribe wood to stone and have been patiently waiting for the opportunity to implement this feature in my own building project. The premise is simple — copy the rough surface of a stone plinth to a wood post for a seamless fit. This gives the impression of a timber or wood post “growing” out of the stone foundation. It’s a beautiful look, used in old building foundations especially in the Japanese “ishibatate” style. 

The recent outdoor kitchen timber frame was the perfect chance to implement this technique. Here are the steps for scribing wood to a stone foundation.

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Jul 10
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Building the Timber Frame Outdoor Kitchen

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing

timber frame outdoor kitchen plans

I’ve been excited about building a timber frame outdoor kitchen since we moved to this land in 2015. It’s taken until this summer to get started but for good reason(s). The scope of the project has evolved to include a patio with dry stone retaining walls, which will be a vast improvement from the previously uneven slope that unceremoniously terminated at the back of the house porch.

Our 2019 Timber Frame Workshop brought the 10×16 outdoor kitchen frame to completion in 7 days. We had 15 participants from across the country — Maryland, Oregon, Washington, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, and more… Here’s a glimpse at our first few days together working on the small oak timber frame. 

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