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.
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.
The bustling summer and fall seasons are finally coming to a close. We just wrapped up our final Natural Building Essentials Workshop a few weeks ago, gardening season is long past, and it’s nearly time to start hatching plans for 2023 already. It’s been a year to remember.
As we all know, it’s been a rocky year (uhhh, at best). However, I want to take this opportunity to share some updates about workshops and natural building happenings. I also want to take a moment and find something positive to celebrate about the past year. I hope you can do the same.
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This has been the busiest winter in a long time. It’s all good stuff, but the window of opportunity to appreciate some downtime is narrowing before a busy spring and summer season. Enough of that, though. I’m here to share some details about our upcoming Japanese Carpentry Workshop project.
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.
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…
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.
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.
I’ve been bouncing around between various projects this winter, but the timber frame “hammock house” has not been forgotten. With the help of a few friends, I installed the decking over the rafters this weekend. We also put some ice & water shield over the decking so that it’s protected against the weather until the metal roofing goes on… which is hopefully soon. Spring is definitely here, so suddenly it feels like there’s a million things to do.
For some reason, I purchased pine for the decking, which is probably my least favorite wood (in terms of appearances, anyway). I guess I wanted to avoid the weight and hassle of working with oak, ha! Next time, though, pine is out. If I’m feeling ambitious, I might actually plaster over the decking — just imagine blackened rafters punctuated by creamy white lime plaster… now there’s an idea.
We’ll be working on this fun little building in our upcoming Natural Building Essentials Workshop. Very excited to continue with the progress on this one.
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This website is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. In 2012, we started offering Natural Building Workshops, so you can learn essential hands-on skills to build your own natural home.
