A Design Gets Better

I’ve been busy the last few months working on house plans. We are plunging every cent of our savings into a house on a lake. I designed the timber frame house to be an efficient block of a structure with the bays sized to fit around efficiently sized rooms. It is a timber frame house, with the structure of posts and beams, in the manner of a sturdy barn designed to last centuries. In the end, it was a pretty utilitarian thing that would be beautiful due to the huge quantity of windows placed to focus views to the slope of trees and lake below, and due to the massive exposed timbers of the frame. Then we took my plans to the timber framer who appreciated the functionality and the adherence to timber framing principles, but he took out a few boringly functional plain ceiling beams in each of the bents and replaced them with a beautiful arching truss that has a center kingpost ending in a carved acorn pendant. Now, it is an efficient utilitarian structure that is more beautiful because it has been touched by an artist who knows what he can do with the wood. It is a truly collaborative design now and will be a work of art as well as a functional house. We plan to raise the frame next week, weather and soil dryness permitting!