Protecting the Garden

"I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her."

- Ellen DeGeneres 

Just a little update on the garden...and the deer.  Good news, we have both.  The garden will feed us (and is a test site for no-till wood chip mulch gardening) and the deer will feed us too, but we want them to get fat on other stuff.

We decided to put a temporary deer fence up to keep the neighborhood herd in check.  This a "quick fix" fence.  We simply put 10' lengths of 1/2" metal conduit into the ground 2' feet deep.  Then we hung 7' high mesh deer fence from the conduit.  Then we strung twine around the top at the 8' mark.  Hung with ribbons we hope it will deter any potential ruminant rummaging.

 

Putting in the gate.

House Plans - The Great Unveiling

"A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable."
Louis Kahn

It's about time we showed you a bit (okay a lot) of what went into designing our cordwood home.  I'd like to say we saw a set of plans, loved them, and said, "We're going to build that!"

We are learning that building a house is a lot like life itself...it changes over time.  Just like are influenced and changed by what happens to us in life - so the design of the home.  As we learn new things as humans, we try new endeavors - likewise the home design changes as new ideas come.  Sometimes we learn from a mistake or suddenly become aware of something in us that just doesn't fit, we try to move beyond that vise and become someone different - so it is with our journey with this home.

In the beginning we were very much sold on the "round home" idea.  We loved the uniqueness of it.  We liked the fact that it could have a living roof.  We loved the geometry and look.  So we began designing some round home ideas.  But as we progressed we migrated more and more towards a square design.

In all of the home designs we've worked on we knew that the kitchen would be the center of the home. We thought we'd post all of our different plans so you could see the progression. 

In all of the following floor plans you will see a number.  This is the number of the plan.  Remember that there were many sub-plans that went into making the final plan.  We try to give a brief explanation of what thoughts went into each plan.  Click on any one of them to see a larger version.

If you don't want to wade through all of the plans just scroll to the bottom of the post to see the final plan we've decided on.

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Round House #1 - 40' diameter

First Floor

Design considerations: 1st level bedroom, making everything fit

Round House #1 - 40' diameter

Second Floor

Design considerations:  a bedroom for each kid, making the stairs work

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Round House #2 - 40' diameter

First Floor

Design considerations:  square corners instead of pie shaped rooms, more storage

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Round House #3 - 40' diameter

First Floor

Design considerations:  getting the stairs into a space that took up less space - didn't work

Round House #3 - 40' diameter

Second Floor

Design considerations:  pretty much the same as before

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Round House #4 - 40' diameter

First Floor

Design considerations:  adding an entry way, bigger dining area, dedicated storage room, square kitchen

Round House #4 - 40' diameter

Second Floor

Design considerations:  stayed pretty much the same

Round House #4 - 40' diameter

Timber Framing

Just trying to see what the timber framing would look like

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We began to realize that we didn't have the skill sets to build round.  Even though we had visited some round cordwood homes and even had a book on constructing them, the time and effort would create too much of a hurdle for first time home builders.  We started looking into square designs that would maximize footage as well as be a bit more familiar to us as well as those helping us build.

These next homes are called the "Savich".  They get their name from the book "Energy Saving Houses" by the late Alex Wade.  This 1980 publication (on loan to us from a friend) gives some great ideas.  After we decided that the round home wasn't the way we wanted to go we settled in on a home that Mr. Wade designed for Vic and Carolyn Savich.  We liked the look and the general layout of the home...so we started tweaking it.

 original Savich home

Savich #1 - 24'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  a bit of a rectangle, stairs in the middle, front porch

 

Savich #1 - 24'x36'

Second Floor

Design considerations:  only 2 bedrooms with bay windows, storage room

Savich #1 - 24'x36'

Basement

Design considerations:  we later added a basement for cold storage and root cellar

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Savich #2 - 36'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  now square for more usable space, complete redesign with kitchen at the center as the "hub" of the home.

Savich #2 - 36'x36'

Second Floor

Design considerations:  same two bedrooms upstairs with no bay windows and with larger storage area, 1/2 bath added

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Savich #2.1 - 36'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  redesigned first floor storage

Savich #2.1 - 36'x36'

Second Floor

Design considerations:  no changes

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Savich #3 - 36'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  dining room to the center and kitchen to outside wall to allow more natural light for cooking, stairs to opposite wall

 

Savich #3 - 36'x36'

Second Floor

Design considerations:  stairs on opposite side - forgot to switch hall though

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Savich #4 - 36'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  living room to east side of home for better view, kitchen to south east corner, stairs to center

Savich #4 - 36'x36'

Second Floor

Design considerations:  stairs to center

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Savich #5 - 36'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  stairs back to west wall, kitchen to east wall and centered, storage behind bath, front entry to west side

Savich #5 - 36'x36'

Second Floor

Design considerations:  stairs back to west wall

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Savich #6 - 36'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  stairs back to center, bathroom shifted with storage space, weird small bedroom

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Savich #7 - 36'x36'

First Floor

Design considerations:  entry room on west side, bigger bedroom, cold storage on main level

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AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Savich #8 - 36'x36'

Basement

Design considerations:  desire to have indoor cold storage and root cellar as well as utilities in basement

First Floor

Design considerations:  eliminate extra entry room

Second Floor

Design considerations:  Allow for larger 1/2 bath storage

 

 

Savich #8 - 36'x36' - 1st Architectural Designs

(some changes still to be made)

The Lumber Yard

Logs to Lumber - some more images and video

Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire. - Pope John Paul II

Well....hard work it is...well was...because it's all done.  All 75+ logs have been cut into all sorts of pretty lumber.  We've never owned our own lumber yard before - but there is something satisfying about seeing all the boards stacked up.

Just thought we'd share some photos and video of the last week of cutting.  All in all it was about 43 hours worth of work, at least 7 saw blade changes, and about 12 different people helping.

 

Every night Denise would go over the log list and cross check it with the lumber list.  She not only kept track every night, but everyday while we cut as well.  Each log was marked for a timber but she figured what other pieces we could get out of it as well.  Sometimes logs were mismarked and she had to recalculate and find new logs and lumber on the fly.

Just a few words about pine sap.  It sticks to everything.  Pens, paper, gloves, tractors, saws, pants, shirts, dog fir, kids feet, faces...all of these and more we have cleaned and re-cleaned in the last week.

Mike - our fearless sawyer - put up with all of our recalculating and last minute cut changes.  He really is a easy going guy! 

The following is a montage of some of the work needed to be done on each log.

Using the peavy to get the log to the mill.

 

Holding it in place while the arms raise it.

 Removing "slab wood".

 Pushing "fliches" to the side to be sawed into boards.

 Finished lumber.

 One of the big ones!

Here are some of the stacks as they stood near the middle of the week.  We hope to have some final pictures of the full stacks soon.

 Beams

 2x8, 2x10, 2x6 and 1 inch material.

 The pile of sawdust!

 More 1 inch material with 4x8 and 2x4 in the background.

 Slab wood.  This pile got much, much bigger.

 A second pile of beams with long 2x6 material in the background.

 The "junk pile" - just all sorts of weird left over pieces.

 Yep.  He stacked them all himself!

 Asleep on the job?  Maybe not.

 A sawdust sand box!

 It's like the beach - but softer!

The last log!  Yeah!!!!

Here's some more video of the last week of sawing.