A Missouri couple took a hands-on approach when building their dream home, including helping pound in the many tenons used to construct the frame of the home.
Like many would-be log and timber homeowners, Bill and Kathy Carrier started their research on the Internet. The couple wanted to build their retirement home on land in Missouri. Initially they were looking at log homes. But Kathy’s 30-year career with the Boy Scouts of America, conjured up images of WPA camp construction from the 1930s, which was a trifle off-putting.
Then they took the next step, attending a home show in St. Louis, where they found a booth manned by Bruce Bode, sales and design manager, and owner of Heavy Timber Truss & Frame (Elkview, WV). “He had pictures of a home built from a design from Moss Creek, which were already familiar with,” Bill says.
Decoy Design from Moss Creek
Bill and Kathy ultimately selected a design from Moss Creek, called the Decoy, albeit with significant changes. The county required a 40-foot setback from the road for their property, which pushed the site location toward the forested rear of their property. There are dozens of mature trees that are at least 100 years old, and they didn’t want to cut those down, Kathy recalls. “They are too pretty to lose. Plus, there’s deer and turkeys, all kinds of wildlife that we love to see in our backyard,” Kathy says.
Changes to the Decoy design included:
•Revised width and length of great room and master bedroom for a total of 2,900 square feet of interior space.
•Moved mechanical room to basement bridge area and created an office on the first level. Created a storage and safe room/storm shelter off finished basement.
•Reduced master walk-in bedroom closet to 8’x8’ to fit house on the parcel.
•Eliminated the tub in master bathroom and expanded shower to 5’x9’, while keeping water supply and drain provisions for the tub.
•Eliminated closets on second level bridge area to make it a more useful space.
•Replaced masonry fireplace in master bedroom with a direct vent hearth, allowing symmetric windows on the wall of the second level guest bedroom.
•Replaced French doors on either side of great room fireplace with windows as we did not need three exits to patio. Plus, this keeps the fireplace as a visual focus in the great room.
•Installed high windows in the left corner of the great room to increase light and maintain symmetry.
•Opted for flat ceilings in the bathrooms on the second level, with vaulted ceilings in the bedrooms.
Hands-On Help
Construction began in October of 2016, wrapping up in November of 2017. The general contractor on the project, Jim Ince, says there were few hiccups on this project. “The only issue was the building department took three months to approve the drawings, despite them being stamped by an engineer. Not sure if they had seen a timber frame structure before,” Jim recalls.
Bill, who had recently retired as an aerospace engineer, was on the job site nearly every day. “I didn’t want to get in the way, but I also wanted to help,” Bill recalls. He sank many of the 11-inch tenons or pins that fasten the frame together. “Master carpenters would sink them with four mighty blows. Then there’s me over there with a two-pound sledge, tap, tap, tap, tap. If I missed and caused a divot on a beam, the carpenters would wince. I enjoyed it, but it will really tire your arm out.”
But being on the job site was also an opportunity to make crucial decisions. The staircase to the second floor was handmade and it was intricate, beautiful work. Instead of covering up the back of the staircase with tongue in groove paneling, they opted to leave that intricate craftsmanship exposed.
Raising the first two bents was a milestone on the project, which happened on a cold day in December. “It was really exciting,” Bill says. “Especially when one of the slings slipped and the bent swung about 15 feet to the side.”
The timber frame was wrapped in structural insulated panels (SIPS), making the home incredibly quiet and energy efficient. SIPs are high performance building materials made from expanded polystyrene rigid foam core sandwiched between two structural panels of 7/16” oriented strand board or OSB. The advantage with SIPs is that each sheet of 8.’x24’ panels offer continuous high R-value insulation with no thermal bridging, as with 2×4 construction. SIPs also save on labor costs, since enclosing a structure usually takes one-third the amount of time it would take to stick build with two-by-fours.
Advice for Homebuyers
Bill and Kathy recommend other homebuyers work with producers that can provide three dimensional drawings of your design on your land, so you can visualize how the home will look once finished.
“Being an engineer, we were very focused on the details of the design,” Bill says. “Even down to where the light fixture switches would be. It was a great journey for us. We highly recommend it. It’s living in a work of art.
- Timber Frame Producer: Heavy Timber Truss & Frame
- Builder: General Contractor Jim Inc, Independent Representative for Heavy Timber Truss & Frame in St Louis, MO
- Square footage: 2,900
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 3 full, 2 half baths