Attention to Detail

One can admire our home, without seeing the details.  Details that are deliberately, carefully and brilliantly carried out, with skill and outstanding workmanship.  The materials used were  recycled from old growth lumber.  To not see this home as durable, living art, is missing it's beauty and craftsmanship.    It is sustainability in action.  We often say, "we are living in art", art that will live on and on and on...

Bedroom floor is created with  the milled spruce flooring grooved and slid onto metal strips.  The metal strips are attached to the subflooring, with no nail or screw attachments in the wood itself. 

Seamlessly metal meets old recycled timbers, which meet old recycled spruce.

Joinery is strong, beautiful and skillfully incorporated into all parts of this home.

Preparing Recycled Wood for Reuse

Planing and Sanding are a couple of the final stages along the way in reworking recycled wood for reuse.  Of course, this doesn't count the hours and hours or locating the wood, sorting it, storing it, and searching for the perfect piece for the specific task at hand.  The front door alone, for example, needed to have several pieces pulled before the right ones were decided on.

However, before anything can happen, the wood needs to have the nails pulled and then it needs to be cleaned with a steel brush.  After those first two steps it can be cut with a chop saw, table saw or skill saw.  One other step we add, but didn't photograph, is running a metal detector along the wood to see if there are hidden nails.

Look at that grain.

Just yesterday, Josh said, "If I had a nickel for every time Brad's said, 'look at that grain', I'd be a rich man." It's true. Brad loves wood -- the smell and grain patterns -- and is always holding up another piece for exclamation. In this picture he is sorting, examining and exclaiming over the recycled wood that will be the trim on the guesthouse windows.

Prototype Floor

Annie is checking out the prototype floor for the guesthouse. The bridge planks have been removed from the bridge (left) for sanding and oiling. They are now ready to install permanently. The inside flooring is designed to look like the planks on the bridge which have big air spaces for drainage, but instead of spaces there will be metal strips.

Bookshelves-to-be

Recycled boards are glued and clamped for future bookshelves in the guesthouse.

Recycled Cedar

Recycled cedar in it's original location.

Dave Bennink, Re-Use Consulting, delivered this cedar after a full day of deconstruction. Dave arrived with the delivery at 9:30, and still needs to drive home to Bellingham (another 2 hours). Long, long days!

Brad inspects the pile.

Beautiful reused cedar.

Old Barn Siding

The siding on the guesthouse is almost completed. Just a few boards left to go around the roof. An interesting thing has happened now that the siding is almost finished. People are asking us if we are remodeling. The siding does make this little building look like the old farm outbuilding we'd hoped for.

Closing in on the siding

The guesthouse siding is getting close to being completed. By the end of the week it will be finished except for the top piece. Barn swallows scooted into the crack at the top and are raising a family. We'll need to wait for the babies to leave the nest before we can completely close it up.

And yet more siding...

The guesthouse is looking better and better as the old barn siding is installed. The corner detail is outstanding and the instant "aging" is amazing.

More Siding

This new building is going to look decidedly old when the siding is finished.

Cleaning up recycled wood

Mike and Dan lend us a hand pulling nails and cleaning up the final pile of recycled wood from Tacoma.

Siding the Guesthouse

The bad news, sadly, is this old barn siding is no longer on a barn. The barn was demolished to clear the way to build more houses on farm land. The good news is it will grace our new guesthouse. The wood was gently removed from the barn, the nails pulled, and then it was preserved with a natural deck oil. This photo is of the first few pieces to be put up on the NW corner.

Beam trimming

One of our huge beams on the rollers after coming through the band saw.

Prototype Table

This is the quick prototype for the tables that will fit in the vaults running down the middle of the main living space.

Rollers

The beams for the main living wing are so large that there needed to be a method for holding them and moving them forward as they were fed through the band saw for trimming. Brad and his dad came up with this great roller system, using the vaults for our dining room tables and welded roller brackets. The rollers were ordered three weeks ago and were to have arrived a few days later. Ed was finally able to pick them up in Everett last Thursday. On Friday Barry, Nate and Brad built the first of the four roller systems. This week Brad and Josh have finished the final three. Now, with all of us pulsing with excitement, the beams can be cut and put in place.

View from above

From the upper level of the barn, our vegetable garden and cold frame to the north and our guesthouse and main living slab to the east. The beams, cleaned and ready to go, are under the tarp to the right. These beams were collected from a Seattle warehouse several months ago.

More Recycled Wood

We've just received another load of recycled lumber from Tacoma this week. Brad and Josh have been sorting, grading, nail pulling and cutting off bad ends.

Second Beam

The second beam has just been added to the main living wing. This beam is another beautiful recycled beam from a warehouse in Seattle. It will support the roof over the covered patio.

Staining the guesthouse siding

The beautiful old barn siding we found in Whatcom County is getting stained prior to installation.

Recycled Beams

Here's our stash of beams collected over the past few months. Josh and Brad are sorting and selecting the beams for the living wing.