Our timber framer

Since he is Amish, you will not find any website or e-mail address for our timber framer. So I thought I would put in my own plug. We learned about Aaron King through a friend who’d had Aaron build him a timber frame barn which later became a home. I looked into several different timber framers before visiting Aaron at his shop in the spring of 2007. I was not only impressed with his shop, which was orderly, clean and run using either pneumatic or hydraulic-powered tools, but by Aaron’s understanding of what I had in mind and his ability to explain ways to improve the design and gain savings in the process. I made three visits to his shop that spring, each time taking Aaron a new set of drawings. In the end, we had a plan that both of us were happy with.
His craftmanship, precision and sense of the wood were superb. No matter how much the ideas for our house were Linda’s and mine, it was Aaron’s ability to translate those ideas into finished timber art that really make our house special.

Aaron K. King, LLC does not have a phone, but he can be reached at his shop’s address: 21 West Eby Road, Leola, PA 17540.
You can also reach him by calling the number for the phone that lives outside his shop in its own little booth. If no one answers, leave a message. (717) 656-8253.

A special note on terms: Many people see our house and say, “Oh, you have post-and-beam construction.” Well, yes and no. While technically a timber frame structure is a type of post-and-beam, that term is generally used for structures in which the timbers are held together with steel sleeves and/or bolts—such as I used to make our deck. In “timber frame” everything is pegged together with wood dowels, in this case, oak.
Timber framing yields a structure that is all of the same material (wood). This results in tighter joints with less chance of wear from the harder steel flexing against wood. Generally builders consider timber frame buildings to be more durable, stronger and better-looking, although either methods can work well. That is why we went with timber framing. It was also a construction method we had both grown up with and admired.

All the pictures were taken either by Linda and myself using a Nikon Coolpix 995, a D70 or a Nikon SP equipped with an F-mount 21mm nikkor.

Start of a deck

On May 3oth, we started to build the long-delayed south deck. This is a must-do. We need the deck done before we can add either a hot-water system or photovoltaic panels. Saturday was brute work. We dug four post holes by hand, set in six-six's and concreted them in place. They are solid.
Sunday we bolted on the cross members, then installed joists. As the afternoon sun moved into shadow. we screwed down the first two deck boards. Lots of cutting and shaping are yet to come.

Linda took all these pictures, but she did half the work too.

On the first Sunday in February we finally had the combination we needed: a tall ladder and most of the dust and dirt making finished. So we installed the overhead light in the open center of the house. Some day we might even have the power to light it up. Note the drapes and sheets covering railings. Soon they will be gone. Meanwhile, our "house cat" keeps watch on top of the heater.

House construction in August 2008

Some pictures we took at the end of the summer. In both of the interior shots, you are looking across the entire floor.
The first picture shows the house from the southeast. Note the large windows and overhangs on the south side and minimal windows on the east. The tiny lawn next to the porch is now partly covered with mums.
The downstairs interior picture shows the view toward our masonry heater and the kitchen area behind. The upstairs shot shows the bedroom area and the upstairs bath. Since these pictures were taken, the interior walls have lost their measles look as we have gotten base coats of paint on the sheetrock. The interior is open. The only "rooms" are the bathrooms and our closet. As a result, the house is full of light whenever the sun is up. Of course, it gets dark inside pretty quickly once the sun goes down since we still have no electricity. House will never be connected to the mains in any case.
The timber framing is all local oak, the downstairs floored with tile and the upstairs in yellow pine. The masonry heater is a Finnish style and sheathed in local limestone we recovered from a ruin on the family's farm.