Mariana has been asking for a good working space for her business for a while. And after stumbling over the spinning wheel and ending with my head in a pile of handmade felt “we” decided it was time for her own space. The first option was the finish up the attic nicely. But there where a couple of problems there. A general lack of natural light, and the fact that we can’t stand up straight are just a couple of them.
We thought of sharing the shed AKA my studio (actually an old pig stake and hen house), which is now my woodworking place, bike and crap storage. But wood means lots of splinters and pieces flying around. And that is not a nice combination with wool.
So a new building it is! Since I happen to like working with wood, and hate plastering with a passion, the choice of material was already decided upon. We started looking around for ready made log houses but they where either to flimsy, too big, too small, too ugly, not fitting or too expensive. So…
In a flash of overconfidence we decided to make it ourselves. It would have to be a cross between a log house and a timber frame structure. Too keep a bit of a challenge I said I was going to do it all with hand tools, I got a bit exited when I saw the work of these people and also Ben Law. Mind you that they are professional woodworkers and I can carve a spoon.
So here are some progress pictures:
I’ve got great help, from bob the builder.
Some tools, including my self made mallet.
Inspection of the first beams standing up.
Starting with the roof, I haven’t used a single nail or screw yet, it is one big jigsaw puzzle.
Well for now things seem to be going well, the structure is very stable. Later when the walls are made the structure will be even more stable.
The roof is going to be a green one, with sedum plants, but more about that later.
Sat 17-Apr 2010 at 07:58:38
[…] Husband keeps working hard on the studio and here you can find a rather funny account of the work until […]
Sat 17-Apr 2010 at 09:34:38
That looks great and I like the idea of a sedum roof too. The Peak Park information centre over the road from us has one and it looks lovely all year around.
It’s also a wise move to give your partner her own place to work – Robin and I tried sharing for a while and it was not successful!!
Sat 17-Apr 2010 at 22:49:56
It is a bit of a hassle to find the right seeds. Here (in the NL) you can only get complete packages from a company and they seem to have a pre grown sedum roll. But I’ve seen some pictures on how to do with insulation integrated and they were just seeding and putting some pre-grown plants. That method seemed a lot more straight forward to me.
Alltough we like working on projects together we also need our on space. I can just imagine the face of Mariana when I turn on the table-saw after she laid out a woolen wall hanging. Not a good idea…
Sat 17-Apr 2010 at 11:57:18
Amazing. That’s so nice. How long were you planning the building?
Sat 17-Apr 2010 at 22:40:31
We’ve been planning from previous year. I think it will be ready for use somewhere end of June, when things go right. But things go very fast now after a couple of weeks of just chipping away on beams without to much visual result.
Mon 19-Apr 2010 at 08:05:19
Hey Erik! That looks great. I’m going to have to hide it from my wife or we’ll be having to build one here so I can hide & work somewhere warm in Winter. Our public TV company BBC has a very useful website – even including some stuff about green roofs – have a look here, may be useful – http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/gardenstructure_greenroof1.shtml
Wed 21-Apr 2010 at 06:02:15
Hi Richard,
Thanks! The BBC has a very useful website, it got me on track with looking seeds again.
Wed 21-Apr 2010 at 00:39:27
Eric, How do you know of North House? I am currently living in Belgium but am previously of Wisconsin. Three yrs. ago I took a course there on log building with Jon Strom, it was quite good. I am just beginning to build a treadle lathe and am working on local connections for greenwood. Your building looks great, where are you located? Grootjes, Terry.
Wed 21-Apr 2010 at 06:06:43
Hi Terry, I’m located in Susteren, that is about 5 km from Maaseik in Belgium. Getting greenwood is a matter of begging and stealing really, I’m trying to get in to contact with the organisations that upkeep the landscape. But I don’t have a steady supply really.
I’ve heard of north house by their books and website, I would love to go there once.
Thu 25-Nov 2010 at 20:08:10
Erik, Didn’t know you had answered me until today, 25/11/09! Just looked up Maaseik, it is a bit north and directly east of me, I’m in Zottegem. I work w/Vogel Bescheming in Garaadsbergen and NatuurPunt/bos t’Ename near Oudenaarde. North House is great but not enough better to go all the way to the US for, there are many courses and classes in Europe. I have been to the Netherlands, Eindhoven, Sittard, Geleen so know your area abit. Write to me at my e-mail if you would like, grootjes Terry.