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.