Introduction
The 57 acres that comprise Cedar Ridge Farm are located in the beautiful rolling hills of South Central Kentucky. My wife, our four children, and I are on a homesteading adventure as we work toward increased self-sufficiency. We grow much of our own food and enjoy being in touch with the agrarian roots of our lives.
One of the major projects we have undertaken is the building of our own home. The house we're building has three major distinguishing features: 1. we're building it without incurring any debt; 2. it is a timber frame structure; and 3. the exterior walls will be plastered straw bales. We live debt and mortgage free, and building our house with that approach makes perfect sense. Large timbers in a home possess a beauty and project a sense of strength, stability, and warmth that we want in our home. Straw bale walls provide insulation and make ecological sense. This blog is a record of our home-building project.
After two and a half years of working on our timber frame, the main part of it is now standing! What an awesome sight it is.
We had a crew of about 10 people, family and friends, working on it yesterday. Things went smoothly. We had to figure out the best ways to accomplish our task, all but one or two being completely new to timber frame raising. By the time we raised the fourth bent, we were working better and more efficiently. But, of course, that was the last one to be raised.
Today, we'll work on assembling and raising the rafters on the second floor. I'd like to get them up and the floor joists and purlins in.
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