Construction Choices

I have enjoyed drawing house floor plans for as long as I can remember, and have long dreamed of building my own house. It must run in my family – my mom also enjoyed drawing floor plans, my uncle built at least three of his own houses that I know of, and my grandmother did the majority of the work on my grandparents retirement house (she once described it as the shop class she wasn't allowed to take in school, being forced to learn cooking and sewing in Home Ec instead).

I always figured I would build something alternative, and took many opportunities to learn some of the various methods. I attended a hands-on timber framing workshop. I volunteered on a cob construction project for a homeless family. I worked with various Habitat for Humanity chapters, one of which was erecting a passive-solar straw bale house, the others using conventional stick-framing. I helped some friends build their surface bonded (as opposed to mortared) concrete block house, and with another friend's cobwood (combination cob and firewood-size logs) shed. I studied Mike Ohler's “$50 and Up Underground House” book and the University of Minnesota's underground housing research. I pondered the Nearing's stone structures. I briefly looked into tire homes, rammed earth, and earthbag construction, although those styles don't appeal to me. I don't care for the look (and maintenance) of chinked log homes either, but I find scribe-fit style log home immensely appealing.

So I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that my permanent house is going to be conventionally commonly stick-built.

I don't have the skill or patience for timber framing. The clay around here is not conducive to cob. I don't like the aesthetics (or acoustics) of concrete or block. The fact that the Nearing's stone homestead in Maine was closed for mold remediation last year is a strong deterrent to using that method! And the trees I have access to are too small for log construction.

So stick framing it is. It will be my home, that I designed, that I built. Albeit with guidance from an experienced builder friend to make sure I get sufficient insulation and other details!

Dreams do come true! (Although not without a lot of mental as well as physical effort.)