It was July 4. The crew was taking a well-earned holiday, but Doug and I were out at the land pouring carefully measured out yogurt containers of water onto the parched garden plants from the six 5-gallon buckets we filled from our garden hose in town. Our little pond is […]
We hosted two open houses this past weekend. On Friday, we invited friends and many others interested in alternative building paths to come out and see how Underhill House is progressing. On Sunday our realtor, Tom Tarrolly, held an open house to put our Madison home on the market. The […]
We had a crane back for hoisting Underhill House’s rafters up into place. Unlike two weeks before when Dan had used his crane to fly the bents into position, we did not finish the work day earlier than anticipated. Fitting the rafters in place made for a long, physically taxing […]
Here is a story I had a great time researching and writing that just appeared in Isthmus, Madison’s edgy weekly. Summer is a classic time to get away from the asphalt jungle, but that doesn’t mean you have to make reservations and pack your bags. Anyone in Madison is just […]
Last spring as we were peeling, sanding and painting the timbers for Underhill House, the question of how we would get the roof rafters up on top of the bents was often on our minds. In previous houses built by Whole Trees Architecture and Structures, rafters have been hoisted up […]
Stone is such a durable and desirable building material. We wanted to incorporate some into Underhill House. Helen and Scott Nearing, pioneering back-to-the-landers, who built their house and farm buildings from stone on their Vermont land, were rich in a flinty sort of igneous rock formed from cooling lava. Unfortunately, […]
Fitting together the timbers for a whole tree, forked timber frame house is a very creative process that involves a good grasp of geometry and physics in the bargain. This week the three exterior porch pillars were set in place, and it was fascinating to watch. For each of the […]
guest post by Doug Hansmann We always planned to have a mass wall between the kitchen/dining room and the den. It was designed to soak up sun on sunny days and heat from the wood stove on cold nights and cloudy days. But over time we began to realize that […]
In my first post on our timber framing process (Whole Tree Timber Framing Begins at Underhill House ) I stressed the patience required to start a whole tree timber frame project. A week later, I’m still trying to catch my breath after a whirlwind ride (literally and figuratively) as the […]
When we think about living sustainably, we need to factor our medical demands into the equation. Going to a hospital, taking a lot of medicines – these things don’t tend to be particularly easy on the environment. When we take good care of our health in the obvious ways of […]
Digging in the Driftless 