This week has been a roller coaster ride of thrills and chills. Bruce Lease dug the hole for our house and Mike Flynn set forms and poured the footings. Our house will have a walk-out basement which will hold the mechanical room, Doug’s and my offices, a guest bedroom […]
Last summer we walked our land with our architect selecting the trees that would be used to build the house. We were looking for trees that had specific dimensions and in some cases particular branching patterns. We were also looking for trees that were growing too close to their neighbors […]
This past weekend, I went to Chicago with my daughters. My youngest has been accepted to Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and we went down to explore nearby neighborhoods where she may live. (Yes, I know it was St. Patrick’s Day this weekend – that certainly made Chicago a […]
I just learned from a UW press release that one of my favorite new buildings in Madison, WI, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, has been named 2012 Laboratory of the Year in an international competition sponsored annually by R&D Magazine. Because this structure is nested between two of Madison’s major traffic […]
The first roundabout I clearly remember was the one where I looked in my rear view window to see the flashing lights of a police car I had unwittingly cut off within its circle as I approached the outskirts of Wellington, New Zealand. I was seriously jet lagged, bemused by […]
It’s time for an update on building our house because things have been moving along swiftly this winter. Last summer we went over our 44 acres with Roald Gundersen and Della Hansmann from Whole Trees Architecture, selecting specific trees to be part of the house based on both their suitability […]
Guest post by Doug Hansmann In our new house, we intend to maximize our use of solar energy with both a comprehensive passive solar design and an array of four solar hot water panels installed in the back yard. A couple of months ago we migrated away from a deep […]
When ever I drive past the new building on the edge of every town, I wonder — why aren’t they building straw bale? But the word is spreading, and staw bale buildings are becoming a more common sight around the world. What to take a little tour? JAPAN Learn about […]
When we got out to our land last Friday it had been transformed into a winter wonderland. Thursday we had been clearing and burning the tops and side branches of the pine trees that had been harvested over the last two weeks for use as un-milled rafters and joists as […]
For the past two weeks, two men and a chainsaw have been felling trees all over our 44 acres, winching them out of the woods with a tractor and pulling them down to the barnyard where they wait to be shaped into unmilled timber frame members over the next few […]
Digging in the Driftless 