Our first project of 2018. This was a complete remodel of an existing 7×10 bathroom.
Tag: home
Mountain Front A-Frame Renovation, Choteau, MT
Our friend transformed her 1960’s seasonal cabin into a year-round mountain home this year. For a small building, it offered large challenges: mice were the only users of the cabin in recent years; the walls and roof were uninsulated; plumbing, wiring, windows, doors, siding, roofing and flooring all needed to be replaced. It all happened.
She deserves credit for doing much of the work herself and most of the content in these photos is her handiwork. Our tasks were to provide some windows and build an insulated roof system.
Click on any of these for a close-up:
The tub wasn’t there when we left the job…
Work underway:
Before work:
Dave’s Exposed Fir Framing
Exposed framing can be a pleasure to live with. Not only is the wood’s color and texture beautiful, but there is something about seeing the structural parts of a house – the individual pieces working together to keep the weather off one’s head. Comfort, maybe, in the apparent strength of one’s shelter. Maybe it’s the depth in open framing and the shadows it creates. You decide. Here are a few photos of Dave’s fir sub-roof and knee braces:
Below there is a small piece of wood mortised under the beam to the left. It is also mortised into the post on the right and acts as a spline, or separate tenon:
Dave’s mudroom addition under the roof. The pet door is dedicated to Remy, yellow lab and top bird dog.
Exterior Renovation, Choteau, MT
Here’s a project currently under way:
Part of this home’s story is told here in rich evidence of past openings, building dimensions, roof lines, available building materials, insulation attempts and workmanship. There’s Dan’s signature above the old window – not sure who Dan was. Walls like this are pure art.
For a time, it looked like this:
Too bad the window’s gone but it is the north side, and it’s Choteau, Montana, wind and bad winters and all…
The next chapter in it’s history is being written now. Note the layer of rigid foam insulation wrapping the house under the new siding. Owner Dave (no relation to Dan) says it’s noticeably more comfortable inside already.
Wrap Around Porch, Choteau, MT
This is Sam and Noy’s new porch. It is covered by a roof on the west side and open to the skies on the south. We built this out of Douglas Fir entirely. The posts, beams, knee braces, rafters and subroofing (exposed 1×10’s) are left rough from the mill to add texture to the warm color of fir. The deck planks are conventional fir 2×8’s, smooth to walk on and stout. This porch faces the Rocky Mountain Front, and may be one of the best places in the world to sit and have a sandwich. Sam slings his hammock here.
We recalled our timber frame heritage to attach knee braces. Exposed joinery and curved braces go a long way to enrich the finished product:
DARBY CUSTOM BUILDING 