This legacy cabin is located on a large parcel of land at the end of a winding forest road in Oregon. Surrounded by thick strands Douglas Fir, and right near the coast, the structure is a classic pacific northwest cabin.
The homeowners are true Oregonians, with a woodshop on the property and a hankering to keep everything as true to the landscape as possible. Including the timber used in the frame.
David Shirley, AIA, the architect on the cabin explains, “the family has such a connection with the land. The homeowner is a burly woodsman, and he cut all of the trees for the home. You just know that when they look up and see all of those timbers every morning they can say, ‘These are our timbers, this is our house.’”
“We toured their existing home,” continues Shirley. “I love getting to visit houses people live in because it’s a good opportunity to say, ‘Hey, what do you love about how you live, what are your usage patterns, what’s your favorite thing about this house? What would you change, what don’t you like?’”
“What they said to us was, ‘We really like this house but its really old and needs to be replaced’. They liked a lot about their cabin, where it was, where it sat, and they said, ‘We are going to demo this thing, and we are going to save as much as we can of the existing house as far as the details go.’ I walked away thinking about their needs and wants and put together an initial design. After a few changes we started to move forward.”
The vision for the home was a hybrid timber frame, as heavy timber was an absolute must for the client.
“Because 16’ was the max length of timber the homeowner could harvest, we designed everything in the cabin to that specification. And we only took the design of the house so far,” says Shirley. “The homeowner wanted to craft the details. So, we left space for him to put his stamp on the blank timber canvas.”
“He cut all of his own timber. He cut his entire floor. We designed a post and beam floor system because he cut all of his posts and beams. We used an old school technique of post and beam 3x decking, so a 2 ½ thick tongue and groove boards spanning 6’ spaces.”
“Because we weren’t going to kiln dry the hand-cut timbers, we waited. The homeowner let them age in a wood drying shed for a year. Then we had our engineers come out and grade them to make sure they were ready to take to our shop and cut.”
“The new build had to be roughly the same footprint as the original cabin, though the original was one story and the new one is two,” says Shirley. “We designed around the woodstove in a way—the homeowners use it to heat and to cook. It’s the heart of the home,” explains Shirley. Even though local code mandated an updated HVAC system, the house will still be heated by the woodstove and cooled by open windows and coastal breezes.
“The challenges, if any, was the fairly small footprint. So, we went vertical to get additional square footage. From a design standpoint the tricky part was the proportions. We had to make things intimate without being swallowed up into space.”
“We framed the loft on either side with timbers so instead of a traditional ridge, there’s two supports that are midspan. By pulling those timber frame supports down it lowered the ceiling plain on the main floor but still allowed the space to have head room as you came down the stairs to the main floor.”
Shirley summarizes, “It’s three full bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a kitchen with ample room for entertaining. There’s an island in the middle that opens directly to the loving space that serves as the center of the home. We also bumped out a small breakfast nook so that they could have a little more intimate space.”
“When you come out of the bedrooms there’s this nice timber frame stair and timber frame gable that opens all the way. There is quite a bit of wood for such a small space. It will be a very tight and efficient home. We all can’t wait to see the timbers raised amidst the Douglas fir stand they once grew in. It will be quite memorable because of their story.”
The frame is cut and due to be raised this spring. We hope you’re able to join us for the next part of the story.
