An expansive 35-acre mountaintop estate built as a testament to love, life, and hope. Clients Todd and Hollie’s home is surrounded by unobstructed panoramic views, poignant timber geometry, and built of faith. 

This year-round hybrid timber frame provides elevated viewing platforms of the San Juan mountains, an artisan port cochere, and is a representation of triumph over adversity, collaboration, and an enduring love between the homeowners. The custom timber home stands as a representation of Hollie’s victory over her health struggles as well as the Alexander’s love and support for each other. The project epitomizes everything that we hold dear as a company: family, beauty, and longevity.

Todd says, “We started thinking eight years ago about having a place in the mountains to escape the heat down here in South Texas. We wanted a place close enough that we could comfortably drive to it in a day. Hollie’s uncle had a place in Pagosa Springs [Colorado] for several years that they used as a base for winter snow skiing trips. That got us thinking about Pagosa, and how it is a great little town that is drivable for us in one day.”

“As we started thinking about a house to build up there, we thought we wanted a log home, being in the Colorado Mountains and all that. After talking to several people, we quickly determined that a log home was not the way to go. During that time when we had subscribed to a timber and log magazine. That’s how we learned about timber frame homes, and hybrid timber frame/stick built homes.

Every February for the past decade county residents have taken part in the Melt Down, a fundraiser to support Yamhill Community Action Partnership’s effort to ensure no one goes hungry in local communities. New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks are proud to be sponsors of this event!

https://newberggraphic.com/2026/01/08/yamhill-county-gears-up-for-2026-melt-down-grilled-cheese-fundraiser/

In part one about our East Coast design team manager Kyle Barber’s new home, we shared the beginning of Barber and his wife’s journey designing and building a legacy passive home that will ensure a safe life, free of harmful VOC’s and full of clean air and comfort for them, their kids, and generations to follow.

Recently, Barber and his team’s attention turned to “drying in” the home so that the slab and interior work could be completed. “The enclosure went up, then as soon as the roof went on, windows went in and we were dried in allowing us to do all of the layers for the slab.”

After closing the house in with a metal roof and high-performance enclosure (our weather resistant and vapor controlling open cavity wall system with 2X framing, 100mm layer of wood fiber continuous insulation, and pre-installed strapping), high performance windows shipped from Europe (supplied by Zola) were installed to complete the enclosure. Once windows were in, the concrete-free slab was able to follow. 

With the concreteless slab, you have to worry about water and rain on the plywood subfloor a lot more since its sitting right on top of the vapor barrier and can only dry to the top side. For this reason, Barber says, “We had to wait until we were dried in to perform this work.”

Barber continues, “The biggest thing that happened since last time was, we installed the foam under the slab. We have two layers of four-inch EPS insulation, so eight inches total. This will be the only foam in the entire project. Gives us about an R35 below our feet.