Building On Life Experience

Posting this unfinished story from over 8 years ago. Crazy how time goes by and maybe even crazier that what is on the internet seems to be forever. 

What started for me as great exercise in creative writing has atrophied into this maybe once a year summation of years going by, too quickly. The original premise of sharing ideas and creative solutions to problems is still valid but the practical reality of putting pen to paper has fallen away badly. I would love to say everything will be different again but....

 

2015 and most of 2016 were very productive in the completion of two full sized homes, a modern style cabin and a huge, by our standards, car barn, completing the year with a remodel of an older log cabin. All of the projects were completely Shadowline designed. I put it in those terms because many of our projects in the past have evolved from less than fully developed ideas started by others that for one reason or another just weren't flying on their own. Everything we have been involved over the last couple of years has been a product of these many years of life experience that roll around in my aging brain cavity. For this post I will focus on the two most recent complete homes.

The first home started with just a "make it something special" directive from the client. Not an unlimited budget by any means but adequate to do it right by the standards of previous "special" homes we have been honored to be involved with. At about 2300 square feet I was able to let it become fully featured without spatial or pragmatic constraints, three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, large community spaces and a fully configured master suite. The design was very driven by its site overlooking the Chewuch River, incorporating extensive decks and covered porches that provide visual and direct access to the enticing outdoors spaces.

 

Home number two was actually an evolution of the first. In this case the building site was set among towering fir and pine but its views were of  large meadows falling away to the rising and untouched mountains beyond. Providing an expansive feeling at first entry to this home was achieved by a step down primary living space. The entry expands into the taller dining, kitchen and family areas with bookcase towers and half walls to give definition to the otherwise open spaces. The mountain feel of the exterior was enhanced with 6x6 corbel braces, 10" shake siding and rusted steel wainscot paneling. Again, extensive outdoors spaces celebrate the natural beauty of our area.

 

Since this is an end of year dialogue I will take the opportunity to wish us all a happy, safe and healthy new year.

Year in, Year out

 

Goodbye 2014. For us at Shadowline this past year was full and fast. As we finished one house we were breaking ground for the next. We won't soon forget the struggles of the summer with all the fire and smoke, the week without power and finally all the flooding and road closures.

The home we completed this spring came out great and the proud owners love it. This was one of the fastest 'concept to completion' projects we have been involved with. I first met with my soon to be clients in July of 2013 and by September we had finalized the design and were meeting with the excavation contractor. Working with just two and a half men (I'm only half a man these days, LOL), we had the metal roof on before the Winter snows. Even with our traditional month break at Christmas we had the owners moving in by the first of May.

Our current job is also going well. This one took closer to 6 months in the design and planning phase but it's proving to be well worth the additional commitment. With the home's exterior virtually complete, I shut down my crew in mid December. The sheetrock crew got a late start but finished just before Christmas. When we start up again in 2 weeks the place will be ready for us to paint and start installing doors and interior trim. It will be nice to go back to work with the "gravy" part of the job waiting for us. This home is going to be one of my favorites. The site over- looking the river is spectacular and the owners are letting us do it right, on a budget, but with only the best in materials. I'm going to have to make more room for it on the Shadowline web site.

So, here's to another year with a bright future. Another year of challenges and rewards. Another year, still trying to be 'Smarter Than The Wood'. Welcome 2015.

Front Page News!

                     LINK   http://issuu.com/methowvalleypublishing/docs/mh2014-issuu

This may be a relatively small time Magazine but I still get a good feeling seeing this beautiful place on the front cover. The article by M.V. News editor Don Nelson, is well written and accurate. This project was one of the most challenging I have had in the last 20 some years in the valley. Though we didn't get to start it from scratch, the owners were willing to do whatever it took to make it right.

Before

The exterior shell had been completed by the previous owners but needed extensive modification to fit the vision of its new owners. The interior was virtually raw without even a stairway to the second floor. This left a lot to be done but it gave us a fairly blank pallet to work from.

After

 Working with the existing log post & beam structure was something new for my crew and I. Traditional timber frame has always been my favorite but working with logs brought a new dynamic to our finish work especially. Coping every piece of window and door trim to logs is very time consuming but well worth it.

Before Kitchen

The owner's New York City background and taste allowed the traditional mountain lodge baseline to grow into a more modern yet appropriate styling. By increasing the scale of the steel railings and giving them a hand forged look and feel we were able to massage glass and metal into refined rustic. Honing the granite counters was the perfect solution to enhancing the organic aspect of lodge living.

After Kitchen

Ranch Estate Entry

Shame on me! Letting a promising blog die on the vine is so tacky. It may be common as hell but but still tacky. 10 months between posts is a bit much. So now what? Give in to inertia or fight to get back on track with a new post or two. I'm going to keep at it (NOT DEAD YET) and try and resurrect my smarterthanthewood thought stream So here goes...

As a designing builder my focus is usually on the next new home but occasionally a small side project comes along that provides a real creative challenge. The opportunity to do something we haven't tried before gives that project a little more buzz than it's size might typically impart. We got a chance to design and build that 'new thing' earlier this Summer in what I will call an estate entry for lack of a better description. The owners of a home we had finished a couple years earlier had been wanting a way finish off their project with a more formal property entrance. We were between new homes at the time so I jumped at the challenge of creating this new grand entrance to their place.

 Most of the construction here in the Methow Valley is in the rustic mountain lodge or western ranch vernacular. Typical driveway entry's are modeled in the old west working ranch style. Two log posts with a horizontal log across their tops and maybe a 'Bar S Ranch' type sign hanging from it. In that this home is in a slightly more developed neighborhood of 5 acre ranchettes with irrigated pastures we wanted to do something a little more refined without being stuffy. Our design started with a truncated base of concrete and river rock supporting a pair of columns, each made up of four 8x8 posts, one on each side of the drive. A larger 6x12 horizontal beam tied the two columns together fifteen feet in the air. It looked good on paper but a little ordinary to my eye. Drawing on a design element we had used on the exterior of the home, I converted the horizontal beam into a gable truss to mimic the homes primary entry detail. When I showed the two options to the owners they immediately chose the enhanced version.

 

Chief Architect rendering

With the basic design established it was time to engineer the 'nuts and bolts' of its construction. The hardest element in making the whole thing come together was the necessary fastening required at the transition between the river rock base and the 8x8 posts. Just burying the posts in the concrete was not an option because it would just be a matter of time before the posts would begin to deteriorate where they contacted the masonry.

Massive steel tiedowns embedded in concrete

 

Working with a local metal fabricator, Mark Edson, we put together a pair of structural tiedowns that would effectively link the stone base columns structurally to the vertical 8x8 posts. A key focus in our design was to keep the steel fasteners hidden so that the stone and heavy beams would be the dominate visual elements.

 

Beam truss ready to set

Using only kiln dry FHC (free of heart center) fir to minimize wood movement and shrinkage, we then fabricated the beam truss and vertical posts. With the custom steel tiedowns firmly embedded in the masonry bases we created a 4 post 'sandwich' support for each end of the horizontal truss. A crane was then able to set the finishing touch across the drive entry.

Completing the picture

Our stone mason, Eric Claussen, went to work soon after, carefully crafting the stone to our concrete capped base columns. Standing back, the new entry beautifully frames the mountain views creating an inviting welcome to the now more 'finished' family estate.

Time Fly's :)

It's been a month again since my last post. What's that about? Winter blahs? Sore back blues? Whatever it is, I need to snap out of it.

We are currently finishing up the Timber frame addition /remodel we started last Fall. The shingle panels for the upper walls of the project are now done. I have to say the lack of waste for this product is really great. At over $25 for an eight foot panel I tried to order the bare minimum, without a waste factor of any consequence, and still ended up with 2 panels left when we were done. Nice! High quality material put together with high fabrication standards equals excellent results.

Next week we will be installing stair treads and risers made from recycled and salvage Tamarack (Western Larch). The material comes to us with the 2 primary surfaces planed and each edge rough sawn. With an 8' straight edge against the table saw fence we true up one edge of each tread then with just the standard fence true the other. A portable planer smooths up the table saw cut and then a couple passes with a 3/8" round over bit in the router gives us the nosing of a finished tread. We usually pre-finish the treads and risers to save time at installation and to give them protection from the reality of on the job use. A final coat of finish when we are done and everybody is happy.

This project boasts a nice 5' shower with glass on 2 sides and frameless style construction as well as a 66" double ended claw foot tub. An old man with a bad back and claw foot tubs on the second floor don't go well together. I'm going to need to come up with a couple more young backs (young bucks) to get this beauty up those stairs without further injuries to the crew. Anybody want to help? The before mentioned stair treads are waiting patiently for the claw foot to make its way up before they can be safely installed without getting brutalized by a 400 pound tub.

I'll post this now so I can say I've at least done one blog post this month and maybe add a couple pictures this weekend to fill it out. Okay, this is kind of cheating but I think I'm okay with that. Bye for now, Don

Dumber Than A Stump

I chose 'Smarter Than The Wood' for the name of this blog because it had a sense of humor but could also be thought provoking. I hadn't really considered how it might come back to bite me. There's a little bit of a 'up on a pedestal' reality to this claim that might call for getting 'knocked off it' on occasion. I had no intention of getting on 'my high horse' about this when I started but I'm afraid I might have set myself up for a fall.

This came up first in a conversation with a client about a particular detail we were working on. I got a "someone smarter that the wood wouldn't do that' response, implying that my solution was less than 'perfect'. I never said I was perfect, damn it, but I guess suggesting that my insight into problem solving might be 'smarter' is more dangerous than I thought.

Another example came during simple day to day operations. This is embarrassing but the door is open now. On one particularly hectic day I tried to do one more thing than my apparently feeble mindedness could handle, installing a temporary toilet in the house where we were finishing up the framing, trying to save a little money on sani-can bills. This was late in the day (a theme we will revisit next). When it didn't flush properly I left for the day thinking it could be dealt with in the morning. The next day the plumber was on the job taking care of another issue so I mentioned that something was wrong with the toilet. Big mistake. The first thing out of his mouth was " did you remove the knock-out?" Damn. I'll probably never live that one down. 30 some years of construction and I'm smarter than the wood but forget to remove the seal from a new toilet rough-in? At least I should have keep it to myself by fixing my own mistake. Now the whole world knows!

But the reason I'm writing this post is because of an accident I had last November and it's not really funny. Late one day as it was getting dark I decided that it was important that I get a tarp up onto an area of the roof so that we wouldn't have to worry about snow in the morning. Everything was fine at first, my hammer in one hand, the tarp in the other, when for some reason I took one more step onto a patch of ice. There is one safety rule that always sticks with me. Most accidents happen at the end of the day when you might be a little tired, in a bit of a hurry and maybe not thinking about the next moment. 'Dumber than a stump' was one of the first things in my mind as I tried to get up off that hard frozen ground. My first thought was I'm alive but it hurts more than anything I have ever experienced. But second was "you know better, you've been telling others for years not to take that chance but here you jolly well are, aren't you". Two months later I'm still not fully recovered but I know one thing for sure. A moment of 'Dumber Than A Stump' lasts way too long.

So, what should one take away from all this. How about 'stay humble, my friend' and maybe, beware that a 'karmic payback' may be waiting in the wings.

The Honesty of Time

I want to make a New Year's resolution, and I want to still be in the same frame of mind 5 months and 29 days from now. After that, one could say the year is not new anymore, being half old and getting older by the day. I'll deal with that reality when it comes, but for now it's about the New side of the year. It seems to me that New Year's Eve and New Year's Day get too much credit or at least too much focus. I've made resolutions before but somehow lost sight of the usually singular direction of each attempt after a few days. You could say life gets in the way.

This time I'm going to keep it simple. "This is a New Year" will be my mantra. Not a new day or a new week, but a new year. Stuff happens in a year, or should I say stuff can happen in a year. In a day it's easy to be forced off course. For me it might be a snow storm; 8 to 10 inches in a night means everything else is put on hold and the snow blower, tractor and snow shovel take precedence. Recently I took a fall off of a roof. That really shook things up. For over a month, every day was about the basics of getting healthy again. But today is a New Year again. All the little pieces of time have collected and become more than they were.

Notice, I haven't made any grand promises of what I will accomplish in my New Year. This time it's going to be about optimism, letting the glass refill again when necessary, and especially letting the honesty of time frame the collective days and weeks into a positive life view; looking forward with support from the past.

And if you ask me, that is about as 'Smarter Than The Wood' as I'm likely to get. Happy New Year everybody!

Timber Frame Renovation

Remodels are always interesting to say the least. You never know what is behind a wall or under a floor until you tear into it. The job we are working on now also has an addition to the existing home. To make it even more challenging, the original home is a timber frame design. For those who are not sure what timber frame really means, think of a building with only a skeleton of large vertical posts, horizontal beams and rafters. Think of this 'frame' as a finish detail of the project, to be left uncovered as a strong visual element of the final product.

Timber 'Frame'

Now build another standard stud framed wall and roof outside the 'timbers' to carry the plumbing, electrical and insulation required for a modern residence and you get a feel for this style of building. This 'post and beam' construction goes back many centuries because of it's ability to accommodate the fairly crude framing members demanded by the tools available at the time. The term "barn raising" is appropriate here. With good organization, a weekend work party was often used to assemble a complete frame in one long weekend.



Fall Progress


But enough about timber framing history for now. This post was supposed to be about the challenge of a good remodel/addition. Partly because of our late season start our first priority was to complete any roofing details. In most modern timber frames the visual ceiling is made with 2x6 tongue and groove material nailed on top of the rafter timbers. A frame of 2x rafters is then built up from here. The main purpose of this sub-structure is to hold rigid insulation and provide the base for plywood sheathing, roofing paper and finally the roofing itself. For us this phase meant removing the metal roofing from above the two covered porches we were converting to living space and filling the hollow cavities with insulation. Considering the relatively small areas we were working with it was more cost effective to install sheets of 'Thermax' foam insulation (polyisocyanurate) instead of the spray foam used in the original construction. With an insulation value of about R-7 per inch this material rates as high as any material available, in our case allowing an insulating value of about R-38 (a little above code for cathedral ceilings in our area). Once the new insulation was in place we covered the joints with foil tape and sealed the edges and any gaps with spray foam. After reinstalling the plywood sheathing we replaced the outdated tar paper with a self sealing rubberized asphalt material commonly used in our area. The version we are now using (Titanium PSSU-30) has a fine grid embedded in the surface that provides excellent protection as well as a non slip surface durable enough to work on without damage.

Converting Covered Porch

For safety and efficiency, the siding on the second floor walls needed to be installed before the lower level roofing was reinstalled. The existing siding was cedar shingles but the birds, especially wood peckers and flickers, had been having fun destroying portions of it for years.



'Tasty Meal'

After considering many options we settled on replacing existing shingles with a hybrid product based on high quality natural cedar shingles pre-installed on a plywood backing 8 feet long and 7 5/8 inch tall allowing a 7 inch finish cover. Though much more expensive than regular shingles the savings in installation time and the unique construction of the panel itself made the decision easy enough.

Cedar Shingle Panel

In a standard shingle installation the layering of one course of shingles over the next leaves a small gap between adjoining shingles. This gap creates a protected pocket, hidden from view, but accessible to over-wintering insects. Birds can sense this available food source and are more than happy to remove any wood separating them from a very tasty meal. The construction and installation  of these shingle panels eliminates this hidden food storage pocket. I would be surprised if the developers of this labor saving product had bird damage in mind but we are happy to take advantage of this reality. Smarter than the wood. And very nice to look at as well.

Finished End Wall

Rusty Metal Plant Stand

My daughter Rhetta has been my right hand since the beginning of this blog back in April. We talk about every post and she is the main reason that people can understand what I'm trying to say, using her amazing editing and writing skills to keep me on the straight and narrow. When we saw how well the rusty wainscot story was being received we started thinking about other ways to use the techniques I practiced to get that wainscot project up and running successfully.


"Let's make a plant stand. It's small, many people might be interested and we can work together on it. You know, the father daughter project we often talk about but don't find the time for." I made most of that up but hopefully you get the point; a fairly simple undertaking and a great opportunity to work together on something. In our case we even had the perfect base to start off on: an underused stool that was just the right size to hold the plant we had in mind.


I first went by my favorite metal workers shop ( The Slag Works in Winthrop, Washington) and asked Barry if I could buy a piece of cold rolled steel from him. The stool we wanted to work with had a 14" square by 1" thick top so I needed a piece at least 16" square so that when we bent the metal at 90 degrees on each of the 4 sides the thickness of the stool top would be covered.


Tools of The Trade

With a tool called a nibbler, the cutting of the basic square was fairly simple. We then used an old framing square to mark out the perimeter of the stool top including the tabs we would leave to help seal the outside corners of the finished pan that we were fabricating. With a couple of lengths of steel angle iron and the two vise grips that live in my tool box we made a primitive 'brake'. This is the tool used by professional metal workers to create the sharp edge we hoped to get.

Corner sealing Tab

So far so good. The newly formed inverted pan fit snugly over the stool seat. Next we needed to abrade the steel so that the acid we planned to use for our "we want it rusty, and we want it now" procedure, would 'bite' into the smooth surface of our metal. I first used a diluted muriatic acid (with gloves and protective eye wear, of course) which did a great job of cleaning the metal and removing the existing partly rusty look from our piece. Thinking we were good to go, I mixed up a small amount of Ferric nitrate to give us the quick rust patina we were after. I chose to use this material because of its subtle golden rust tone, but there are many other ways to produce rust quickly including vinegar & salt.



'Washable' Patina

 

It looked great after a few minutes, but when I went to rinse it and stop the rusting action, all the beautiful rust color washed away. This was not what I was expecting. I've done this ONCE before so now I'm an expert. This should have worked! Back to the drawing board. This time I tried sanding the metal surface with my orbital sander, which looked like a good answer. You want rough, I'll give you rough.

Old Hand Sanding

Again the Ferric nitrate, again the beautiful patina in just a few minutes, again the whole thing washed away when rinsed. Now what? In a twisted sort of 'Smarter than the Wood' manner we added the rust enhancer one more time but didn't wash the piece. Instead we decided to let nature in on the deal and left it outside for a couple of days, even letting it be rained on one night. As a final step to preserve the finish, we coated the rusted metal top with a matte spray sealant. You be the judge. Rhetta and I think it came out great, even if it didn't go completely as planned.

Smarter than the metal? 

A note from the editor: When my Dad suggested we do a project together using rusty metal, I was all for it. I love the mix of wood and metal elements used in industrial style design and I have a passion for anything old. I am drawn to the fantastic imperfections found in barn wood planks, folk art, flaking paint, antique hardware, wavy glass and of course: rusty metal.

Working with my Dad is always an opportunity to learn. He brings extensive knowledge and his overall "can do" approach to everything he does. Not only does he have ideas, but he has the constructive thinking skills to figure out a way to make them happen.

Everything went smoothly with the bending of the metal top, which is where I expected us to have difficulties. So it surprised me when we had issues with the rusting which I had assumed was going to be the fail-safe, "easy" part. After our second try, I told my Dad that "we might be smarter than the wood, but it didn't look like we were smarter than the metal."

Not A Bad Way Of Life

As we wrap up another completed home, it feels like a good time to insert a little company philosophy. No, it's not a 'smarter than' moment, but it feels fitting to stop and recognize an important passage in the life of a construction company such as ours. During the course of the project some of who and what we are gets rubbed off onto the new entity we have created. It can be something basic like the blood Brandon left from his table saw injury or maybe the sore back I gained from trying to lift that 'perfect' stone for the fireplace. I like to think we leave a little more than our blood on a board but who's to say? It's just a house...

When the time comes to walk away from a completed project the feelings can be bittersweet. The construction phase of one of our custom homes takes around 9 months to a year on average, but before the onsite work begins there are months of planning and preparation. For me this process brings many highs, and maybe a low or two, but always the growing sense of substance and presence as each new dwelling sinks its roots into the land.

Building a fully custom home is never boring. Each day brings new challenges and new perspectives  for my crew and I. One day the wind will try and blow us into hiding while the next will be so beautiful that it makes us think: "They pay us to live in paradise." When the clients come to the jobsite, it is always exciting. Though I sometimes am a bit anxious that all our hard work will be well received, they typically bring a level of enthusiasm that is contagious. It reminds us that what we're doing is not just a job and it reinforces that the effort and commitment we give our work is valued. We are creating something that the owners, along with their family and friends, will celebrate for generations to come.

As with anything we experience on a daily basis, it's normal to become a little jaded to the process. That all changes during the last few weeks of the project. With masking tape and Visqueen plastic on the doors and windows, protective coverings on the floors and 3 or 4 different sub contractors plying their trade on any given day, it can be difficult to visualize the finished product. After months of looking at it as just a job, it quickly turns the corner into a creation, that long sought after place where one's vision becomes fully realized.

Standing back to take a long look on that last day can be an amazing reward, especially when sharing that moment with the proud new owners. But there is something more rewarding than this last look, something that I never expected when I first started in this trade: the building of friendships. Many of the people I've worked for and with over the last 20 some years have become my friends. A few have grown into great friends. Together we have loved many homes into being, shaping wood and nails into a celebration of the qualities in life that we strive for.      

Pretty Pictures

Oh oh! I promised myself I would do two posts a month and already I've let it slide. Back to work Donny boy! Here's a quick photo update, on the cabin we're just completing, to hold you while the next 'real' post simmers a little longer.

Back in May I posted a couple times about 'Big Bessie', our one of a kind statement fireplace stone. It was a great challenge getting her into place. Later in the Summer that challenge continued with the sculpted recycled fir flooring around her base.

 As we moved up the fireplace walls to the Loft area careful scribing was required for the second floor fascia and railing detail.

Nick 'massaged' each wood element around the stones in a near perfect manner creating another 'wow' factor in this already amazing center piece of the project.

In the kitchen, the chiseled edge granite became the match maker and unifier for the rest of the color  and texture elements already in place, especially in the joining of the Hickory cabinets with the recycled flooring and Tamarack trim.

Outside, the cabin and garage also were magnified by the final detailing. The garage facade was especially impacted by the finishing touches. The Tamarack (Western Larch) garage doors, rusty corrugated metal wainscot and rust finish lighting combined with the cedar board & batt siding to make a powerful overall statement.

Further unifying the cabin and garage is the gable trim installed to soften the garage elevation and mimic the beam support detail of the Living room porch.

'This Old Wood'

Once thought of as inferior just because it wasn't 'new', recycled wood has become highly sought after. A dilapidated barn, a train trestle, even a downtown warehouse can be a source of great building material.

Big Bessie putting her love on the 'old wood'

Old wood has a lot going for it. It's stable; years of seasonal humidity cycling have brought it to a point closer to equilibrium than new wood can replicate. It's very 'green'; no trees were cut down to make use of it and usually it isn't shipped from worlds away. It has a story; "This floor came from beams used in the old Yakima hardware building" is an example we can call up.


Note the stocking foot. Since we don't plan to sand this floor, keeping the material clean is critical.

With the logic that 'they just aren't making it anymore' recycled wood demands a premium in today's marketplace. One use of this material that is very cost effective is flooring. My crew and I have developed a formula for producing beautiful wide plank floors at a price competitive with the engineered flooring available 'off the shelf ' from any floor covering or design store.

Newer, old wood in the foreground, finished flooring in the background

We start with 1" rough sawn boards, cut from 8x timbers and purchased from Havillah Shake in Tonasket, Washington. The wood is then stacked with wood spacers (stickers) and dried until a moisture meter shows 8% or less. At this point we can either take it to a local millwright to turn into tongue and groove flooring or mill it ourselves with a portable planer and a couple of 1/2" routers. 7" wide boards are the most cost effective from both the price of raw materials and the efficiency of custom milling. We have laid random width floors with planks up to 17" that are to die for, but the cost for the finished product rises significantly from the 7" starting point. Probably the most important factor in achieving a quality installation (besides moisture content) is the quality of milling. If the boards are all the same thickness and width we can skip the sanding phase and still produce a smooth, professional result. Because the wood is recycled and it's character is to be celebrated, a small amount of inconsistency is accepted. To be 'smarter than the wood', any rough areas are scraped with a utilty blade (razor) instead of sanding, which helps to produce a more uniform penetration of the oil based sealer. Three coats of water based floor polyurethane are then applied, making this recycled flooring ready for years of enjoyment.

The glow of a recycled wood floor

A gorgeous, natural looking floor with a history. What more could you ask for?

Garage Door Redux

One of the most dramatic and pragmatic cultural changes in American homes over the last 100 years has been the evolution of the lowly garage. We started with a carriage house left over from horse and buggy days. It was often set behind or off to the side of our property, separated from the primary residence by space and design. Over time, as our vehicles became larger, this newly named building grew as well. When 'Mom' started working outside the home one car became two, and with the growth of the suburbs the separate garage became attached.

Lowly Beginnings

The garage is not lowly anymore. In some neighborhoods the garage has begun to dominate the initial impression of our homes. I've always felt something akin to negativity toward this kind of 'presentation' garage. To celebrate this big box and our ability to fill it easily with our possessions has never been a favorite part of my design mentality. Don't get me wrong, with our now two car families we need safe and secure storage. 



Start Somewhere

Given the opportunity to mask the reality of our storage needs, some new owners are opting to go back in time a little to the sentiment of the 'carriage house', often linking this renewed structure with a breezeway for convenience. What could be a better way to tie these elements of design and neccessity together than carriage doors?



Cutouts for Windows

There are many companies across the nation that are supplying this need. Shadowline, my design/build company, has developed a door set that can be built on site and customized to more truly reflect the style of the home and the owners' taste.

'Plain' Carriage Door with Natural Patina

We use a standard insulated 'blank' door that is purchased locally at a reasonable price. It is made out of wood which allows us to apply various materials over it, and comes with all the hardware neccessary for the functionality we all expect, including remote door openers.


Barn as Garage/Storage

Most of the doors we have constructed use Western Larch (Tamarack). Less expensive and harder than cedar, it has some of the positive weathering properties of cedar, coloring beautifully as it ages.

Colored by Nature

On-site construction allows us to make each door unique to the installation. Some are fairly simple, without crossbucking or windows, while others have the more traditional look of carriage doors of the past.

Rusting Perfectly Good Metal

Back in the day I remember seeing old buildings with metal roofs that were rusting and thinking how cool they looked. There was something about them that reflected an aura of gentle aging, of the graceful passing of time. Today, with a little help from chemical science, we can speed things along and have that 'aged in time' look in an afternoon. Corten was the first 'rusting' metal alloy that I remember and was quickly accepted as the material of choice for guard rails on highways throughout the nation. The logic of the Corten metal is to combine dissimilar metals into an alloy that produces a kind of self sealing finish, a rust that stops rusting.  A stabilized rust. It took a few years but that same technology has moved into the construction mainstream. The relatively high cost of this type of metal has helped to popularize cold rolled steel as a viable 'rusty' alternative. Allowed to weather in nature (or 'rushed' with the use of added corrosive materials) it produces a more organic patina than the very uniform look of Corten type alloys. The natural look of rusted cold rolled steel and it's greater cost effectiveness made our choice easy. Because of our climate (dry) and the wall wainscot installation (dry) we needed to speed Mother Nature along by pre-rusting the raw metal before installing it on the building.

Here comes the 'smarter than' part. You would think that just spreading on some muratic acid or vinegar would produce the desired effect. Wrong. Again, we are in a hurry here, time is money and all that. The process of cold rolling steel is itself an issue. The pressure necessary to produce the product seals the metal surface from the quick action we would hope for. Add to that the small amount of oil that is used to keep the cold rolling process running smoothly and you have another layer of protection against the immediate 'ravages of time' effect we are trying to produce.



New, untreated corrugated steel

In the past I have used a biodegradable but industrial strength soap to hurry along the etching effects we look for on galvanized metal, but with this material it seemed relatively ineffective. I had heard from others that sand was a key to help abrade the surface to receive the corrosive effects of the acid.  First I sprayed the surface with diluted muratic acid, then sprinkled on some sand, and with a medium soft floor broom proceeded to rough up the metal surface. This worked fairly well but I still had to spray on a second coat of acid and do more brushing to get anywhere close to the surface patina I was looking for.  

Prepped with Acid & Sand

I next tried to use salt instead of sand and/or in conjunction with sand to speed things up. This worked fairly well but the early patina produced by this mix was not particularly attractive. Still not satisfied with the effectiveness of my attempts at instant rust, I went against my stubborn maleness and asked somebody who knows. Barry Stromberger of "The Slag Works" has been working in metal and metal patina for most of his not insignificant years. He had the answer, ferric nitrate: "Just mix with water in the correct proportions  and (after the initial roughening of the surface), spray it on and watch it go".

Perfectly Rusted Wainscot

 I love this stuff. If you have properly prepared the surface, with little effort you can  produce a gorgeous and natural looking rust patina that will range in color from a kind of yellow gold (short duration) through a very organic red, all the way to chocolate brown (just let it sit). Once you are satisfied with the rust tone, rinsing with water stops the action, or close enough. The reality of cold rolled steel is that in a wet environment you will have continued rusting. In our exterior wainscot  installation and semi arid climate this should not be a problem. The galvanized corrugated roofing we have used in the past is typically 26 gauge whereas the steel corrugated material is 22 gauge, much heavier to withstand the the reality of its use.

                         This is one time where 'instant gratification' has paid off handsomely.