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Thoughtful details such as the use of wood from a 100-year-old mill and timber-frame construction make this Oregon house a natural Mountain Home Award winner.

By Lori Tobias
Photography by Indivar Sivanathan

What happens when you mix century-old wood with the almost-lost art of timber-frame construction, then throw in the spectacular Cascade Mountains as a backdrop?

        You get Nancie Owens' Sisters, Oregon, home, an ideal marriage of traditional and contemporary—and one of the winners of the 1996 MOUNTAIN LIVING Mountain Home Award for houses of 3,000 square feet or less.

        Once the standard of home construction, timber framing uses huge logs and mortise and tenon joinery, a technique that connects two pieces by plugging one into the other and then pegging them.  Timber framing fell out of favor when balloon framing and then stick framing—a simpler and faster technique using logs cut into smaller pieces and usually covered with sheet rock—came into vogue in the late 1800s.  But these days the old-fashioned technique, in which the structural system contributes to the building's aesthetics, is enjoying something of a revival.

        Framer Chris Calvin of Earthwood Homes in Sisters, Oregon,  says timber framing is still rare "because it requires a lot of special skills."  In recent years, some contractors have been utilizing the technique with little compensation as "a labor of love," he says, but clients are now beginning to recognize its worth.  "There's a lot more style," Calvin says.

        Architectural designer Chad Phillips of Phillips Design in Bend, Oregon, designed the timber-frame home for Nancie.  He explains:  "There are no nails and no steel—it's all wood to wood.  There's a lot of math in it, high craftsmanship."

        No surprise, then that MOUNTAIN LIVING'S jurors immediately recognized something special about Nancie's house.  They pointed out that obvious care was put into how the house was put together.  The more modular characteristics of  timber framing help the spaces flow into each other without getting caught up in the connections.  "There was more thought put into it than driving a nail into a beam," commented one architect on the panel.

        While timber-frame houses can be constructed of new material, the use of recycled wood- in this case from an old mill in Springfield, Oregon—seems the perfect complement to the time-honored craft.  And, according to Calvin, it's practical as well. "Some of our material is in excess of 100 years old...therefore it's been drying for a long time," he says.  "It tends to be very stable.  The way we separate ourselves from conventional forms of construction is that our joinery is left exposed, so if the wood shrinks after we've done very high quality joinery, it's not as attractive.  Using dry materials keeps our joinery connections years after a home is completed."

        Phillips says the home's design was strongly influenced by the Cascade mountain range, which towers in spectacular view from the 2-acre site.  Three gables mirror the Three Sisters peaks, and inside, every room commands a view of one of seven mountains.

        Nancie, a property manager for a large destination resort and mother of two adult children, explains:  "As you walk in the French doors to the great room, you get a panoramic view of the Three Sisters.  The north Sister Mountain is framed in the picture window.  In the master bedroom you see the south Sister, and out the living room window is a view of Broken Top."

        Nancie's first priority in finishing the interior was to ensure that the nearly 3,000- square-foot floor plan—much of which is delineated only by the exposed beams and posts—did not feel too large or cold.  The exposed framing and pine deck ceiling were given a coat of whitewash to tone down the yellow of the pine and add warmth.  Throughout the house, Nancie chose a monochromatic color scheme—taupe, cream and white—and accessorized with peach, rust, forest and sage greens.

        In the living room, a leather sofa and wing chair combine with taupe and cream tapestry upholstery to create a cozy sitting area before the fireplace. A breakfast nook, brightened by the morning sun, is furnished in glass and wicker; the dining area houses a pine hutch and table.

        The master bedroom, where windows make up one full wall, is furnished with a wrought iron bed covered with a red quilt.  Antique dolls, hat boxes and suitcases add a touch of whimsy.  For the master bath, Nancie designed a long, walk-in
shower that allows her to forego a shower door.  Glass bricks along the doorway let in light.

        Nancie also indulged her love of tile.  The fireplace, entryway and kitchen floor are covered with taupe and terra cotta volcanic stone from Mexico; kitchen countertops are tiled in white hand-thrown ceramic, the master bath floor in taupe limestone.

        "I just sort of winged it the whole way," Nancie confesses of her interior design.  Yet, she says, the home is exactly what she hoped for—warm, open and inviting.  "I had wanted a timber-frame house forever," she says.  "It's spectacular.  I
just love it."