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Sisters company shines at expo (published in May 31, 2000, The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters Oregon) Earthwood Homes of Sisters pitched in to erect ancient reclaimed beams into a unique and sturdy 16-by-28-foot timber frame building at the Log and Timber Frame Expo Home Show in Portland. The massive Douglas fir posts were formerly support timbers for a mile-long train tunnel through a mountain in Vale, Oregon. The plate and ridge beams came from a railroad trestle in Eastern Oregon. Rot-resistant Port Orford cedar rafters and arch brace timbers were salvaged from a dock in Coos Bay
"We asked Earthwood Homes to organize a raising that featured their timber frame construction techniques," Erickson said. "The project was even bigger and more exciting than we had hoped." "Timber framing" is the thousand-year-old craft of joining large timbers using mortise and tenon connections held together with wooden pegs. "The building is as much a work of art as a functioning structure," said designer Bill Sturm of Earthwood Homes. "We had some fun with the proportions on this project, because of the special beams that we had available in our yard. We talked with many people who wanted to buy the building but if it doesn't get snapped up soon, we will make it into our new design studio." |
The
demonstration project proved to be a real crowd pleaser. Show host Ed
Erickson, a partner on Log and Timber Home Expo from Kamloops, British
Columbia, said the raising demonstration attracted a much larger crowd than
the area could safely accommodate. Therefore, the plan to raise and
dismantle the frame each day was changed to joinery layout and cutting
demonstrations within the massive structure.