Maine landowners will find that timber frame construction offers excellent long-term durability and energy efficiency. It’s a delight to be living in a part of history.With its several mountain ranges, more than 3,400 miles of coastline and thousands of miles of lakes, ponds, rivers and streams, virtually every corner of the ‘Pine Tree State’ is an ideal backdrop for custom timber frame homes. Everyone involved removed all of the anxiety from the process so that Joyce and I could have a lot of fun. “It’s all a learning process and we are extremely pleased with how the house turned out. But, “that’s why you have a three-bay garage,” Bob laughs. If the Kuhls were to retrace their steps, they admit they would design larger bedrooms and bigger closets. “Our flat-paneled shaker cabinetry and doors, the farmhouse sink in the kitchen, tin ceiling in the kitchen/dining area…everything turned out simple yet elegant,” Joyce says. Similarly, they were happy with Bryan’s expert craftsmanship inside. “Our early American furniture and antiques looked perfect once we oiled and finished the pine floors.” “Though we moved in as the house was in progress, it enabled us to get a true feel for how we wanted to furnish,” Joyce says. “The house looks totally integrated into the woodsy setting.”Īs the exterior work progressed, the interior finishing, headed by lead handyman, Bryan Koenig, carefully continued with Bob and Joyce’s on-site approval. “It took the masons two weeks but it was worth it,” Bob says. Random chopped Autumn Blend sandstone was chosen for its rustic, indigenous appeal. Like much of Texas Hill Country architecture, masonry was used for the home’s façade. “The loft area is clearly a dramatic vantage point from the wrought-iron balcony, whether you’re on the first or second story, which by the way, was built with an amazing old wood threshing floor.” “We are so glad we took Troy’s recommendation,” Bob says. “By building a loft,” Troy says, “they succeeded grandly, increasing the useable square footage along with impressive visibility to the beam work.” Troy Dumont, supervisor with Heritage, gave the Kuhls the idea of incorporating a second-story loft. We didn’t want to chop up the rooms with hallways but wanted to showcase the extensive timberwork, that still has some writing that’s decipherable on the beams, and vaulted ceiling,” Joyce says. “No matter how complex our ideas became, we wanted to preserve the simple beauty of this historic barn. What the couple developed throughout the eight-month building process was a desire to always err on the side of simplicity. We’re happy we lived with the space first, then mapped out the three-bedroom, three-bath interior area.” You have this very large breadth of space and it’s open to your own individual interpretation. Just like we’re glad we took painter’s tape and moved it around to get a good feel for room sizes. “Usually people put in these elements before they move in. “This was a smart recommendation,” Joyce says.
The folks at Heritage encouraged the Kuhls to keep the integrity of the barn and not solidify their plans for door and window opening until after they saw the whole barn enclosed with structural insulated panels (SIPs). He’s the one that actually drew out the plans for the size of the closets, the shower, and so on, within the barn’s expansive shell,” Bob says. “In order to get a bank loan we had to have an architect configure the space. Fears aside, work proceeded on the home the Kuhls had designed in conjunction with Heritage and local Georgetown architect, Rick O’Donnell. “It’s daunting to see this skeleton of a house secured only by pegs and not think it’s going to blow away,” Bob says. Once the frame was secured in place, the Kuhls felt elation mixed with trepidation. She reconciles that it still was a sight for the kids, who all received wood pegs and still left happy. “Despite the fact that I worked less than 15 minutes away, somehow we were late and missed the whole affair,” she says.
Joyce, a fourth-grade teacher, decided to make the event into a field trip, thinking it would be fun to have her class witness an honest-to-goodness barn-raising. The couple eagerly anticipated the arrival of the timbers which rolled in by the truckload on a clear spring day. The work was hard, but the site emerged as the perfect spot for the barn frame, which would be set on a concrete slab. Under prior agreement, Heritage would act as the general contractors for the project but Bob was in charge of clearing the property, which was filled with native elm and scrub oak. Heritage’s Amish team in Albany disassembled the mid-18th century barn, loading the historic hemlock timbers carefully onto flatbeds for transport to the Kuhls’ 34-acre property in Jerrell, Texas.
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