Matt's (Timberframe) Baby: Part I

Matt took vacation on the week BEFORE Baby and the week AFTER Baby- and he spent much of those vacation days across the road babying his OTHER baby... a new timber-framing project.

Building a Timberframe structure has been a dream of his since he was a teenager.  (Odd dreams for a teen, if I do say so...but good ones nonetheless!)

He logged the trees and sawed them up last year to dry.

And I had a baby in order to give him two consecutive weeks of vacation.  (You're welcome Mattie!)

Pretty much every spare second he has had of that time and all time since has been consumed by this project.

He disappears across the road every weekend.  He draws up graph paper plans and puts them in sheet protectors.  I see Rafter calculator tabs open on the computer.  There are fresh woodchip piles everywhere.  Matt goes to bed each night with his nose in Timberframing books.

He's fallen head over heels with this baby of his.  Moses is getting jealous!

It is a slow process- very time consuming, very precise.  I think that may be why Matt likes it so much.  It is almost therapeutic to have something you must go slow on when so much of his life requires fast decisions and overwhelming busyness.  It requires patience (for both of us, in different ways) and stretching (for both of us, in different ways) and is challenging (for both of us, in different ways) but I am so impressed with how he is DOING it!  

He is teaching himself to do something he has always wanted to do- despite what other people think of it- despite how difficult and daunting it appeared- despite not knowing what he was doing- despite the tedium and patience it requires.  I am also impressed with how well he is doing what he is doing... it really looks great!

A few photos to get caught up on his progress...

All those beams in the background, pieces to the puzzle.

And each puzzle piece still needs to be made!

Let's just take a moment to enjoy those arms...

a-hem.  Where was I?!

Tools of the Trade

Here is the spot.  Already trees have been cleared and footers have been put in place.  (I think they are footers...right, Mattie?) 

Handy to have children climb barn roofs for aerial shots!

Those holes get filled with wooden pegs that Matt makes as he needs them- often from locust branches cut and shaved to size.

And then comes the mighty Thor handle

Now we know where the arms come from!

It does my heart a little flippity gibbit to see three generations building this up together.  Fathers and sons, together.

The first side going up!

I'm not sure if every side going up feels as awesome but I know after that first side went up without a hitch Matt was practically floating around for a day or two.

He has since added a few more sides

And there he is, the happy fellow, right where I left him.  

And if ever I can't find him, I know where to look.