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Some years ago, I built this timber frame sun room

Some years ago, I built this timber frame sun room onto our house. It was the first big project with my sawmill— new at the time. This morning, drinking coffee and listening to the rain, watching my children play— I’ve never been more pleased with this little timber room.

Quite conveniently, my timber frame shop is tall e

Quite conveniently, my timber frame shop is tall enough to assemble smaller timber frames inside of it. It’s fantastic for checking the joinery, before the client is watching.

When I was a kid, not much older than my kids are

When I was a kid, not much older than my kids are now, I heard this thing from a family friend. This guy had worked as a carpenter in Japan for a while. He built apartment buildings, and said at the end of each job there would be piles of construction debris. Then one day he got the chance to watch a half dozen Japanese master woodworkers install a timber frame bridge over a nearby creek. At the end of the job, he said, the masters had only a shoebox sized pile of wood shavings.
I loved this detail so much I’ve remembered it for 25 years. The idea of turning trees into permanent structures with almost no waste was and is deeply compelling.
But here’s the thing, it was never real. Today my kids and I cleaned up the sawdust and off cuts from one tiny timber frame. I milled the wood myself, to very specific lengths to avoid inefficiencies. I cut all the joinery— mostly Japanese inspired— with extreme care. And there are still PILES of waste.
It occurs to me now, that our old family friends saw the Japanese masters install the timber bridge. He didn’t see them cut it. I bet they made huge sawdust piles.
I’m a little bummed out, to lose the waste free timber frame ideal. But nothing really goes to waste. The sawdust mulches my forest trails. The off cuts heat my buildings through the winter. It’s not so bad.

The corner joint of this little oak timber frame m

The corner joint of this little oak timber frame makes me unreasonably happy. I borrowed the joinery design from a book @mr_chickadee1 recommended to me. A fantastic volume, for all timber framers.

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