Ok, I missed Thursday but I had a pretty good excuse…I had some dental surgery done yesterday and I wasn’t really feeling like blogging. I actually started this post early with thoughts that I might get around to it yesterday but it didn’t happen. But I wouldn’t let you down so here goes…
- Germany greenhouse contestHmm, is there a contest just for greenhouses here in Germany? I don’t imagine ours would win considering it’s a bit crooked…but we did build it ourselves so I think it should win for that reason alone. :)But while we’re on the subject of contests…we are actually entered in one and if you haven’t voted already, you should. You can actually win $250 yourself just for voting!
- hes German block machineI have no idea what this means or how this brought someone to our blog but maybe it has something to do with wanting to make concrete blocks? We have considered making a few things and there are some great molds for this online but we haven’t really mentioned them yet.
- German farmhouse architectureWell I can’t say that we are experts by any means on farmhouse architecture and by that I specifically mean timber frame or half-timbered construction (fachwerk in German). Our house is timber framed and it is quite interesting to notice that although the structure is almost semtrical in places, they didn’t quite pull it off. Our former architect was so in love with the framing on our house that he actually did the exterior images with the framing detail for free just because he enjoyed it…and there you can really see the nearly semetrical details. I will have to scan those at some point to share…if only my scanner was larger!Since we don’t know much I consulted google and found Wikipedia’s definition of timber framing which gives more detail than I ever could. I actually learned quite a bit! For example, scribe carpentry was definitely used in this house because nothing would ever be interchangeable. The beams are crooked in many rooms and as I mentioned before never quite semetrical or squared up. We also have a jetty upstairs which we never really realized was something done by those with more money. But we did know that our ceilings which are all over 2 meters are rather uncommon. Yes, yes…much research to be done!
Timber framing is the method of creating framed structures of heavy timber jointed together with pegged mortise and tenon joints (lengthening scarf joints and lap joints are also used). Diagonal bracing is used to prevent racking of the structure.
Historically the timbers would have been hewn square using a felling axe and finish surfaced with a broad axe. If required, smaller timbers were ripsawn from the hewn baulks using pitsaws or frame saws. Today it is more common for timbers to be bandsawn and the timbers may sometimes be machine planed on all four sides.
To deal with the variable sizes and shapes of hewn and sawn timbers the two main historical layout methods used were: scribe carpentry and square rule carpentry. Scribing was used throughout Europe, especially from the 12th to the 19th centuries, and was brought to North America where it was common into the early 19th century. In a scribe frame every timber will only fit in one place so that every timber has to be numbered. Square rule carpentry developed in New England in the 18th century and features housed joints in main timbers to allow for interchangeable braces and girts. Today regularized timber can mean that timber framing is treated as joinery especially when cut by large CNC machines.
To finish the walls, the spaces between the timbers were often infilled with wattle-and-daub, brick or rubble, with plastered faces on the exterior and interior which were often “ceiled” with wainscoting for insulation and warmth. This method of infilling the spaces created the half-timbered style, with the timbers of the frame being visible both inside and outside the building.
Where the houseowner could afford it, the more expensive technique of jettying was incorporated in the construction of the house. Home owners were taxed on their ground-floor square footage; jettying allows higher stories to have larger square footage than the ground floor.
A jetty is an upper floor that depends on a cantilever system in which a horizontal beam, the jetty bressummer, on which the wall above rests, projects forward beyond the floor below.
Sorry for that long ramble…back to the searches!
- farmhouse sink ikeaAt the moment this is the farmhouse that IKEA built. We are big fans of almost all things IKEA and actually have 3 IKEA sinks here in our kitchen and both bathrooms.The DOMSJÖ double kitchen sink is happily situated in our kitchen (Fagerland cabinets also provided by IKEA)
We also have the HÖLLVIKEN sink in our bathroom downstairs and the sink cabinet is also IKEA although I don’t know the name at the moment.
And once again upstairs in our new bathroom. There we have it in the FREDEN cabinet which we feel has a nice sort of farmhouse feel to it.
- roofersAlthough our neighbors recently had their roof redone, we have not needed any roofers yet. But we will need someone to climb up on the roof of the barn at some point and replace a tile which blew off during “Hurricane Kyril.”
