Last week, the entire crew came together to raise Arron and Michelle’s new barn. A lightning strike destroyed their home, our office, and workshop over two years ago. Last night, NewsCenterMaine published a lovely story about how the community has been helping to rebuild ever since. Arron and Michelle and all of us at PTF…
“We have to raise Weigand by the second cutting.” To a slicker like me, Arron was exhorting the crew to finish repairs on the enormous Brasen Hill Farm barn in time for some mysterious Pagan ritual. He was right. As soon as the roof was sheathed and papered, and before it wore metal roofing or…
Hey, real quick! We’ve been cutting scarf fixes for enormous post feet, and fitting teleport pads for octagonal lanterns. Updates on Chestnut St Lantern, Brasen Hill Barn, and Jennison Barn, below. Teleport Pad, Photo by Jacob Imlay Chestnut St Church Lantern, Camden, ME: This cute little lantern was cut and fit at the shop, and is…
We all have illusions about longevity. Many people think that a building’s strength is derived from its foundation, made of stone, or brick, or concrete, but that’s only partly true. A good foundation is a blessing, but a bad foundation is not damning. We’ve seen so many foundation failures that in a well-designed timber frame, we…
I write a lot about our unusual jobs: a deserted island, an elevated dance floor, or a building-sized jewelry box, but most of us got into this to do jobs like the Jennison barn. The job incorporates so many of PTF’s defining motifs: barn preservation, adaptive re-use, local history and creative clients. The Jennisons called in early…
Over New Years, my intentional friend likes us to sit in a big group and practice “Rose, Thorn and Rosebud.” We say the best thing that happened to us this past year, and the worst, and the thing that we’re looking forward to in the coming year. My rose took so much time that it’s been…
(Hey readers, this was a cool job we completed over the summer, and Jake Imlay wrote up a nice blog post about it. Enjoy!) The Winter Street Center in Bath ME, home of Sagadahoc Preservation Inc., is striking at first glance. Sitting near the top of a hill, its gleaming white tower is outlined sharply…
The First Parish Meetinghouse of East Derry, NH is preparing for a big anniversary, its tricentennial. What does one even get for a church on its 300th? Wood? Copper? Both, as it turns out. Beginning with a thorough assessment and rehabilitation plan in 2011, the congregation has been working steadily to repair extensive damage throughout…
The client’s wedding was in a week, and the barn in which he’d marry was in pieces on the ground. It was crane day, and a Friday, two things that don’t usually go together. In the worst case, a crane day on Friday means you don’t have an additional weekday in case you hit a…
The Lewis Conservation Center will be made up of five connected timber frames, a “Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn” where the Big House is a reproduction of the 1722 East Derry Meetinghouse. One frame, the Gallery, re-uses the Green Barn, a scribe rule frame from the 1740s. The Education frame has the same…