This country home near Eagle Point, Oregon was designed by the owners of SwiftSure Timberworks LLC: Tim Allen, Shona Allen, and Colton Allen. A 28′ x 60′ shop was converted into a comfortable 2-bedroom home by adding a wrap-around timber-frame porch. The design incorporates recycled Anderson wood windows (1970 vintage), a rain catchment system, radiant in-floor heat, and cedar siding. The porch roofing gives way to a trellis on the south elevation, to allow for passive solar gain in the winter; trumpet vines will provide shade in the summer.
The wood frame shop as it appeared when the Allens bought the 8-acre property in 2005. We incorporated the exterior wall framing and roof trusses into the new house. Inside, we framed a 2×10 subfloor over an 18-inch crawl space to allow for plumbing and electrical access to the interior wall framing.
Construction and demolition gets underway in June, 2007. New concrete piers on spread footings will support the porch timberwork. The original metal roofing is being removed.
Colton and Jason Allen at work installing the porch timberwork, June 2007
Cedar siding stained with Land Ark Exterior Finish is applied over 15-lb. building paper in this picture from September 2007. The 30-year old Anderson windows have been re-painted; the Douglas fir, solid-core French doors are new.
Interior timber columns and beams during installation in July 2007. The interior timberwork is finished with two coats of 100% natural Land Ark Interior Finish.
Colton Allen hand planes the surface of the kitchen bar top. This piece of clear Douglas fir was provided by Pacific Western Lumber, who had it sawn by Starfire Lumber in Oregon, and radio-frequency kiln dried by Fraserwood Industries in British Columbia.
The house was completed just in time for Christmas, 2007. This is the view past the completed kitchen bar top through the kitchen and living room.
View back toward the kitchen and dining room from the living room.
The master bedroom with a Japanese-style ceiling. Ceiling is made from 1×12 western red cedar boards; ceiling joists were cut and hand-planed by Colton Allen.
Ceiling of the timber porch was constructed of 1×6 pine skip-sheathing over 3 x 8 D. fir rafters; galvanized corrugated metal roofing is visible through the pine boards.
The timber frame porch is visible from nearly every room in the house. This use of the “outdoor room” concept lends a very expansive feeling to the interior spaces.
The trellis at the south elevation allows winter sunlight to warm the tile floor in the dining room and kitchen. Trumpet vines will provide shade over the trellis in the summertime.
