Well, this post was over a year in coming and I am pleased to finally get to release this story to the general public.

I have started a blog OTB Designworks here that will, over the course of the next few months, take you through the journey of an incredible home/sculpture we are constructing.

All the design work, from concepting to final blueprinting was done with Sketchup and Layout, and I will go quite in depth about techniques and workflows as I get to certain portions of the story. To whet your appetite a bit, there will be satellite draped vector based topography, panoramic mapped cylinders to show the views, ridiculously complex woodworking (35' tapered octagonal bastard valleys, anyone?), and HD animations.

My plan is for the blog to provide an environment of inspiration, as well to be educational experience, and I know all of you will really enjoy what we have going on here in Montana.

Oh, did I mention that we are fabricating in Montana and shipping to New York?

So, please take a few minutes and click over and check it out; I am sure you will find it worth your time. And, of course, I welcome all comments, suggestions, and dialogue, so don't hesitate to comment or ask questions.

I look forward to further discussions and I will update this thread as I add posts to the blog.

Cheers, Chuck

Some of the timber details that became part of the final design are two reciprocating floor sections, 35' tapered octagonal bastard valleys with purlins and jack rafters, posts with capitals and kneebraces which pass through the capital and tenon into the ridges, 3 common valleys, a post with 4 ridges, 3 common valleys, and two bastard valleys on top of it, a bressumer beam, scarf joints galore, and the list goes on.

I look forward to hearing everyone's reactions and comments; we are very proud of this sculpture residence and, hopefully, you find it as inspiring as we do.

Cheers, Chuck

roof concepts and an initial floorplan are
now live on the blog.

Here are some videos to take in. Full descriptions on the blog and, of course, I can answer any questions you may have

Here is the first proposal we made to the Hollanders. While we are still finalizing the footprint and siting, there hasn't been too much work put into the timber frame design (other than the floor system), but it's coming, I promise.

The house is shown siting on the correct topography with a satellite image of the site applied to the mesh. Other than generating the vector topo lines, everything was constructed in Sketchup.

Cool stuff Chuck

Thanks Ray, I appreciate you taking the time to say so.

Here is an animation of the final design for the Hollander House, with all of the timber frame finalized. I highly recommend choosing the 720p HD option for viewing the video, if you have a fast connection.

Here is the completed main floor timber frame.

We will be using a steel piece to support the reciprocating floors (yeah, they aren't really reciprocating in a bearing sense of the word) and it will also allow the post below and the post above to have a good solid place to terminate.

There is 2 1/2x12's from Colorado, 7x14's rescued from a falling down pig farm, Douglas Fir logs from Montana, and a couple small beams from a barn in Illinois.

We are rabbeting the floor planking into the main floor beams so we can show the timbers and the design they are making.

The rim around the perimeter will be two rows of 2x12's sitting on a secondary bottom plate. While not necessarily essential, as we could have just used pressure treated 2x12 for the bottom plate, we thought it easier and quick during raising if the pressure treat was already installed on the concrete, on site, and then we could roll in and drop our floor onto the PT that we have squaring lines, if necessary, snapped onto it.

Keep in mind that we are fabricating this home in Montana and shipping and raising it in New York, so it is all about the most efficient and quickest raising possible.

Well, even though it feels like I am talking to myself here, which is a bit surprising since I thought everyone liked to see real world projects that came from a Sketchup model, but, oh well, I shall continue to forge forward.

These videos show the Kitchen Ridge System for the Hollander House. Since this house was designed around a mathematical grid that mirrors itself around the center of the bressumer beam, the Bedroom Ridge System is identical to the Kitchen system. This helps speed up the fabrication, as well as letting us remember fewer numbers of truth.

Each Ridge System is comprised of 4 posts, 3 ridges, 3 knee braces, and one capital.

Just cuz no one is commenting, doesn't mean they aren't watching! Check your thread view stats, Chuck.

I haven't seen the piece you call a "capital" before. I've certainly seen corbels used to support scarfs, but not where they extend out past the brace like you are doing. CB.