These are beams from the homeowners barn that was 100+ years old that were installed in the kitchen of the new addition that I framed.
She had the kitchen company cut/design and stain these beams.
Joe Carola
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joe, looks like pretty high quality for an old barn... nice
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike,
Those beams were left over from the homeowners barn that was burnt down. She saved what she could and left them in a pile. They range from about 5"x 5" square and from 11' to 16' long.
She actually designed it for the kitchen guy with all the curves. She's not your average homeowner, she's very eccentric. She also has old beams for her fireplace mantels in the kitchen/ living room/bedroom and outside fireplace.
The other day she picked out small pieces so that the kitchen guy can make brackets for the garage overhangs/bay windows and we built a conical tower 14' diameter and the brackets will also be placed under the overhags surrounded by stone.
We're also using these beams for structural collar ties in the master bedroom and inside the tower roof wich is 21/12 pitch.
I'm sure it will look nice when it's done.
Joe Carola
Joe
I sure could use a few of those for when I frame out my additions. MAybe I should take an ad out in rural areas.....The beams alone would be nice but with those details.......wowwwwww...They will be about 18' lengths.
Be old
Namaste
andy
"Understanding yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"
Alan Watts
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Edited 4/5/2003 12:14:03 PM ET by Andy Clifford(Andybuildz)
Andy,
She's also doing a coffered ceiling in the living room and dining room but she doesn't have enough beams to do everything. She told me that there's a place in Pennsylvania that she can get the beams at.
She's having the Amish build her Barn/stable for her Horses. Instead of getting the beams from Pennsylvania she might just get the rest of the beams from the Amish with the same type of beams they use to build the barn.
I'll tell you what she just told me the other day about her stairs. She's using white oak and she wants us to jump on top of the stairs, smash them with our hammers, drop our tools on them to rough them up a little bit. So I said to her (jokingly) that I'll set up all my nail guns and everyone will shoot the steps. She said OK! we'll just set the pressure on the guns so that they only sink in about 1/4".
Gotta love her! You should see her driving her tractor around.
I wonder what Stan Foster would think?
Joe Carola
Joe
From the looks of my steps in the center of my house which I'm guessing are about 200 years old.....they are simply just worn where people walked on them.
To look authentic I'd say get out your sanders and hit em where people would have walked to wear them down.
Its like the look old distressed beams people make artificially by slamming them with chains and hammers. Looks phoney if you ask me. That's not what "old" looks like. Hand hewn and dark is what they look like. Come check out the beams in my house (323 years old as you know).
If you have a free ( I don't mean money wise) week you wanna blow town for a change of pace and help me ($$$) on my framing when I finally get to it, let me know. I'll mail you a set of the plans town hall lost....ughhhhhhhh.
Hopefully I should have em approved by the end of May sometime....The Historic Society already approved them...in December.
Would be fun to shoot up some stairs though..my 12 gauge and birdshot would be awesome...lol
PS...Let me know if you have any connections for old looking hand hewn beams that are about 18' real reasonably priced.
PSS.....I'll probably be doing coffered ceilings in parts of the house as well.
Be old
Namaste
andy
"Understanding yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"
Alan Watts
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Andy,
Your house is going to be a great project. If I have the time I would love to work on it.
As far as the beams, On Monday I'll ask the homeowner, maybe the place in Pennsylvania has some for you. I'll see if they have a website also.
Joe Carola
Joe
Just sent you an Email with some stuff that I think may be of interest to you
Andy
"Understanding yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"
Alan Watts
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Andy,
Thank you for the email. There's alot of interesting stuff in there. She also bought two 400 year old gothic arched windows from a church with stained glass in them that we're going to install on the gable ends surrounded by stone.
Joe Carola
Edited 5/7/2003 9:10:40 PM ET by Framer
Joe
I have and will post for sale on Ebay as soon as I figure out how to use my new digital camera double doors thats heavier than my house about seven feet tall with leaded glass. I think theyre mahogany with lots of detail. I spose I'd call them Victorian.
The original hinges are still on it as well. Maybe your customer might be interested in buying them for under a porch or over hang.
They need some work but are old and quite beautiful.
They just wouldn't fit the style of my house and I've been shlepping them around for years.
Be old and beautiful
Namaste
andy
"Understanding yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"
Alan Watts
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Framer: What do I think? Ha....that would be actually a fun job...no stress worrying about delivering a stairs with minimal flaws. Heck,,,I could even screw the treads and risers on from the outside. I bet my bid could be cut in half. :)
Framer: Those beams are awesome...It blows my mind how such precise work and such massive work seemed to have been so common over a hundred years ago without routers,,cnc equipment, etc. I always am in awe when I go into old beam built barns.
Edited 4/6/2003 9:07:09 AM ET by Stan Foster
Stan,
Those beams were actually about 5"x 5" square and 11' to 16' in length, nothing really straight, all rough.
The homeowner gave the design with all the arches and she delivered them to the kitchen contractors shop and they cut/sanded and stained everything there. There's still maybe 10 beams left, I'll take pictures of those and you'll see how beat up they are and amazingly they turned out like this.
You should of seen them putting them up. They had a lift and the lift broke about 10" away from the ceiling. I heard this one guy cursing every name in the book, I thought somebody got hurt. I went to the trailer and got my two jacks and helped them jack both ends in place.
It's going to be nice when it's all done. To bad the kitchens kind of small it's only 25' x 38'. ;-)
This homeowner has some good ideas. She's the one I was telling you about with the round stairs. She's probably going to go with stone steps now because the inside of the tower is also stone and she talked to the stone mason and he said it's a good idea. He already built round stairs in the side of the house going to the wine cellar. They came out nice also.
Joe Carola