A Handmade, Debt-free Home
(Page 2 of 6)
February/March 2007
By Steve Maxwell
The first has to do with economy, both financial and environmental. We’ve always believed in spending wisely, avoiding debt and treading lightly on the planet. One of the reasons we chose to do all our own designing and building is because it allowed us to earn the money we needed as we went along. This slow road of self-reliant accomplishment also gave us time to plan carefully, addressing the real needs of our family in an environmentally reasonable way. When we were finished, we estimated our home’s out-of-pocket cost to build was $35 per square foot.
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The second driving force is our commitment to aesthetics. We go farther than most in our quest to create the right “feel” for our place. The 24-inch-thick stone walls of the basement, the hand-carved wood trim and the 150-foot wrap-around veranda may seem extravagant to some. But that’s OK. To us, the thrill of experiencing the structure of enduring beauty we’ve created is well worth the effort.
The last point has to do with our motivation. We’ve never made a single home-building decision based on how lucrative it will be, because we never intend to sell this place. Once you establish that standard, priorities shift from expedience to quality.
Dream Home by Design
We developed plans for our house using graph paper, a scale model and an engineering span table to determine the sizes of load-bearing frame members. All exterior walls are made of a 2-by-6 stud frame with exposed posts and beams inside. In addition to the fiberglass insulation between the studs, we applied an exterior layer of 1½-inch-thick extruded polystyrene foam to the outside face of the structure. This unbroken layer of insulation boosts thermal performance considerably compared with stud-only designs. We also installed interlocking asphalt shingles on the walls as a temporary sheathing to protect against the elements while we completed the home’s exterior, made from locally quarried limestone.
The hand-cut limestone foundation walls sit on ultra-smooth bedrock, with scratch marks cut by glaciers (called “striations”) still plainly visible today.
The roof is steep, and framed with rafters in a traditional style, creating an open third-story loft that’s useful year-round. Ventilated rafter channels keep airflow moving from eaves to peak while preserving space for insulation.
The prospect of a wrap-around veranda (see photo) seemed so daunting that we almost abandoned our plans for it, but that would have been a big mistake. Even though it’s only 6½ feet wide, the effect of this feature makes a lot of practical and aesthetic sense. If you were ever to visit us, sitting on a deck chair reading a good book during a gentle July rain, you’d see exactly what I mean. The veranda roof also provides plenty of cool shade for our kids, a sheltered place for shade-loving hanging plants and considerable protection for windows and doors. In addition, the deck finish lasts longer thanks to the overhang of the roof. Quality dwells in the details, and this philosophy extends to our veranda. Though we built it with standard construction-grade lumber, routed edge details transform the wood in surprising ways.
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