I thought it would be worthwhile to write a bit about this special project, not only because it’s about reusing old, salvaged timber and giving it a new life, but also because of the “soul” element involved and how things can manifest and take place when we don’t force them and allow them to manifest as they come. I was called by Debin at first just to help her unload this load of oak timber she was trying to save from a family barn somewhere in Kentucky. What to do with it? She wasn’t quite sure what to do with it at that point other than building something that would last long enough to keep the memory of her family barn alive. Eventually she called me back and asked me to help her build a shed. And here comes what I love the most in what I am doing as a builder: working with people and help them manifest their dreams. Starting from her preliminary shed plans, we start talking about her and what she like doing the most in her spare time. It turns out that Debin had quite an artistic sense and that she loved working with wood. Well, the natural step was to push the idea of a woodshed to a small studio-workshop where she could eventually practice her woodworking skills.

Putting the puzzle together

As we didn’t have enough of salvaged timber, we had to come up with something that would blend-in with the old oak timber. Luckily we had some older locally milled timber posts that we could work with.

I especially fell in love with some of this timber. Like this one that reminded me of an I especially fell in love with some of this timber. Like this one that reminded me of an native american Totem pole:

Working with this old timber was quite an amazing experience; you could almost “feel” the presence of person that carved them; we could admire the manual skills that we don’t have anymore. Everything was carved by hand.

As Debin wanted to save every little piece of “memory-wood” our choices had to be very well thought. I was walking a tightrope; a small mistake and we could ruin the whole thing.

Post & beam little custom studio

See the whole project gallery: http://welcomehomegreenbuilding.com/projects/debins-studio-2