Rural Gardening: Timber Homes, 1 by podster

podster wrote:
You are welcome to save those photos and share with others if you want to show them or ask questions. I do not mind. Wish I knew more about the actual home building. I appreciate your sharing any links you find also.

On your foundation, are you doing pier and beam or concrete? In this area, we have expandable clay which will crack a slab quickly. Most folks do the pier and beam but not us. Our home foundation was walled with concrete blocks which were stuccoed. After all the past years of drought, the slab has cracked and we have a mess.

Just to share a couple of "wish we had dones"...

I wish we had looked into radiant heat in the floors. I always thought it would be neat to have water tubing run under the flooring and have that water tubing circulate thru a wood heater. Warm water would circulate thru the flooring and put the heat where you need it as it rises to the ceiling.

We have two fireplaces in the house and DH used to have a fireplace in his first workshop. Fireplaces are o.k. but a lot of heat is wasted. In the greenhouse, he put in a small cast iron heater and I love it. I have wished many times since that we had done that in the house also. There has never been a problem with it not drawing and no struggle to start a fire with very efficient heat.

I'm sure others will have suggestions for your timber home also... good luck!