Timber Frame Facts

I did say quiet…the hammers aren’t hammering much, the power tools are still, the construction trades are slower than they’ve been in many years.  The advantage goes to the you.  There are talented carpenters, masons, plumbers, and electricians ready to work.

Two purposes are served.  The first is the opportunity get some very competitive pricing by utilizing the available labor.  The second opportunity comes to the tradesmen/tradeswomen who can continue to work.

David and I are stepping forward.  We see this as an excellent time to build and our home will be out of the ground in a couple of weeks.  We are finding the proposals we’re getting are competitive and we are pleased to be able to reach out to these tradesmen.

Step back and look at where you are and where you plan on being in a couple of years.  Building while there are available contractors may be your best choice.   Building now, and building a smaller, sustainable, energy efficient home will no doubt serve you well.

 As we become more aware of the advantages of living in a smaller, more sustainable space that has a smaller footprint and uses fewer resources to build and less fuel to heat and cool, we look for small designs that are livable.  They must meet our needs or we’ll be looking for a larger home…quickly.  Goshen has launched a new line of small, sustainable homes that live well.  Each is smaller than 2,000 square feet, yet lives much larger.  Check out these plans at Goshen’s CottageBuilt Homes to see what we’ve done.  You’ll find styles reminiscent of the Sears Kit Homes from the early 1900′s and of the many bungalows and cottages from that period.

Green Building, in it’s new and sometimes abused persona, is not really a new concept.  It has always been important to use resources wisely, to build with the materials at hand, and to conserve energy.  New technology has helped us to achieve some of these goals, but if we look back, we see that many before us have built green, without all the hype.  Adobe homes protected Native Americans in the Southwest from sweltering heat, wattle and daub homes used materials at hand to build shelters, skyscrapers built in the late 1800′s made use of urban space.  So while architects, designers, and builders today would like to take credit for this movement, they are truly just making the public more aware of the importance of building green