{"id":4136,"date":"2015-01-19T13:23:22","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T03:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/project.theownerbuildernetwork.co\/?p=4136"},"modified":"2015-01-23T16:43:07","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T06:43:07","slug":"japanese-forest-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/2015\/01\/19\/japanese-forest-house\/","title":{"rendered":"From a Brass Sink to a Japanese Forest House"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple years ago I found a neat little brass sink at the local recycle center.\u00a0\u00a0 Enamored of shiny objects,\u00a0 I coveted it’s golden glow,\u00a0 entirely aware of the fact that I had no use for such a thing.\u00a0\u00a0 I wandered around for an hour or so with it in my hand,\u00a0 looking at other stuff,\u00a0 realizing that if I took it I’d have to build a home for it.\u00a0\u00a0 I eventually brought it up to the register and started planning my house on the drive home…<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse01\"<\/p>\n

The Japanese Forest House is a confluence of my love of small spaces,\u00a0 my passion for local materials,\u00a0 and my fascination with traditional Japanese architecture. \u00a0 For those familiar with the intensely refined art of traditional Japanese carpentry,\u00a0 applying the title of ‘Japanese’ onto my house might be laying it on a bit thick.\u00a0 It’s true I’ve fallen short of the refinement found in the homes of the upper classes,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 the work still embraces the design principles that make the traditonal tea houses (which were, ironically, modeled after peasant shacks) so appealing.<\/p>\n

Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oversize beams, live edge slabs, natural timbers,\u00a0 real plaster walls, and minimal decoration, all encourage a deep sense of calm.\u00a0\u00a0 What I love about this structure is that it is architecturally honest,\u00a0 meaning that where a lag bolt or a deck screw or a 16 penny nail was used,\u00a0 no attempt to was made to conceal them. \u00a0 Open joist pockets,\u00a0 a visible birdsmouth from a repurposed rafter template,\u00a0 I made a deliberate choice not to hide these things. \u00a0 This ethic reflects my general dislike for the veneers of all sorts that seek to mimic things that they are not. \u00a0\u00a0 Moving outwards,\u00a0 the structure compliments,\u00a0 rather than dominates the landscape.\u00a0\u00a0 I made many design errors:\u00a0 the roof pitch is slightly too steep,\u00a0 the body of the house is a bit too tall,\u00a0 and if I’d known that I was going to use a cedar shake roof I absolutely would have dipped the ridge and flown the gables. C’est la vie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Construction Details:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The structure is simple, stout, timber framing sitting on a 200 square foot concrete pad.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse09\"<\/p>\n

Frame wood was sawn from logs found floating in a flood,\u00a0 except the corner posts,\u00a0 which were blowdown trees hauled from the forest on a friend’s property. \u00a02x4s were scabbed into the frame to provide nailing surface over which we horizontally nailed roughsawn 1 x 20 (yes you read that right)\u00a0 hemlock (also nailed to the frame). Over that we vertically nailed live edge board on board cedar siding.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse17\"\"JapaneseForestHouse16\"<\/p>\n

The inside was stuffed with cotton insulation over which we stapled roughsawn spruce lath,\u00a0 over which we troweled sand\/clay\/straw plaster, over which we skimmed a commercial earth plaster,\u00a0 over which we painted with milk paint.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse02\"<\/p>\n

The roof is 6 inch fir skipsheet nailed onto spruce 1x10s.\u00a0\u00a0 Split cedar shakes (and shakefelt)\u00a0 are stapled atop that. Inside the roof is stuffed with R-30 cotton insulation and covered with a polyethylene vapor barrier,\u00a0 then covered with D-grade (mill rejects) tongue and groove fir.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse14\"<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse21\"<\/p>\n

The upstairs flooring is made of an even worse grade of reject fir flooring.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse10\"<\/p>\n

The downstairs floor is simply stained concrete.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse12\"<\/p>\n

I milled all the timming materials from scrap wood.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse32\"<\/p>\n

The found the windows the local dump and paid just $40\u00a0for all of them. The french doors came from\u00a0craigslist although\u00a0refinishing them was a pain!<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse05\"<\/p>\n

The stove (not visible) is a tiny Jotul cook stove \u00a0– \u00a0just\u00a0perfect for the available space\u00a0while the benchtops\u00a0are walnut slabs that we milled ourselves.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse18\"<\/p>\n

The stair rail is made from\u00a0alder poles fastened with lag bolts and deck screws.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse03\"<\/p>\n

The stair stringer came\u00a0from the forest on a friend’s property. The treads are 2×10 fir from a log I found on the bay and milled.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse19\"<\/p>\n

These\u00a0tables are simple rounds off a cedar stump with natural legs from a piece of Port Oroford cedar I found on the beach.\u00a0It took about 2 hours to make all three.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"JapaneseForestHouse30\"\u00a0\u00a0\"JapaneseForestHouse31\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"JapaneseForestHouse20\"\u00a0\u00a0\"JapaneseForestHouse23\" \"JapaneseForestHouse24\" \"JapaneseForestHouse26\" \"JapaneseForestHouse27\"\u00a0\u00a0\"JapaneseForestHouse29\"\"JapaneseForestHouse33\"<\/p>\n

Total I think I put around $11,000 hard cash into the building. That went on concrete,\u00a0 shakes,\u00a0 and insulation. \u00a0It took about a year and a half to build in my spare time.\u00a0 Finally,\u00a0 yes, I did end up using a few simpson ties,\u00a0 specifically a handful of RT7’s to tie the rafters to the top plate beams,\u00a0 probably not neccesary but hey,\u00a0 what’s your roof not blowing off in a hurricane worth?\u00a0\u00a0 Idealism is good,\u00a0 but so is common sense,\u00a0 and I’ve never been a purist anyhow.<\/p>\n

With deep enough pockets a person might be able to duplicate such a structure by writing a large check to a talented builder,\u00a0 but that would risk missing the point entirely…<\/p>\n

The simple act of searching adds richness to our lives. \u00a0 To reiterate:\u00a0 You meet people,\u00a0 you discover new places,\u00a0 you have adventures,\u00a0 you learn things,\u00a0 AND,\u00a0 you come home with beams,\u00a0 windows,\u00a0 doors,\u00a0 and shingles. \u00a0 It takes more time,\u00a0 but that is also time you are not working to pay for it,\u00a0 and actually enjoying yourself,\u00a0 building something infinately more attractive than yet another plywood and sheetrock box.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks to\u00a0Brian Schulz<\/a> for this great project.<\/h4>\n

\"Brian<\/p>\n

When Brian isn’t building gorgeous cabins, he’s at his day job… building or paddling gorgeous kayaks. Based in Oregon, USA, he’s built, taught, and helped build over 800 skin-on-frame kayaks capable of punching out through ten foot waves or just quietly drifting on a lake.<\/p>\n

For 1400 dollars and one week of your time he’ll help you build your own, complete with handmade paddle. You get to work in his beautiful workshop on the Oregon coast that adjoins his off-grid organic farm!\u00a0For more information, visit\u00a0http:\/\/www.capefalconkayaks.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Brian's<\/a>
Brian’s day job!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple years ago I found a neat little brass sink at the local recycle center.\u00a0\u00a0 Enamored of shiny objects,\u00a0 I coveted it’s golden glow,\u00a0 entirely aware of the fact that I had no use for such a thing.\u00a0\u00a0 I wandered around for an hour or so with it in my hand,\u00a0 looking at other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9461,"featured_media":4137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Be inspired to build your own tiny home with Brian Schulz' Japanese Forest House.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sma_last_campaign_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[87,29],"tags":[336,85,430,330],"class_list":["post-4136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recycled","category-tiny-houses","tag-japanese-house","tag-reclaimed","tag-recycled","tag-tiny-house"],"modified_by":"Freddie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}