Back to Granston

As I've said before, it's great to go back and visit previous work once its been lived in and become a home. As our part of the construction phase is such an early one, there's a pretty big transformation when you go back to find it's become a much loved home. It seems a long time ago that this was all scaffolding and muddy puddles.

This Douglas Fir and Oak frame has always been one of my favorites. The Hemcrete wall build-up was done by regular collaborator Ben Brittan, while the clients themselves did much of the internal fit out work.

I really enjoyed keeping the Oak collars and braces as close as possible to their natural shape in this frame. It's not that often that we mix timbers in a frame, but Douglas Fir just doesn't grow with curves in it, and I find it's clean straight lines contrast nicely with the characterful natural curves in the Oak. We had to fell an apple tree to erect this extension, so we decided to preserve part of it in the frame...the 2 studs in the gable wall here are my first experience of timber frame building with apple wood!

I've made 4 staircases now, this being the most recent, and it's always an enjoyable challenge to build something that suits the existing character of a house. It seemed obvious to use Douglas Fir and Oak again, and I was pleased to see how well these have settled in since installation. With 3 pairs of teenage feet treading their boards each day, they're holding up well.