PHOTOGRAPHS-The Studio

The Summer

Well we made the move from the old studio to here the first week in July.

I spent the couple of weeks leading up to the move insulating , hanging sheetrock, taping, spackling the walls and then sanding and painting. I wanted to get all the dusty work done before I brought in my cameras, computers and printers. With weather delays and keeping busy with shoots, I didn't get the inside as far along as I had hoped but I needed to get out of my other studio by early July. So, as the paint was still drying, we were moving.
After 12 years in one location its amazing how much stuff you accumulate. I had 35 yds of stuff hauled away: Old darkroom equipment and processors, old computers, and props that I hadn't used in a few years- GONE.
We basically carted everything over, stuck it inside the new studio and went back for another load.
Katey and I made the last trip at 2 am on Sat. morning (July 8th).

We were renting a cottage in Maine with friends starting that day so 5 hrs later, we were on our way to vacation.
It was great to have a week where we couldn't do any work on the studio and just unwind.
But- coming home meant facing a studio packed with boxes, cases, and equipment that was just dropped off and left. By the end of the week, however, things were cleared up enough that I was actually shooting in the new space. There was power, internet, and phones so everything was running. I hadn't finished the A/C, the plumbing or all the wiring so the first couple weeks were interesting (and warm) but slowly, things are shaping up.

The Barn Raisers have left the building-

Brendan, Bob and Splint have done a phenomenal job. They spent this past week tightening up the exterior, putting in the windows and doors, finishing off the roof and building the stairs.
By Wed afternoon, they had finished. It's been only 8 weeks since the timbers arrived at Brendan's house from the mill, and now, they have a completely finished their part. We can't say enough about how great they are.
As you will see when you visit, their work is craftsmanship at its best. Their attention to details, the willingness to accommodate our requests, and the fact that they are a pleasure to work with in every way is only capped off by the fact that they finished ahead of schedule AND under budget!!!!

If you ever want a beautiful handcrafted house or barn- call Brendan Matthews of The Barn Raisers at 860-873-3828.

Details

While the guys are busy with the roofing and siding, Katey and I are working on some of the details.
The large doors into the shooting area are 5 ft wide by 10 ft tall each. The cedar siding will be installed over the opening and then the doors will be cut out. Since these doors are so large, the hinges need to be strong. Well timing is everything- In the middle of this project I am shooting the new catalog for Horton Brasses. (www.horton-brasses.com) I've worked with Horton a lot in the past but never realized how much black iron hardware they have. So with the help of Barbara Rockwell and her son Orion Henderson (the owners of Horton) we are getting our hinges made for us by one of their blacksmiths, Terry in Tennessee. They suggested the 2 inch wide strap hinges and figured that 40 inch hinges are needed due to the size of the doors. The hinges will be hung on lags screwed into the frame and attached to the doors with hand wrought bolts. Brendan and the guys can attach the hinges to the doors and then cut the doors out of the siding.
Earlier, Katey and I picked out the windows and doors. We spent some time with Brendan to find windows for the north facade that would fit into the framing and balance the look with the fanlight that will be located in the peak.
The windows would take about a week to arrive- In the meantime, I'm repairing the fanlight before it is time to install it.

Topping it off

Well the guys have been cranking-
First the floor of the loft was put in, and then they started on the ceiling.
It may seem a bit premature, but the ceiling goes in BEFORE the roof goes on.
We decided on having a pine tongue and groove ceiling. (The thought of hanging sheetrock 25 ft in the air and then having to tape it and paint it, made the decision easy.)
Since the framing will show below the ceiling, the pine was laid on top of the frame.
Installed on top of the ceiling are SIPS. (Structural insulated panels). These panels are made in New Hampshire by Panel Pros to Brendan's specs. They are basically plywood sandwiches with solid foam insulation in between. The foam is about 5 inches thick so they really insulate well.
The panels arrived by truck from NH and we had a crane waiting to unload them, stack them in the right order to install and then hoist them up on the roof. There are 18 panels in all. Most of them are about 16ft long and about 5 ft wide. They get screwed, (9 inch screws), to the timber frame to secure them.
After the panels are installed, foam insulation is sprayed in to the gaps between the panels to form a continuous seal.
Topping this all off will be a burgundy metal roof.
By the end of the week, we were weathertight on top.

Quite an Erection

Monday April 10
Finally, the rain, sleet, snow, and cold from last week has cleared. It is going to be a perfect day to erect the frame.
Brendan, Bob and Splint show up at 7:30 am. A few minutes later, a 40 ton crane from Marino Crane Service in Middletown pulls up in front of the house. As the guys stop the morning traffic, Jim Weber, the driver and crane operator, backs up the driveway.
Within 15 minutes, the crane is set, braced and leveled.
The bents that were assembled last week are rigged with nylon straps to help brace the timbers as they are raised into place. Nylon slings are wrapped around the upper timbers and will be used to rig to the crane.
By 8:00 the first bent is on its way up. The first bent is basically the north wall of the studio. It is composed of corner posts, the beam at the second floor level, the rafters that form the peak and the bracing timbers that tie everything together. The assembled bent is 24 feet wide and will be over 25 ft tall when standing. With most of the main timbers being 8 inch square, the bent weighs about 2000 lbs.
The bottom of each post has a tenon on it. This is like a tongue that will fit into a mortise (pocket) cut into the oak sills that are bolted to the foundation. Each mortise and tenon is cut for a tight and exact fit. As Jim lifts the bent up it will need to be nudged into place. This first bent is the farthest away from the driveway where the crane is set. In addition to lifting it up, the crane has to reach over the old garage to position the bent at the far end of the foundation. Watching Jim maneuver the massive bent is impressive.
A smooth lift and within minutes, the bent is dropping into place. The guys now secure braces to shore and square the bent.
Once braced, Brendan climbs to the top to loosen the slings that are attached to the crane.
The second bent goes up as smoothly. The beams that connect the 2 bents together are lifted (by hand) into place and the braces that support these are all slipped into place.
Floor joists are lifted into place by the crane and placed between the 2 bents. These will support the loft floor. These timbers are joined with dovetail joints on either end. They precisely lock the bents together. At the roof, the purlins are joined to the rafters the same way. With all these in place, the 2 bents are solid and square. Seeing the precision of the joinery as it slips into place is amazing. Each cut, done by hand, is precise and exact.

The third bent is different than the others- This is the bent that will span the main shooting area of the studio. There is no center post and the beam is 15 feet over the floor. As this bent is raised, the framing for the side doors are lined up and need to be in position as the bent is raised. The purlins are lifted into place to secure this bent to the others.
Before the last bent goes up, Katey and I place a 2006 penny into a mortise in the sill to mark the year.
After the last bent is up and the last purlins in place, Brendan nails a pine branch to the top of the completed frame to mark an old framers tradition. This is supposed to give longevity to the frame.
By 11:30 the frame is up, Jim packs the crane up. Since
lots of friends and neighbors have stopped by to watch and visit, now is the perfect time to break for lunch. Katey and my parents have laid a nice spread and everyone digs in.
After lunch, the guys spend the afternoon drilling the joints, putting in the pegs, measuring, cutting and placing the horizontal nailers between all the posts. These timbers are spaced 2 ft apart and are where the cedar siding will be nailed.
The whole day went so smoothly that by 4:30 all the framing was done.

Everyone agreed, it was the best erection they had ever seen.....

Prep-

Ready, Set, Wait....

April started and the dry warm weather ended.
Brendan and the guys spent most of Monday making the pegs that will be used to hold the timbers together. In the afternoon, they brought one load of timbers to the house. The second load arrived Tues. morning and the timbers were neatly sorted and stacked so they would be handy when needed. Even though each day started cold and rainy, we kept hoping that the weather would break for Fri. and our scheduled raising. Brendan and Splint spent Tue afternoon and Wed setting the oak timbers that are used for the sills in place. Oak is more rot resistant than the white pine that the rest of the frame is made up of so it is used where the frame makes contact with the cement foundation.
When the cement was poured, hurricane tie downs and bolts were set in place. The sills needed to be drilled where the bolts were placed. Splint used the drilling rig to bore these hole and then the sills were leveled and secured. The joints in the sills at the corners were lap joint mortised and tenoned and pegged in place.
Thur, Brendan, Splint and Bob assembled the four bents that make up the main sections of the frame.
A bent is made up of the posts that rise from the sills to a beam that goes across the width of the span, and these are topped with the rafters and the cross braces on post that are needed to support the roof.

Since I needed the photography area to be free of any center supports and a high ceiling, the bent that spans the shooting area is a 24ft clear span and the beam is about 15 ft off the ground.

Each of these cross beams weighs over 600 lbs, the posts weigh close to 200 lbs each and the rafters are over 300 pounds each. So each assembled bent weighs over 2000lbs. That's why we need to use a crane to raise the bents instead of trying it by hand.
With the rain showers predicted to continue through Sat. the raising will have to wait until Monday.

I'm a BIG Fan....

One of the classical architectural details that I've always liked, is the use of a Fanlight window in the gable.
Our house has the more restrained 3 part window and substituting a fanlight never seemed to make sense. But now, with the studio, we have a chance to add this detail. One problem is that the new versions always seem to be lacking something in detail or style. Whenever Katey and I would go to Brimfield, antique stores or architectural salvage places, I would be on the look out for a "nice" fanlight.
Well last fall, Irreplaceable Artifacts opened in Middletown. Evan Blum, the owner, also has a store (Demolition Depot) in NYC. He buys the contents of buildings, estates, hotels, etc. that are scehduled to be torn down and removes anything useable for re-use.
At the opening of the store in Middletown, we saw a beautiful fanlight. It comes from the Elkin family estate carriage house in Philadelphia. It is approx, 8 ft wide and 3 ft high is an appropriate.
Here's a photo of it before it was removed. And in the store.

We will place it in the north gable- (the facade that faces the house).

Floored....

Over the weekend, master backhoe operator and excavator extraordinaire, Jim Fowler, spread the 35 tons of crushed stone inside the foundation. This left a bed of gravel about 4 inches thick on top of the compacted earth inside. The gravel is about 8 inches below the top of the foundation wall.

Monday, March 27 2006, Don Carmichael, of A&A Foundations, formed out the "utility pit" in the northeast corner of the studio. This area is where the electricity, water, phone, etc. will enter the studio from a trench to the house. (The water line needs to be at least 40 inches below ground to below below the frost level.)
In the center of the floor near the north end, is a deeper area where the floor needs to be extra thick. The loft will have one post in the center that supports it and it will sit on this pad. A length of rebar (iron rod) is sticking up from this spot and the post will be drilled out and placed over this rod.

Don then ordered 15 and a half yards of cement for the morning, (Tue).

The first cement truck showed up about 9am and the pour started.
Watching the coordination between the driver and Don as the truck laid the cement and Don spread it evenly around was amazing. The floor needed to be about 4 inches thick. A chalkline snapped around the inside perimeter of the foundation was Don's final level indicator. In addition, he had about ten thin metal plates placed around the space which had the tops set to the final top of the floor. He then spread the cement from the line on the edges to the center so it just covered the submerged metal plates. This is done by eye and the cement is smoothed with "float".
The drivers of the trucks are in radio contact so that as the first truck is finished with its load the second truck is ready and on site.

By 10:30 both trucks were empty, washed out and gone. Don's has the level set and uses a wooded screed to smooth the surface. After about 30 mins, he works a bull float to further smooth it out.
Over the next couple of hours, he will make several passes with a "whirlybird" until, by the time he leaves at 3, the floor is like glass and almost hard enough to walk on.
(As you can see in the photos, this was all done under the watchful eyes of our neighbors.)

Of course, at the exact point of set, Katey recorded the date and our names in the corner for posterity.

Early next week, Brendan will move the timbers here and if all goes well (weather?!) the frame will be raised on Fri (April 7).

Checking in....

Katey and I headed down to East Haddam and Lyme to check out some roof colors. On the way we stopped in to see how the frame was coming.
Brendan and the guys were working on the rafters. He showed Katey around the "shop" and explained the frame progress so far.
He told us that the framing timbers weighed between 500 and 850 lbs each. Each bent would probably weigh over 2000 lbs. So, for safety, we'll use a crane to raise it, instead of doing it the old fashioned way. So much for my dreams of an Amish Party.....

Tomorrow, 40 tons of crushed stone is being delivered. This will be used as a base below the cement floor.

Starting the frame

March 8 2006
Took a trip down to East Haddam this morning. Brendan Matthews, of The Barn Raisers, had called and said the timbers for the frame had come in and they were starting to cut.
The weather was starting to warm, finally. there was just a trace of lingering snow on the ground.
When I arrived, Brendan, Bob and Splint were each working on separate pieces of the frame. There were timbers stacked in neat piles around the "shop". As you can see in the photos, with the exception of a small shed covering some timbers, the whole Barn Raisers facility is "al fresco". I suppose when you build post and beam buildings, you don't need a shop. In fact, I'm not even sure they need electricity. In the photos, you can see the guys using hand tools and even the "drilling machine" to cut the mortises and tenons on the beams. (A mortise is a hole cut into a timber that a tenon fits into. These are then usually held together with wooden pegs.)

The wood for the frame is white pine with the exception of the timbers that come in contact with the foundation. These sills are made in oak which has a resistance to rot equivalent to pressure treated lumber.

It should take about a month to cut these. They will then be moved to Middlefield for a planned early April raising.