Dream Maker

By the time the owners purchased property on a pristine New Hampshire lake four years ago, they knew the kind of feel they wanted for their year-round vacation retreat: spacious and refined, yet cozy and inviting -- reminiscent of their visit to a private Maine lodge some 27 years ago.

Because the couple had never built a home before, they asked Jay Booker, of Booker Construction Company in New London, New Hampshire, who had done remodeling work for them, and the Davis Frame Company of Claremont, New Hampshire, for helping in finding common ground between their pricey ideas and limited budget.

The couple talked about their dream home for years, but the project got a significant push forward about two years ago when the couple's 14-year-old son drew up preliminary floor plans for a school project. By eavesdropping on his parents, he captured such functional priorities as putting a laundry room and master bedroom on the main floor. With the floor plans as a starting point, designer Paul Patterson, of Deerfield Design in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, developed a three-story plan for a 4,216 square-foot home that met nearly every item on the family's wish list.

While the couple proved to be extremely flexible, they had several nonnegotiable requirements. They chose a Douglas fir timber frame over more rustic alternatives because they liked its smooth, sleek look. They wanted a diner-style breakfast booth in their kitchen -- and eventuallv tracked down a Boston craftsman who makes them for a restaurant chain and sweet-talked him into making one for them. To achieve a lodge feel, they wanted a massive fireplace in a wide-open great room, with a second-floor balcony overlooking it. And, they didn't want to sacrifice one inch of their stunning view of a nearby ski resort.

The design and planning process required making some tough choices. The couple had hoped for a wraparound porch on the lake side, but dropped that budget-breaking idea in favor of two covered porches, one screened in. Using a less expensive conventional roof for one wing of the house also saved money. And they scaled back the size -- but not the drama -- of their great room. There, they put aesthetics ahead of cost.

For example, since the floor plan called for the gabled side of the house to face the lake, the owners envisioned a veritable wall of windows there, spanning the width of the house and climbing all three stories. That meant rethinking the fireplace, which is structurally easiest to situate on the gabled side of a house. Instead, they punched the chimney through the 26-foot cathedral roof on an interior wall. That enabled them to back it with a second, smaller fireplace in the master bedroom, where a more modest cathedral ceiling sports four skylights.

That's not to say the fireplace in the great room played second fiddle. The owners were very particular about the look they wanted: angular stones, tightly fitted, with the mortar set an inch or so back so that it looks like the stones are holding each other up.

They selected quartzite, which has a base color of tan, highlighted with lighter and darker browns, ice blue and antique white. The stone was cut in square and rectangular shapes.

Another key feature was on the second floor, home to two bedrooms and a "serious balcony," as the homeowners put it. Unlike the narrower passageways they've seen in other homes, they wanted enough room on their balcony to put a few pieces of furniture and bookshelves.

That presented the kind of structural challenge an innovative timber framer relishes. While a traditional king post truss would have supported the balcony overhangs, the posts also would have interrupted the traffic and furniture arrangements below -- and obstructed the views in the great room. With input from designer Paul Patterson, Jeff Davis, of Davis Frame, fashioned a combination king post and hammerbeam into one gigantic truss. "We actually hung the second-floor balcony off this truss," Jeff says, noting that the truss "fits well with the scope" of the commanding great room.

In keeping with the sleek look, embellishments on the frames are subtle. One graceful touch, the delicately curved knee braces, was echoed in the tongue-and-groove, Z-braced interior doors, custom-made by builder Jay Booker.

A second-floor balcony overlooks the massive stone fireplace and a maze of gracefully arching beams. The couple kept the balcony's space functional, with room for bookcases and furniture.

The lighting further enhances the refined feel. A lighting designer helped the owners plan an array of "scenes" to evoke various moods -- one scene brightens up the entire timber frame, for instance, whereas another quietly washes the fireplace stone with dimmers. Then, rather than contend with a maze of conventional light switches, they "set" their scenes using a computer-driven lighting system that enables them to keep wall switches in the home to a minimum.

While the wiring was extensive, they tucked it away under the balcony by constructing a hybrid floor system, adding a conventional floor on top of a timber floor. That provided a small cavity where they could hide drain pipes and electrical wiring.

For the main floor, the owners selected nine-inch-wide yellow pine planks. Familiar with New England's extreme seasonal variations, and especially its dry winters, they had the pine installed as tightly as possible and put in an automatic humidifier to protect the wood floors, the frame and their piano from cracking or gapping. In addition to insulation, two hot-water furnaces, each capable of keeping the entire house minimally warm if the other breaks down, provide heat during the winter. The basement, which houses a recreation area, wine cellar, future sauna, storage room and a bedroom and a bath, also has a wood-burning stove, salvaged from a cottage that once sat on the property.

Looking back, the owners are quick to note that their initial lack of overall clarity or knowledge about the construction process, combined with their very specific vision of some aspects of their home, probably created a few headaches for the framer, designer and construction crew. Indeed, many of their decisions were made or modified with input from the experts, who sometimes acted as a sort of reality check -- "driving with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake," as Jay put it. Today, with their education complete, the couple can see the impact of their ideas when they walk from room to room. And they take pride in having been an integral part of the process.

The Budget Balancing Act

Like most people who want to build a timber frame home, you want the best site, the best view and the best features, finishes and accessories. What you may not have to begin with – is the best budget to do all of the things you want.

There are ways, however, to make your dreams fit your pocketbook. "Designing smart" is one of them, according to Jeff Davis, of Davis Frame Company in Claremont, New Hampshire. If you are on a tight budget, Jeff suggests keeping the home's design and floorplan simple. "A sprawling home adds costs," he says. "Any home with more than four corners will add to the home's overall cost."

Another way to save money, he suggests, is to use hybrid materials in the home's construction -- a combination of stick and timber frame building materials. "Although I believe every room should be timber framed because the frame is so beautiful," Jeff says, "cupolas, dormers, bedrooms and other wings of the home don't have to be timber framed."

There are many other ways to save money, of course. Be creative. From your wish list, pick and choose, within your budget, what you can and can't afford -- now. Save that list, however. You'll need it next year, when you look at it again to determine what little luxury you can add to your home when your budget permits.