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but modern technology has transformed them from attractive
anachronisms' into practical, energy efficient modern living spaces.
Construction of a postand-beam house is completely different from
building an ordinary "stick built" house. The timber frame, which
is the structural support for the house, is prepared off site. After
the cellar is poured, the massive wooden skeleton arrives, notched, numbered,
and neatly stacked on the back of a flatbed truck.
David says, "It was so cool to see the frame go
up," an event that took less than a week. Prefabricated wall and
ceiling panels are then attached to the exterior of the frame with huge
bolts. The stress skin wall panels are a sandwich of plywood, 3 1/2
inch foam panel, and Sheetrock, held together with glue. The ceiling
panels have 5 1/2 inches of foam, giving them an excellent R value in the
mid 30s. The exterior siding and roof shingles are then applied.
Post-and-beam houses have no studs in the exterior
walls, though interior walls are constructed like a conventional house.
What the couple got was a center chimney 1800-square-foot, three-bedroom,
two-anda-half-bath house that from the outside looks as if it could
have been nestled in its rocky piece of Connecticut woods for 200 years.
Inside, an open floor plan gives it a modern feel, in spite of the antique-looking
exposed timber beams in the corners of every room.
One unique feature of the home is that the tongue-and-groove
pine boards that comprise the ceiling of the downstairs are the floorboards
of the second story. As a result, there is no space for pipes or
wiring in the ceiling, requiring ingenious solutions to the "how to get
the plumbing upstairs," problem. In this house, a wall of cabinets
with a wet bar between the kitchen and dining area is the conduit for the
plumbing for the upstairs guest bath, and a dropped ceiling in the adjoining
dining area does the same for the upstairs master bath.
Downstairs, a sunny great room contains living
and dining space. The centerpiece of the room is a brick fireplace
and arched niche for firewood and a generous bluestone hearth designed
specifically for a Jotul wood-burning stove, though the house also has
an oil-fired baseboard heating system. Most of the rooms in the house
have ceiling fans for summer cooling. To the left of the front door
is the kitchen and its adjoining sitting area.
Ceramic tiles
For the kitchen floor, Mary and David chose ceramic
tiles in tones earthy of salmon and gray to continue the colors of the
brick fireplace surround in the great room. Hickory cabinets and
a center island were given a natural finish and harmonize nicely with the
wood of the ceiling and the massive structural beams. Antique-looking
pendant lights over the island and sink are reproductions of lamps from
an old ship.
The attached two-car garage, mud room, and a powder
room off the kitchen were built with regular construction methods. Upstairs,
the three bedrooms have high, sloped ceilings under the steep roof.
David and Mary did the interior painting themselves,
and were pleased that they could paint the ceiling panels on the ground
before |
 |
"You'd probably
go to post-and-
beam hell if you
put vinyl siding
on this kind of
house."
David Cohen
Top, the great
room includes a
stove and a niche to
store wood
Far left, the raised
Cape style home was
built by
Stonington Post &
Beam
Middle, an arched
window in the
master bedroom lets
in plenty of light.
Below, the
upstairs master
bathroom with a
Jacuzzi tub.
JACK SAUER / The Day |
they were hoisted up and attached to the roof beams.
Soaring ceilings
The master bedroom has a soaring 17foot-high
ceiling. The room is filled with natural light from a huge arched
window with a gorgeous view of a rocky wooded hillside. The adjoining
master bath under the eaves at the back of the house has two low eyebrow
windows, a two-person Jaccuzzi whirlpool tub, and a glassed-in shower.
To choose the color of the oversized ceramic tiles
that cover the floor and the sides and deck of the tub, Mary and David
held tile samples up to the weathered lichens on their favorite granite
boulders for a floor that would capture the rugged feel of their property.
The couple did some of the work on the house themselves. Last fall,
David cleared the lot and, with the use of a friend's backhoe, dug the
driveway and the conduit for the underground utilities. They had
Barber, the builder, erect the garage first, so that they could use it
as a work space.
After the unfinished timber beams were delivered
to the site, Mary and David lifted each huge post up onto saw horses in
the unheated garage, sanded it, and applied a Benjamin Moore Antique Oil
finish. They also applied a clear finish to the cedar clapboard siding,
and painted the house trim a traditional barn red.
Jokes David, "You'd probably go to postand-beam
hell if you put vinyl siding on this kind of house."
The whole process was fun, though stressful.
Mary says, "Don was good to work with, and was very fair. We took
the plan of his house and |
 |
shrunk it down, and then he drew up blueprints.
This was the smallest house he had ever built."
They broke ground in December, and the foundation
was in by New Year's. In June, the evening before their 12th anniversary,
Mary and David moved into their new house. Considering that the whole
project
started because David and Mary decided that their puppy
needed more room to roam, their beautiful new post-and-beam is simply the
classiest dog house in the country. |
Stonington Post & Beam's Web site is www.stonington-postandbeam.com. |
N
THEIR WAY TO A SUPERBOWL party two years ago, Mary DiGiacomo-Cohen and
her husband, David Cohen, decided to check out an open house conducted
by builder Don Barber of his own post-and-beam home in North Stonington.
The couple's black Lab puppy, Kea, needed a bigger yard, and they had been
looking at houses for months with no success.
