Riverfront Home with

This project evolved from the desire of the owners to have a unique home that complemented their riverfront lot along the upper Rogue River, near Shady Cove, Oregon. They wanted a home which reflected both good taste and a rustic feel.

After considering many options, the owners, along with the contractor, Tony Lee Construction, settled on siding their new home by using the hand hewn faces from some 2-sided hewn timbers recovered from an old barn in Pennsylvania. The result was as you can see; a modern country home with the feel and character of age and permanence unachievable in any other way.

The barn had been constructed in 1867 by a General James Pierce, in Western Pennsylvania. Interestingly enough, General Pierce is a President George W. Bush ancestor. Old barns of this type and size are becoming more and more rare. They’re long past their useable life and original purpose. Many, like this barn was, are slowly deteriorating. So carefully dismantling them, and then recovering the wonderful old materials for reuse is a true honor. The timbers were a mix of White Oak and Hickory.

To make the siding, we cut the faces off of the timbers, then kiln-dried them to appropriate moisture content, and caulked any through checks from the backside to ensure that the siding was watertight. For corner boards and window trim, we cut appropriate sizes from some rough sawn Douglas Fir recovered from a demolition in Medford.