The Summer Bedroom
At TimberHomes we encourage folks to leave work at work and really take the weekend off. We find people to be more effective when they’re not checking emails Friday night or estimating a new project on Saturday morning. Not surprisingly, enjoying the weekend to its fullest potential for a TimberHomes employee might mean working in the shop all day on a personal project. What is the point of being a carpenter if you don’t get to build anything for yourself?
Shop use for personal projects is one of the great benefits of being a TimberHomes employee. Sam Heidenreich, our Vershire Shop Manager, took advantage of this to build a three season pavilion on his family homestead.
Sam describes the process and motivation below.
A few years ago, my wife, Emily, declared her intention to move the family outside for the summer months. “I need to get out and feel the air and have space to move around. Also, the kids won’t track so much dirt into the house!” This kicked off a process of computer modeling and a number of design iterations and we eventually settled on a sort of screened-in gazebo; we call it the Summer Bedroom.
After raising the sleeping shelter in September, 2018 (More on that here!) we let the frame sit over the winter. Last spring Emily and I tackled the board and batten siding using rough cut pine from our local sawyer. We stapled aluminum screen over the frame and installed pine trim over it. We sanded the rough board floor and moved right in!
At first, we just threw a foam mattress on the floor to sleep. I remember one night in late spring 2019 when I was alone in the shelter and a wind and rainstorm blew through. Wind driven rain splattered my face through the screen wall. I rolled over and hid my face under a pillow. The hammering rain on the roof and the rushing wind soothed me back to sleep.
We’ve since run an extension cord to a power outlet, moved in a couch, desk, and bed. Some days in the summer when it’s raining, wet and foggy we have to put on an extra fleece but other days the breeze through the screen and the warm sunlit glow on the oak frame couldn’t be more perfect. We’re anxiously awaiting moving outside again for our second year in the Summer Bedroom!
