Kitchen Design • Laying a Brick Floor • • Rebuilding Log Homes April/May 1983 No. 14 o 5 o Fine % .. I I I .. od%rking 4 Letters 22 Victorian Addition Energetic clients and a pragmatic approach keep costs down without sacrificing quality Q&A 10 by Steve Larson Tips and Techniques 14 27 Curved-Truss House Standard materials and a lot of time and patience 16 Reports create a vaulted building on a grand scale Water-Source Heat Pumps by Tim Snyder 76 Reviews 30 Gaslight Renovation: A Complete Guide Liquid-propane lamps give warm light at low cost by Tim Matson 78 Calendar 32 Putting Down a Brick Floor 82 Great Moments The mason's craft is easier when the bricks are laid on a horizontal surface by Bob Syvanen Editor John Lively 36 Shelter from the Storm Art Director Betsy Levine Sometimes it's easier to live in the rain than to build Associate Editors your own house Mark Alvarez, Tim Snyder, Paul Spring by Brian Berkey Box-beam trusses, p. Western Editor Charles Miller 27 41 Treehouse Copy/Production Editor Ruth Dobsevage by Alfred Wells Assistant Art Director Frances Ashforth Editorial Secretary Lynn Meffert 42 Portable Power Planes How these versatile tools can true framing lumber and Consulting Editor Bob Syvanen clean up trim by Geoff Alexander The Taunton Press: Paul Roman, publisher, Janice A. Roman, Log-Cabin Legacy associate publisher; JoAnn Muir, director of administration; Tom 46 Luxeder, business manager; Barbara Bahr, secretary; Lois Beck, Dog-trots, saddlebags and single pens are dismantled purchasing coordinator; Elizabeth Brodginski, receptionist; Liz Crosby, and reassembled by two Tennessee restorationists personnel assistant; Mary Galpin, production manager; Mary using a mix of mountain craft and modern construction Glazman, data processing. Accounting: Irene Arfaras, manager; Brick floors, p. by Richard Woodward Madeline Colby, Catherine Sullivan, Elaine Yamin. Art: Roger 32 Barnes, design director; Kathryn Olsen, staff artist. Books: Laura Log-Building to Last Cehanowicz Tringali, editor; Lee Hov, associate art director; Roger 52 Holmes, assistant editor; Deborah Cannarella, copy editor. With proper siting, roof overhangs, chinking and Fulfillment:Carole E. Ando, subscription manager; Terry ventilation, a log home should last 200 years Thomas, assistant manager; Rita Amen, Gloria Carson, Dorothy Dreher, by Alasdair G.B. Wallace Marie Johnson, Cathy Koolis, Denise Pascal, Nancy Schoch, JoAnn Traficanti. Robert Bruschi, distribution supervisor; Marchelle Designing a Functional Kitchen Sperling, David Wass, Ben Warner. Marketing: Ellen McGuire, 54 sales manager; Kimberly Mithun, sales correspondent; Kathy Springer, Planning around your family's lifestyle and work customer service assistant. ProductIon Services: Gary Mancini, habits will get you beyond standard solutions manager; Annette Hilty, Deborah Mason, assistants; Nancy Knapp, by Sam Clark typesetter. PromotIon: Jon Miller, manager; Dennis Danaher, publicist; Beth Ruthstrom, art assistant. 58 Floor Sanding Follow a pattern for best results Advertising: Ann Starr Wells, director; Richard Mulligan, sales manager. Carole Weckesser and Vivian E. Dorman, coordinators. by Don Bollinger The Taunton Press, 52 Church Hill Rd., Box 355, Newtown, CT 06470; (203) 426-8171. New England: Granville M. Fillmore, 98 Peartree Porch Ornamentation Point Rd., Darien, CT 06820; (203) 426-8171. Power planes, p. 60 42 A sampling from the well-preserved 19th-century seaside resort town of Cape May Fine Homebuilding (ISSN 0273-1398) is published bimonthly, February, April, June, August, October and December, by The Taunton by Betsy Levine Press, Inc., Newtown, CT 06470. Telephone (203) 426-8171. Second­ class postage is paid at Newtown, CT and at additional mailing Keeping It Simple offices. Copyright 1983 by The Taunton Press, Inc. No reproduction 62 Local materials, straightforward design, self-taught without permission of The Taunton Press, Inc. Fine Homebuilding'" masonry skills and family labor create a is a registered trademark of The Taunton Press, fnc. SubscriptIon comfortable home rate.: United States and possessions, $14 for one year, $26 for two years; Canada, $I 7 for one year, $32 for two years (in U.S. dollars, by Kirby White please); other countries, $18 for one year, $34 for two years (in U.S. dollars, please). Single copy, $3.00. Single copies outside U.S. and Lloyd Wright's Sowden House possessions, $4.00. Send to Subscription Dept., The Taunton 66 Bizarre shapes from custom·cast concrete block Press, Inc. PO Box 355, Newtown, CT 06470. Address all correspondence to the appropriate department (Subscription, by John Beach Editorial or Advertising), The Taunton Press, 52 Church Hill Rd., PO Box 355, Newtown, CT 06470. U.S. newsstand distribution by Rebuilding with logs, p. Textile Block Eastern News Distributors, Inc., III Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10011. 46 71 Postmaster: Send address changes to The Taunton Press, PO Box 355, Newtown, CT 06470 LETTERS I was pleased with the report on the two ball bearings instead of one. This has crime? Did it have scratches? Tarnish? And Rockwell Sawbuck (FHB #12, p. 14). After I greatly reduced arbor runout. what was the unmentionable replacement? assembled my Sawbuck in slightly more than Our surveys of Sawbuck users indicate that Was it plastic laminate? 15 minutes, I spent an hour or so going over blade wobble is not a widespread Copper is poorly understood in the various parts, at which time [ adjusted problem .... Concerning our warranty, we contemporary architecture. Perhaps its price the fence lock knob. This knob has not ... stand on Rockwell's reputation for (high relative to aluminum and plastic) kept popped out since. If the tool was assembled satisfying our customers first, and worrying it out of circulation for a while, and now it in 15 minutes, then the problem of the lock about dates of manufacture second. seems to be a substitute for the above­ knob (as noted by both authors) was not mentioned aluminum. Mark my words, you really a problem, but rather an oversight at I'd like to join the debate about architects' philistines, copper will return and will stay, the time of assembly. fees raised by Henry Norris, A.I.A. (Letters, and it will purify (no mold or mildew will Bob Syvanen writes, "Cutting is not as FHB #13, p. 4) in his response to Herb grow) and it will educate with its finish that smooth as [ would like." My saw had bad Greene's $30-per-hour rate. Norris writes that no man can duplicate; a finish that is a blade wobble, which turned out to be the Greene "hires inexperienced novices and has private partnership between copper and old result of a bearing in the head not properly a low opinion of himself." Perhaps Norris is Father Time. pressed in. [ disassembled the saw and not aware that Herb Greene's buildings -William Post Ross, Georgetown, Maine brought the head to the Rockwell Service (particularly his residential designs, for Center. After waiting a week, the parts [ had example the Greene, Joyce, and Cunningham Tim Snyder replies: The natural patina that ordered had still not arrived and so a new houses in Oklahoma) have been widely copper acquires over time is, [ agree, a thing head was mailed to me. [ reassembled my published in architectural books and of great beauty. Like you, [ was surprised to Sawbuck with the new head only to find that journals, and have inspired two generations hear that Fountainhead's original copper the cut was still not as smooth as [ would of students and practitioners, myself countertops had to be replaced. Like many like. A slight blade wobble persists, but is included, since the early 1960s. He has also other parts of the house, the kitchen had acceptable if it stays at this level. written two thought-provoking and influential suffered some neglect in terms of simple, Several questions do remain, however. books on architectural design. Although I'm day-to-day maintenance. Wouldn't other internal parts have been not familiar with Norris' work and am [ saw some photographs of the kitchen as affected by the bad bearing before it was somewhat sympathetic to the high cost of Robert and Mary Adams found it, and even replaced, eventually causing slop in the architecture in offices with high overhead, [ the copper looked bad. Someone who knows repaired unit? How widespread is this think that his high rates would make the material as well as you do might have problem? If a manufacturing problem such as designing a residence that truly responds to been able to rescue the original countertop, this badly pressed-in bearing should cause site, client, and energy needs prohibitively but Adams chose to have it replaced problems after the one-year warranty has expensive. Greene does mention avoiding entirely-again with copper. As you can see passed, what will Rockwell do, if anything? offices with high overhead. [ agree with from the photo on p. 31, the new copper is . -Andrew Brennan, Westlake Village, Calif. Norris that "an architect's services are not kept highly polished. inferior in value to those of other L. C. Brickner, Director, Product Development, professionals." However, Herb Greene's fees [n Tips and Techniques (FHB #11, p. 14) Rockwell, Power Tool Division, replies: As you for residential design sound fine to me. Philip Zimmerman suggested he may be know, the Sawbuck motor is similar to those -Steve Badanes, Jersey Devil Design/Build, getting 10% more use by reversing his on portable power saws, but must be built Stockton, N.J. sanding belt after it is dulled in one with closer tolerances to deliver the best direction, but he is inviting problems. performance because the Sawbuck is used in [ was interested in the article on the Most. belts on the market today have an more close-tolerance applications than hand­ restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's overlap skived splice that is designed to run held circular saws are.