Common Questions about Timber Frame and Log Home Joinery

There’s more than one way to join two timbers. When it comes to timber frame and log home joinery, strength is priority number one and then it comes down to your own personal style. The joinery and fasteners you select will depend on engineering specifications, structural needs, your budget and, as always, the look you want for your home.

Below, we’ll answer the four most common questions that we get asked about timber frame and log home joinery.

#1 Is joinery a major consideration when building my log or timber framed home?

Joinery is what holds a home together, so we’d say that it’s pretty important.

Nailing a couple of two-by-fours together is pretty straight forward, but joining two 10” x 12” timbers is a different story. Regular 3” framing nails won’t exactly do the job. As the size of timbers increase, so does the size of the fasteners and joinery needed to keep them in place. This makes them an even more important consideration for design.

#2 What types of joinery and fasteners are available?

Steel joinery and fasteners are your first option and will make your home’s engineer happy since steel is very strong, making their calculations easier.

Wood to wood joinery is your other choice and has been put to the test over hundreds of years of traditional building. There have also been great technological advancements in wood fasteners and new ways to join massive timbers created over the last decades. Selecting wood to wood joinery will mean more cost for added labour during the cutting process, but costs less in materials since it requires fewer fasteners.

#3 Can joinery and fasteners impact the look of my home?

Definitely. You’ll want to consider these questions: Do you want strictly wood to wood joinery for a traditional and more natural look? Are fasteners a requirement to support your home’s structure? Would exposed steel joinery and fasteners suit the style you prefer?

Joinery can be exposed or concealed depending on the look you’re going for, your home’s design, and your budget.

#4 How does joinery impact the structure of my log or timber frame home?

Besides the obvious support joinery can add to a home’s frame, it’s also used to ensure a tight fit between timbers. This is important for your home’s
longevity because a tight fit minimizes movement, reduces shifting and cracking, and adds energy efficiency by minimizing heat loss.

As you can see, there are many different ways you can fasten and join timbers together. Most log and timber frame home designs incorporate a mix of the options above. We hope this guide helps you to select joinery for your home that’s strong, lasts long, and looks fantastic, too.

If you’re considering building a log or timber frame home and have any questions about joinery, feel free to contact us at info@artisanlog.com.

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The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

This is a book that I've picked up numerous times over the past ten years, but I never could read it  for one reason or another.  I was finally compelled to read it because the sequel The Fifth Petal, is coming out in January, and I wanted to read the sequel.  Reading reviews online had me all set for a novel that I was sure to enjoy.  I was wrong. 

I'm really bummed I didn't much like The Lace Reader.  I so wanted to enjoy it, and rave about it.  But I can't.  It took me weeks to finish it, which is usually not a good sign for me.  I wasn't pushed to really sit down and dive into the story of Towner and her mother May and Aunt Eva no matter how hard I tried.  And this book takes place in Salem for pete's sake!  A book set in Salem, MA is always a winner for me.  But not this one.  

So why didn't I like The Lace Reader?  I felt like I was doggie paddling in a circle most of the time.  I couldn't tell what the story was trying to focus on:  was it a potential mystery with the puzzling drowning of Eva, or was it a family drama?  Was it a weird contemporary/historical novel?  Who is this creepy Cal guy, who is basically a cult leader who terrorizes Towner and her family?  Oh, that's right.  He's Towner's relative.  Towner herself is a mixed bag of confusion.  Returning to Salem to investigate the disapperance of her Aunt Eva is actually an opportunity for Towner to come back and confront her past.  Sounds pretty straightforward, right?  But it's not, and I found myself paging back through to try and understand just what the heck was going on--and nothing was clear until at least 3/4 of the way through the novel.  And no surprise here, but that's where you find out just how unreliable a narrator Towner actually is--she's one confused woman.  

You may put the pieces of the puzzle together much quicker than I did; I found myself bored with it all, and that's not what I was expecting from a novel that took me 10 years to finally get to, only to be disappointed.  I will, however, read the sequel The Fifth Petal just to see where Towner's life has changed.  I hope to understand her better.  There are themes of abuse, both physical and sexual in this novel, and lots of drinking and smoking pot, so keep that in mind if you're trying to decide to read it.  Don't let me review stop you.  I am certainly in the minority of people who weren't thrilled with this novel.  There is a lot of subplot/plot whirling through this novel, so you need to pay attention.  I'm deliberately leaving much of the plot out of this review to not give anything away.  Plus, it's just exhausting to think of everything moving through the pages. 

Rating:  5/10 for a confusing plot and a main character that didn't capture my emotions or attention for very long.  The sequel to The Lace Reader, The Fifth Petal, will be out in stores in late January, 2017.  

Available in paperback, e-book, and audio. 

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“Telling will never be as effective as experiencing.”

 

In my consulting work with Winnipeg School Division (#WinnipegSD), we have developed a program in which we develop “Innovative Teaching and Learning Leads” (ITLLs). The purpose of this program is to focus not only what innovative teaching and learning looks like, but also to develop teachers as leaders to support the process within their schools.

When we asked schools to designate a person for this opportunity, there was only two things that we shared as criteria:

1. They have influence with staff.
2. They are open to new learning.

That’s it.

Unfortunately when many organizations hear the word “innovation”, they see it as synonymous with technology.  Now technology can be crucial to innovation, but it is not innovation in itself.  Innovation is about creating new and better opportunities. Simple.

In our last session, we started by asking the following three questions:

1. What is one thing that has challenged you in this program?
2. What has been reaffirmed?
3. What are you doing moving forward?

Using these questions as a basis of conversation, sparked some great learning with small groups and the larger group as a whole.  Because of this, the original plan for the day was shifted to meet the needs of the group.  I threw out plans and we redirected to dig deeper into portfolios, what they could look like, and how they can make an impact on learning. Here are some things that we did to change the shape of the day.

1. We started off with an extended lunch break to blog. Instead of giving an hour for lunch, we gave two hours, with the expectation that a blog post for their portfolio was done at the end of the time. We also told the group that they could leave the premises and go to a space that would be most conducive to them writing a blog post.  Accountability was built into this process because they had to be effective with time management as we were all going to look at each other’s blogs when we reconvened.
2. When they came back, they added their blog to a google document, that put their name, twitter handle, title with a link to their blog, and the topic, along with any other comments that they had.  Now everyone in the group could see what the other wrote.
3. After they added their blog to the google document, I added a column at the end that said “commented on”.  They were now tasked with commenting to three other participant blogs, but after they were done, they added their name to show where they commented.  The rule was to NOT comment on a blog if you already saw three other comments. This way, we did our best to ensure that everyone had a comment.  We also clarified that comments like “great job!”, were not enough.  The comment should encourage discussion and have the author write more.
4. We then took time to discuss the process with each other in our groups. Both the good and the bad.  And although it was mostly good, there were some negatives as well. This is also important to understand through the process as you can further understand this process with students.
5. To end the day, I gave the group a few minutes to pick a blog post that resonated with them, and to talk for 15-20 seconds about them in the group. The first name would be called out randomly, they would acknowledge another person’s blog, and then that person, would acknowledge another person in the room.  This meant that people were not expected to only read each other’s blogs, but try to understand them.

This process (developed on the fly because of the group), was a beautiful thing. It was also a reminder that some of the best learning can happen in a session if you are flexible and open to the organic process of learning.

Two things that are really important to understand through this process that was connected to the ITLL program. First of all, they understand the power of portfolios by using and learning in their own process. I have long contended that education is not using digital portfolios to anywhere near their potential because you have a lot of people trying to teach something they have never learned! Talking to some of the teachers, they were deathly afraid of putting their thinking out into the world, and then they were so excited to get a comment on their blogs. It was fascinating to see their change in the process just by giving them embedded time in the day.

This leads into the second point. I wanted to make the explicit connection to how the day probably looked a lot different from your usual “staff day”, as we wanted to not only engage, but empower learners, and by giving them control of how they used their own time, that was embedded into the day, how did this help them in designing learning time with their own staff?  I have long believed that one of the best ways to change learning in the classrooms, is to change learning in our professional learning days. This is something that I have written about extensively in “The Innovator’s Mindset“, but my friend Katie Martin also articulates so beautifully.

When teachers have ownership over their learning, and experience what powerful learning can look like, it changes things in their classrooms.  The amazing thing is that changing this learning changes me as a facilitator as well, because I see the power of embedding this time, which to some can seem “non-structured”, but is very deliberately planned and thought out. Telling will never be as effective as experiencing. If we believe this, we have to change what professional learning can look like in our staff days, not just the conferences we attend.

• May 4, 2016 Educators as “Guinea Pig” of Learning
• September 8, 2016 The #InnovatorsMindset MOOC Starting Soon! #IMMOOC
• May 13, 2016 Never Losing That “Look”
• May 11, 2016 The Power of the Process
• May 16, 2016 Meaningful Change is On All of Us

Source: George Couros

from Connected Principals http://ift.tt/2glIJPe

“Telling will never be as effective as experiencing.”

 

In my consulting work with Winnipeg School Division (#WinnipegSD), we have developed a program in which we develop “Innovative Teaching and Learning Leads” (ITLLs). The purpose of this program is to focus not only what innovative teaching and learning looks like, but also to develop teachers as leaders to support the process within their schools.

When we asked schools to designate a person for this opportunity, there was only two things that we shared as criteria:

1. They have influence with staff.
2. They are open to new learning.

That’s it.

Unfortunately when many organizations hear the word “innovation”, they see it as synonymous with technology.  Now technology can be crucial to innovation, but it is not innovation in itself.  Innovation is about creating new and better opportunities. Simple.

In our last session, we started by asking the following three questions:

1. What is one thing that has challenged you in this program?
2. What has been reaffirmed?
3. What are you doing moving forward?

Using these questions as a basis of conversation, sparked some great learning with small groups and the larger group as a whole.  Because of this, the original plan for the day was shifted to meet the needs of the group.  I threw out plans and we redirected to dig deeper into portfolios, what they could look like, and how they can make an impact on learning. Here are some things that we did to change the shape of the day.

1. We started off with an extended lunch break to blog. Instead of giving an hour for lunch, we gave two hours, with the expectation that a blog post for their portfolio was done at the end of the time. We also told the group that they could leave the premises and go to a space that would be most conducive to them writing a blog post.  Accountability was built into this process because they had to be effective with time management as we were all going to look at each other’s blogs when we reconvened.
2. When they came back, they added their blog to a google document, that put their name, twitter handle, title with a link to their blog, and the topic, along with any other comments that they had.  Now everyone in the group could see what the other wrote.
3. After they added their blog to the google document, I added a column at the end that said “commented on”.  They were now tasked with commenting to three other participant blogs, but after they were done, they added their name to show where they commented.  The rule was to NOT comment on a blog if you already saw three other comments. This way, we did our best to ensure that everyone had a comment.  We also clarified that comments like “great job!”, were not enough.  The comment should encourage discussion and have the author write more.
4. We then took time to discuss the process with each other in our groups. Both the good and the bad.  And although it was mostly good, there were some negatives as well. This is also important to understand through the process as you can further understand this process with students.
5. To end the day, I gave the group a few minutes to pick a blog post that resonated with them, and to talk for 15-20 seconds about them in the group. The first name would be called out randomly, they would acknowledge another person’s blog, and then that person, would acknowledge another person in the room.  This meant that people were not expected to only read each other’s blogs, but try to understand them.

This process (developed on the fly because of the group), was a beautiful thing. It was also a reminder that some of the best learning can happen in a session if you are flexible and open to the organic process of learning.

Two things that are really important to understand through this process that was connected to the ITLL program. First of all, they understand the power of portfolios by using and learning in their own process. I have long contended that education is not using digital portfolios to anywhere near their potential because you have a lot of people trying to teach something they have never learned! Talking to some of the teachers, they were deathly afraid of putting their thinking out into the world, and then they were so excited to get a comment on their blogs. It was fascinating to see their change in the process just by giving them embedded time in the day.

This leads into the second point. I wanted to make the explicit connection to how the day probably looked a lot different from your usual “staff day”, as we wanted to not only engage, but empower learners, and by giving them control of how they used their own time, that was embedded into the day, how did this help them in designing learning time with their own staff?  I have long believed that one of the best ways to change learning in the classrooms, is to change learning in our professional learning days. This is something that I have written about extensively in “The Innovator’s Mindset“, but my friend Katie Martin also articulates so beautifully.

When teachers have ownership over their learning, and experience what powerful learning can look like, it changes things in their classrooms.  The amazing thing is that changing this learning changes me as a facilitator as well, because I see the power of embedding this time, which to some can seem “non-structured”, but is very deliberately planned and thought out. Telling will never be as effective as experiencing. If we believe this, we have to change what professional learning can look like in our staff days, not just the conferences we attend.

• May 4, 2016 Educators as “Guinea Pig” of Learning
• September 8, 2016 The #InnovatorsMindset MOOC Starting Soon! #IMMOOC
• May 13, 2016 Never Losing That “Look”
• May 11, 2016 The Power of the Process
• May 16, 2016 Meaningful Change is On All of Us

from Connected Principals http://ift.tt/2gMZ035

12 days of giving…kindness! Paying it forward, #taketwo

Instead of my usual 12 days of giving, this year I’m taking a page from the ever so smart Matt Arend, and focusing on being kind and paying it forward. There are a million different things you can do to brighten someone;s day and if we can help model that for our students, that would [...]

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Sometimes the Answer is More Obvious Than You Think

I saw this following math problem for a grade 1 admissions test to a school in Hong Kong on the site, 22Words, and I struggled to get it right away (I may have looked at the answer ahead of time).  Take 20 seconds to figure it out below.

Go…

How did it go? If you are like the majority of people that I had in my session today, you didn’t get it right away. But once you see the answer, it seems so obvious.

From 22 Words:

It’s upside down, so the answer is 87.

The numbers go 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91— but from right to left because it’s upside down.

Maybe as adults we’re just so used to things being straightforward whereas kids get more creative with their thought process, or maybe we’re all just dumber than a first grader — at least one from Hong Kong.

The one line in bold resonated with me.  Sometimes we say things like, “How do we get people to move forward?”, yet our approach is really along the lines of “tell them harder”.  The hope is if we keep looking and approaching a problem the same way, that eventually we will fix it, instead of trying to look at things differently.

What is often holding others back is not them, but us.  Our approach is usually the thing that people are struggling with, so we need to step back and see things in a different light.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ” Albert Einstein

This puzzle was a nice little reminder that if we look at things in a different manner, the answer can sometimes be a lot simpler than we make it to be.

P.S. My wife figured it out in about 3 seconds because she said as a teacher, she is so used to the learning of her students upside-down. I am sure there are several lessons in that in itself.

• December 27, 2012 The #Georgies2012
• May 15, 2010 Believe in the Kids
• December 11, 2010 Success
• November 6, 2016 Grades and Test Scores Should Not Be Your Driver
• June 25, 2011 Continuous Learning

Source: George Couros

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Synchro Vancouver in Mount Pleasant

Synchro by Bold is a gorgeous 5 storey mid-rise building coming to the up and coming Mount Pleasant area. This exciting new development will consist of 13 1-bedroom suites ranging from 532 – 653 sq ft and 16 2-bedroom suites ranging from 724-1062 sq ft.

Within walking distance of Synchro you will find lovely Brew pubs, Cafes, Boutique shops and great restaurants. Experience the convenience of Mount Pleasant and the surrounding areas such as Olympic Village and False Creek.

Pricing has not yet been determined.  Please register and join our VIP list to be one of the first to receive information.

 

The post Synchro Vancouver in Mount Pleasant appeared first on Vancouver New Condos.

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