I’ve wanted to build a cabin ever since graduating from

college. For many years, I had planned to build a traditional

log cabin, and after spending countless hours reading many

books on the subject, I was sure that’s what I wanted to do.

Then, in the early ’90s, I met Drew and Louise Langsner at

Country Workshops in North Carolina and was introduced to my

first timber frame . . . it was love at first sight.

After attending a workshop at Grand Oaks Timberframing in the fall of 2006, I began my frame in the spring of 2007, doing most of the joinery on my back porch in Pueblo, Colo. As timbers were finished, they were hauled to the cabin site near Westcliffe and assembled.

The main part of the frame was erected in the fall of 2007, with rafters going up in the spring of 2008.

The past two years have been spent closing in and trimming out the cabin. It was finished in July 2010.

I hope you enjoy the photos . . . I’m already thinking about my next project.  

                                                                                        

                                                                                                          

— Tim Van Riper