ANDY BUCK MASTER TIMBER FRAMER

WHEN OUR GOOD FRIEND ANDY BUCK BUILT OUR BARN TEN YEARS AGO, HE NEVER IMAGINED IT WOULD END UP BEING THE STONE MOUNTAIN ARTS CENTER.......

Andy is a master timber framer from Naples Maine. He has been a dear friend to us, and when Jeff needed a barn built to house his commercial fishing net business, he of course called Andy. Jeff wanted a traditional timber frame built, but with an untraditional design. Most authentic frames have center posts as part of its support system. But Jeff needed a clear floor space to spread his commercial size nets out. So the challenge was to come up with a truss system that could support the heavy timber frame, without any center posts like you see in most old barns. As you can see from some of these photos, Andy got the strength from the floor to ceiling braces and the intricate design of the ceiling joinery. The building went up without a hitch...or a nail for that matter. Again keeping in line with the tradition, the frame was put together with a self locking and wooden peg system......almost like Leggos!!! (I am sure Andy would be thrilled with that analogy!) Then in one spring day the whole thing was raised with a crane and many strong hands Amish style. After the raising, Andy said it was the most interesting frame he had ever built.

They closed it all in that fall, and when Jeff was gone for the day, I would sneak in and sing at the top of my lungs. What acoustics...I said, “we should be making music in here, not fishing nets!” Little did I know what kind of foreshadowing that statement would be.

So for the past decade Jeff has used this space to help put haddock on your table. During that time he put a second floor in and we were all very glum when we could no longer see Andy’s beautiful joinery that hovered above us. It no longer sounded like a mini Carnergie Hall, and the space became cluttered with fork lifts, nets and other industrial distractions.

But last weekend that all changed!!!! Jeff took down the second floor to ready the barn for the big move to its new foundation. Once again Andy’s talents were revealed along with the natural reverb that made me sound so good on those stolen days ten years ago. Andy and Jeff will work together once again to transform this tremendous workshop into a state of the art performance space. Jeff will continue to build his fishing nets in the daylight basement of the new foundation. An interesting combination of uses for this unique timber frame don't ya think??

A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ANDY.........

Andy became interested in the traditions of timber framing, in the late eighties. Virtually self taught, and apprenticing other local craftsmen, he raised his first frame in 1987. He is old school, and has very few modern conveniences to put up these amazing frames. He is responsible for many architectural treasures in our area from functional barns, to stunning summer and year round homes. These finely crafted structures will be around for hundreds of years, like the old timber frames they are modeled after. Because of the authenticity of how he approaches each project, Andy usually only does 5 to 6 frames a year. We were lucky enough to be one of the chosen few that year.

Click HERE to see some more photos of Andy's amazing work, go to . Our friends at the Bear Mountain Inn in Waterford, Maine, hired Andy to do a beautiful structure for them overlooking the lake and mountains.