Timber Frame Homes Tennessee

A timber frame home is one of the most structurally elegant dwellings possible if it is crafted properly. The form is related to function. The wood is beautiful. The care taken in creating the post and beam frame has a lasting quality that can be seen by generations, a tribute to the craft and the craftsman or woman.

Our friends Bruce and Cyndy Gardner are the owners of Homestead Timber Frames and they are committed to their craft. Their timber frame homes and other structures are worked by hand using efficient but not automated methods.

In a recent piece Bruce wrote, he said:

Each morning my short commute to work takes me by a beautiful rock bluff. A stand of seven Tulip poplars grows against that bluff, gray trunks straight as a taut line, each tree perfectly spaced from its neighbor. All of these trees stand at the same height. And all are nourished by the duff that accumulates at the base of the bluff. Man could not improve on this simple composition.

I reflect on the bluff and the poplars as I complete my drive, planning my day as I sail along. I realize that I and the folks I work with could do no worse that to emulate this stand of trees: perfectly sited, perfectly composed, patient in their sentinel way. The trees remind me that craft is art—or should be. They remind me that what we design and build must, like the poplars, be perfectly sited and perfectly composed. We only cherish, and therefore care for, things that serve us well, that are beautiful to look at, and that enrich our lives. Our task as designers and builders of timber frames is to ensure that what we build is cherished.

Homestead Timber Frames is located on Cumberland Plateau in the small town of Crab Orchard right downtown just north of Interstate 40 between Nashville and Knoxville.