Our Story
A letter from Andy Harper, owner and founder of Winterwood Timber Frames
I bought my farm in central Vermont in 1997. It was an old, run-down place built in 1835 that needed lots of work. Fortunately, the timber frame under the old plaster and lathe was still sound in most places.
Having been interested in the “old style” buildings for some time, I knew we had a good frame to start from. Previously I had worked as a conventional carpenter/stick builder, building condos, barns, small office buildings, log cabins and lean-tos. Gutting this house was indeed a project, but the most fun was getting to know the frame that was the heart and soul of this building.
Two years later, I finally realized my goal of making maple syrup from our woods. The first step was to build a new sugarhouse. With the house frame still in my recent memory, I undertook building my first real timber frame structure, a 20’ x 42’ sugarhouse with a loft and shop space. Using chisels and hand planes that are so sharp you can literally shave with them was a new experience for me. The tactile connection to the wood and tools is powerful, and much more interesting than pounding nails through 2x4s.
I enjoyed this process so much, I decided to give up my day job and go into timber framing full time. The sugarhouse became my shop for a while until we found our new facility. The jobs started rolling in and have kept us busy ever since.
Since then we have custom-built and raised homes, barns, and a variety of outbuildings throughout central Vermont.
Raising day for my sugarhouse.