How it all started, or The Timberframed House

Eversince my Mother In Law (further known as Nolda) was a child she wanted a doll's house. But you know how lives sometimes go... At the age of 60 that dream was still alive. One day, when the subject arose, she said to be displeased as she couldn't find the right house. "What are you looking for then?" I asked. A typical Zaans timberframed house, was her answer. And, as she said that, I knew there was only one solution; to build that -Ooh! so wanted house- for her.

First a bit of history. Our family lives in the Zaanstreek, closeby the famous Dutch tourist destination The Zaanse Schans. Because of the wood-processing industrie in the 17th and 18th century here (hence all the windmills) most houses were made of wood. It was widely available and cheap. Another advantage was that the boggie soil, common in this region, couldn't take the weight of building stones, so wood was the lightweight alternative. All of these reasons resulted in a type of timbreframed house, which is nowhere else to be found. And that is the type of house Nolda wanted.

Our love for architecture and local historie made research a lot of fun. Ideas came and went. So we did a lot of drawings and after some discussion (how practical is thàt?) Nolda finaly approved the plans. Building could commence...

and this is the result

the front and...

back

From left to right: a detail of the sideplanking. In the middle the toppost. A structualy needed element but decorated depending on the wealth and money of the owner. On the right a socalled buurshoekje. At that time (say 1800) you had to pay taxes in proportion to the amount of glas you had in your frontelevation. If you could reduce that amount by placing it at an angle and thus saving money, the avaricious Dutch would not hesitate.

From start to finish it took me 6 months. During the build I stumbled into all sorts of hick-ups as I had never build a dolls house before. For instance, access to the house... A drawing is nice, but I just had to take it as a guideline.

To give it all a sence of realisme and just because it was a lot of fun to do, I made a memorial stone and let our daughter Emma, the grandchild of commissionair, place it between the bricks. We made a little ceremony out of it and we all had a big laugh

Just befor Christmas 2006 we moved the house from our shed to their home. Those ten minutes in the car where realy realy scary, I can tell ya. From then on it was her house, but I was hooked; the minivirus had cought me ;-) But that's another story for another time. And so is what Nolda as the interior decorator has done to the inside of the house.

ps. You can click on all the pics to enlarge them and get a better view