Round House, in the hills north of Fairbanks, white spruce channel siding and comp roofing, 1981. ■

Fresh from the successful Fergregors House, my partner (the logger's daughter, dressed in her best going to town clothes) and I walked into a bank and were introduced to a loan officer. She walked around his desk, sat down in his lap and told him we needed some money for a spec house. Times were good, he was impressed with her outrageous determination and we got a loan. ■

Building a non-formula spec house in Fairbanks or anywhere was pretty unusual and considered just stupid. We were convinced that Fairbanks deserved an option and that it would only take one buyer. It wasn't easy and we didn't make a ton of money but the house sold. The buyer was an architect from Berkeley who had been hired to come to Fairbanks as a facility planner. It turned out that the Round House was the only option on the market to living in a box and he was delighted. ■

The timber frame structure was first wrapped from the outside with horizontal 1x4, @ 16" o.c. This was backing on the inside for vapor barrier and curved 5/8" gypsum board finish. Then from the outside, vertical 12" truss joist, @ 48" o.c. were fastened to these 1x4's. Then outside of and fastened to the truss joist were a double layer of 1x4 horizontal @ 24" o.c. as backing for the vertical exterior white spruce channel siding on 30# felt. So a timber frame with a truss joist curtain wall. The truss joist insulation cavity had 2 staggered horizontal layers of 6"x24" fiberglass. ■

None of these houses utilized exterior plywood sheathing for shear strength. Instead appropriate internal walls were plywood sheathed and secured to structure to provide sheer. ■

Water vapor from interior living spaces leaking into exterior wall and roof cavities is a fact of life due to imperfect vapor barrier. This moisture condenses on cold surfaces in the cavity and freezes in the insulation. It is best dealt with by providing the cavity with air space ventilation to the outside. This accumulated entrapped water sublimates in the winter and evaporates in the summer avoiding water damage. ■

Building on piers is a common Alaskan practice when dealing with ice rich soils or permafrost. I was fortunate to have sweet south slope birch forested land that had little if any frost susceptible soils. The attraction to piers was that I could hand clear a building site and hand dig the piers avoiding the expensive and permanent scars of machine clearing. Structures with column loads also work well with pier foundations and I ended with trees surrounding the house to boot. ■

This super insulated timber framed group of truncated vertical cylinder sections was a featured article in the Fine Homebuilding Magazine, "Superinsulating the Non Box", Feb/mar 1984. ■