Our love affair with timber frame home design began before we were married in September 1990. Craig was an avid fan of This Old House on PBS, and that year the show featured the Concord Barn Project (Season 11), which followed the dismantling and rebuilding of an 1835 timber frame barn. Ted Benson, who pioneered modern timber framing, was the timber framer, and earlier that year released The Timber‑Frame Home: Design, Construction — a book that blended traditional post‑and‑beam craftsmanship with modern efficiency.  Those influences planted the seed for a dream we would carry for decades.

 

In 1991, we bought our first home together in Ellicott City, Maryland, but we couldn’t wait to build a timber frame home of our own. As avid bicyclists, we often passed a wooded lot in West Friendship that captured our imagination. Curious, we researched the property and learned through county records that it belonged to the developer of the surrounding community. He explained that the lot had long been considered “unbuildable” because a quarter‑acre of wetlands prevented a gravity‑fed septic system. But with new county rules allowing septic systems to pump uphill, there was finally a path forward. We worked with the county and the state to have the lot reclassified as buildable — and once approved, our dream could take shape. In 2001, we purchased that 2.25‑acre lot, Craig sketched the concept for our home, and we selected Lancaster County Timber Frames, Inc. for their exceptional attention to detail and the craftsmanship they brought to every timber. LCTF co-founder Tony Zaya developed the plans, and our builder, Carrigan Homes, built the rest of the house around the frame.

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We called our home Timber Springs, inspired by the artesian springs and wetlands on the property. Timber Springs became the heart of our family life — the place where we raised our two daughters and hosted countless gatherings, especially at Christmastime, when we displayed the tallest, grandest tree we could find each year, which looked great in our timber framed great room.

 

In 2016, Timber Springs even withstood a tornado, suffering roof and floor damage to the house, and many trees were lost. At the same time life was shifting for the Long family. Angie accepted a new position at the University of Oregon in 2017, where our youngest daughter was enrolled, and Craig retired from the federal government—the National Weather Service—in 2020. In January 2021, we sold Timber Springs to a doctor and her husband — one of the hardest days of our lives. As we drove away, we promised each other that one day we would build another beautiful timber frame home.

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