This expert horseman and steer-roper has spent his career in the construction industry. His passion for fine joinery finds him spending most of his time on the Vermont Street Project with us in Portland, Oregon, and joining timbers in our McMinnville timber framing shop.

It’s never just about the building…as our clients know, it’s also about the context, the approach, the vistas and the places your kids will play.

Tucked into an alcove, this custom armoire by NEWwoodworks was crafted from reclaimed walnut featuring walnut burl inset door panels.

Tune in for a special web radio program called Living Shelter Design featuring Jonathan. The show is hosted by Theresa Phelan, principal architect with Living Shelter Design Architects and focuses on sustainable choices for home and community. To listen to the show, click here.

Kate, Quinn and Phil Ackerman pose at the Mendon Station Festival.

We’re now using our CNC technology to precut regular 2 x 4 stock for walls and interior framing. This speeds the construction while minimizing waste.

This home was recently the site of our open house that attracted 200 people and raised over $2000 for The Mendon Foundation, that works to maintain trails and green space in our area of western NY.

Some of our engineering group are teleconferencing with the software developers at HSB to help us increase our wall module manufacturing efficiency.

This Thursday the 24th, New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks will be hosting a tasting and networking event at their Rochester Public Market location from 5pm - 8pm for industry colleagues and attendees of the AIA NY Conference. It's a casual opportunity to meet and mingle with fellow colleagues and to greet conference speaker, Don Naetzker, Planning Group Manager at New Energy Works. If you're in the industry, stop by for a taste and a chat. To learn more, click here.

Nautical hardware on a lake home’s double storage doors.

New Energy Works will be at the green home fair during the Build it Green event at ecohaus in Portland. Come on out and visit us. See a timber frame demonstration, and learn about the use of reclaimed and sustainable wood in timber frame construction, plus see samples of this character wood as flooring from our sister company. You can also check out other green vendors and listen to live music. A fun day for all.

There's something special about stepping back at the end of a raising and taking in a timber frame.

Maxine is our west coast interiors group designer and chooser of color, texture, shape and form. Although you can sometimes find her scouting showrooms throughout Portland, Oregon, you might also spot her at The Vermont Street Project. Often deep in thought, working out her vision. Other times wielding the tools that bring it to life. Here she's seen parging the basement wall.

We built this weekend cabin in the early 80's for Lee and Staffan Lundback. Staffan writes,"...a fun experience... I believe it was one of your first houses built, if not the first. It looked great then - it does so today.”

3D modeling software helps us to pre-visualize complex relationships in our design. In this example, the landscape at the Vermont Street project begins to be flushed out, combining grilling areas, raised beds for planting, and passages between buildings.

These hand-hewn, antique timbers were probably felled in the early 1800s. After nearly two centuries of service as barn timbers, they were brought back to our shop, cleaned, and recut to support this cozy, lakeside cottage for another millennium, or two.

Tad, our site supervisor, shares what is perhaps the highest form of compliment there is, "Two neighbors to this site in Mendon, New York expressed how relieved they were to see our NEW ENERGY WORKS trucks on the site of this new home, each had thought there was a development going up, but when they saw it was us, they immediately understood their new neighbor would be building a home designed with the surrounding land and environment in mind."

The wild grain patterns and embedded knot structure that was revealed on this reclaimed timber, once the sawing was underway, immediately marked this timber for one of our many crazy mantles.

With summer almost behind us we have no choice but to look forward to the snowy winter days ahead. Like the post office, we raise our frames in just about all weather.

Pioneer Millworks fully manufactures "The world's most eco-friendly engineered flooring" entirely in the USA. Here Alex and Alan adhere our best selling Settlers’ Plank oak to our eco-substrate. We use a special glue designed to move as the wood moves so that our flooring is less likely to crack or cup or be sent back for warranty issues.

Modest but welcoming front porches of timber can introduce additional timber on a home’s interior.

Please join us on Sunday, September 13 anytime between 12 and 4:00 pm for our 2009 Fall Open House. This year's event takes place on the second day of the The Mendon Station Festival, just around the corner. We'll also be exhibiting at the festival booth Saturday and Sunday. Tickets for the Open House are available at our booth, at the door, or by calling us. All proceeds to benefit the Mendon Foundation. We hope to see you there.

“In native American languages there is no word for "art”. It is simply assumed that if you are going to make something, you will make it as beautiful as possible. In the Navajo language the word for "balance" and the word for "beauty" are the same." Leslie gray, as quoted in The Sun, April, 2009

A mixture of bright elm and a dark patina’d oak have caused a vibrant marriage on this reclaimed wood floor from Pioneer Millworks.

Jonathan and Maxine enjoy a short respite from their work on The Vermont Street Project, a timber frame home and studio in Portland, Oregon by New Energy Works. They've worked 24/7 for the past year to create a project that reflects their passion for greater sustainability in a design and craft-intensive home.

Anthony and John of Hallmark Homes in Oakville, Ontario, Canada have partnered with New Energy Works to offer modestly sized, but craft intensive lake side cottages on Lake Muskoka, the "near north" area of their beautiful province.

This screen porch mixes resawn barn boards and stone. Our modular screen porch system allows us to do many different shapes and sizes at a more affordable cost, while keeping craft high.

This timber frame entry features a shallow roof pitch and low slung timber trusses with a stylized curve to the lower connecting beam.

This existing cottage on Keuka Lake is getting a new face and some new exterior living spaces to be enjoyed by the owners and their extended family.