Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Article 32 of 74
This article first appeared in the "Houses of the Gatineau Hills" column in the July 25, 2012 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Barn reconstruction pieces together carpenter's promise to late father
By Lucy Scholey
Carsten Podehl has climbed over, under and about almost every inch of his recycled house: first, as a six-year-old leaping off the barn beams into piles of hay and then as a 30-something-yearold deconstructing the timber frame and piecing it all back together as a Wakefield home.
Converted barns are nothing new. But Podehl recycled his family's old home for their goats, horses and hay all by himself. Podehl, now 43, used his climbing savvy to navigate the 35-foot-high barn (30-feet-by-40-feet around). Using a rope system, he lowered each beam and plank, piece by piece.
"I promised that I'd use it all," he said, adding that he's still using the last scraps as kindling.
Carsten's home, which he started building in 2005, is as much a cost-saving venture for the carpenter as a promise to his late father that he would convert the family's Farrellton barn on the condition that he not leave one piece behind.
Even an old Singer sewing machine left over from the barn has been converted into a bathroom sink, while a rusted wheel sits in the garden outside. Behind the wood stove sits an artsy scrap of the barn's roofing, which is propped up by old well pipes.
Carsten, the son of sculptor Cordula Podehl, has incorporated an artistic touch. A design carved into aluminum fl ashing serves as the kitchen backsplash. Hot water pipes heat the dyed yellow-orange concrete fl oor, which Podehl also acid-stained himself. It looks like three-footlong tiles line the fl oor, but that's part of his artwork.
The home is "95 per cent barn," according to Podehl. The rest is a mixture of wood, including recycled oak for the upstairs fl oor and Curly Maple for the staircase.
If you place your hand on any piece of wood in Podehl's home, he can tell you where it came from.
"I used to jump off this beam and into the hay when I was sixyears- old," he said, pointing to a 32-foot timber in the ceiling.
He's not sure when the barn was built, but guesses it was around the 1960s, about 10 years before his parents, natives of Germany, moved in with their "VW Bug and tie-dyed shirts." Over the years, the roof developed a four-foot-wide gaping hole, but it had not yet collapsed before Podehl started tearing it down and moving it to the 1.7-acre Wakefield lot.
He moved into the house two years after he started building it, but said without a kitchen it was not really livable until he finished it another year later.
His partner, Bailey Murdoch, has since moved in with him.
Their plans to finish the house include installing an oven and finishing an added-on entranceway. A paint job is defi- nitely not in the house's future.
"That defeats the purpose," Podehl said, adding that the barn's rusted roof and wooden walls create the charming exterior he wants. Besides, he said, he can spend his summer days biking instead of repainting the house.
The location ain't bad, either. "Sit on the toilet," he instructed this reporter, who followed his bizarre request. It's the best seat in the house. A view of the Wakefield Covered Bridge peeks out among the 40-foot-high trees, which Podehl climbed and trimmed himself.
The patio, which has doors donated from Wakefield resident Joan Garnett's house, also gives a view of the red bridge.
Podehl's push to completely recycle the barn is inspired partly by his late father, Martin Podehl, who was killed three years ago at age 69 in a tree-felling accident.
His dad's old skis and canoe pack sit on display beside the staircase.
The home's end result has been a long journey for the younger Podehl, who said he spent many years "ski bumming" in Whistler, B.C., and sometimes living out of his car.
He's pulled some crazy stunts over his years of adventure guiding, but this house is on another level.
"It's more than my wildest dreams," he said.