OUT OF THE WOODS
ARTISTIC COUPLE HONES HOME BY HAND FROM NATURAL-FINISH FINE HARDWOODS

Published: Sunday, October 20, 1991
Section: HOME , page F1
Source: By Teresa Annas, Staff writer

© 1991 Landmark Communications Inc.

FOR THE PAST 10 years, Sue Barton Harris and Myron Curtis have been handcrafting a special project - a little wooden house for two in the country.

``It's been a long, long process,'' said Curtis, a woodworker, as his wife nodded in agreement.

You can just imagine them mopping their brows and shaking the sawdust from their britches. Now, they're almost out of the woods, though still reluctant to nail down a completion date. After all, how does one know for sure when a work of art is finished?

It's gone like this:

Harris, an artist, came up with the Oriental-inspired design - a long, low roof-line that turns up a tad at the corners, and a Japanese-style garden. Inside, an Oriental ``keyhole'' entrance leads to a great room.

With the help of local craftspeople, the couple set out to build their one-story home on a woodsy, 12-acre parcel in Pungo.

The home is made of fine and exotic woods, from African mahogany to Spanish cedar. Nearly everything has been honed by hand, from foyer cupboards carved in a linen-fold relief pattern to the 18-inch-wide mahogany paneling in the great room.

Only the heating, electricity and plumbing were not done by the couple or their artisan friends. But this is no log cabin in the sticks.

Harris, who applied smooth, even coats of varnish to every piece of wood in the house, was looking for low-maintenance - no paint or wallpaper that would eventually need replacing.

She also wanted to use what she'd learned in the solar energy classes she'd taken a decade before. The house is oriented north-south, and windows are placed so the home holds heat in winter and is cool in summer.

Harris chose double-pane windows with small blinds between the panes - she liked the no-dust blinds and extra insulation.

The cedar-shake roof, which extends out a few feet from the house, helps keep away excess sun. To compensate for the lack of gutters, which Harris finds unsightly, a border of gravel encircles the house. Rainfall hits the gravel rather than beating down the bushes.

Plus, the gravel by the house - which has a rough-sawn cypress exterior in a board-and-batten pattern - makes gardening easier to get to.

HEIRLOOM HOME
What the couple have created is a home with the type of detailed craftsmanship you'd expect to find on a piece of heirloom furniture, with expert joinery and an esthetically pleasing mix of woods.

It didn't hurt that Curtis is a well-known woodworker with vast technical knowledge. He also has collected unique woods for more than 40 years.

Though tucked away down a private lane, the Harris-Curtis home has not escaped the eye of wood aficionados.

``Isn't that an incredible house?'' raved Michael Rau, a Virginia Beach woodworker whose clients include The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk and Colonial Williamsburg. ``That's one of the most astonishing places I've seen in my life.''

Just consider the wood, Rau said. ``I have never seen such a collection of hardwoods, even in a commercial setting. All milled, solid woods. . . .

``I couldn't even start to estimate the value of the raw lumber. There are species of wood in there I have seen in books and never any place else.''

In 1989, Rau handcrafted the huge keyhole entrance that leads visitors from the foyer to the great room. The circle is made of 14 laminated wood slats.

Jim Brockman, a woodcarver who lives next door to the couple, worked on the house, too. Among Brockman's contributions was the linen fold carving in the great room.

Harris had seen linen fold in the morning room at the Hermitage Foundation Museum in Norfolk, for which Brockman has been making elaborate exterior carvings to replace old ones.

``I don't recall seeing a house as unique as theirs,'' Brockman said. . ``But it certainly has enough wood in it to suit me. All natural finish wood.''

There's African mahogany around the bathroom sink and on the kitchen counter. More African mahogany as well as prima vera on the ceilings. Even the French doors leading to the utility room are made from figured African mahogany.

LOVE OF WOODS
No doubt, here's a couple that's hooked on grains.

For Harris, it was an acquired taste. When she wed Curtis in 1978, she knew she was marrying ``a woodworker.''

``Being an art teacher and into art, I appreciated the esthetic qualities'' of wood, she said. ``The color and texture, the grain. And the fact that it's an organic material.''

Curtis, however, had been working with wood since he was a little tyke in Knoxville, Tenn., where he made benches and sold them around the neighborhood for nickels and pennies. His dad had been a carpenter, too.

Wood ``is so warm,'' Curtis said. ``It has a life, a feel to it, a texture - which you don't get with formica or metal or plastics.

``It once had life. And, even still, it's not inert. . . There are no two boards alike.''

Woodworking is simple, Curtis said, ``until a certain point. Then it gets to be a little technical.''

Consider wood paneling, which looks as though it might be easy to install.

But Curtis said many steps were required to make the panels hold tight and flush to the wall, and to each other.

For the home's wide, oak flooring, he cut tongue-and-groove joints by running the boards through a spindle shaper.

For wall and ceiling panels, splines - wood pieces inserted in grooves in adjacent panels - were used to save board width.

It's a little extra trouble to make and insert the splines, but it was worth it to the couple who ``wanted to show off'' the wide panels, Curtis said, grinning.

AN ARTISTIC TEAM
Harris and Curtis are a team in many ways.

Early in their marriage, they often could be found at art shows - Harris exhibiting pottery and large macrame sculptural hangings, Curtis showing lathe-turned bowls made of exotic woods.

Even before they started the house, the two collaborated on furniture. There are a chair and coffee table in the great room that Harris designed and Curtis built.

The chair has a very high back with a canopy, almost like a sedan chair. Harris wove the back and seat with heavy white nylon twine and thin wooden slats. The table's legs rise high and spindly above the tabletop, also like a canopy. The tabletop floats, connected to the legs by loops of thick nylon rope.

Harris said her furniture and house designs are original and come from making lots of sketches.

In the last few years, she and Curtis have offered seminars to woodworking groups. Harris, who taught art for the Norfolk public schools from the mid-1960s to the mid-'80s, instructs craftspeople on design and ``rapid seasoning'' of wood - in the microwave oven.

Curtis, who taught woodworking for Virginia Beach Public Schools from 1966 to 1984, offers tidbits from his technical expertise earned over decades of wood-turning.

``Technically, I can turn anything I want to turn,'' Curtis said. ``But design-wise, it's just not there. Sue's the artist. I don't make anything that has any sort of artistic bent to it without consulting with her.''

They've accomplished plenty, but there's more to come. The Harris-Curtis residence remains a house-in-process.

There's the dining room table: two rough mahogany boards propped by a rudimentary support. The couple are using the table, even though the wood is in the air-drying stage.

They are looking forward to crafting an Oriental-style temple gate outdoors. Guests will drive under it before entering the circular driveway that leads to the front door.

They have located a special artisan for the temple gate - ``a man who has always wanted to build one,'' Harris said.

There's just one hold-up, she noted: ``We're waiting for the right wood.''

Description of illustration(s):
Staff color photos by JIM WALKER
Woodworker Myron Curtis and and his artist wife, Barton Harris, built their Oriental-inspired home on a 12-acre parcel in Pungo.


Michael Rau, a Virginia Beach woodworker, crafted 14 laminated wood slats to form the keyhole entrance that leads from the foyer to the great room.


Myron Curtis, a woodworker since childhood, makes furniture in his workshop as he and Harris design and build the interior of their home.


Staff photo by JIM WALKER
Sue Barton Harris designed this high-back chair with canopy, built by her husband, Myron Curtis.