HARRISON — Jacob Cash grew up in Norway, attended Oxford Hills schools and Bates College in Lewiston, and then did what many young Mainers did. He left home to start a new life in the big city — in this case New York.
Jacob and April Cash stand with their daughter Brooklyn on the first floor deck of their timber frame home in Harrison on August 6. Submitted photo
When his mother, Janet, fell ill a few years ago, Cash and his wife, April, returned to Maine to be her primary caregivers. They also decided to settle in Oxford Hills, for good.
“The pandemic hit, but I was already feeling like I wanted to get out of the city,” Cash said. “I was looking at magazines, dreaming about being out in the woods again and living the Maine life.”
As Cash mulled options for their new life in Maine, he ended up connecting with an old childhood friend, Matt Burke, who years ago his father, Don, had taken under his wing and into his finish carpentry business. Burke, a timber framer like his own dad, was inspired to help Cash realize his developing dream.
“I had explained my interests to Matt,” Cash recalled. “And over the course of our conversations he said, ‘because of what your father taught me, I want to teach you what my father taught me.’ It goes to working with your community members.
“So, I went out and bought a portable sawmill,” Cash said.
Becoming sort of an apprentice, at first working with Burke was sort of a hobby. Cash had no intent of building a timber frame house from scratch. With Janet’s encouragement, Cash found himself utilizing Don’s former workshop in Norway. Hobby evolved into a new direction for his life, and he found himself collecting logs and running the mill.
Timber framer Matt Burke, center, makes final adjustments to purlins ahead of setting them between roof rafters recently at Jacob Cash’s home in Harrison on August 6. Standing, from left, are Cash, Jerry Nardi and Jeff Ward. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
“I don’t even know how this really happened,” Cash laughed. “It’s hard to explain. But I basically went knocking on doors, looking for pine logs.”
Some materials came from logging yards, purchased when inventory was backed up and prices dropped. Cash also began traveling around parts of the state, taking fallen pine off of residents’ hands, with April as his road partner. Sometimes locals noticed the activity going on with the mill, stopped by to check it out and ended up donating logs.
As Cash’s supply of timbers multiplied, he and Burke calculated they had enough to frame up a house and began collaborating on house plans.
He and April invested in a mountaintop house lot in nearby Harrison, and the die was cast.
“It all just evolved,” Cash said. “I fell into it one step at a time and I became fascinated about shaping logs (into a home). I have one of the most patient wives. At times it seemed exhausting. Many late nights, April would just continue to encourage me.
Jacob Cash looks on recently as his post and beam home is raised in Harrison. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat
“And I am incredibly thankful to those around me,” Cash said. “My father used to encourage a lot of people. And the people he knew that I have worked with and consulted with, have been so thankful. My whole family has supported us along the way.”
Three years after returning home and two years after sawing his first log, the Cash home is becoming a reality. The foundation poured, he hosted an old-fashioned timber frame raising, albeit with some help from a construction crane. Recently, a crew arrived at the house lot and hoisted the frame into place, one section at a time.
A timber frame bent is lifted up for placement on posts August 6 as Jacob Cash’s post and beam home takes shape in Harrison. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
The posts and major bents were raised with Burke directing and family friends Jeff Ward and Jerry Nardi, both of Norway, cousin Derek Cash of Poland, mentor Sebastian Filho of Wilmington, Massachusetts, and Cash alternating between watching the crane place the timbers and fitting each mortise and tenon joint.
Another family friend, Joe Orlando, was tasked with capturing the entire day’s work on video and photographs.
April, along with her mother, Lucy, provided food and refreshments.
And the littlest Cash, 8-month-old daughter Brooklyn, watched her dad realize his dream.
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