When we first moved to rural Ohio in the early 1990's housing was expensive but land was cheap. So my wife and I bought a small farm with woods and meadows. Not having much experience with carpentry I first built my 2000 square foot studio. This taught me about building and also gave me a place to store materials and build components for the house. Our home is a reconstructed timber-frame barn that was originally built in the 1880's. I traded sculpture for architectural design to Thom Stauffer, an architect who teaches at Kent State University. I then built our house with lots of salvaged materials and lots of hired student labor. We made all of the handmade ceramic tile for the kitchen floor. Along the way I also commissioned students for artistic accents, used old doors throughout the house, cast my own concrete counters and hired Amish to build black walnut cabinets. Living in our home is like living in a giant sculpture.