CLAYTON – When local lumber yard owner Denny Braswell heard about a Massachusetts man who tried to tear down an old timber-frame house to use for lumber — and ended up wrecking his wrecker in the process — he knew he wanted his next house to be built like that.

&uot;The old-timers built their houses to last,&uot; said Braswell, standing in the living room of the 3,000-square-foot timber-frame house he has almost finished in south Catahoula Parish off Louisiana 15. Several such houses can be found around the Miss-Lou, but Braswell knows of no other modern ones.

&uot;They’re too much work,&uot; he said, adding that he and his family taught themselves about timber-frame construction by reading books on the subject.

The reason such houses are so sturdy is that hardly any nails are used in their construction. Instead, the timbers — in the case of Braswell’s two-story home, mostly cypress timbers — are carved to fit together so that the wedge-shaped end of one timber, called the tenon, fits into a socket, or mortise, on another timber. The design is done so that the timbers’ fit only gets tighter as time goes on, but wooden pegs are driven into the joints just to make sure.

&uot;It’s not easy,&uot; said Braswell who, along with wife Carol and neighbors who regularly show up to help, has been building his house for three-and-a-half years. &uot;You can’t use tools like they have now to chisel this wood because they’re too flimsy. So me and a friend who’s a blacksmith had to make most of our own tools.&uot;

Inside, the massive cross-beams that support the house’s roof are visible near the high cedar ceilings of the living room and master bedroom. Even with extra-thick urethane insulation behind inside walls made of red oak, a house with 28-foot ceilings can be more difficult to heat in the winter, but it is a breeze to cool in the summer, since heat rises.

&uot;We just wear a little bit more clothing,&uot; said Carol Braswell, snuggling up in front of the television with Denny’s daughter Adrian, 13, and the couple’s two-year-old daughter, Annie Ruth.

In addition to durable construction and summer comfort, another advantage of a self-built house is that it can be built exactly the way the owner wants it, saving construction costs and customizing it to the family’s needs. In the Braswells’ case, their home is elevated 10 feet from the ground, allowing them to park and work on cars underneath the house.

A spacious back porch doubles as a work space. Rainbows of light from a small stained-glass window filter into a small second-floor chapel with shelves full of Bibles and devotional tracts. And the walk-in closet has built-in cubby holes to keep shoes neatly tucked away.

The house isn’t completely finished, however. The walls still need some finishing touches, and cabinets designed by Carol must still be built for the kitchen. And Denny Braswell, who has already built beds, end tables and other pieces of furniture in the same mortise-and-tenon style, wants to complete every more furniture for the house.

Getting this far hasn’t been easy. Braswell, who owns Budget Build Lumber in Ferriday, had to take time out from his job to build the structure. But knew that once the house was built, it would last. And during a lull in the work, Carol Braswell provided extra motivation by selling the trailer the family was living in next to the site.

&uot;We had no choice but to finish this house then,&uot; he said, laughing.

Not that they didn’t have help. &uot;It never failed. We would start building in the morning and eight people would just show up to help, and when they left in the afternoon eight others might show up,&uot; Carol Braswell said. &uot;God Himself orchestrated it so we’d have some help.&uot;

And when it came time to lift the nearly-finished walls of the house — in a scene Denny Braswell compared to an Amish barn-raising — a large group of neighbors showed up to help and got the job done in no time. &uot;We’re a close-knit community,&uot; he said. &uot;We’ve been blessed, really.&uot;

In addition to showing the Braswells the goodness of people, it allowed them to meet many new people, from the two or three people who show up in the early days to ask what the family was building to a television crew who came to the site to film construction. And even though Denny Braswell has been involving in construction and woodworking ever since he could hold a hammer, it admitted that this latest experience &uot;has taught me tons.&uot;