NEW HOME HAS NATIVE WOOD, ROCK

GORDONVILLE -- From a distance, the new home of John and Ellen Lorberg, situated off Route Z west of Gordonville, doesn't seem much different than other modern contemporary homes in the area.

But take a closer look.

Nearly all of the timber used to build the two-story house came from hardwood trees grown on Lorberg's 200-acre farm.

The hardwood floors in the house are made from white oak and hickory and most of the walls are made from hard maple or cherry. There is no paneling.

Most of the walls and ceilings on the first floor are made from three-quarter-inch boards cut from hardwood trees that came from the farm. Some of the outside wood panels are cypress that came from the swampy bottomlands of the farm.

The house is just below the crest of a farm field that overlooks an expansive view of the Hubble Creek bottoms, which are intersected by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company's steam railroad tracks.

Five years ago the Lorbergs weren't planning on a new house when they decided to enlarge the dining room of their former home along Route Z.

"Ellen wanted to add on to the house so we could enlarge the dining room," said Lorberg. "We both come from large families and there was never enough room to seat everyone at the table at the same time."

After figuring what it would cost to add on to their old house, the Lorbergs found out it would be cheaper to build a new one by using lumber from trees on the farm.

After deciding to build, the Lorbergs sat down and put their ideas for the new house on paper. Then they gave it to a friend and architect, John Dudley, who took the rough ideas and translated them into exact building plans.

Next, Lorberg began selecting the trees that would be used to build the house. Ellen Lorberg, meanwhile, started collecting 18th- and early-19th-century pieces at auctions and garage sales to furnish the house.

Lorberg said that before there were lumber mills and lumber stores people who lived in the country used what natural resources were available to them, including trees and native stone. Lorberg said in that respect he's just following an old tradition.

A portable sawmill was taken in to the wooded areas to saw the trees into wooden planks and joists. Some of the lumber was kiln-dried at Leming Lumber Mill in Cape Girardeau; some by a local, custom wood-working company; and the rest in a small kiln on the Lorberg farm.

Five years after making the decision to build, the carpenters arrived in August 1990, and work on the house began. The family moved in the week before Christmas.

After living 27 years in the same house, Ellen Lorberg said the first night in the new home was an experience. "I just loved all of the new sounds," she said. "The creaks and squeaks in the wood made the house sound as if it were a living thing."

Although the family in addition to John and Ellen, there's their daughter, Sarah, 15 are now settled in their new home, Lorberg says the house is far from finished.

Lorberg said there's a lot of work that can be done during the winter months when he's not working on the farm with his son, Jeff, 25, who lives nearby. Together they grow corn and soybeans and raise pigs.

One unfinished project is construction of a miniature grist mill, complete with an oak water wheel that Lorberg has built. The mill will be in back of the house, near a pond.

Entering the Lorberg home reminds one of entering an elegant farm home of the past. Both John and Ellen were raised on farms, so both share a love of the rustic, outdoors look.

A small foyer or hallway leads from the front door to the "Great Room," or family room. It's called the Great Room because the ceiling is actually the roof of the two-story house.

The concrete-and-native-stone fireplace and flu in the family room reach up the entire length of the southwest wall to the roof. The floor and walls in the room are three-quarter-inch tongue-in-groove hardwood planks.

The dining room is on the northeast side of the house. The large bay windows provide a spectacular view of the countryside.

Ellen Lorberg said her husband plans to build a large dining table that can be extended to accommodate everyone when the family gathers for special occasions, which is how all of this started five years ago.

In the kitchen, the white oak hardwood floor came from oak trees on Ellen Lorberg's father's farm in Southern Illinois. The ceiling is made from hard maple; the walls are red oak.

In several smaller rooms just off the kitchen the walls are made from thorny locust trees. The ceiling in Lorberg's small office is made from light-colored hackberry.

Lorberg said all of the doors, cabinets, and molding were done by Leonard Beussink. The millwork and treatment of the cut lumber was done by Gary Scherer of Acorn Enterprises.

Of particular interest is the guest bedroom, which is furnished in dark-colored walnut wood with a light-colored hickory and beveled tongue-in-groove hardwood floor. The room has a bed that belonged to John Lorberg's grandparents.

The bathroom adjoining the guest bedroom has an antique style bathtub, commode and wash basin that instantly reminds one of the 1890s or early 1900s. With a laugh, Ellen Lorberg revealed the old-fashioned bathtub had been used for about 20 years to water the horses and cattle on the farm. "We had it refinished to go with the rest of the bathroom pieces," she said.

A screened-in back porch and an enclosed sun room are on the west side of the house, overlooking the water wheel.

A unique feature of the house is an all-concrete, fireproof, enclosed utility room, where the wood-burning furnace and modern heating and cooling system are situated. Near the furnace is a wood bin. The cut wood is dropped into the bin from the floor of the enclosed garage above.

"I guess you could say we moved the woodshed from outback to the basement," Lorberg said.

He explained the house uses no propane gas. During the winter heat comes from a hot-and-cold-water system that circulates alcohol through pipes buried in the ground and pipes that extend out into the pond behind the house.

Heat generated by the wood furnace is distributed to the entire first floor and basement area by a forced hot-and-cold-air-return system. There is a small heating plant in the second floor bedroom area, but Lorberg says it is rarely used because heat rising from the family room provides warmth to the bedrooms.