Tuttaposto
A 4,200 sq ft hand-joined timber frame residence, designed with S.E. Wagner Architecture and delivered on a single accountable design-build contract.
A Hearthstone Design Build project. This is completed commercial and estate work by our parent firm — not an ADU. We publish it as verifiable track record for the team that designs and builds Virginia Backyard Homes ADUs.
Rural estate projects in Loudoun County commonly face a 12–18 month design-to-construction timeline split across an architect, a timber supplier and a builder — with no single point of accountability for the finished house. Tuttaposto's owners wanted the timber frame they had envisioned and certainty on completion.
Hearthstone designed the house in collaboration with S.E. Wagner Architecture and specialty timber fabricators, hand-selecting every joint detail, then carried it through construction on one contract. The result pairs traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery with a modern, high-performance building envelope.
It is the clearest demonstration of the principle behind Virginia Backyard Homes: craft and schedule are not a trade-off when design and construction sit under the same roof.
Full case study on Hearthstone Design BuildProject facts
- Type
- Custom timber frame residence, 2-story
- Size
- 4,200 sq ft
- Structure
- Hand-hewn mortise-and-tenon timber joinery with a modern building envelope
- Architecture
- S.E. Wagner Architecture (Loudoun County)
- Zoning
- Virginia AR-2 Residential (§4.08.05)
- Project cost
- $750K–$1.2M custom timber frame estate work
What this build teaches about ADUs.
- Design-build removes the handoff gap. The 12–18 month sprawl that Tuttaposto's owners feared comes from vendor handoffs — the same gap that stalls ADU projects between architect and builder.
- Zoning is a design input, not a filing step. AR-2 requirements shaped the house from the first sketch, exactly as county ADU size caps and setbacks shape a backyard cottage.
- Craft scales down. The joinery and envelope detailing on a 4,200 sq ft estate is the same standard we hold on a 750 sq ft ADU.
Tuttaposto — common questions
Can you build an ADU in a timber frame style?+
Yes. Exposed timber, board-and-batten and traditional Virginia vernacular are all achievable at ADU scale; the constraint is county size caps and budget, not craft.
Does an ADU take as long as a custom home?+
No. Plan on roughly 8–14 months from first conversation to keys for a detached ADU, versus 18+ months for a custom estate. Design and permitting are the long poles in both.
Who holds the license?+
Hearthstone Construction, LLC, VA Class A Contractor License #2705195817, trading as Virginia Backyard Homes for ADU work.
Start with a written feasibility read.
Every project above began with survey, soils and zoning work before a line was drawn. Yours should too.