For the past ten years Ben Nistler has been building cozy and comfortable homes for other people through his business NHB. This August he finally put the finishing touches on a dream home for himself, using a pretty unique hobby as inspiration.
Project: Private Home in Bozeman, MT
Builder: Ben Nistler, Nistler Home Builders
Products: 3' White Tuff Rib (shop interior), TrutenA606™ 2.67 x 7/8 Corrugated (porch roof)
“I’ve always wanted a landing strip,” says Ben as the barn doors of his custom home and shop reveal a small plane with wheels designed to land on remote gravel bars, mountain tops, and on the landing strip on his new property. The plane is a Maule M7, a small aircraft perfect for finding remote patches of wilderness to fish or camp.
This house was built around the desire to store a plane in the shop and have a landing strip.
“The design of the home is based on this shop. It's a place to work and to house my plane.” Originally he wanted a gabled roof barn, but he didn’t want stairs leading up to a living area so he turned it into a modified shop separate from the house.
From the outside the shop looks like a traditional barn attached to a living space, but inside 3’ Tuff Rib white panels help create a clean and bright space for working on projects and storing the plane. “I used Tuff-Rib on another shop in the Gallatin Valley and I liked it so much I thought I’d use it in my shop,” explains Ben.
White Tuff Rib metal panels keep the shop bright and are easy to clean after big projects.
For Ben it was an easy choice for a low maintenance interior wall. “The big thing is cleanliness. Eventually, when you’re welding and working inside the shop dirt starts to build up. You can either repaint drywall or spray down the metal.” Ben also likes the white Tuff Rib panels for the way they reflect light and keep the space bright and easy to work in.
Although the shop, at more than 3,000 square feet, dwarfs the 2,000 foot living space, Ben made sure to add classic touches to the house including a wrap-around porch with a TrutenA606™ 2.67 x 7/8 Corrugated roof.
The TrutenA606™ porch roof adds an element of comfort and coziness to the house.
“To me a home is a comfort zone, so I always look to enhance that with my projects,” explains Ben. “Wrap around porches have always embodied that coziness, and I really like the transition from the porch to living space without any steps.”
Ben has been working as a contractor and moving around every two years since he was 19. After years of building homes with other people’s comfort and enjoyment in mind, he can finally call this place home.
“It’s definitely a dream come true,” says Ben. “After a little while it has really become my home.”
Looking for design inspiration like Ben? Check out our blog on how to use metal panels on a modern home.