Our area offers many parcels of land with scenic views, either pastoral or mountain. I’ve been blessed over the years to spend my working days building houses in locations with views that many people take vacations in order to visit something similar. I have found though that there is something more important and satisfying than a view of distant mountains and that is one of private water access, it is also much harder to find. Our Moriah project has a spring, a strong year round stream, a quarter mile of frontage on the North Fork of the Rivanna River and a view of the Advance Mills waterfall from the front porch… and yes there are mountain views here too!
Originally posted 2014-12-15 19:21:37.
Happy Easter!! I would like to know how you figure out how trees you need to cut, or where you go to look for for antique lumber to complete your project. i like your design of the two story house with the porches. i am not sure if that design took fifty trees or thirty trees or antique logs. i hope that you will talk about the tools needed to take on this project. thank you in advance for your assistance. Peter
Hi Peter!
In the first and the third episode of the Log Cabin Academy I go through the tools needed for creating the logs, notching them, and setting them up… it’s a surprising few and likely you have most of them.
With regard to how many trees one needs to cut… well, that depends upon the design of the home, how many feet of straight trunk of appropriate size are in each tree, how wide the logs are, how wide of a chink joint you are going for, if you plan on cutting out the windows and doors as you build, and how many “extras” you would like to have in case of errors as you build, or logs that misbehave.
You need to reverse engineer your project. Discover the perfect design through an already existing cabin that greatly appeals to you… from that image start drawing your plans, create a list of logs you will need, and then, head for the woods!