Noah Bradley, Author at Handmade Houses with Noah Bradley

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29 06, 2019

Mountainside log cabin porch

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:34+00:00

Of all the spaces ever invented by man, the greatest of all is still the humble front porch.

At least that’s my opinion.

A theater room is the latest “must have” in new homes, and certainly you can visit other worlds from there. But, a few moments of solitude on a remote cabin porch can take you to the world within. A porch is a place where one encounters the things in life which are most important.

Take the porch challenge… spend a day on a porch… friends, family, your pets, and books are allowed… no electronics though… and see if it doesn’t refresh your soul.

This porch offers a breathtaking view to the north, but for some reason any photo that I have of that view seems to be missing from “the great box”… maybe I can find a negative, and maybe I can find a place that still processes negatives, so that I can share.

We built a new floor system for this porch with oak lumber that we acquired from a local sawmill… it makes for a wonderful, long lasting porch floor that blends so well with an old cabin. We then gathered the porch posts and ceiling rafters from the nearby woods, just as they once were.

Notice the stone steps leading up to the parking area.

Originally posted 2015-03-05 16:28:20.

Mountainside log cabin porchNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:34+00:00

29 06, 2019

The terrain challenges of a mountainside cabin

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:33+00:00

Here’s a “before and after set” of photos taken of this mountainside cabin. One was taken when I first saw the cabin covered in snow, and the other is of the finished cabin in the broiling heat of a Virginia summer.

Please take note of two things, first I’d like you to see the improvement that we made to the front porch…

Also, notice that these photos are taken in the parking area of this little cabin (which is on a higher level). When one lives and builds on a mountainside, any level spot of land is rare, small, and highly treasured.

There are generally often two or more highly valued level terraces comprising a mountain homestead like this. Everywhere else one struggles to some degree to stand or walk. Unless of course you are fortunate enough to have one leg longer than the other.

Originally posted 2015-03-05 15:56:57.

The terrain challenges of a mountainside cabinNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:33+00:00

29 06, 2019

Rock and Wood

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:32+00:00

http://thelogbuilders.org/listing/rock-and-wood/

Originally posted 2015-03-04 20:03:19.

Rock and WoodNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:32+00:00

29 06, 2019

A cedar shake roof on a log cabin?

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:31+00:00

As you can see in this photo, we had come far in the restoration of this fine little cabin. The logs are now chinked, the porch has been rebuilt, the chimney has been rescued, and we were ready for the roofing crew to come in and apply the copper.

I find this to be a very pleasing photo of the cabin… it is a sweet spot to stand and take in all of her beauty. If I were building her new, rather than restoring her, this is perspective I’d like to see as I approached home.

The cabin’s roof line… the way that the porch roof and the house roof are connected… is a rarity when compared with all the other cabins I have encountered over so many years. Typically, the two roofs are separate, making the porch roof more shallowly pitched.

We had the option of going with a wood shake roof here on this cabin, and when I look at this photo, I can see that that might have been a more visually appealing choice. That’s hard for me to admit to… I can’t say that is true of most cabins… I often find shake roofs are too “distracting” from a cabin’s other features.

But copper was our best option here. Of it’s many attributes, fire protection made it our choice for this cabin. When you own a cabin in the woods, fire is to be taken seriously.

I have seen a “fireproof rated” cedar shingle ignited using a single cigarette. So, one stray ember from the chimney onto a wood shake roof could have turned this cabin into a smoking pile of ash long before any fire truck could have reached her. If, and that’s a big IF, a firetruck could have reached her at all.

Originally posted 2015-03-04 16:25:21.

A cedar shake roof on a log cabin?Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:31+00:00

29 06, 2019

Cleaning and sealing a log cabin

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:30+00:00

We always give an old log cabin a good cleaning with a power washer and soapy water after we have removed all the unwanted parts of the structure. It is amazing how much dirt and grime gathers inside of an old home over the course of a century or two. (That’s one of a variety of reasons that I personally prefer living in a new re-built old home over living in an existing old home… I am fully aware of what is behind the walls).

I will never forget the time that I and three other strapping young men (yes, there was a time that I was a strapping young man) were all working on taking down an unusually dirty old house. It was a hot day and all of us were wearing boots and shorts and covered from head to toe with a thick coat of black dust. The harder we worked, the more we sweated, the more we sweated the more black streams of goo ran down our bodies. Someone eventually made the comment about ” there is nothing else quite like wearing reconstituted rat turds”. We all paused, and contemplated a career change… then, went back to work.

On this project we didn’t have an adequate source of water to wash the cabin ourselves… the little spring nearby was not up to the task.

So, I hired a “pro powerwasher” who had his own rig complete with a water supply. I met him at the bottom of the three mile road that lead back to this cabin and explained to him the roughness of the road. His response was “no problem, lead the way”. Once we arrived at the cabin I walked back to his vehicle, he rolled down his window and let me know that he was “not getting out his f’ing truck unless I paid him twice what he had quoted me at the bottom of the mountain”. Of course, I paid him the doubled rate… what were my options?

With regard to a sealer… it is extremely rare that we use any kind of sealer on a old cabin. I would think that of the four typical species that are common in cabins in the mid-Atlantic states that only heart-pine would be a candidate for a sealer… and that would be on a case-by-case review.

Sealers frankly aren’t needed on poplar, oak, or chestnut. The fastest way to make a cabin ugly is to seal it. Why just last year we were called in to help someone out who had applied a sealer to an incredibly nice oak cabin out of Pennsylvania. His cabin had turned orange.

It is a lot easier to do something wrong, than it is to undo it.

Originally posted 2015-03-04 15:23:56.

Cleaning and sealing a log cabinNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:30+00:00

29 06, 2019

Chinking a log cabin

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:29+00:00

Chinking… filling in the area between the logs is probably the single most important aspect of building or restoring a log cabin. It’s also the least appreciated.

Done correctly it will last for decades, it will keep out the rain and the cold, it will protect the logs from water damage, and it can be an attractive feature.

It is also the most numerous request that we get for our services, and a lot of those calls are because most novices do not install it correctly and as a result problems (mainly rot) appear very soon.

This is an area of log construction that “do it right the first time” is very important. Many log homeowners will pay to have it done wrong, then they will pay more than that to have it removed, then they will pay to have repairs done to their logs because of the improper chinking, then they will pay to have it done right. Yikes.

We use a dyed cement mix. It cost about $5 for a five gallon bucket full of it. We do not use PermaChink which cost over $100 a bucket… We don’t like working with a polymer, nor do we like cleaning up after we are finished at the end of the day with toxic chemicals, nor do we feel it is appropriate to apply a modern plastic product to a vintage log cabin. It’s just not the right way to do things.

We like our Frisbees made out plastic, not our historic structures. Yes, I know PermaChink is warranted to last a long time… but how many plastic products do you know that hold up well out in the sun? How many times has a warranty worked out for you?

I’ve been chinking cabins for 30 years… and every cabin I’ve ever chinked is still just as fine today as the day I installed it… not one single chink joint replaced… ever.

Chinking for the most part is a miserable job. It’s painstakingly slow, and the installer is prone to getting painful cuts (I carried one crewman to the hospital to get stitches in his belly from a piece of the wire mesh that he was working with). Even my dentist can tell when I’ve been chinking from the grinding damage to my teeth that I mindlessly do while installing.

I’ll have to see if I can put together some kind of YouTube video and show people how to install chinking properly. My dentist would be happy about that.

Originally posted 2015-03-04 14:27:55.

Chinking a log cabinNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:29+00:00

29 06, 2019

Adding a window to a log cabin

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:28+00:00

We added a window to the front of the cabin.

It’s hard to believe that someone would build a log home and not put a window on the front. In the case of this cabin the front is where the incredible views are… and it’s where the morning sun comes in.

So why didn’t they? Were windows that expensive? Did they want to keep wild animals (or wild men) out? I don’t know. Maybe, they were patiently waiting for me to show up? If so, I apologize for being so late.

I don’t like to change old houses any more than I have to. Even in a case like this where a window would add so much to the cabin. But, I had “an extra motivator” to make the change.

You see some idiot, years back, had thought it would be a great idea to carve a swastika in one of the logs on the front of the cabin.

Now I did my share of stupid things in my youth, but I’ve never understood the pleasure some people get out of vandalism, especially hateful messages… and, on historic structures?

Anyway, I cut out that piece of meanness and threw it in a fire, and in the process I gave this cabin’s new residences a wonderful view of the sunrise coming up over the neighboring hills.

Originally posted 2015-03-03 18:24:33.

Adding a window to a log cabinNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:28+00:00

29 06, 2019

Framing a lean-to addition on a log cabin

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:27+00:00

I framed up a new kitchen addition off of the back of the cabin.

It’s a bit smaller than what the cabin originally had on it. Visually the old addition looked too big and I was afraid that this new addition, with all it’s “newness”, might be too distracting from the natural beauty of the old cabin.

I made sure and added plenty of windows to this addition to bring the outside in, and to add as much light to the interior of the cabin as I could. Cabins are naturally dark… getting enough natural light is always a challenge.

Originally posted 2015-03-03 17:51:02.

Framing a lean-to addition on a log cabinNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:27+00:00

29 06, 2019

Adding a built-up roof

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:26+00:00

And then, we started putting the mountainside cabin back together, with the goal of making her better than she ever was.

First up, was our desire to re-use those precious pole rafters that had held up the old roof system for many decades (see my prior posting for a photo of them).

How those skinny poles had ever supported a roof is beyond me. I could easily have seen how the next heavy snow load on top of that roof would have brought the roof crashing in. What a tragedy it would have been for old St Nick the next time he had visited there.

A few of these ancient pole rafters had gone bad over the years so we decided to use the pole rafters from the front porch as replacements. When it came time to rebuild this porch roof we would go into the woods and gather new poles, just like the original builders did. Only, we carried chainsaws.

I miss my dear grandmother. Born in 1900 she used to tell me of how when she was a child she used to ride into Richmond with her father, sitting on the back of his horse drawn wagon, heading to the big city in order to sell his vegetables and on the way home how he would get paid to clean out stalls. When he got home, he would apply this “waste product” to his garden for better crops the following year.

I wondered, with all that my grandmother had seen change in the world during the course of her life, what she felt was the greatest invention of them all. I was so surprised to hear her say “the chainsaw… men used to have to work so hard for so little wood”.

I think of her every-single-time I pick up my chainsaw.

I do get sidetracked don’t I?… sorry about that… back to the roof…

To strengthen the roof we added another layer of new framing members… (these would not be seen once we finished). This new layer would provide an area for insulation and create an exposed painted paneling ceiling in the bedroom loft… that would help brighten that room, and “showcase” the antique rafters.

It’s a process that we have used over and over, always with amazing results. A warmer cabin, a stronger cabin, a more attractive cabin. Win, win, win.

Originally posted 2015-03-03 17:15:05.

Adding a built-up roofNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:26+00:00

29 06, 2019

Always get a building permit

Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:25+00:00

The first step in restoring an old log cabin is to remove everything that you don’t want.

I know that sounds far too simple. But the truth is that most people are baffled as to just where to begin on a project like this. It all just seems so overwhelming. I’ve seen men just stand there with their mouths hanging open.

Actually, there is another step that one needs to take first.. before the work begins… and that is a story to be shared…

You see, it was requested of me to not get a permit for this cabin. We were after all “just fixing it up”. We weren’t adding any square footage. There was no plumbing, no wiring, no septic work. “Just a tune up”. There was a concern expressed about drawing attention to the cabin, no one wanted to make vandals or thieves aware of this little cabin.

The cabin was located three miles from anything a sane person would consider a road.

The access “road” to this cabin was extremely narrow, with sheer cliff drop-offs at the edge, and riddled with pot holes that would swallow the average car. (I once stopped on the way to work to pick up a section of the leaf spring from my pickup truck that fell off.)

I had one young man quit because of that road. He was riding down the mountain as a passenger in a very small car with another member of the crew who was… “very large”. The road was covered with snow and they slid within an inch of going over the edge. He told me that he had a vision of dieing that day with Charlie laying on top of him inside of a cheap Ford Fiesta… “I’ll never fully recover from that image” he said.

Anyway, somehow the County Building Inspector found out about the cabin being restored and came looking for it. He parked uphill from the cabin, about a quarter of a mile. You see, the last leg of the road was downhill and I guess he was concerned that he might not be able to get back out.

And so he walked down to the cabin where my crew was working.

But, as he was walking it became apparent that he had failed to engage the parking brake on his new county truck… which came down the hill after him until it found a tree capable of stopping it.

I wasn’t on site. Thank goodness.

My crew was most helpful and managed to winch the inspectors truck back up on the road and luckily it was not so damaged that he couldn’t make it back to his office. He left message with my crew that I was to come see him at my “earliest possible convenience”.

I still remember that day, arriving in the county parking lot, walking past a truck which had it’s front in caved in, wondering if my career was over, or if I would be removed from the project, or if I was going to be hit with all kinds of fines, or lectured to by an angry soul, or perhaps be held financially responsible for the damage to his truck.

After sitting in the waiting area for a few minutes as other members of the staff would point at me and whisper things I was invited back to “the office”. I swear I felt like I was going back to the Principal’s Office. I hoped there wasn’t a paddle hanging on the wall.

I could tell the inspector, who sat quietly on the other side of the desk, was enjoying this moment as I tried to explain and apologize.

But the man surprised me.

Unlike most government officials that I have encountered over the years he had a kind spirit. He was a retired builder himself and he really appreciated my work. He also admired my men who helped him out that day. And, he was truly grateful that an old cabin in the county was being saved and not destroyed.

He handed me a form to fill out for a renovation permit and said the fee would be forty five dollars. Whew.

In the years after, that man I became friends. I always made sure and got a permit, and he was always so complimentary of my work. I was greatly saddened the day that he retired.

Originally posted 2015-03-02 18:13:14.

Always get a building permitNoah Bradley2019-06-29T10:31:25+00:00

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